![]() ![]() It needs us in the present to choose through powerful action the best version, rather than allowing the worst to overtake us. Hope is a sense of possibility within the uncertainty of a future that does not yet exist, but that we are making by our actions (and yeah, those we loathe and oppose are making by theirs: case study, the ramming through of Amy Coney Barrett’s supreme court nomination and all that voter suppression). ![]() It’s a mirror image of pessimism, which likewise assumes it knows the future, only pessimism’s future is dismal and not up to us either. Optimism is confidence that you know the future and it requires nothing of you. The tricky thing about hope is to not confuse it with optimism. This kind of baseless certainty is what got us into this mess in the first place. Optimism, by contrast, is the naive certainty that he will be defeated without the active participation of people of conscience. To be hopeful about the election, suggests Solnit, is not only to believe that Trump can be defeated it also means doing everything you can to help bring that about, such as registering voters and getting involved in activism. ![]() 1196px-Women_practice_voting_in_Dayton_Oct._27,_1920 1196×720 234 KBĪt Lit Hub, Rebecca Solnit reflects on the difference between hope and optimism amidst a chaotic and consequential presidential election in the US. ![]()
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