Starhawk, one of my favorite activists, novelists, etc. (Google her) posted a brief paragraph on Facebook yesterday that, I think, says it all:

“So many horrors afflicting the world that I haven’t been writing about. I’m struggling with a sense of revulsion at how banal even the most brilliant analysis becomes when sandwiched between a cute kitten batting at an Ipad and what an old friend ate for lunch. I ask myself, is there anything I can say that will actually move the conversation forward? That hasn’t already been said? The structures all around us are breaking down as the life-support systems of the planet are melting down, and the issues are not separate. We are living under a global system that is not working for the vast majority of people, that marches on and on concentrating wealth and power in fewer and fewer hands, that obstructs all efforts to address the grave dangers that beset the planet. And it’s cracking apart under the weight of its own callous injustice. The tragedy is, when it falls, the pieces land mostly on the innocent, on those who have reaped few benefits and done the least to cause it. And when structures break down, people grope for new structures, often more rigid and cruel than the old. So what can we do? Take a moment of silence, to honor the dead. In that void, ask yourself, What would the world look like if our building blocks were justice, balance, compassion? Lay the foundations, stone by stone–the only memorial that can possibly appease the innocent dead.”