When all hope is lost from a human point of view we tend to look towards what we think is greater than ourselves. That might be a collection of individuals such as a community, our friends, the gorvernment. But something inside tells us that those individuals cannot do more than what we can. Even more so if they are in the same position of trouble or despair as us.
Turning to material things such as money, drugs, etc does not solve the problem, especially since inanimated objects cannot understand us. Then the real question is: Who can we turn to?