Feelings are often manufactured - including feelings of fatalism and pointlessness. We all think we are immune to such influence, as though the entire universe of media existed as a meaningless charity or something that only affected other people. In consumer life, if given a choice between Coke and Pepsi, we can choose neither. Politics is an entirely different sort of choice - but how can we approach one choice using entirely different processes, when we've been trained to think we have as much control as we do over consumer choices?

But a vote is not a choice between two candidates at the top of the ticket - it is a choice to be concerned about the communities we depend upon.