Howard Zinn- The Optimism of Uncertainty

[EleanorR]

I needed this today.

I have tried hard to match my friends in their pessimism about the world (is it just my friends?), but I keep encountering people who, in spite of all the evidence of terrible things happening everywhere, give me hope. Especially young people, in whom the future rests.

Wherever I go, I find such people. And beyond the handful of activists there seem to be hundreds, thousands, more who are open to unorthodox ideas. But they tend not to know of one another’s existence, and so, while they persist, they do so with the desperate patience of Sisyphus endlessly pushing that boulder up the mountain.

I try to tell each group that it is not alone, and that the very people who are disheartened by the absence of a national movement are themselves proof of the potential for such a movement.

Revolutionary change does not come as one cataclysmic moment (beware of such moments!) but as an endless succession of surprises, moving zigzag toward a more decent society. We don’t have to engage in grand, heroic actions to participate in the process of change. Small acts, when multiplied by millions of people, can transform the world.

Even when we don’t “win,” there is fun and fulfillment in the fact that we have been involved, with other good people, in something worthwhile. We need hope.

https://www.howardzinn.org/collection/the-optimism-of-uncertainty/

[Mike Nelson]

1. I remember thinking...

... something like this when Hillary won the "popular vote" over Crooked Donald. Sure, that's not the way we pick the winner, but the American people did choose her. Still, the media said, "The American people voted for Trump." Not true. Also, this last time, Kamala did remarkably well, if we consider how fast she had to put a campaign together. All the workers on both campaigns should be thanked... because there is much to celebrate in knowing you worked hard to back the better candidate.

[BoRaGard]

2. .

[EleanorR]

3. A wonderful man

I hope people read the whole piece. It's not long.

[electric_blue68]

4. TY! I needed this, too. 👍

[electric_blue68]

5. Just read it. I forget it, too, at times; but I've also nentioned the fact here on certain posts that...

History shows us at times how things can suddenly change!
Sometimes for worse, but also sometimes for the better!

Unfortunately there can be is some to much suffering before then; but if we care for people in general we know that at some point things will get *better for peoplein the future.


*hooo, boy- excluding climate change, but even maybe like the US (and others) will come to our/their senses and mitigate /or adapt even to have mostly good lives somehow.