"Given all the disintegration happening in the world I would say that optimism verges on psychosis. There is simply no justification for it."
Let's say this is true. What's the sanest, healthiest response to this? What would you have said to MLK in 1955, say? Emmett Till had just been lynched, black people were murdered with impunity, often by the police themselves, George Wallace had just become governor of Alabama on a platform of "segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever."
Surely, and with far more justification, optimism would be described as psychosis. MLK's dream would have been (and was) more correctly described as a pipe dream. Yet 13 years later the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act and the Fair Housing Act were all the law of the land.
And I'll go a step further. Even if none of that had happened. Even if the Civil Rights movement had achieved nothing notable at all, I'd *still* argue that their response to their circumstances was the only sane one. Because what's the alternative? Apathy and cynicism and impotent rage? To grumble about one's circumstances but do nothing about them? To tell oneself that the "bad guys" are just too smart and it's hopeless to oppose them? We can look at certain quarters of the black community and see how self-defeating this is.
Oh, I am not counseling despair and inaction, I'm saying that there are no circumstances right now that justify Smile. Everything is falling apart at once and there are very few things getting better. Yes we absolutely should do all we can to mitigate calamity where we can't stop it and those of us who don't regard cruelty as entertainment should strive to be nice to each other, but optimism? No.
I guess I’d say optimism is a prerequisite for productive action, no? Or at least that you’re more likely to do your best work if you believe that work will succeed.
Looking at the successes of the past is a constant source of encouragement when it comes to social issues. Environmental issues I find it a little more difficult to be chipper about😅
All the social progress since serfdom won't matter a bit if the environment continues on its current path.
Frankly I am glad to be nearing the end of my life because I don't want to live to see what's coming. Yes I do everything I can to prevent it; any money I have left after I shuffle off the coil goes to Loro Parque Fundación and all the donations I make are to wildlife causes. I recycle as much as I can, I'm almost vegetarian, but I think our extinction is going to come from wars of food plunder that get out of hand.
I disagree that optimism is prerequisite for activism. Look at the religious right; they worked for generations toward a world they knew they would not live to see, but which has now arrived. They were determined, We can be too.
My despair about that is that for all but a very few Americans, war has been "over there" for all memory, and they have no clue about how horrible a civil war/war on your own soil is and actually want it.
The war in Vietnam that I marched off to was essentially a civil war that America put on steroids. What I saw was beyond death and destruction. In villages I saw sandbag bunkers next to people's homes. Every day they might come home to no home or family. How would anyone want to live like that?
I could go on and on, but my point is that there is little more awful for the people living in it than civil war where even victory is pyrrhic. Optimism in the face of such idiotic *thinking* (sic) is difficult.
The MAGAs are not the only ones arming themselves, it's an American phenomenon.
I live in Vietnam and when I first came here as a tourist in 1998 there were still a lot of victims of land mines wheeling around on little carts. By the time I moved here in 2010 they were mostly gone, now they're all gone. The way they think about it one would think it was as long ago as ours.
But there are still unexploded mines and once in a while I would run into someone who'd been unlucky
Given all the disintegration happening in the world I would say that optimism verges on psychosis. There is simply no justification for it.
Trump is now calling for civil war and nobody will do a thing about it, except the MAGA filth will buy more ammunition.
"Given all the disintegration happening in the world I would say that optimism verges on psychosis. There is simply no justification for it."
Let's say this is true. What's the sanest, healthiest response to this? What would you have said to MLK in 1955, say? Emmett Till had just been lynched, black people were murdered with impunity, often by the police themselves, George Wallace had just become governor of Alabama on a platform of "segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever."
Surely, and with far more justification, optimism would be described as psychosis. MLK's dream would have been (and was) more correctly described as a pipe dream. Yet 13 years later the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act and the Fair Housing Act were all the law of the land.
And I'll go a step further. Even if none of that had happened. Even if the Civil Rights movement had achieved nothing notable at all, I'd *still* argue that their response to their circumstances was the only sane one. Because what's the alternative? Apathy and cynicism and impotent rage? To grumble about one's circumstances but do nothing about them? To tell oneself that the "bad guys" are just too smart and it's hopeless to oppose them? We can look at certain quarters of the black community and see how self-defeating this is.
Oh, I am not counseling despair and inaction, I'm saying that there are no circumstances right now that justify Smile. Everything is falling apart at once and there are very few things getting better. Yes we absolutely should do all we can to mitigate calamity where we can't stop it and those of us who don't regard cruelty as entertainment should strive to be nice to each other, but optimism? No.
I guess I’d say optimism is a prerequisite for productive action, no? Or at least that you’re more likely to do your best work if you believe that work will succeed.
Looking at the successes of the past is a constant source of encouragement when it comes to social issues. Environmental issues I find it a little more difficult to be chipper about😅
All the social progress since serfdom won't matter a bit if the environment continues on its current path.
Frankly I am glad to be nearing the end of my life because I don't want to live to see what's coming. Yes I do everything I can to prevent it; any money I have left after I shuffle off the coil goes to Loro Parque Fundación and all the donations I make are to wildlife causes. I recycle as much as I can, I'm almost vegetarian, but I think our extinction is going to come from wars of food plunder that get out of hand.
I disagree that optimism is prerequisite for activism. Look at the religious right; they worked for generations toward a world they knew they would not live to see, but which has now arrived. They were determined, We can be too.
Life has put me into the hope for the best, but plan for the worst camp. That does not preclude working for the best.
My despair about that is that for all but a very few Americans, war has been "over there" for all memory, and they have no clue about how horrible a civil war/war on your own soil is and actually want it.
The war in Vietnam that I marched off to was essentially a civil war that America put on steroids. What I saw was beyond death and destruction. In villages I saw sandbag bunkers next to people's homes. Every day they might come home to no home or family. How would anyone want to live like that?
I could go on and on, but my point is that there is little more awful for the people living in it than civil war where even victory is pyrrhic. Optimism in the face of such idiotic *thinking* (sic) is difficult.
The MAGAs are not the only ones arming themselves, it's an American phenomenon.
I live in Vietnam and when I first came here as a tourist in 1998 there were still a lot of victims of land mines wheeling around on little carts. By the time I moved here in 2010 they were mostly gone, now they're all gone. The way they think about it one would think it was as long ago as ours.
But there are still unexploded mines and once in a while I would run into someone who'd been unlucky
I know too many amputees resulting from mines. They kill and maim after the fighting ends.
Decades after.