We need psychological, not mathematical, reform

It's hard to think about much beyond what's going on in America today. A national history of institutional racism and ongoing and recent grotesque, brutal events are being highlighted. I hope to God the protests are effective. The alternative seems unbearable.

As an ineffective escape I've been reading Zach Carter's The Price of Peace: Money, Democracy, and the Life of John Maynard Keynes. The following passage (p.172) seems relevant, minus the racism which only makes things much worse:

"The collective faith of the citizenry in the ability of the nation's economic system to deliver steady, predictable gains had collapsed. Millions of British workers had joined together in an attempt to shut down the entirety of the nation's commercial life. People--most people--had actively harmed their own society in order to make a political point. The unrest had extended well beyond the ranks of the unemployed; only people who had jobs could go on strike, after all. There was clearly no sense among the public that their welfare rested on secure foundations."