Just Do It! crisis

"The pressure to "do something" is like the superstitious compulsion to make some gesture when we are observing a process over which we have no real influence. Are not our acts often such gestures? The old saying "Don't just talk, do something!" is one of the stupidest things one can say, even measured by the low standards of common sense. Perhaps the problem lately has been that we have been doing too much, such as intervening in nature, destroying the environment, and so forth. Perhaps it is time to step back think, and say the right thing. True, we often talk about soemthing instead of doing it; but sometimes we also do things in order to avoid talking and thinking about them. Such as throwing $700 billin at a problem instead of reflecting on how it arose in the first place."

- Slavoj Zizek, "To Each According to His Greed"
Harper Magazine, Oct. 2009