The world is full of injustice, so how can we do good and yet keep sane?
War, poverty, crime, racism, genocide, climate change: how do we stay centered and calm and focused on justice when the world is full of horror and suffering and death?
I have had many, many friends who spent a few years fighting for a better world, but then they burn out. They become overwhelmed. How can any of us go on facing the injustices of this world without becoming a big ball of rage? And yet, how long can any of us go on living as just a big ball of rage? When do we ever get to take a breath, calm down, and appreciate life? And those who try to do the most good often suffer the most, for they are the ones who spend the most time noticing the infinite travesty of injustice in this world. Sometimes they have to walk away. Sometimes they even become apathetic and apolitical. Some of them go a little bit crazy.
How can we hold ourselves together?
I’ve no magic answers but I can talk about my own experience.
The French philosopher Albert Camus had the answer that works best for me, which he gave in The Myth Of Sisyphus. Camus was part of the French Resistance after France had been conquered by the Nazis, so his view was shaped by a direct encounter with the greatest evil imaginable.
In the myth, Hades punished Sisyphus for cheating death by forcing Sisyphus to roll an immense boulder up a hill only for it to roll back down every time it neared the top, repeating this action till the end of time.
Camus developed this into an entire philosophy of life. The world is full of cruelty and injustice, it always has been and it always will be. Given the infinite glut of injustice, how should we keep our mental health while fighting for justice? Sisyphus is aware that his work is infinite and will never end, he knows he will never enjoy the satisfaction of achieving his goal, but rather, his goal recedes before him, always, to infinity. And so, Sisyphus can only take pleasure in actually doing the work. Nothing else, just that: he has been given a task by the gods, and he is doing that task, and that is all that he can ever do, and he can never hope for more than that. He must find enough satisfaction in the moment, engaged in the task at hand, and he must not ever hope for more. And that is true for all of us. We must fight for justice, and find satisfaction in the truth that we are doing what is morally right, but we must not get attached to the final outcome, since we will never achieve the thing we want most, which is a just world. We must find small, concrete things that we can do, things that help other people, and we have to take satisfaction from those small things, because the larger thing we seek is beyond our mortal power to achieve.
Is this easy? Not always. It is natural to become attached to some outcome, to dream of some perfect future when we can finally set our burdens down. But the truth is, we will not be granted such relief for as long as we are alive.
Overwhelmed with injustice, drowning in sorrow, it is easy to forsake the fight and renounce any interest in seeking a better world. This is understandable, but in the long-run, this is not healthy. We only get to live one life. Do we want to waste our days running away from the problems of the world? Or do we wish to be remembered for having given aid to our fellow sufferers?
This much is certain: if you decide to wallow in despair and self-pity then your friends and loved ones will think of you as useless. Despair is reactionary. No matter how hopeless the fight, a person committed to progressive politics finds a way to stay motivated to continue with the work, just as Sisyphus did.
Any time you feel burnout, ask yourself if you’ve become overly attached to some final victory. In my experience, this is the source of all burnout. Don’t waste any time trying to imagine the plan that will fix the whole world. That’s not going to happen. Don’t indulge pointless fantasies of revolution, because those fantasies won’t take you personally to a healthy place. Just focus on what you can do this week to help others. Focus on things that are specific and real. If we all did this, the world would still be imperfect, but it would be noticeably better, and our satisfaction in having made a contribution is exactly what allows us to go on doing the work, avoiding burnout and remaining healthy.