Let revolutionary optimism guide our lives

In the fall out of the Trump election, amidst genocide and climate catastrophe - revolutionary optimism is a skill that we must practice to build the loving and just world beyond capitalism.

Because revolutionary optimism doesn’t rely on outcomes in order to maintain itself, it is a lens through which we can maintain vision and action, regardless of what is going on.

I’ve been watching people cycle through trauma responses after Trump’s election (which is the reasonable response to the threat of Trump’s election) and getting stuck in fighting one another, giving up on activism (flight) or completely freezing up.

All of these reactions are very normal and understandable. And, the practice of revolutionary optimism helps prevent being controlled by these trauma responses, and allows us to move out of them, into meaningful action, more easily and swiftly. Because revolutionary optimism says that, no matter what happens, you believe in the loving and just world you are working to build. No matter what happens, you believe in a Free Palestine. No matter what happens, you believe in the end of colonial, imperialist capitalism. No matter what happens, you live and act like the new world is coming, like it is almost here.

This doesn't mean we don't get to grieve. This doesn't mean we don't get to feel traumatized by the brutally violent world we are currently living in. This doesn't mean that we don't uphold good and healthy boundaries with people who are causing us harm. We can do all these things while still maintaining the revolutionary optimism.

For me revolutionary optimism is my north star, the guiding light that brings me back again and again when I am lost in the wilds of despair.

It is my lighthouse in the stormy seas of hopelessness.

It is my compass in the deep forest of helplessness.

But revolutionary optimism is a practice. It is an act of faith. It is a daily practice. It is a commitment to the future of the world.

It requires a discipline of mind and spirit that I think a lot of (especially white folks) do not have.

(Why white folks don't have it is a whole other post, but definitely have thoughts on that too.)

But this discipline can be built and it can be practiced. And it begins with reclaiming our imaginations.

One of the first things I reminded myself after Trump got elected is that people have escaped oppressions over and over and over again. Nazi Germany fell. Apartheid South Africa fell. Slavery in the Americas ended. Tyrants throughout history have fallen over and over and over again. And consistently, humans have found ways to work together to bring more justice and love into the world. To work to liberate themselves and each other.

Everyday we can see it in acts big and small.

Take the genocide in Gaza. While it is still happening, and while it is worsening, global support for Israel has never been lower. It's economy is being dealt blow after blow because of the BDS movement. Countries that have supported it in the past are removing that support. Funding for its military through illegal charities in Canada is being cut. Netenyahu has been declared a war criminal by the highest International Court and there is a warrant out for his arrest.

And while it seems hopeless, step by step, every week, everyday, small victories are happening that weaken Israel's power in the world, that continue to make it an non-viable state. This progress seemed unattainable maybe, but Palestinians, since occupation began 76 years ago, have held the vision of a free Palestine the entire time. They don’t waver and, despite all odds, hold to belief that Palestine will be free.

This is the essence of revolutionary optimism. Instead of seeing hopelessness and helplessness, see the fight, see the resistance, see the progress, see the glorious future we know will come to pass -- in this case -- a free Palestine.

We can extend that to all parts of this awful capitalist machine. We owe it to ourselves, each other, the world, and the future to practice revolutionary optimism.

And there are many skills that build a practice of revolutionary optimism.

We need imagination. We need to build, and hold, a vision of the loving and just world beyond capitalism that we want to see. We need to imagine beyond the bounds of this system, visioning something gloriously wild (in relation to our current system). We need to learn that suppressing our imaginations, narrowing our visions, is a tool of the capitalist system that keeps us oppressed. Our visions, our imaginings, are what allow us to know what we are working towards. They are the engines of change and they are so necessary.

We need to build strong community and form a network of those who can help us deepen and strengthen our revolutionary optimism when things get bleak. Community serves to hold us up when we are flagging, and make more possibilities open up. Community allows our dreams to expand and give a web of folks all holding the vision so when one person flags, the vision will still be well held.

We need to continuously seek out and acknowledge the consistent progress towards the more loving and just world we want to see, no matter how small or large -- and then spread that to others. This affirms the truth that the world we want to see is coming. It affirms that our visions and imaginings are possible and that we are not isolated in wanting something better.

We need the mental discipline to bring ourselves, and others, back to revolutionary optimism when we stray (because we will! It's natural). And it is a discipline. In the face of such awful violence, it takes real discipline to show up to the belief in the more loving and just world we want. The system is violence to break this discipline and so we must be stronger (together) than it.

I think we also need deep faith practice, whatever that looks like for you. Grounding ourselves in something unknowable and beyond our comprehension is a great way to practices making space for possibility and faith to emerge. It keeps us humbled and dreaming. It keeps us well held in something bigger and unknowable and I, for one, find great comfort there.

Progress in any of these areas will help us get towards a mindset of revolutionary hope and optimism.

We don't have to live in a state of despair. The only way things change is by people believing that they can and will. And we do that together.

In solidarity and love

Amelia

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