The world is objectively trash in 2025 unless, and in some cases even if, you own a large corporation. I'm more politically active as a result. I've had my small moments in the past, to be sure, but the current day demands more.

Gratefully, I found a political party whose beliefs genuinely match my own. They're an established independent party here in the United States, and as I spend more time learning about the group's history, seeing the work they do, I know I made the correct choice. Everyone I meet wants the same world that I want and will settle for nothing less, no matter how long it may take.

They give me hope, and prompted some hopeful writing. Here are two examples.

No valid plans for the future can be made by those who have no capacity for living now. - Alan Watts

This is a sound statement on its face—one must be aware of the present to imagine the future—and it's also, in my mind, a call to action.

When people are overwhelmed, they naturally retreat, limiting their thoughts and actions to ones that will take them through the current moment to hopefully see the next—but they can't plan for that next moment. They can't think about the pit trap, visible a few meters ahead of them, when they're busily avoiding the arrows shooting from the walls.

Helping each other handle the present is the only valid, genuine way to get people invested in our shared future. We can't come together to change things if we're each too busy avoiding hidden pits and arrows, keeping ourselves alive, tap-dancing from danger to danger.

You can help make the space for change by simply helping the people around you. If you help someone change their oil, or give them a ride to an appointment, or agree to watch their pets for a weekend, you're giving them something incredibly valuable: a chance to focus on anything else. Give your friends the opportunity to plan for tomorrow by finding a way to care for them today.

I feel so good after going to a local club meeting, getting to be around and talk to people who are, frankly, dedicated to seeing everything about this current system end. Racism. Sexism. Stigma surrounding any of our differences, excepting greed and the desire to harm. Who want to see a government dedicated to both community involvement and caring for its citizens, until one day we hopefully move past that system, too.

It's refreshing to listen to people discuss what they're already doing to place themselves in the machine's path. Who recognize that we have to dismantle it entirely, not simply take off the sawblades while leaving a few of the scissor-arms? Because supposedly without a little scissor-arms, the whole thing won't work?

We don't want to build a modified, less dangerous death machine. We want to build a shelter.