This is not a depressing email about the state of the world
I do not have time to 'despair.'
Have you heard of Fannie Lou Hamer? She was a civil rights activist born in the American South in 1917. She was picking cotton at the age of 6.
Years later when she was thrown in jail and beaten for her activism in 1963, she wrote an essay.
“I’m never sure anymore when I leave home whether I’ll get back or not. Sometimes, it seems like to tell the truth today is to run the risk of being killed. But if I fall, I’ll fall five feet four inches forward in the fight for freedom. I’m not backing off.”
I also recently heard about Susan B. Anthony. She was born in 1820 in Massachusetts and spent her whole life campaigning for the abolition of slavery and for women’s rights. Their family home was used as a meeting place, and she even challenged Abraham Lincoln’s moderate position on slavery in 1861, demanding “no compromise with slaveholders.” In Syracuse, New York, a mob burned her in effigy and her “body” was dragged through the streets.
Over a decade later in her campaign to secure the vote for women, Anthony, her sisters and a close Quaker friend walked to a nearby barber shop to register to vote (not legal at the time in the US) and eleven other women joined them. Bewildered male registrars allowed them to sign in.
I’m bringing this up because activists and campaigners from previous centuries know a lot about fighting against the odds. Many campaigners worked for a lifetime without seeing the fruits of their labour, but believing that it was still worth it. Many campaigners for civil rights and the rights of women lived and died before slavery was abolished in the US, the end of the apartheid era, before women got the vote in the US and UK. Many of the people who tipped the balance towards justice never saw the end result.
Sometimes on my social media I see activists - rightfully frustrated by the state of politics and injustice around the world - indulge in despair. It’s almost a tonic. Despair is easy. And particularly for those of us in privileged activist spaces in Western nations, despair is, quite frankly, your privilege showing.
I mean, I get it. I’m calling myself out too. So consumed by fear of what comes next and the very real threat to human rights, racial and gender justice and climate action, I try to medicate myself by refreshing the news and informing myself of every detail of just how badly things can go wrong. I don’t even know what I’m looking for.
I find myself becoming cynical about the chances of real progress - even while I reap the benefits of the work that has happened so far to defend my fundamental rights.
I would not have the ability to complain on the internet if women hadn’t fought for the right to vote (and if a woman hadn’t invented wifi), to work and get equal pay, for the right to free speech.
History shows us the value of continuing the work even in the face of huge resistance.
Indulging in talk of doom and despair for too long is also a disservice to the indigenous communities, undocumented immigrants trapped in inhumane refugee camps, women and children in war-torn and climate-vulnerable countries who have been in the ‘worst case’ scenario for a long time already. And they do not have the luxury of giving up.
By all means don’t feel obliged to share Instagram Stories about hope and resilience when you would be better off just getting some sleep or seeing a friend. Relentless positivity can become as exhausting as despair. The world is not black or white or all good or all bad. But I refuse to let my own privileged state of grief tip over into bitterness and hatred. Because that’s within my control.
Even under a barrage of misinformation and extremist-sponsored content telling us and all our family members to blame their grievances on women, or immigrants, or transgender people or Boomers who ‘got us in this mess’ or some other group that have neither the money nor the resources to defend themselves from the vitriol. Even though every day I hear some politician or man in comments sections on the internet or guy in a pub telling me what to wear and who to hate.
Even under all that, hatred and polarisation is a choice that we can control. We can choose to fall for it - but then how am I any different from those I criticise and protest against?
Geriatric rich white men can create a hell of a lot of problems and generate more feelings than I knew I was capable of, but they cannot undo history and they cannot erase ideas.
Revolution was never going to be found in the political institutions built on the backs of exploitation, nor is it a linear process. Revolution was, and is, and will always be, found in the streets.
The 1% don’t stand a chance against the 99% when we organise collectively. Yes even with their money, and their political influence. These are man-made systems. Nothing is set in stone. If we have the privilege to stand up and speak back, we should use it.
Before Susan B. Anthony died, she wrote, “If I could live another century! I do so want to see the fruition of the work for women in the past century. There is so much yet to be done, I see so many things I would like to do and say, but I must leave it for the younger generation.”
I don’t know exactly what my conclusion here is except that I am not interested in telling anyone how to feel in times like these. We don’t have that kind of control over our emotions. The only thing I really know to do is to keep speaking out about injustice and to do what I can for a fairer, democratic and ecologically stable world.
I believe it’s worth it even if I never see the results of my actions. A lifetime of activism would be valuable even if it saved only one tree or one person. It’s always worth it to keep going. There is so much to do.
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Loved every sentence!
This was very inspiring. Thanks!