The Futility of Hope?

See, in my line of work you got to keep repeating things

over and over and over again for the truth to sink in,

to kind of catapult the propaganda.

–George W. Bush in Greece, NY 05/24/2005

My friend Bubbie and I are the local co-hosts of Drinking Liberally Ft. Lauderdale. Each week our group gets together to talk politics over a beer, which is very funny to Bubbie and myself given neither of us drinks! (He is allergic and my body cannot handle it post-mono.) The conversations are varied, but I often find myself bringing up the same question, “Ok…what do we do now?” I feel like I spend a great deal of time upset about things, but not always knowing what the course of action that would be meaningful looks like. I figure rolling my eyes, getting hot under the collar, and saying “Fuckers!” do not qualify as rallying points! But what does?

I hear such a spirit of futility these days in those I know. They fancy themselves “Realists,” but acquiesce to the status quo does not really mean you are a realist, it just means you know better but refuse to do better. Has realism somehow become a new brand of selfishness? We sit on our ivory soap boxes, looking down at the problems around us, but we are too concerned with our own fate in the moment to spend any energy working to change the world for the long-term? Is it not a kind of propaganda of these so called “Realists” that says, “Reality is that the world is going to end given the road we are on, so screw it and enjoy today while it lasts?”

I watched “Children of Men” again this weekend. I can remember seeing the previews before it came out last year and getting chills. I read PD James’ book, which the movie is based on, while in seminary and thought it was brilliant. The movie is amazing, and if you have not seen it–do. On my DVD, I also watched Alfonso Cuaron’s (the movie director) documentary called “The Possibility of Hope.” In it, Naomi Klein (the anti-Globilization activist), John Gray (the Economist and Philosopher), James Lovelock (the Scientist and Futurologist), and Tzvetan Todorov (the Philosopher and Historian)–among others–comment on the world’s trajectory. I love this quote from Slavoj Zizek (the Philosopher and Cultral Critic) from the film:

“Hope is only where despair is. Something truly new beginning happens only when you are in such a deep shit that within the existing coordinates you can find no way out. And then, in order to survive you have to invent something new. The magic is to turn a desperate situation into a new beginning.”

I am just not sure we–including myself–feel desperate enough…yet. And isn’t “yet” the operative word? We always get there, which of course may be too late. I just do not want to look back on my life and think I sat by waiting for “yet” to materialize before I got off my keister and sacrificed to be a servant to the world in which I live. And I do not want to be a “Realist,” someone who embraces the spirit of futility and forgets the creativity of hope. I mean, come on!!! anyone can bitch about the problems. I think it takes real courage–fear and creativity–to try and sort out ways to generate change. I know I have the fear, and I know I have the creativity. I just think it is about damn time the two met and did something.

I will keep you posted on my progress! In the meantime, my latest inspiration comes from the 83 year old founder of Untours. Click here to read his story of giving away ALL of his company’s profits year-after-year.

I have added a YouTube Viewer below where you can find all three parts of “The Possiblity of Hope.” You can also watch other videos in keeping with the themes of my life and this blog. (For those who are new to this, just click the arrow to play and under the video playing are other videos to choose from. You can also right click over the player to open it in a new–much larger–window.)

Final Note To My South Florida Readers: Naomi Klein–who I think is just BRILLIANT!! and wittily calls our current economic model a “crack addict”–will be speaking Monday, December 3rd at 7:30 at my home church–Coral Gables Congregational–about her new book The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism. The event is sponsored by Books & Books in Coral Gables.