Chris Hedges is our finest Cassandra. His experience with war and devastation is deep and wide. We want to trust him, but if we do then we get warnings like the one below:

Optimism is not really warranted, but pragmatism is. Despair on top of dire warnings is a form of learned helplessness. If we are to act at all we must learn to act “as if” we can matter. I suggest this article by Dave Pollard which comes from his monthly links collection.

You can play with this etherpad as you will. Add to it. Edit it. Whatever you might do to interact with it that is useful to you.