Civic effort targets feelings of futility more than its causes

Evidence

Combating futility meant, above all, combating the feeling of futility, and especially, combating the expression of such feelings aloud in volunteer group meetings, where such feelings could be most destructive. — Nina Eliasoph, Avoiding politics, 285

Categorization

• XREF: Builds on the book’s framing thesis about political evaporation and the sociology of silence; relates to how communications technology also channeled public feelings in the reader’s other reading. — connects to: Civic voluntarism substitutes feeling effective for actually changing institutions. — Nina Eliasoph, “Close to home”: The work of avoiding…, 82; Competitive individualism makes civic duty feel like a wasteful drain; Apparent civic apathy is effortful cultural labor, not genuine indifference — Nina Eliasoph, “Close to home”: The work of avoiding…, 169 (+1 more)
• corroborated: 5 independent passages support this claim — Nina Eliasoph, Avoiding politics: how Americans…, 285

Broader Connections

• Competitive individualism makes civic duty feel like a wasteful drain #exemplifies (0.75)