Howard Zinn: The optimism of uncertainty

[MsAnthropy]

The optimism of uncertainty
History teaches that change is always just around the corner


This essay came out shortly before the election, in the book The Impossible Will Take a Little While: A Citizen's Guide to Hope in a Time of Fear, edited by Paul Loeb (Basic Books, www.theimpossible.org)
In this awful world where the efforts of caring people often pale in comparison to what is done by those who have power, how do I manage to stay involved and seemingly happy?

I am totally confident not that the world will get better, but that we should not give up the game before all the cards have been played. The metaphor is deliberate; life is a gamble. Not to play is to foreclose any chance of winning. To play, to act, is to create at least a possibility of changing the world.

There is a tendency to think that what we see in the present moment will continue. We forget how often we have been astonished by the sudden crumbling of institutions, by extraordinary changes in people's thoughts, by unexpected eruptions of rebellion against tyrannies, by the quick collapse of systems of power that seemed invincible.

http://www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?itemid=18046

[tk2kewl]

1. Yea!

Thanks... that was a lift.

[Gyre]

2. I needed that. Thanks!

Heard H. Zinn speaking the other day on KPFA. He sounded as shell-shocked as many I know feel. What a great writer!

Gyre