"}To me, \u201cSuffering is the Problem, the Solution is not Giving a Shit\u201d is one of the most potent and honest statements imaginable. \u00a0It hurts so badly that you feel like giving a shit is actually a stronger motivating force than caring about the things you care about. \u00a0You don\u2019t see that in politics, do you?
I know I\u2019m being a little bit much, but I can\u2019t but imagine that the people coming up with the Left-wing version of Effective Altruism don\u2019t actually think suffering is a problem? \u00a0They think it\u2019s painful, sure, but they\u2019re like \u201cwell, if not a problem\u00a0then it must be awful, right?\u201d, like it actually\u00a0\u201cfeels like something is wrong with the world\u201d, and that you must therefore compensate for that feeling by caring about things you don\u2019t really care about.\u201d \u00a0In other words, it would be like saying \u201cwell, I\u2019m suffering, but since I\u2019m suffering, I might as well not care about the fact that I\u2019m suffering,\u201d and therefore you must compensate for the fact that you\u2019re in agony by creating a society that denies you basic things like basic health care. \u00a0(Note that\u00a0\u201cbasic things\u201d doesn\u2019t include\u00a0\u201cyou are made of bubble wrap,\u201d which may seem like a bit of an exaggeration, but it\u2019s actually what I\u2019ve been told by my OB-GYN.)
There\u2019s a simple thing I can do about this, and I\u2019d like to do it, but I\u2019m scared it will seem selfish and not effective. \u00a0What can I do? \u00a0I\u2019m scared people will say \u201cyou should care about the fact that you are in agony because it has real consequences for you.\u201d
What I\u2019m saying is this:
I don\u2019t see my activism as\u00a0\u201cactive\u201d in the sense that someone is deciding to \u201cactivate\u201d the anxiety. \u00a0Activation has to be used a particular\u00a0thing, which requires a particular factor of effort. \u00a0I can have also\u00a0activated, and still be inactive. \u00a0Sometimes when I am not feeling much anxious it feels like there\u2019s no trait of an anxiety personality\u00a0there, but there are no \u201ctraits\u201d there, and it\u2019s like me sitting there pretty much feeling like there\u2019s no pain in the world whatsoever. \u00a0I don\u2019t feel like there is a thing I could do, to achieve some end point\u00a0in the nervous state. \u00a0I can\u2019t just do any old thing that feels good, even if that feels good.
Maybe I should give the fancy-schmancy \u201cEfficiency at Any Cost\u201d speech I wanted to give a while ago. \u00a0I know that sounds arrogant, but it\u2019s not. \u00a0I don\u2019t really know what \u201cactivism\u201d is, any more than I know what the agent needs to do to achieve their beliefs. \u00a0The person has to convince some people. \u00a0Maybe that requires a Belief In The Future. \u00a0Maybe that requires a Belief In The Past. \u00a0Or maybe it doesn\u2019t, and they just need to convince you.
But no, there