Maintaining Optimism
So what now? Societal decay is on the horizon. The world is headed in the wrong direction. Climate change, genocide, and fascism are accelerating our demise. Where do we go from here?
I don’t know what the next few years or decades hold in store for us, nor will I pretend to. But, while I don’t have the answers, I do know one thing to be true. Maintaining a sense of hope and optimism will be key for whatever happens next. The past decade, we’ve seen a political party bring out the depravity and nihilism out of people. Fringe, far-right policies have become mainstream, and now instead of fighting for our collective liberation, we are finger pointing and fighting over who to blame.
Third party voters, Latino men, Muslims in Michigan, and so on and so on.
I’ve largely stayed silent on these matters, because I don’t see a path forward here. If we want to develop and continue as a society then we need to have grand, creative visions for the world we want to see. Not data-centered conversations that happen every four years, but ones rooted in love and care occur consistently.
We need to continue fostering a sense of community, and by consquence, a sense of optimism. Personally, I’ve found a few things that have helped me maintain my own optimism and sanity outside of the election cycle, and I hope to share them with you.
Mutual Aid
Part of what keeps my spirits so high is engaging in mutual aid in my community. Because if you consistently show up and do this, you learn a few things.
For some folks it doesn’t matter who is in the whitehouse.
What does a president mean for the person lacking a home, basic healthcare, or even a coat on a snowy day? There are thousands, and soon to be millions of people for whom society has already failed. In an oligopoly where both parties are serving the rich, then the poorest will suffer either way. It’s a sobering, but necessary reality we must confront in order for us to decenter our faith in instutions, and recenter it in those around us. We have no one but ourselves, and it’s always been like that. Though the hands holding the reigns of state power may change, their victims will not. But as depressing as this reality is, it’s also taught me this.
People pushed to the brink, will come together
I’ve seen it first hand. Folks who are on the precipice of poverty will often be the first ones to take the shirt of their back and hand it to their neighbor. Fascist rhetoric leads you to believe that when people are desperate, they commit evil and heinous acts. But I’ve learned quite the contrary. People pushed to the brink may lash out from time to time, but by and large they will come together and help one another. When governments and systems fail (as it already has for many), they engage in mutual aid, collective care, and organizing. So please, for the sake of your own sanity, disengage from the doomscrolling and fear mongering of mainstream news and social media, and engage with your local community from time to time.
Join An Organization
I’ve hopped around quite a bit in the past decade from different social-justice oriented organizations. In college I helped black and brown students build a coalition to fight white supremacy on an academic level, post-college I joined a climate org that helped the city of Chicago divest from fossil fuels, and now I’m part of a marxist org that is focused on ending the genocide in Palestine. I have good and bad things to say about all these organizations, because at the end of the day, there is no such thing as perfect. It’s easy to become discouraged when getting started because there is no rulebook for how you should spend your time. The beauty of life is that it is entirely up to you on which causes you fight for and how you conduct yourself.
Still, I urge you to join an organization and fight alongside others. You’ll learn the skills necessary for collaboration, make some friends, many more enemies and collect stories along the way. Nothing great can be done alone, if you want to do anything meaningful in life it will require the contributions of others.
Art & Community
My partner and I have become known as the “themed-party” people because we host so many different types of playful events. Gingerbread making competition, peanut butter and jelly tasting party, a book themed birthday.
We initially started doing this because of two reasons.
- I wanted something fun to do that didn’t center alcohol
- We wanted to hang out with our friends
And though these innocuous reasons may not appear overtly political, I’ve come to reassess my position.
Hanging out with friends isn’t inherently political, but combatting loneliness/isolation is
I have seen firsthand how quickly friends and family have adopted conspiratorial belief systems because they had no one come into their life and tell them otherwise. Covid has only encouraged individualism and fostered a deep sense of distrust among people.
But these fun little parties we’ve hosted over the past few years have had a real, tangible impact on the lives of others. I’ve seen some of my more “politica” friends, engage the less “political” ones and bring them to meetings. I’ve seen people abandon their conspiratorial beliefs in real-time. I’ve been told by many how fun and healing these parties are.
The defunding of third spaces, community spaces, parks, and libraries has turned us into a society of individuals, but if we want people to come together, to build together, then we must first build rapport with one another. We have to feel comfortable with one another, be playful with one another, and feel joy together.
Whether it’s a movie night, a craft night, or a coffee shop chat, getting friends together to experience joy and happiness is one of the necessary first steps to getting people involved and ensuring that we don’t lose more to the cult of individualism.