Getting Discouraged
Does anybody else get discouraged with being a political minority? In the past years as I have become far less mainstream in my thinking and also more politically active. I've spend more and more time not only learning about and researching politics from an alternative perspective but also trying to change the world and change minds. Lately, in the past few months or so, I'm been feeling really discouraged. I feel like nobody has an open mind for anything beyond what they have seen on TV or learned from equally uniformed peers. I feel like even those frustrated with the system are easily placated or distracted by the crumbs that mainstream politicians or pundits throw at them to draw them back into the mainstream establishment. I feel that people are too emotionally attached to their assumptions and that they become unthinkingly hostile or derisive when confronted with ideas outside of their comfort zone. I feel that this exists even among seemingly open minded people, even those who are potentially sympathetic to my ideas.
I wonder if being politically active has any value if your politics are outside of the mainstream. I see all of these Republicans and Democrats arguing over this issue or that and I feel envious of them, envious that they can look forward to some sort of satisfaction or victory after waiting a few years for the next election - maybe 2 years, maybe 8, but they'll see a politician of their stripe win. For me, no way, perhaps not ever. It makes me depressed, depressed and frustrated not only by the futility of my efforts but by the hostility shown to me by those in the mainstream who think that I'm some kind of weirdo or villain, sometimes to the point of them saying that people who believe as I do should be locked up, killed, beaten, or otherwise oppressed.
Does anybody else ever feel this way, does anyone ever lose hope and wonder if their ideology and even their knowledge isn't worth it? Is there even a point in radical political activism?
I wonder if being politically active has any value if your politics are outside of the mainstream. I see all of these Republicans and Democrats arguing over this issue or that and I feel envious of them, envious that they can look forward to some sort of satisfaction or victory after waiting a few years for the next election - maybe 2 years, maybe 8, but they'll see a politician of their stripe win. For me, no way, perhaps not ever. It makes me depressed, depressed and frustrated not only by the futility of my efforts but by the hostility shown to me by those in the mainstream who think that I'm some kind of weirdo or villain, sometimes to the point of them saying that people who believe as I do should be locked up, killed, beaten, or otherwise oppressed.
Does anybody else ever feel this way, does anyone ever lose hope and wonder if their ideology and even their knowledge isn't worth it? Is there even a point in radical political activism?