When the world gets it right we won't have to be here any more. This is just practice.

I can't speak to jerk-weasel, trinket-granola, or twinkie-Auschwitz. It sounds like sleep deprivation bordering on postpartum depression. LW has a newborn, which is life-altering in the best of circumstances. Raging hormones could be contributing to her sense of despair, disgust, and disillusionment. I've been there.

LW you remind me of my dad, who read the Washington Post in the morning, the Washington Star in the afternoon, never allowed conversation at dinner for fear of missing a single item on the nightly news, all to stay informed. Yes, there is bad crap in the world, and there are people with too much power who are greedy and unAmerican - so what? Stop being so well informed and enjoy the people around you, because neither a law degree or a gun collection will help you if the shit hits the fan.

The letter writer explained the situation beautifully and clearly. Really the problem is that so much of what goes on in our society is inhumane in various ways. It sounds like a minor thing - getting the run-around with a corporation - but it doesn't feel minor. The message you are getting over and over is: it doesn't care about you. There is something threatening and ominous when an organization is so faceless and big - where no one person there takes responsibility for whatever harm it might cause. That is a setup for abuse. When this gets under our skin it is for a good reason - our intuition is detecting danger.

It reminds me of Madeline L'Engle's book, "A Wrinkle in Time" where there is a city where everyone is the same and a machine controls everything. When the machine starts mesmerizing the heroine's brother she breaks him free by yelling, "I love you". Is love really that powerful? I think so, but I forget!!!

Cary's answer helped me remember. There is hope, I can make a difference. Every kind and caring action has an effect. I appreciate the reminder - I needed your letter and Cary's answer.

It would be great if we could also take practical action - like somehow sending a message to corporations that we will not do business with them if they treat us like dirt. Ideally communities would develop local businesses that people would work in and support in order to take back some of the money and power that are currently concentrated in a few large companies. I can hope!

you make it sound like the problem stops with frustration, and I'm sure we all know our little problems are shamefully insignificant.

The same human qualities that get banks to send their salesmen to talk retirees into giving up their nest eggs sends bombs into the homes and schools of innocent children. It sustains poverty and misery of the most extreme degrees imaginable among the less fortunate of the world. And back home it makes all the weak and helpless little people “lucky enough” to be born in a powerful nation teary-eyed when “their” flag goes up, while their leaders, delighted to see how well things work out, sit on the faces of all those little patriots, happy as kings on a throne.

My struggles and yours to get service from the human institutions we've created are nothing compared to those of the dead little people we've all left in our wakes. And the beauty of the modern world is, nobody is to blame. Not really. There are enough orders and rationalizations and paperwork and command structures between every act of depravity and it's myriad sources that we can all sleep soundly in our beds (or use our time to agonize over some petty bureaucrat's patronizing service).

And to think we started out like any other pack of apes, quarrelling and whining and doing our own dirty work.

Now that's what I call progress!

Why don't you just do your best to make the world immediately in front of you as wonderful as can be?

Whenever you think something nice about someone, say it ("Nice shirt!", "Did you lose weight?" "I hope you have a fantastic weekend!", "Great haircut!"

Plant flowers or trees.

Hold a canned food drive or Toys for Tots in your office.

Help little old ladies cross the street.

I think you can bring a lot of good into the world, and start it with yourself. Especially if you hold a drive at your work and set expectations and goals on your co-workers. People will step up! Look for the good, encourage the good, be enthusiastic about the good.

And when you need an escape from the reality you are so cynical, rent some chick flicks or dive into a good book.

I honestly don't know if this will work in the grand scheme of the entire planet, and I know it doesn't answer your exact question, but I think it will make your daily life a bit more optimistic.

"Inside every cynical person, there is a disappointed idealist."

~ George Carlin

....It seems every time we open our wallets or sign a paper, we are walking a tightrope, and waiting underneath are the sharp teeth of another manipulative, greedy, scheming, powerful company....

--------------------------------------------

Found on the walls of a cave in France. A story told in pictures that scientists believe to be over 16,000 years old....

"...dern it, everytime we venture from our cave, there are "the others", snarling men and women who look like u,but carry big clubs and wanting to take our cave from us. Is there hope for us?"

No, not this time.

You may or may not be in a position to make a real change in the world. (I don't subscribe to the romantic notion that everyone is, at every time and place and moment in their lives. No, it isn't like that.)

There are some things you can do, for yourself and for some point in the future when collective action will again be possible. You can engage in serious study, whether in a school setting or with a group of like-minded people. You can stay flexible. You can save as much money as possible while you and your husband both have jobs (this is a big one). You can eat "healthy" and seek out ways to avoid making too horrible of an impact on the environment. You can be as kind and as fair and as thoughtful as possible to everyone you cross paths with. You can learn to speak at least one other language fluently. You can learn to laugh a little more, especially to laugh with other people. It creates a bond and cuts down on everyone's stress. And you can start investigating emigration, just in case it may become untenable to have a decent life here.

I am nothing short of amazed by how many people I know are planning to leave, and even more astounded at how many already have. And this includes the kids I knew growing up in blue collar lower-middle-class ethnic communities. You know, not the so-called Eastern intelligentia, or San Francisco yuppies, or Seattle techies. No. Regular people. I mean it.