How to process suffering on a massive scale? Hint: you can’t.
It’s a Friday.
This week alone, the United States experienced its deadliest mass shooting, Puerto Rico continued to grapple with apocalypse-level destruction followed by gross neglect from the U.S. government, House and Senate Republicans are conspiring to push a bill that would illegalize all abortions after 20 weeks, the Affordable Care Act is growing dangerously close to repeal, each day one must rise and reckon with the fact that the country is governed by a sentient leather glove, police officers regularly slaughter unarmed black men in the street, ICE is conducting proto-fascist roundups of immigrants, and Flint, Michigan still doesn’t have clean water.
Seemingly each day, one is pelted with sickening news from elsewhere in the world. One can’t help but experience the chilling realization that these sorts of large-scale disasters are becoming more deadly and more frequent. There’s a not-unwarranted sensation that as soon as one is able to come to grips with a situation, a new, fresh hell arises.
Very few seem willing to acknowledge how positively surreal it is to be alive today. As the aforementioned tragedies swirl all around us, we are experiencing them with a level of unprecedented intensity and immediacy.
