We cannot imagine a different future. So we do not believe one is possible. So we do not try to build one. So nothing changes. Which confirms that imagining differently was naive. The loop tightens. Each failure reinforces the despair that led to it. The loop is self-sealing.
When someone says 'be realistic,' they almost always mean 'accept that things will continue on their current trajectory.' Realism has become a synonym for pessimism. Right now, the default belief is that collapse is inevitable. That default is producing exactly the coordination failure we observe.
When belief returns, when people begin to see and feel that a different trajectory is genuinely possible, they start to coordinate. When they coordinate, the metacrisis patterns start to shift. The spiral reverses.