This blog is sponsored by Left Business Observer and its blog, LBO News. It’s a collection of responses to the following question that LBO editor Doug Henwood and counseling editrix (and director of special projects) Liza Featherstone sent to about 25 people:

One of us (DH) has had a rather hard time of it lately writing Left Business Observer and doing just about anything else political. Frankly, it seems kind of hopeless.

Here we are, amidst the worst economic crisis in 80 years and the political mobilization is mostly on the far right. Other countries are having Springs or Tent Cities or just old-fashioned riots, and we have loons parading around with teabags on their heads.

As an antidote to despair, we’re asking people we like and admire to contribute to a series called “Why Fucking Bother?” We would be grateful for anywhere from 1 to 750 words that address this question. We think it would get a lot of attention—and it might help catalyze something good. Or at least keep LBO‘s editor from throwing in the towel and retiring to the life of a detached aesthete.

Please note that the blog title bowdlerizes the original question because some content filters might block the obscenity. But the gerund is an integral part of the question nonetheless.