I think I am committing one of the seven deadly sins. Not one of the initially fun ones, like lust or gluttony. No, I find myself post-election wallowing in “sloth” or what early philosophers called “acedia,” claiming it was the worst of the seven.

Acedia is far more than just the laziness implied by the word sloth, although that can be one of its symptoms. The name comes from an old Greek word, akedeia, literally translated as “lack of care.” It is a hard state of mind to put in words, sitting as it does at the intersection of disbelief, sadness, fear, anger, surrender and even despair. Perhaps the best definition of acedia comes from Dorothy Sayers, the twentieth-century crime novelist and philosopher, in her commentary on Dante’s “Purgatorio”: “It is not merely idleness of mind and laziness of body: it is the whole poisoning of the will which, beginning with indifference and an attitude of ‘I couldn’t care less,’ extends to deliberate refusal of joy and culminates in morbid introspection and despair.”

Understood this way, “acedia” sums up my immediate response to this past election. And I suspect I am not alone.

Why should this state of mind be considered a sin at all? Early Christian theologians, particularly the monastic types, defined acedia’s sinfulness as the active denial of reality (or in theology terms, the denial of the existence of an omniscient and omnipotent god as the basis for reality). Leaving out the unnecessary god-referential language, it does make a bit of sense to me to think about modern-day acedia as reality denial, embraced in part as a protection mechanism in response to perceived existential threat.

That description certainly captures a lot of what many are feeling after last week, and what is being reinforced daily by various conjectures and announcements of the new-old administration’s plans. Acedia is completely understandable and maybe even helpful in the short term. But it would be immoral (a “sin,” in theological lingo) to embrace that mental state as a permanent choice. In other words, acedia may be a valid short-term protective response to a bad experience, but choosing to wallow in it forever is a choice against truth and reality.

As hard as it is now, we must double our efforts to engage what is happening around us. Even when it is hard to find the energy or desire to push back on those who would subvert or even deny what is real in favor of their own illusions. We must insist that reality is an objective and shared space within which everyone lucky enough to be born into it have both responsibilities and rights to make it the best it can be. There is a lot at stake here, perhaps even the survival of our world, certainly of our species. I don’t think that is hyperbole.

There is another aspect of acedia that gives me a bit of hope. We all carry within us an acedia-related “lag” that prevents us from fully being either evil or good in all our actions, except in the rarest of circumstances. The theologian Karl Rahner cast this lag in religious terms by tying it to the notion of “Original Sin,” saying that the inability to choose fully for “God” (goodness) keeps us from divinity, but the inability to fully choose against “God” in favor of evil keeps us from hell. You don’t have to be a believer in deities, heaven or hell to realize Rahner offers a deep insight into human nature here. Almost no one is totally good or totally bad: A useful perspective to have when engaging with others to identify and live by what is real.

I am under no illusions that this country will soon fully live up to the reality-based aspirations that founded it. Nor do I think that it will collapse rapidly into anarchy, though it is a scary moment now. What I do know is that I cannot hide away in an acedial hermitage and leave others to deal with the challenge at hand. We all must engage the struggle to be our best selves individually and collectively, resisting acedia’s siren song drawing us into its temporarily comforting but ultimately deadly embrace.

Fintan Steele is an ex-Benedictine monk and priest with a Ph.D. in biology/genetics. He spent most of his life in science communications, including scientific publishing and, most recently, for biopharma and academic centers. He and his husband live in Hygiene. Email: fsteele1@me.com.