The Reductive Seduction of Other People's Problems

Courtney Martin on Medium:

Resist the reductive seduction of other people’s problems and, instead, fall in love with the longer-term prospect of staying home and facing systemic complexity head on. Or go if you must, but stay long enough, listen hard enough so that “other people” become real people. But, be warned, they may not seem so easy to “save.”

I usually react badly to those who say things like “Why worry about them, we’ve got enough problems right here!” but this piece made me reconsider that attitude.