From Entropy to Action: Hope, Tactics, and Knowing When to Step Up (E5 of 5 in Series)

Finding Reasonable Hope in the Entropy Age

In this final episode of the 'Entropy Age' series on PsyberSpace, host Leslie Poston explores strategies for maintaining hope and taking action amidst systemic chaos and decay. She discusses the psychological underpinnings of hope, the impact of systemic entropy on the nervous system, and the concept of tactical whimsy. Poston emphasizes the importance of building small, supportive rituals and finding your role in collective action. The episode offers insights into balancing self-care with social resistance, aiming to empower listeners to make meaningful changes even in turbulent times.

00:00 Introduction to the Entropy Age Series
00:28 Recap of Previous Episodes
01:12 Exploring Reasonable Hope
03:17 Understanding Self-Determination Theory
04:49 Impact of Systemic Entropy on the Body
07:20 The Role of Tactical Whimsy
09:26 When to Move Beyond Small-Scale Actions
13:06 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

Resources:

Bandura, A. (2000). Exercise of human agency through collective efficacy. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 9(3), 75–78.
Chenoweth, E., & Stephan, M. J. (2011). Why civil resistance works: The strategic logic of nonviolent conflict. Columbia University Press.
Collins, P. H. (2009). Black feminist thought: Knowledge, consciousness, and the politics of empowerment (2nd ed.). Routledge.
Deci, E. L., & Ryan, R. M. (2000). The “what” and “why” of goal pursuits: Human needs and the self-determination of behavior. Psychological Inquiry, 11(4), 227–268.
Deci, E. L., & Ryan, R. M. (2008). Self-determination theory: A macrotheory of human motivation, development, and health. Canadian Psychology, 49(3), 182–185.
Fredrickson, B. L. (2001). The role of positive emotions in positive psychology: The broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions. American Psychologist, 56(3), 218–226.
Fredrickson, B. L. (2013). Positive emotions broaden and build. In P. Devine & A. Plant (Eds.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 47, pp. 1–53). Academic Press.
Haslam, S. A., Jetten, J., Postmes, T., & Haslam, C. (2009). Social identity, health and well-being: An emerging agenda for applied psychology. Applied Psychology, 58(1), 1–23.
Haslam, Catherine & Cruwys, Tegan & Haslam, S. & Jetten, Jolanda. (2015). Social Connectedness and Health. 10.1007/978-981-287-080-3_46-2. 
Jetten, J., Haslam, C., & Haslam, S. A. (Eds.). (2012). The social cure: Identity, health and well-being. Psychology Press.
McMillan Cottom, T. (2019). Thick: And other essays. New York, NY: The New Press.
Porges, S. W. (2007). The polyvagal perspective. Biological Psychology, 74(2), 116–143.
Sampson, R. J., Raudenbush, S. W., & Earls, F. (1997). Neighborhoods and violent crime: A multilevel study of collective efficacy. Science, 277(5328), 918–924.
Snyder, C. R. (2002). Hope theory: Rainbows in the mind. Psychological Inquiry, 13(4), 249–275.
Spade, D. (2020). Mutual aid: Building solidarity during this crisis (and the next). Verso.
Spencer, R. C. (2008). Engendering the Black freedom struggle: Revolutionary Black womanhood and the Black Panther Party in the Bay Area, California. Journal of Women’s History, 20(1), 90–113.
Ungar, M. (2011). The social ecology of resilience: Addressing contextual and cultural ambiguity of a nascent construct. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 81(1), 1–17.

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Episode Transcript

Leslie Poston (00:11):
Welcome back to PsyberSpace. I'm your host,
Leslie Poston. If you're newhere, this is the show where I
help you understand your worldby exploring how psychology,
media, culture, and technologyshape the way we think, feel,
work, and live. This week, we'vebeen moving through a five part
series about what I've beencalling the Entropy Age. In the

(00:34):
first episode, we talked aboutemotional entropy, existential
anxiety, ontological insecurity,and anticipatory grief.
In the second, we looked atsystem decay under late stage
capitalism. In the third, wefocused on epistemic entropy and
how truth stops feeling solid.In the fourth, we talked about

(00:57):
power hoarding and thepsychology of leaders and
movements that are comfortablethriving in chaos. Today, we're
going a little deeper into whataction can look like from
nervous system care all the wayto collective resistance. This
final episode is about havingreasonable hope and real
options, even in the face ofsystemic entropy.

