[Frondo]

"How's that working out so far?"

It is working out very well. Where I live, we have a citizen initiative process, which ends up being quite responsive to the will of the people. We also elect politicians who make laws that take the state in a direction I like--not all of them, but enough of them that this place is getting better year by year.

Our politicians are also accessible--you can set up a meeting to talk to them, share concerns, hear the constraints they're under--and it's great. It's wonderful to make that connection with the people who are actually crafting laws.

As for the "harder stuff," not really. You don't sound like you're awake yourself, the stuff you're saying is more or less the faux world-weary cynicism that a lot of people seem to confuse with worldliness or sophistication.

I would like to vigorously encourage you to try civic engagement--if you're into waking up, it could be a useful exercise for you.

[HiYaBarbie]

Oh come on. We all know politicians break their promises and lie all the damn time.

We all know there's massive surveillance everywhere, very much against the citizens' wishes.

We all know politicians don't give a shit about us, as evidenced by their actions.

If you want to claim otherwise, you're either being dishonest or just delusional.

[mercer]

Or capable of understanding that most things are not all bad or all good, and even when thinks are mostly-bad, good can be done.

I'm not saying that you are not capable of this; I don't know you.

What I do know is that I've often expressed blanket-statement cynicism and I regret that now. Once I got to know people who are fighting 'on the inside', I started realizing that things are more complicated, and a lot of good can (still) be achieved. From that point on, I concluded that maintaining my cynicism would be nothing short of laziness or defensiveness, and I decided to either shut up or work toward change.

I'm still a cynic in many ways, but at least I try not to discourage others from fighting battles that I do not fight, whether out of laziness or cynicism. Because I truly think much more stuff can be changed than we think. And besides, sitting around being cynical doesn't help at all.