The late Frank Zappa once famously referred to politics as “the entertainment branch of the military-industrial complex.” The rock star’s prescient quote speaks to how our governance has become so performative — thanks largely to the cynical manipulations of Republican strategists — that the actual needs of society barely even make it onto the agenda.

Columnist Pat Hynes’ analysis is as accurate as it is depressing [“Our human-made problems can and must be unmade,” Recorder, July 7]. Just as the climate crisis is the result of many separate causal factors intersecting and reinforcing one another, a parallel emergency in our information environment has diminished our capacity for sustained attention and critical thinking.

The work of activism demands media reform; our long-term survival hinges on our ability to ask the right questions and learn from the answers. Successfully addressing climate change will require transforming our national conversation along with our energy economy and political systems.

Warren Senders

Medford