The masses are always reactionary. It’s really easy to be hopeless when things are getting worse, but “the night is darkest before the dawn” isn’t just a fun thing to say, it reveals something fundamental about human nature: both individually and collectively we will almost invariably put things off until we *have* to do them. When it becomes obvious that things are a wreck, we’ve taken the wrong path, and trusted the wrong people, that’s *exactly* what creates the pressure for change.

You are right that most people seem broken and defeated, that it feels like the cage is closing in and we are being overwhelmed, but that is exactly why we should be optimistic, imo. To the contrary of this being a recipe for things staying the same, true change has always been *avoided* until things start to feel exactly this way. All meaningful change has always occurred during a time that felt like “the end of the world,” because in a way it is. It’s the end of how we used to do things, and the beginning of something new.

At least that’s how I see it.