is it possible to affect societal change? what does one need to do this? how does one avoid being just another cog in the system? it seems to me that the system is really well stabilized so that i either have to accept my fate as cog or suffer severe consequences of rebelling. i think that reading a lot of philosophy these days is depressing… i really appreciated one of my modernity texts stating that modern life is inherently depressing because we’ve taken away religion, we’ve restricted escape tools and yet we continue to point out that individuals have no power or control over their lives. plus, by stressing self-reflection, we only magnify this problem… maybe i should stop self-reflecting.