The world is going to shit. Is there anything I can do about it? No, so I move on.
The world has always been going the shit and will continue to go to shit until the end of time. It takes mountains to influence the tides of nations. You should take the responsibilities you can bear, but no more.
Seriously. Some of the things that philosophy does is get you to focus on things that are local so you can see the change, and things you can do something about. Now the world is a better place because you looked at the places you were and did something that is possible for you to do. We should all do this
Agreed it's a big problem but there are a lot of people and countries actively trying to fix things. I definitely feel like we are living in the Twilight Zone in more recent years but still overall the average person is living a better life now than any other time in human history.
I will say that even with all we see the world. It is not going to shit it's very much improving better than the world my parents lived in. On a long enough timeline we win, When it comes to social political change. So the world is great in all but one aspect and that's the climate and with that I can't do shit about it.
So I may not be able to save the world but I can be one of the helpers that make someone life just a little bit better.
it could be helping out at a shelter. paying for someones meal at a restaurant. telling someone you like the thing they created. all of it helps while we brace for the hardships of crisis created by men long dead and their undead, unfeeling Corps still impacting our world.
The reason why we‘re winning is because people literally changed the course of history.
It is a spectrum imo, not black and white and the closer you are to the issue, the easier it is to solve.
Thats why many books propose the „circles of influence“ that split your world into things you control, things you influence and the weather (which you neither control nor really influence).
The first you should take the most serious, the second you should participate in, not loose sleep over (voting, lobbying, speaking up about problems), the last you should leave be since you cant change it.
The hard part is deciding which is which. Participating in political discourse definitely is important imo.