this post was submitted on 20 Apr 2026
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Mental Health
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Incorrect as a general rule. I find the present plenty overwhelming, but it’s precisely because of the overall societal trajectory into the future.
There is some minor to moderate difficulty right now in dealing with high inflation, but that’s not the overwhelming part. What’s overwhelming is the obvious worldwide collective descent into madness and the terrible future in store for billions of people as we blow past old climate goals.
Even if we all somehow manage to rein in the fascism that’s not serving the interests of the majority and is spreading across the world, we’re hurtling towards:
That all seems fairly well baked in at this point, but none of it has really come to pass yet. The future bad effects are not yet actually part of the present, but the feelings of overwhelmedness that they induce are very real for anyone paying attention.
Mindfulness in the present is a good escape from the future.
This was my first thought as well. Societies have collapsed in the past, only difference now is that it is global in its nature. I can't live thinking it is going to get better in the future when it cannot.
I have made my peace though, and enjoy the time still left of relative stability.
I’m not sure if I’ve made my peace with it, but my despair was something of a phase. Everything unfolding is too big for me to stop it, so I’m just along for the ride now. I think a lot of people haven’t really seen it coming yet, so there’s going to be a lot of wailing and public gnashing of teeth (and blaming Democrats) in the relatively near future.
But I don’t think the opposite of hope os necessarily despair. The despair is still present if I want to go looking for it, but I compartmentalize it most of the time, and focus on the things I need to do in the near-term. I still have plenty of responsibilities to execute. One foot in front of the other.
Enjoy what you can when you can. Be thankful for what you have.