‘There are so many awful things happening in the world, how can I make any meaningful change? It’s so overwhelming. You have to pick a cause.’

A client said this to me. It is a refrain I hear all the time - not just from clients, but friends, family members, I see it online, I hear it in the community groups I am involved in.

And I have come to believe that this is one of the most successful lies that those raised in the Imperial Core have ever been told.

I experienced many years of this deep feeling of dread at the state of the world coupled with a sense that I couldn’t do anything about it, that any actions I did take would be insignificant, and a complete overwhelm about where to put my energy. I would yo-yo from debilitating empathy to insulated apathy and back again. Depression and anxiety at my back every step of the way. For a long time I believed that ‘the answer’ was politics, that if we could only elect a socialist government then so many of our problems would be solved. I argued passionately for the left and got into heated discussions with anyone who would enter into them with me. I remember being distantly aware of how boring and repetitive and stubborn I could come across, but was never able to stop myself. Sometimes I would end a discussion feeling drained and hopeless, wondering why so many people couldn’t see what I could see.