I agree completely. Mindfulness and living with intent certainly help, as does accepting that the way the world is takes precedence over the way I wish it was.

I think you're right on the political side, too. There's this tendency in activist culture to dismiss the fact that in all kinds of ways, society is much less oppressive now than it was in the past - sometimes in the very recent past. That's because pursuing positive social change does bear results - *if* you do it in an effective way instead of an ineffective one, and *if* you're willing to treat "better than it was" as an improvement, rather than lumping together everything that falls even a little bit short of perfection.