(01:20):
Hope that doesn't deny how badthings are but still asks, What
can I do myself? And What can wedo together? Some of those
answers are small and quiet.Some are silly. Some of them
involve people in the streets,people blocking harm, and people
standing between systemic harmand targeted neighbors.

(01:41):
I also want to revisit tacticalwhimsy and other ideas like it,
but place it where it belongs,as one tool in a larger kit.
Certainly tactical whimsy cansupport you and your community,
as demonstrated by the peopleprotesting in cities like
Portland. But sometimesconditions call for going beyond
your comfort zone to a moredirect physical presence,

(02:04):
somewhat like we're seeing inChicago and North Carolina this
week if you've been followingthe news. Part of emotional
maturity in a time like this islearning to feel out the
difference. By the end of theepisode, my aim is that you have
language for that range and away to think about which
responses fit which moment.

(02:28):
Let's start with hope itself.Psychologist C. R. Snyder
described hope as a mix of threethings: having goals, seeing
possible pathways, and feelingsome agency to move along those
pathways. That's different fromvague optimism.
Optimism can just be a mood, buthope in this sense is a process.

(02:51):
We talked about that in moredepth in our episode on the
psychology of hope. Right now,optimism can feel dishonest. You
can see many signs that thingsare not going well. Reasonable
hope doesn't ask you to lookaway.
It asks you to look for anyplace where you still have some
influence, however small, andany path forward that's a little

(03:14):
better than just sitting still.Self determination theory from
Edward Decky and Richard Ryanadds another piece to the
puzzle. They found that peoplefunction better when three needs

are supported (03:26):
autonomy, competence, and relatedness.
Autonomy is the sense that youhave some say in what's
happening. Competence is thesense that you can do something
that matters.
And relatedness is the sensethat you are connected to others
and not just a lone atomfloating in space. Late stage

(03:47):
capitalism and authoritariandrift work against those needs.
They centralize decisions,hollow out public life, push
people toward conformity, andreward people who hoard power
and money. No wonder so manypeople feel stuck, ineffective,
and isolated. Reasonable hopelooks for ways to reclaim even

(04:09):
small amounts of autonomy,competence, and relatedness.
That might be mutual aid,neighborhood projects, community
defense, labor organizing, oreven direct support for people
targeted by larger systems ofentropic power. It might be
policy work, legal work, orstrategic communications. Maybe

(04:30):
it's even more intimate, assimple as taking care of one
another so that people have thecapacity to show up when it
matters. Once you look at hopethrough this lens, it stops
being a feeling you either haveor do not have and becomes a
skill that you can build withother people. Before we talk

(04:51):
about escalated action, it'sworth pausing to talk about
systemic entropy's impact on thebody and what we can do to keep
ourselves regulated in turbulenttimes.
Polyvagal theory associated withSteven Porges gives us one
helpful map. It says that ournervous systems shift between
states based on cues of safetyand danger. In a calm, safe

(05:14):
state, you can think, connect,and plan. In fight or flight,
you're wired for more quickaction. And in shutdown, you go
numb.
An entropy age throws manydanger cues at you consistently.
Economic news, climate reports,police violence, anti immigrant
raids, fascist rhetoric, publichealth failures, and more. If

(05:36):
you're paying any amount ofattention, your body is
noticing. Many people live in along running mix of activation
and collapse. Research on thesocial cure led by researchers
like S.
Alexander Haslam, JolandaJettin, and Nyla Branskull shows
that group belonging and sharedidentity can buffer some of this

