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Hope In The Dark
Hope In The Dark | Rebecca Solnit
191 posts | 96 read | 5 reading | 198 to read
At a time when political, environmental and social gloom can seem overpowering, this remarkable work offers a lucid, affirmative and well-argued case for hope. Tracing a history of activism and social change over the past five decades - including the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Zapatista uprising in Mexico to Seattle in 1999, and the worldwide marches against the war in Iraq - Solnit proposes a vision of cause-and-effect relations that provides new grounds for political engagement. Solnit's book is accessible and essential reading. Drawing from thinkers of the last century - including Woolf, Ghandi, Borges, Benjamin and Havel. She creates a manifesto for optimism for the twenty-first century and gives us all true reasons to never surrender.
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ravenlee
Hope In The Dark | Rebecca Solnit
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From John Jordan, another connection.
#DeadPhilosophersSociety

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ravenlee
Hope In The Dark | Rebecca Solnit
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“…Paradise is already a gulag…For paradise does not require of us courage, selflessness, creativity, passion: paradise in all accounts is passive, is sedative, and if you read carefully, soulless.”

Another connection to Hägglund and #DeadPhilosophersSociety

Chrissyreadit What do you think of this book? I‘m so impressed by the connections you are making. One struggle I have is that pre Epstein Barr virus I remembered everything easily and virtually instantly. Now I struggle and need to learn to write and take notes - I need a philosophers cheat sheet to remember…. 1y
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ravenlee
Hope In The Dark | Rebecca Solnit
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This bit reminds me of Hägglund‘s This Life, questioning the idea of eternity. “Paradise is imagined as a static place, as a place before or after history, after strife and eventfulness and change…”
#DeadPhilosophersSociety

Chrissyreadit Big thoughts- and so much common sense. 1y
TheBookHippie Well. I need this book now. ♥️ 1y
ravenlee @TheBookHippie I‘m halfway through, and for most of it I‘ve been thinking of you. It‘s a bit dated, as it was written at the onset of the Iraq invasion, but I‘m learning a lot about what was going on around the turn of that century. And the heart of it doesn‘t change, regardless of the date. 1y
kspenmoll I should pick mine up to read. Have it on a shelf. 1y
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ravenlee
Hope In The Dark | Rebecca Solnit
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lonelybluenights
Hope In The Dark | Rebecca Solnit
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My last book for the year 🥂

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In_the_stacks
Hope In The Dark | Rebecca Solnit
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#CuriousCovers Day 3- I really enjoyed his #BlackandWhite covered book by Rebecca Solnit when I read it a few years ago. 🖤🤍🖤🤍

Eggs 🖤⚪️🖤 3y
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GatheringBooks
Hope In The Dark | Rebecca Solnit
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vivastory
Hope In The Dark | Rebecca Solnit
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“Appeasement didn‘t work in the 1930s and it won‘t work now. That doesn‘t mean that people have to be angry or hate back or hostile, but it does mean they have to stand on principle and defend what‘s under attack. There are situations in which there is no common ground worth standing on, let alone hiking over to.“

I have a feeling I'll be reading this Solnit piece many times over the following couple of months. Gave voice to a lot of my feelings

JamieArc I‘m reading Caste right now, in which Wilkerson writes of 3 caste systems: India‘s, ours, and Nazi Germany. On a surface level, i knew, but the depth of likeness between our country and Nazi Germany is astounding me... 3y
JamieArc (This looks like a great companion read - thanks for posting) 3y
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vivastory @JamieArc That is really high on my TBR. What is incredible to me is how much worse it seems to be getting. 3y
Owlizabeth I love Solnit, and this is perfect. I‘m so angry at this weird placating tone we‘re supposed to adopt. 3y
KVanRead Excellent. 3y
Julsmarshall I loved this book and found both solace and ammunition to keeping fighting for what is right. 3y
sarahbarnes Yes!! Thank you for sharing this. Was just having this discussion with colleagues yesterday and will be sharing this with them. 3y
DollyDeez It reminds me of Karl Popper's paradox of tolerance: succinctly put, intolerance seeks to destroy so if it is tolerated then tolerance as a whole risks being lost 3y
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Lindy
Hope In The Dark | Rebecca Solnit
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Pickpick

