I have many of the same thoughts. Personally, I’m very lucky/fortunate/happy: great family and friends, in a longterm relationship, a stacked social calendar,

I have many of the same thoughts. Personally, I’m very lucky/fortunate/happy: great family and friends, in a longterm relationship, a stacked social calendar, good job and generous pay, a home I like in a city I love, and the luxury of financial security. Even still, I can’t help that think the world is falling apart at the seams, or at least heading in that direction. It sounds bleak, but I really have absolutely no faith in elected politicians, billionaires, corporations, the media, our system of democracy, really anything institutional. This isn’t based on some political ideology or a pendulum swinging to the right/left, or some “both sides”/“run to the center” plea (Maybe controversially, I think the “center” is only good at maintaining the status quo, and I think the status quo is not sustainable). I’m only in my 20s, I am more than personally fulfilled, yet I can’t shake that feeling that everything in the world is going to collapse spectacularly. No matter who advocates for change, it seems modern society has adapted to either selectively sideline it or co-opt it, with no real change in either direction (see: healthcare in the US for an example; both sides dislike the current system completely, which itself was a compromise around keeping the existing private system, and we’re still in the same mess with even less political will to fix it). My opinion is that polarization is not a “cause” of all of this. It’s a symptom. Nothing is changing and most everyone is unhappy with the way things are. What I’ve found helpful is making peace with that, in the same way that life itself is temporary. We’re only here for a short time, and so are our institutions. It’s still not a solution, and I still fear for the future, but accepting there’s only so much I can control ( / aspire to control) has helped. It doesn’t feel so much like “giving up” so much as “being practical”, or so I’ve convinced myself. But hey, if/when the world gets even worse or outright collapses, at least I won’t be too shocked.