(05:57):
strain. Being part of a groupwith regular contact and a
shared purpose tends to helppeople cope better with stress
and stay healthier over time.This is where small, steady
rituals matter. A regular walkwith a friend, a weekly potluck,
or a group that meets to plan,but also to debrief and care for

(06:17):
each other. A mutual aid crewthat always has time for a cup
of tea or a beer after a hardaction.
These things aren't just selfcare. They're nervous system
infrastructure for resistance.Tactical whimsy fits here as one
thing that bridges real lifeaction and the idea of the
social cure. Adding play andhumor to these rituals helps

(06:39):
your nervous system loosen itsgrip on constant threat. This
could be in the form of themeddinners, silly names for your
working group, shared memes anda serious chat for planning,
wearing inflatable costumes to aprotest, or having an ongoing in
joke that reminds you that youstill have some joy and agency
left.

(07:00):
If you want to show up for moredirect action, you need these
foundations. Bodies that neverhave any sense of safety burn
out or freeze quickly. Bodiesthat find ways to feel safe with
others can return to engagementafter stress and be ready to
fight again in the future. Let'stalk a little bit more about

(07:22):
tactical whimsy. It's been inthe news quite a bit this year.
Tactical whimsy is thedeliberate use of small, playful
acts that support real worldgoals. It's serious play. The
point is not to make light ofharm. The point is to keep
people human, creative, andconnected while they face harm

(07:42):
together. On the low intensityend, this might look like naming
a mutual aid group's weeklyplanning call something that
makes you smile instead of justmeeting.
Turning your supply drop into asmall block gathering where
local kids chalk the sidewalkand adults can talk logistics.
Using art, costumes, dance, ormusic in your protests and

(08:04):
vigils, not as a gimmick but asa way to hold attention and
create shared emotional memory.On a more direct action level,
tactical whimsy can show up inthe way people confront
oppressive actors. Think ofcreative signage, chants that
use humor without erasingdanger, or carefully staged
visual actions that highlightboth the absurdity and the

(08:26):
cruelty of a policy. Theseapproaches can reduce fear for
participants.
They draw public attention, andthey make it harder for
authorities to frame protestersas faceless threats. Research on
positive emotions fromFredriksen suggests that moments
of joy, amusement, and interestcan broaden and build your
ability to see your options.Under constant fear, your focus

(08:49):
narrows, which is what anentropic system in decay wants.
Under brief, genuine positiveemotion, your field of view and
your sense of options widens.Tactical whimsy uses that on
purpose.
The important thing is thattactical whimsy is optional and
situational. Some communitiesare not in a place where play

(09:11):
feels safe or appropriate. Someactions are too urgent or too
dangerous to carry much whimsy.You don't have to force it. It's
just one tool in your kit, not amoral requirement.
The question underlying all ofthis is when is it time to move
beyond individual and groupnervous system care and small

(09:34):
scale acts of tactical joy andwhimsy and into more direct,
potentially physical or monetarycollective action? There's no
single formula, but we can talkabout some patterns that
research and history both pointto. One clue is when systemic
harm shifts from abstract riskto concrete events. For example,

(09:56):
when untrained immigrationvigilantes are detaining your
neighbors, when police aretargeting protesters, when
lawmakers have passed or areabout to pass laws that strip
rights from specific groups,when excessive evictions or
harmful sweeps are happening inyour town, at that point,
supportive thoughts are just notenough. People on the sharp end

(10:19):
of entropic systems need bodies,resources, and protection.
Another clue is wheninstitutional channels have been
tried and ignored. Ifcommunities have petitioned,
testified, called theirgovernment officials at all
levels, met withrepresentatives, and used
official complaint processes,and the response has been

(10:40):
dismissal or retaliation, youstart to see the limits of
inside methods. Research oncollective efficacy shows that
people's belief in their sharedpower grows when they act
together and see visibleresults, even small ones.
Protests, boycotts, strikes,coordinated walkouts, and a
physical presence at key sitescan shift that sense of