Originally written during the George W Bush administration, this sometimes felt dated, even with a new foreword & afterword. Still, the underlying hopeful message about celebrating progress, even when more remains to be done, is a good one. Cheered me up. But the #audiobook would be better with a different narrator: Tanya Eby‘s voice is too glib. Also, she could have checked words she didn‘t know, like “sockee” salmon and “Al-bear-ta” (Alberta).

Hooked_on_books Mispronunciations in audiobooks drive me crazy! Such poor attention to detail. 😤 3y
Kimzey @Lindy Mispronunciations and fake Southern accents are my audiobook pet peeves! 🙄 3y
Lindy @Hooked_on_books @Kimzey And now I‘m listening to an audiobook in which Jack Zipes‘ work is frequently mentioned... and the narrator pronounces his name “Zee-pez.” No!!! 3y
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Hooked_on_books You know, I originally thought audiobooks simply contained correct pronunciations. And then I heard someone butcher Schulykill, a river in Philly. I had a good friend from there so I knew how to pronounce it (Skoo-kull). It‘s admittedly a tricky one, but I would have thought they would make an effort to figure it out! 3y
Kimzey @Lindy Yipes! Zipes! 3y
Kimzey @Hooked_on_books When I listen to a book that mispronounces place names, I think, “Couldn‘t they have called the local post office or library and just asked?” Furious Hours set in a neighboring county in Alabama comes to mind. 3y
Lindy @Kimzey @Hooked_on_books Yes, place names are easy to check. And the pronunciation of well-known authors‘ names too. In the tagged book, Tanya Eby had an interesting take on Arundhati Roy‘s name too. The first time she said it, it was as if she had never attempted saying it out loud, and slowly said each syllable, separating the d and h. The second time, later in the text, it was a little better. 3y
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Lindy
Hope In The Dark | Rebecca Solnit
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We don‘t know what is going to happen, or how or when, and that very uncertainty is the space of hope.

Cathythoughts Beautiful quote Lindy ! I love it & god knows we all need hope ❤️ 3y
Cathythoughts My mantra for now 3y
Lindy @Cathythoughts Indeed. I chose this book because of the title. 😊 3y
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shortsarahrose
Hope In The Dark | Rebecca Solnit
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Pickpick

“Hope calls for action; action is impossible without hope.”

A clarion call for the need not to give into despair and a pointed critique of the perfectionist thinking that the left often engages (if this candidate/legislation isn‘t perfect, then it is a failure). Instead, Solnit looks at history both long and recent to show how we have the power to make change for the better, but that it is often a long process that involves work and compromises.

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shortsarahrose
Hope In The Dark | Rebecca Solnit
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“We need change on a colossal scale, and we don‘t know if we can achieve that unless we try. The story of this coming year is ours to write, and it could be a story of the Year One in the climate revolution, of the watershed when popular resistance changed the fundamentals as much as the people of France changed their world more than two hundred years ago.”

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shortsarahrose
Hope In The Dark | Rebecca Solnit
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“He got them to fast during lunchtime and donate their lunch money to the widow and children of a Mexican farmworker who‘d died horribly in this country. He got them to educate their parents and congregations, got eight of the kids to join him in taking the money they raised to the family in a Nahuatl Indian village in the Mexican mountains, where they saw firsthand the poverty that sends immigrants to the United States.”

