" Today we live in a world of isolation and atomization, where people distrust their own institutions; many people respond to powerlessness with pointless acts of self-destruction. Often,when groups feel oppressed, they organize with concrete reform proposals to empower themselves. Many who feel powerless , feel unworthy, and become complicit in their own oppression. Some exaggerate the weight and size of the obstacles in front of them. Some feel dehumanized, forsaken, doomed and guilty. If we’re to have any hope of addressing big systemic problems we’ll have to repair big institutions and have functioning parties and a functioning Congress.This requires less atomization and more collective action, fewer strongmen but greater citizenship. It requires the craft of political architecture, not the demagogy of destruction."
At www.nytimes.com
