This is a good article, y'all should read it. Folks' fears are real. But, I want to explain why I'm hopeful in this moment in particular. On the Future, Americans Can Agree: It Doesn’t Look Good nytimes.com/2020/06/12/us/…
We've been in an "age of catastrophe" for a while now & in denial. We have crisis levels of distrust, polarization & frustration. We have destabilizing gaps between the rich & poor, races, education, health, opportunity. We've destroyed the environment. Things are bad all over.
As bad as all of these crises have been, we've done essentially nothing to overcome them. Our political conversations have been dominated by partisanship and propaganda. We've failed to address the most basic issues, even though people have presented well-thought out plans.
But these many crises, our age of catastrophe can not be ignored forever. The time has come.
Crisis creates "liminal" (in between) spaces. Sometimes called a "conjuncture"--a moment when old assumptions no longer make sense and new questions, unheard of/impossible, are asked.
Crisis creates "liminal" (in between) spaces. Sometimes called a "conjuncture"--a moment when old assumptions no longer make sense and new questions, unheard of/impossible, are asked.
Crisis creates opportunities. Lean into the liminal space, ask new questions, listen to new voices, think of the possibilities of new solutions.
Crisis creates opportunities for more fascist policies or more democratic ones. It's a time to choose.
Crisis creates opportunities for more fascist policies or more democratic ones. It's a time to choose.
I heard Angela Davis say this in 2011:
Think & act in creative ways; recognize the communalism, pay attention to the linkages, justice is indivisible; ask questions about that which we most take for granted; ask questions in ways that are destructive & aim for rebuilding.
Think & act in creative ways; recognize the communalism, pay attention to the linkages, justice is indivisible; ask questions about that which we most take for granted; ask questions in ways that are destructive & aim for rebuilding.
Davis' advice is perfect for this conjuncture. It's scary to reimagine a future, but to be honest, our future was already doomed.
This is an opportunity to undoom our future. Be creative, communal. Seek indivisible justice. Rebuild on those principles.
This is an opportunity to undoom our future. Be creative, communal. Seek indivisible justice. Rebuild on those principles.
In the language of social movement scholarship: just trying to get back to where we were prior to this conjuncture is conservative, it's managerial. It says what we had was basically good and we should want that again.
Folks are explaining that what we had wasn't basically good.
Folks are explaining that what we had wasn't basically good.
I see signs of hope everywhere I look.
Perhaps you just have to look at things differently.
Perhaps you just have to look at things differently.
