I thought that this was a really timely reading. I think nothing makes me feel more powerless than literally not being able to leave my home. It seems that a lot of people that are not any type of healthcare worker feel powerless because it feels like you cannot actually help anyone. Though I understand that staying home is helping to flatten the curve and protect others from coronavirus it does not have that same satisfactory feeling of directly helping somebody in need. It is more of a long term project where you will not see results for a little while and I think that is what makes it more difficult to stay motivated. Additionally, it is annoying to see people that are not abiding by quarantine rules because it makes you feel as though your staying inside ultimately won’t count because there are other people that aren’t. If they aren’t paying attention to the advice of medical professionals, why should I?

The other area I most feel this type of powerlessness in is climate change. I often do feel like we are full speed ahead towards a climate apocalypse and the end of the conditions on earth that allow for human life. I have a lot of “eco-anxiety” and I think this especially because I feel like a majority of people either do not realize where we are headed or do not care. Additionally, solving our climate crisis is an area that would require the collaboration of a lot of people. Though I can do my personal best to reduce my impact, I cannot personally shut down, for example, all animal agriculture. When you feel like you are not around other similarly motivated people it feels like your impact doesn’t matter because it is outweighed by all these actions that hurt our planet. It is, however, like what Zinn said about the supernova at the end of the reading. When whatever the end of the planet looks like does come I do want to be able to say that I did give my best effort.