From the archive

Be a monster

There's a phrase, “learned helplessness.” And to me, the scariest thing about it is the possibility of getting so used to having no influence that you stop noticing even the things you can still affect. It didn't work before. Then it didn't work again. You were stopped, punished, ridiculed. Now every suggestion to try something meets a ready-made “there's no point.” Maybe there really was no point back then.