Active Hope
When the topic of social and climate collapse arises I am frequently confronted with upset at my perceived hopelessness.
I struggle with the word as I get queasy with the hopium aspect of hope, the magical thinking that all will be well if I just hope for an outcome and carry on as usual.
I know there is another side to the driving force of "hope" and recently ran across the definition by an environmental activist, Emily Johnston, one of the courageous valve-turners who was imprisoned for shutting down tar sands pipelines—who has written: “Our job is not to feel hope—that’s optional. Our job is to behope, and to make space for the chance of a different future.”
"... only where in the Rebecca Solnit sense (where hope is “an axe you break down doors with in an emergency” and located “in the spaciousness of uncertainty where there is room to act”) do I have hope. Feeling hope for any particular outcome—even avoiding the extinction of human beings—is not what fuels me. What fuels me is the knowledge that we can still make a difference, and therefore we must: we can preserve lives, and life, in the most basic and beautiful sense possible.
This is the hope that inspires me and it makes me realize whatever one's feelings of hope or hopelessness, the important thing is whether it inspires action, response, or involvement in a situation regardless of the personal feelings.
I struggle with the word as I get queasy with the hopium aspect of hope, the magical thinking that all will be well if I just hope for an outcome and carry on as usual.
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| soul collage card that won't allow business as usual |
"... only where in the Rebecca Solnit sense (where hope is “an axe you break down doors with in an emergency” and located “in the spaciousness of uncertainty where there is room to act”) do I have hope. Feeling hope for any particular outcome—even avoiding the extinction of human beings—is not what fuels me. What fuels me is the knowledge that we can still make a difference, and therefore we must: we can preserve lives, and life, in the most basic and beautiful sense possible.
This is the hope that inspires me and it makes me realize whatever one's feelings of hope or hopelessness, the important thing is whether it inspires action, response, or involvement in a situation regardless of the personal feelings.
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