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shortsarahrose
Hope In The Dark | Rebecca Solnit
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“It seemed as though the Bush administration recognized this extraordinary possibility of the moment and did everything it could to suppress it, for nothing is more dangerous to them than that sense of citizenship, fearlessness, and communion with the world that is distinct from the blind patriotism driven by fear. They used 9/11 as an excuse to launch attacks inside and outside the United States...”
#vote

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shortsarahrose
Hope In The Dark | Rebecca Solnit
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“‘We are winning,‘ said the graffiti in Seattle.”

kspenmoll Love her writing, work. 4y
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Melmar
Hope In The Dark | Rebecca Solnit
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I started read this book about 4 yrs ago and although I didn‘t finish it, the chapters I did read always helped put things in perspective. It seemed like a good time to pick it up again.

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ManyWordsLater
Hope In The Dark | Rebecca Solnit
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What am I to read?
I‘m having severe reader‘s block.

Any suggestions welcome.

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clairemaire34
Hope In The Dark | Rebecca Solnit
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Pickpick

“The world is always being made and is never finished.” Read this book to believe that a better world is possible and that the work that is done towards achieving it is never wasted.

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iamtoddseal
Hope In The Dark | Rebecca Solnit
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Pickpick

For someone feeling acutely hopeless these days, this was a tough read at times. The ending chapters, though, provide significant light at the end of the tunnel. Solnit makes the case for hope, even or especially in troubled times. She encourages the notion that two conflicting things can coexist. Hope does not mean it‘s all sunshine and roses, but it‘s also not all darkness and terror. Since either view discourages action, let‘s see it both ways.

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Billypar
Hope In The Dark | Rebecca Solnit
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Solnit's first children's book Cinderella Liberator released today, but I'm a little late to her party, this one being my first. She put her finger on the problem with casual political discourse among those of us on the left: cynical grumbling without action. I'm 100% guilty of the same, and this challenged that instinct. I'm not someone who easily joins causes but I'd like to change: this is less of a manual for doing so than a helpful spark.

Chrissyreadit I need some hope. I‘m pretty disgusted by the current situations. 5y
Emilymdxn I loved this one too! It made such a difference to me reading it 5y
Billypar @Chrissyreadit This is the book for you then. It was written before the Trump era, but I have a feeling she wouldn't change her perspective now. She writes about hope in a very lucid way, distinguishing it from the 'everything's going to be alright' view. 5y
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Billypar @Emilymdxn Yeah, I think she does a good job of encouraging a fresh look on activism. Speaking of which- do you have any good book recommendations on climate change activism? Not sure if that's too vague but I'm interested in following this with something that gets into more depth on a single issue. Thanks in advance ☺️ 5y
Emilymdxn @Billypar for definite! My favourite climate activism book is This Changes Everything by Naomi Klein - a couple years old now but I think it‘s the best one I‘ve read! The Uninhabitable Earth is great too, and Extreme Cities by Ashley Dawson. I really want to read The Omnivore‘s Dilemma and Losing Earth but struggling to afford copies right now - they‘re next on my list! 5y
Billypar @Emilymdxn Awesome- I will take a look at these: thanks so much! I've been wanting to try Klein- who better to consult in matters of activism, right? 5y
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Emilymdxn
Hope In The Dark | Rebecca Solnit
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Pickpick

This was everything I needed to read right now! I really recommend to anyone feeling miserable or defeated about the state of politics (my government announced a no confidence vote in Theresa May today and idk if I‘m excited or terrified ✨✨✨). Rebecca Solnit has an amazing way of making you feel like anything is still possible and nothing is a lost cause

fleeting Thanks for the review; bumping this up in my tbr pile! 5y
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Deborah42
Hope In The Dark | Rebecca Solnit
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Pickpick

While I enjoyed this collection originally published in 2005 (when we thought Dubya was rock bottom), reading it in the context of the dumpster fire we have now makes it seem almost quaint.

Still, it‘s a good reminder that change is a winding road and you never know what will be waiting around the next bend. Celebrate incremental changes, be grateful for moments of joy, and cultivate hope that our actions can make the world a better place.

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Deborah42
Hope In The Dark | Rebecca Solnit

“Joy doesn‘t betray but sustains activism. And when you face a politics that aspires to make you fearful, alienated, and isolated, joy is a fine initial act of insurrection.”

