A cascade of sinking feelings

These have not been good days. I've been fretting for myself, and somewhere in the midst of that, I turned to fretting about the world. I know the media distort our view of what is going on; I know they overreport depressing/sensational/idiotic news as a matter of unwritten policy; I know almost every human being I've ever encountered has been decent at heart. All that being said, I still feel we're on a slide towards something frighening. And this isn't just the regular post-asshole inauguration blowing off steam; the more I learn, the more I realize the ideas I've apparently attached myself to have been on the decline for the past twenty years. There are a dozen issues I feel utterly powerless in the face of. If I dedicated all my energy to one and convinced everyone I know to do the same, it would be drops in the ocean.

Let's list some of these: uncontrolled (probably accelerating) environmental rape, corporate dominance of everything (including your mother's last moments), the rising star of religious fundamentalisms (oriental, Western, Middle Eastern), the move from reproduction to production, uncontrollable nucleear proliferation, willing militarization the world over, unstoppable killer viruses, stoppable diseases that nobody cares about, vast public ignorance (memories that don't last over a month). Then I get visions of flower children in ashes, fatalistic old women shuffling down the street much as they always have, a stealthy attempt to teach my children evolution (God knows, school forbids it), doing what the Red Queen did: running as fast as I can just to stay in the same place, because if I slip, there's no net to catch me. I'll be crossing myself or bowing to Mecca; it doesn't matter. I'll do what I have to do to survive. I'll have to turn my head from floggings of the homeless on the street. I'll dodge potholes. I'll give insincere prayers for my eldest son fighting in a "police action" across the world for whatever reason. I'll have to watch myself at every turn. We'll all be wearing burqas, not for religious reasons, but for protection from the sun. Only the Buddha's transcendental wisdom keeps me climbing out of bed every morning, and even I'm not sure whether it's just a pleasant placebo.

Someone please prove me wrong.

Consider:: "...this is a neutrophil taken from the blood of a graduate student."