(11:02):
efficacy. There are real riskshere, and those risks are not
the same for everyone.
People who are undocumented,Black, disabled, trans, or
otherwise targeted by the systemor by fascist groups face higher
stakes. Solid science on protestand social movements, including
work by Erica Chenoweth, TressieMcMillan Cotton, Robin Spencer,

(11:26):
and others, finds thatnonviolent collective action
tends to be more effective overthe long term and less deadly
than other types of struggle. Italso tends to draw on a wider
base of participants. Butknowing when more is appropriate
means weighing the urgency ofharm, the history of attempted
remedies, and the risks to youand others. That includes

(11:50):
knowing which populations aremore at risk with each type of
action.
Something in work of socialtheorists like Patricia Hill
Collins can help you understand.It also means paying attention
to what roles fit you. Noteveryone needs to be physically
on a barricade. Some people dolegal observing. Some provide

(12:10):
medical care.
Some handle communications. Somepeople raise funds or provide
food and childcare. Every partof this is collective action.
There are people right nowshowing up in direct and
physical ways to block harm fromagencies and actors that target
immigrants, protesters, andother vulnerable groups. There

(12:31):
are also people behind thescenes supporting them.
Both matter. If you findyourself feeling that twinge of
this crosses a line, I can'tjust watch. That is worth
listening to. But the next stepis not run directly into danger.
The next step is look for thehelpers like mister Rogers said.

(12:52):
Find out who is alreadyorganizing around this. Learn
what they need and join thecollective effort. Match your
role and your skills and risklevel to the action already
happening. As we close thisseries, I want to bring some of
the threads together. We're allliving through a time of

(13:12):
emotional entropy, system decay,epistemic chaos, and power
structures that treat manypeople as expendable.
All of our reactions to this areunderstandable. You're not
alone, and you're not defectivefor feeling shaken, angry, or
tired. Reasonable hope lives atthe intersection of inner work
and outer work. On the innerside, you can build small

(13:35):
rituals, connections, andmoments of tactical whimsy that
support your nervous system andyour sense of being part of
something. On the outer side,you can join or strengthen
efforts that reduce harm, shareresources, and push back against
authoritarian and extractiveforces.
When you think about what to donext, it might help to ask: What

(13:57):
is one small ritual I can buildwith others that gives all of us
a bit more steadiness? What'sone local effort, however
modest, that moves conditions ina better direction for someone?
What's one situation where Ifeel that I can't just watch
feeling? And who is alreadyorganizing around it that I can
help? What role fits my body, myskills, my schedule, and my risk

(14:21):
level?
And you don't have to answer allof those questions today. You
don't have to be part of everystruggle or turn your entire
life into a permanent emergency.You're allowed to have joy, art,
and silliness while you fightfor a better future. And in
fact, those things keep yougoing. The entropy age is not
something you chose.

(14:42):
How you respond to it, alone andwith others, is the part that's
still yours. In this fifth andfinal part of our Entropy
series, we moved fromdescription into response. We
talked about hope as a mix ofgoals, pathways, and agency. We
looked at basic psychologicalneeds for autonomy, competence,

(15:03):
and connection. And we talkedabout nervous system safety,
small rituals, and tacticalwhimsy and joy as one set of
tools among many.
And we talked about how to sensewhen more direct collective
action is needed and how to finda role that fits you. If any of
this helped you see your own mixof coping, caring, and acting in
a new light, I hope it gives youpermission to claim both rest

(15:26):
and resistance. You are allowedto be tired and still decide to
show up in whatever way you can.If this episode resonated, share
it with someone you would liketo build a pocket of order, joy,
or resistance with. The shownotes will include research and
resources if you'd like to readmore about the ideas we talked
about today.
Thanks for listening to thisEntropy series on PsyberSpace

(15:49):
and for spending your time andattention here. If you liked
this series, you can actuallyfind the post about it on
Bluestye, and any comments tothat post on Bluestye will be
put under these episodes. That'strue of every episode in the
podcast. This is your host,Leslie Poston, signing off.
Remember to stay curious, andlook for our next regularly

(16:11):
scheduled episode on Monday.