Great stuff! This is a drum I've been beating here in Austin. I think there's a huge psychological benefit to becoming an active creator of your city that would help a lot of people overcome this pervasive feeling of malaise. Getting involved in local politics, learning how it all works, and then seeing positive change you helped make happen is, I think, an exercise in and validation of one's sense of agency. It's empowering in a fundamental sense, if not a democratic one. If more people rediscovered the benefits of local engagement, we might start to rethink our expectations of what happens nationally, too.
Great stuff! This is a drum I've been beating here in Austin. I think there's a huge psychological benefit to becoming an active creator of your city that would help a lot of people overcome this pervasive feeling of malaise. Getting involved in local politics, learning how it all works, and then seeing positive change you helped make happen is, I think, an exercise in and validation of one's sense of agency. It's empowering in a fundamental sense, if not a democratic one. If more people rediscovered the benefits of local engagement, we might start to rethink our expectations of what happens nationally, too.