Help Me Hera: What do I do with all this political rage?

It all feels disgustingly futile. But the futility-to-apathy pipeline is exactly what they're counting on.

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Hi Hera,

I was hoping to get your advice on how to work through the feelings of anger and despondency I have towards New Zealand, its right wing governments and the cruelty of austerity.

It’s a feeling wrapped up in guilt too; I was a public servant who didn’t lose their job but decided to leave anyway. Now with more public service job cuts announced, I find myself experiencing a complicated mix of guilt, despair, disbelief and anger.

Did you ever feel a sense of peace and find ways to accept the worst parts of this piss country (along with all the great things)? Thank you for all your work.

Best, 

Austerity complex

Dear Austerity complex,

I struggle with this problem myself. It’s hard to gauge what the appropriate amount of political rage is. Too much, and you get sucked into a personal despair vortex, rendering you too incoherent and pessimistic to do anything productive. Too little and it’s easy to become numbed by apathy, as your country circles the neoliberal drain.

A lot of people write in to ask me how to manage their growing feelings of despondency and rage. It’s probably the most common question I get, after "how do I become polyamorous" (🤷‍♀️) and "how do I stop hating my job I can’t afford to quit?" (🦹🔫🏦💰💰💰)

Normally there’s something you can do to change your circumstances, whether that’s getting divorced or practising circular breathing until your blood is dangerously oxygenated. But political anger is harder because it’s usually an entirely sane response to an all-you-can-eat buffet of being kicked in the teeth. Many would argue you have a moral responsibility to be pissed, for the good of democracy. But it’s hard to know what to do, beyond sending a bunch of well-deserved anthrax. And even that sort of behaviour only hurts the postie (soon-to-be self-employed postal contractor).

Can you bully horrible people into having good opinions? Can you bamboozle them with rhetoric and statistics? How do you have a good faith debate with someone who doesn’t think poor people deserve medical care? It all feels disgustingly futile. But the futility-to-apathy pipeline is exactly what these ghouls want, and there’s no way to emancipate yourself from the dogmeat factory, beyond trying to calibrate your anger into the precise quantity that allows you to do something productive without also burning a hole through the top of your skull.

If someone is truly on the political fence, and has a history of voting for Act because they have a rare fungus of the brain, rather than a sour bottle cap of hatred rattling around inside their empty moral core, approaching them with compassion and trying to find common ground is a more effective rhetorical technique than shaming. But shaming has an important strategic place too. There are always calls for political civility around an election, but I often think there isn’t enough anger in leftist politics, as David Seymour and all of his other Goosebumps Night of the Living Dummy cronies go about gleefully launching their third consecutive “single-mother euthanasia catapult” weeks before election day.

You say you feel guilty for leaving the public service, but honestly you might have been made redundant anyway. Luckily, you don’t need to be gainfully employed by Forest & Bird to do some good in this world.

The best thing to do is to try to channel that rage and despair into doing something useful. Pick something that you are passionate about and good at. If you are rhetorically strong, go door knocking. If you have spare resources, donate. If you are a freak in the spreadsheets, I’m sure there are plenty of worthy groups that could use your data entry skills. Perhaps you already do a job that does objective moral good, in which case, go hard. Sometimes it helps to narrow in on something you’re especially passionate about and advocate specifically for that cause, rather than trying to be ambiently mad at everything at once.

What you shouldn’t do is waste your life arguing with people on the internet, or doomscroll yourself into a state of paralysis.

Personally, it helps me to remember that democracy has always been a shit show, and progress is never purely linear. Right now it feels like the world is sliding backwards. But this is not a uniquely fucked moment in history. Political change always encounters setbacks, regression, and sabotage. That doesn’t mean progress isn’t being made, and small gains aren’t worth fighting for. It’s just a lot slower and more torturous than we’d like.

When I feel most incoherent with anger and despair, one of the things that helps is finding people to look up to. Chlöe Swabrick is a personal hero, and having someone who can effortlessly articulate the hypocrisy and short-sightedness of our current government and offer alternative solutions is deeply inspiring and gives me hope for elections to come.

The last thing everyone can do is put on their orange gimpsuit and encourage everyone they know to ENROL TO VOTE BEFORE THE 25TH OF OCTOBER. You may not be able to change someone’s views on mandatory drug testing, but you might at least be able to motivate someone to check their enrolment details.