Call me idealistic but it doesn't have to be this way. It just doesn't. And in fact, accepting and learning how to imagine the possibility of a decent, equitable world is the *only* way to ever have a chance of creating one.
I think one of the biggest mental hurdles to get over when it comes to the pursuit of a better world is the acknowledgement of possibility. You cannot start down any road if you don't have some idea of the destination. That doesn't mean you'll actually end up where you intend, but that internal sense of direction is so so important to develop and maintain.
The 'natural order' isn't always morally superior or objectively better, but the fact of the matter remains that money is not naturally occurring. Societal gender roles and racial disparities are human made. Poverty is a curable condition. Food does not *have* to cost money. Life does not *have* to be this goddamn hard, when we have the resources to make it easier on all of us. Humans are capable of imagining complex, beautiful worlds. Making amazing machines and mechanisms. Humans aren't gods or anything but bro we do some *pretty* cool stuff and if greed and survival and profit motive aren't the primary factors driving collective movement that could really turn into something none of us even thought possible. Solarpunk-esque models are honestly probably our best shot at any relatively not-shitty rest of humanity's future. Earth is the best planet we've got (colonizing space in pretty much any way is more effort than it's worth at the current moment) and our companions on this planet (animals, bugs, plants,etc) deserve as much of a shot at longevity as we do. I hear people say all the time stuff like 'eh humans are inherently evil we should just let ourselves die out'. First— not objectively true— but second, what's *not* evil about taking a bunch of non-consenting parties down with us? Climate change probably won't totally blow up the world, but come *on*! Why fuck it up on purpose when there are ways to minimize harm?
Nothing is ever going to be *perfect* because life isn't about perfect. Neither is evolution or learning or progress. It's about doing. Doing a little more effort. Slowing down in places it matters. We don't *need* 80 million new plastic products for every holiday and birthday party and dinner-time. We don't *have* to throw out our tech every few years or charge a gazillion dollars for life-saving treatments (that's mostly the US. But still)
Just think about it. 7 continents. 8 billion-some people. Metric tonnes of clothing, salvageable materials, food-stuffs, building materials— everything we could ever need, and more. It's all sitting inside storage units and garages and old houses and yes, landfills. There are no sensible or justifiable reasons to keep consuming and consuming and polluting and killing. There's no good reason to keep resources from each other and to keep funneling them up the food chain to ungrateful, greedy, controlling billionaires. We could heal ecosystems. We could elevate minds that never would have seen the light of day in a system that gatekeeps education.
We could be *thriving* on a much higher level than we are as a species, if we could just start small. Build up. Because just demolishing the rotting structure isn't enough— you need nets to catch the people jumping out as it crumbles. The laying of new foundations must happen in tandem with the dismantling of old ones.
It could be so beautiful. It could be so much *better* and less painful on average. I think the best key to improving anything even a *little* bit is deciding the best possible outcome and doing your best to stay on that path. Very much the energy of 'Shoot for the moon, even if you miss you'll land almost the stars' (Norman Vincent Peale)
Nothing can happen overnight. There's no simple path to true collective liberation and structural equity. But I think being audacious enough to say: 'Alright. If *we* do manage to get these rich assholes out of power, what next?? How do we make sure this doesn't happen again?' can help all of us keep our eyes on the prize. The first priority should be improving material conditions for the most disenfranchised in the now, and creating sustainable, nature-integrated foundations for the future.
None of this would be simple— or even always *comfortable* to achieve— but it's all valuable. Possible. It would really be worth the effort in the end, if we just committed to the results but didn't attach our motivation to instant gratification.
So yeah. I know hope hurts sometimes and it can be genuinely distressing to think like 'oh. My suffering *isn't* necessary.' But it isn't. And the future doesn't have to be dark and bleak, at least not forever. When you acknowledge the possibility of a 'truly good' outcome, then 'good enough' starts to feel less far away.
'A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they'll never sit in.' , etc
