Saturday 31 December 2016

A New Hope...?

Rebecca Solnit (Guardian US contributing opinion writer, historian, activist and contributing editor at Harper's magazine) on 'hope':
A dozen years ago I talked about hope to a roomful of working-class community college students in Washington, citing the German philosopher Ernst Bloch to the effect that without hope there is no action but without action there is no hope. A woman said in a clear voice that she agreed, because if she had not hoped she would not have struggled and if she had not struggled she would not have survived Pol Pot and the Cambodian genocide.
The 'hope' she wishes for? Well, I'm sure you've guessed by now:
In the United States we are probably headed for a very grim phase of uncertain duration.
Yes, indeed. The prospect of a Trump presidency is exactly like the Pol Pot regime...
There is another America rising and taking action, and it is beautiful. I’m thinking of the many stories of people standing up for the vulnerable, directly when they intervene in confrontations with haters. Or indirectly, as with the young woman I know who co-organised the creation of Neveragain.tech, a public oath people working in tech can take to refuse to create Muslim registries, turn over people’s private data, or otherwise cooperate with state persecution.
This 'new hope' looks a lot like treason and sabotage to me. And to the commenters at Tim Worstall's blog.

2 comments:

Longrider said...

Of course and Brexit is exactly like sending Jews to the gas chambers. The screeching from the usual suspects has long since jumped the shark, the manta ray and is now heading for the blue whale.

JuliaM said...

And that shark was a Megalodon to begin with!