Hope?
Hope is the best of things.
Sadly, too many of us have given up on it. We’ve allowed it to be slowly eroded by decade after decade of the Politics of Despair where nothing can ever get any better because this is the only possible path to follow, and change only ever makes things worse.
For too long our outpourings have been wholly negative ones. We see a problem and make no attempt to solve it, we just latch on to the nearest scapegoat and take our frustrations out on them because this is the way we have long been encouraged to behave. It is cathartic, it is easy, and it keeps us EXACTLY where we are.
In this way we have become aggressive defenders of the status quo. We don’t want change. We SAY we do, but all we REALLY want is for the status quo to give us a passing nod from time to time all the while cowering from the idea that change can influence the path ahead in any positive way, because we no longer believe in our heart of hearts that it ever can. We do all we can to reject change while still demanding it of our masters. We join in with the catcalls of the Establishment when anyone comes along suggesting the possibility of a different path, because we have been taught all our lives that there is only one, and we are on it.
We have become conditioned to acceptance and despair. We have become institutionalized by the three-headed beast of injure, deflect and blame. This is the way neo-liberalism plays out on our streets.
But to give up on hope is to give up on the future; and not just our own future, but that of our children and our children’s children. To give up on hope is to commit the ultimate act of selfishness.
Don’t lose faith.
Don’t give up on hope.
We CAN change things for the better. This is NOT the only possible path forward from here.
And the future?
Well. The future needs us now.
Joe Solo 