Outrage Fatigue

I find myself suffering from outrage fatigue. Seems that I’m not the only one. With all the shenanigans that are currently going on in the national and local political sphere, finding something to focus my outrage on has been difficult, dishearteningly difficult. FISA, the Mukasey nomination, Torture, the DOJ scandal, SCHIP, Iraq, the local election results, and the general skullduggery that surrounds these and other issues have clouded my mind and left me feeling hollow. Anyone else know what I mean?

There’s just too much going on and not enough positive result. Sadly, it’s shaking my faith in not only the power of people to affect change in their world, but the people and organizations that we look to that help that change along.

Maybe I’m too impatient. Perhaps I’m being unrealistic. Certainly my standard for what constitutes “change” is very high. Still, I can’t help feeling that the principles and ideals that I hold dear are engaged in a death spiral, falling further and further away from fruition, at the hands of many I trusted to nurture and guide them into the conversation, and eventually, the law, or policy, of the land.

As a side note, I find it interesting that those who are on the flip side of the spectrum from my ideology are feeling the same thing, though that offers little comfort.

How does someone combat outrage fatigue? Certainly there’s no medical treatment, no pill, fluid, powder or combination of the three that can truly address the mix of emotional, intellectual and physical symptoms that it encompasses. For me, this has been a weeklong conundrum. Even just writing about it makes me tired.

I don’t have much more to say here except that as a born optimist living in a sardonic satirical shell this is making me nuts. I need a vaccine, and all the filibusters, press conferences ad veto override votes in the world won’t stop it now. Where to go, what to do, these are my questions. Hopefully, I’ll find some answers.

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