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quietlycuriouskate
Hope In The Dark | Rebecca Solnit
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Pickpick

A 2016 update of a book published in 2004, there's no escaping the fact that at times it did come across as dated. I kept wanting to object, "But now we have Trump and Brexit!". However, it really did leave me feeling more hopeful. I think my most important take-away from it is the reminder that it is always too soon to calculate the reach of our actions. I'll try to remember that next time I get stuck in the "what's the f*ckng point?" mud-wallow.

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Adventures-of-a-French-Reader
Hope In The Dark | Rebecca Solnit
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Look at what I bought today!!! Tea, because well, I'm a tea addict ;) But also these 4 promising books, bought at my local independent bookstore!!! Now, I just wish I didn't have a shit ton of work, and that I could read instead :(

Kalalalatja Awesome covers! 6y
Adventures-of-a-French-Reader @Kalalalatja Yes! They're super nice ;) 6y
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GlassAsDiamonds
Hope In The Dark | Rebecca Solnit
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I‘m not even out of the foreword yet! I think I‘m going to like this book!! ❤️❤️❤️

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GlassAsDiamonds
Hope In The Dark | Rebecca Solnit
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Moving from trauma to hope... 😊

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Bookmarkie
Hope In The Dark | Rebecca Solnit
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They say this narrator is human, but she sounds like a cyborg to me. This narration is AWFUL and totally distracting from what is probably a decent book. I can't do it. On audio.

Ms_T 😂😂😂 6y
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JSW
Hope In The Dark | Rebecca Solnit
Pickpick

Deeply important read, for me, in this completely bonkers political landscape. Hope is an act of resistance.

JSW I forget who was my secret valentine in 2017, but this was my gift from her. Thank you, secret Litsy valentine!! ❤️ 6y
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JSW
Hope In The Dark | Rebecca Solnit
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Chills. Good for them!!!

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quietlycuriouskate
Hope In The Dark | Rebecca Solnit
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Thank you to everyone who wished me a happy birthday yesterday; it was a good day!
Look what my lovely man gave me 😍! My old desk was falling apart and I'd been hankering after a proper writing bureau for years. He and our daughter also added to my TBR. 📚💕

ElishaLovesBooks Happy Belated Birthday!!🎉🎉 6y
Cathythoughts Happy belated birthday 🎉🎉🎉 6y
Lacythebookworm Lovely! Happy Birthday! 🎉 6y
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Lcsmcat Happy Birthday! What a thoughtful family! 6y
DivineDiana Wishing you a fantastic year! 🎉📚🎉 6y
batsy How lovely! What is that pretty book at the bottom? 6y
Jess_Read_This 💐Happy Belated Birthday!💐 What a gorgeous desk!! And a gorgeous pile of books! I love the spine of the bottom one. 6y
DivaDiane It‘s beautiful! 6y
rockpools Happy Birthday! Fantastic present 😊 6y
JazzFeathers 😍😍🎂🎂🎁🎁 6y
batsy Thanks! It's a beautiful cover! 6y
mhillis Happy birthday 🎂 🎁😘 6y
58 likes13 comments
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allusory
Hope In The Dark | Rebecca Solnit
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Finishing this up over #booklunch today.

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JSW
Hope In The Dark | Rebecca Solnit
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I pretty much want to highlight this entire chapter. All of it.
Seriously, this book is like medicine to my troubled political thoughts.

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nomierosie
Hope In The Dark | Rebecca Solnit
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I was set the preface to this as a reading for my course this week and it really resonated with me. Too often we are told not to show or use emotions in politics/political work/decisions. Solint brilliant highlights the use of anger and hope as motivating change. Excited to read the rest #hopeinthedark #emotion #hope #anger #politics

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JSW
Hope In The Dark | Rebecca Solnit
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This really helps.

