IMAGINE BEING FOOLISHLY HOPE-FULL



To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness.

What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places – and there are so many – where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction.

And if we do act, in however small a way, we don’t have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory.


Howard Zinn
American Professor
Social Activist

Author of People's History of the United States


4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Iceland is now on my list of 'Places To See'. The Imagine Peace Tower is a powerful concept that I had not heard about before.
Thanks.

Anonymous said...

Howard Zinn is a good read.

Anonymous said...

JUST WHAT I NEEDED TO READ THIS MORNING...I am foolishly HOPE-FUL today!! YES INDEED!!

Anonymous said...

We have clipped this on our bulletin board over the coffee machine; the last paragraph is highlighted in yellow. Thanks.