There are untellable numbers of kind, generous, courageous, and compassionate acts and just pure goodness going on every second we exist. And it is because of that, that the world isn't a living hell for a large number of its people who for the larger part (at the time being) have a very good
probability of operating within their daily lives without being murdered, maimed, raped or violated other ways.

Feeling of despair are more than just the beginning of clarity...It's
part of the  groundwork to following a spiritual path...no one starts out as an enlightened being although they start out with that potential. The spiritual path is one of lifting ourselves up by our own bootstraps...so it an ego action when we first choose to be on a spiritual path--usually with no real idea of what that is. But as we develops spiritually, an accompaniment of our  progress is often a feeling of hopelessness, as your illusion's start busting. However illusion transforms into compassion, and the thickening of compassion, which is the initial stage of becoming a true spiritual warrior.
The development of true compassion in itself signifies a weakening of
ego 

So the question  is how can we best truly change the world in a positive direction?

 Is their any  form of protest that can achieve tha? You can be sure, if the form of protest, is angry, self-righteous, and a more powerless analogue of what one is protesting against, then it will just be a catalyst for even greater multiplications of the negative forces politically and economically controlling our planet.

What to do? If we choose to protest we must do so with apparent love. Expect to be ineffectual, but put it out their anyway  if you can truly do it with love and compassion as its ground! But in the meanwhile lets us work on ourselves so the examples we set for others, will be simultaneously a conscious raising experience, which is also a liberating one...in the End this will prove to be a exponential process.