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keithmalek
Hope In The Dark | Rebecca Solnit
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keithmalek
Hope In The Dark | Rebecca Solnit
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...than this, which suggests that Viagra‘s ultimate purpose may be the survival of animals at the edges of the earth?

My thoughts: What Solnit doesn't realize is that Viagra is tested on dogs, who are later murdered.

Bambolina_81 😢 6y
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keithmalek
Hope In The Dark | Rebecca Solnit
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On 9/11

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BarbaraTheBibliophage
Hope In The Dark | Rebecca Solnit
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This isn‘t a long book, but it is full of fierce ideas designed to inspire plenty of action. I couldn‘t think of a better source for today‘s #quotsyjan18 prompt. #organize

GlassAsDiamonds Do you find it at all dated? I thought it sounded fantastic but was slightly thrown by the 2010 publication date. (edited) 6y
BarbaraTheBibliophage @GlassAsDiamonds It‘s not dated. Her premise is about all the times that chaos birthed resistance that affected change. So it‘s historical but still relevant today. 6y
GlassAsDiamonds @BarbaraTheBibliophage oh good, thanks. It sounds *so* good but I was worried I‘d be reading it thinking “this hope wasn‘t justified”. Will add it to the never ending TBR. Much appreciated. 6y
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BarbaraTheBibliophage @GlassAsDiamonds My pleasure. I love adding to people‘s TBRs. Getting y‘all back for the massive TBR I know have. 😛 6y
GlassAsDiamonds @BarbaraTheBibliophage all‘s fair in love & book recommendations...? 😉😉😉 6y
GlassAsDiamonds Started this this evening ... 😊 I think I‘m already in love, many thanks. 6y
BarbaraTheBibliophage @GlassAsDiamonds Yay—I‘m glad to hear! 6y
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keithmalek
Hope In The Dark | Rebecca Solnit

The naively cynical measure a piece of legislation, a victory, a milestone not against the past or the limits of the possible but against their ideas of perfection.

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keithmalek
Hope In The Dark | Rebecca Solnit

"We live in capitalism. Its power seems inescapable. So did the divine right of kings. Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings.”

--Ursula K. LeGuin

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keithmalek
Hope In The Dark | Rebecca Solnit

On 9/11:

The population of the towers was lower than usual that morning, because it was an election day and many were voting before heading to work; it seems emblematic that so many were spared because they were exercising their democratic powers.

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keithmalek
Hope In The Dark | Rebecca Solnit

Let‘s remember what actually happened:

When the planes became missiles and the towers became torches and then shards and clouds of dust, many were afraid, but few if any panicked, other than the president, who was far away from danger.

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keithmalek
Hope In The Dark | Rebecca Solnit

Few remember that there was no significant US homeless population before the 1980s, that Ronald Reagan‘s new society and economy created these swollen ranks of street people.

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keithmalek
Hope In The Dark | Rebecca Solnit

I believe in hope as an act of defiance, or rather as the foundation for an ongoing series of acts of defiance, those acts necessary to bring about some of what we hope for while we live by principle in the meantime.

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keithmalek
Hope In The Dark | Rebecca Solnit

Stalin reputedly once said, “Ideas are far more dangerous than guns. We don‘t allow our enemies to have guns, why should we allow them to have ideas?”

Ddzmini 😳 6y
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BeththeBookDragon
Hope In The Dark | Rebecca Solnit
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Starting a new one this gray morning.

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keithmalek
Hope In The Dark | Rebecca Solnit

“Critical thinking without hope is cynicism, but hope without critical thinking is naïvete,” the Bulgarian writer Maria Popova recently remarked.

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BookmarkTavern
Hope In The Dark | Rebecca Solnit
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#bookresolutions are two fold this year. 1) I would like to make it one complete month with one of these fantastic photo challenges. 2) I am going to try and go through my library and pull out ten books to donate to the local VA hospital or the Literacy Action Center, BEFORE I buy a single new book.

@Jess7 #readingresolutions

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well.read.rose
Hope In The Dark | Rebecca Solnit
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