Thoughts on Social Unrest, Israel, and Where We Fit.
The Never Ending cycle of Feeling a Lack of Impact
I asked my wife this morning if, as a UX Content Designer, she ever felt the “What Am I Doing?” vibe when the world seems to be tearing itself apart.
In short, she does- and often.
She sees the pain and suffering of others and feels like the hours spent on her work are worthless when stood next to moments like Hamas’s attack on Israel.
As an artist, I often feel the same. The songs I write- even the socially driven ones- seem pointless when events like the recent attack by Hamas are carried out.
The full impact of Hamas’s actions are yet to be seen both for Israel, Palestine, and beyond. Unfortunately, the things we have already seen through the steady drip of social media footage seem to be more than a lifetime’s worth of atrocities.
And here I am on the other side of the world, writing a social media post, the overarching purpose of which is to get attention for myself and my work.
This is the crux of the problem for humans in the modern age. We are aware of everything thats going on and have no idea how we fit in it. How are we to be caring empathetic people while also being a part of a social experiment that regularly causes disassociation from…..everything.
And yes- I recognize that the healthy thing to do is focus on growing and thriving in my life, doing no harm, and- through that- create an environment that may allow other people to thrive as well. That’s not the point.
The point is that it’s hard.
It’s hard to feel like whatever corner of the world you work in has any merit when there is a new cycle of violence and suffering starting every few weeks.
I’m not sure where the average joe fit in all of this. I’m not sure if my work meets the needs of the moment (because we do need impactful artists….we just don’t seem to have any).
I’ll keep working on my insignificant corner, trying to turn it into something of value. But some days, like today, it’s hard to accept the reality that this- unimaginable suffering of innocents- is part of life too, and it lives along side my relatively peaceful existence every day.