Surrounded by tales of cruelty, deprivation and chaos, the feelings of hope and hopelessness surge, unmanageable, hitting way below the belt and not letting up. Getting our hopes up and to have them crushed, over and over again, can be agonizing. So, what are we to do?
The prevailing crisis in Manipur drags on seemingly without end. Riots are in with many in the grip of hunger and starvation. And amid the prevailing despair and fear, political elites and megalomaniacs utilize the public's hope and scepticism to manipulate the weary people. The attack on civil liberties, including the right to privacy continues. Not to mention the arrival of climate change more devastating than what was anticipated, adding to the people’s existing woes.
The evidence is all around us of endless suffering and destruction. The tremendous human rights achievements, redefining race, gender, sexuality, embodiment, spirituality and the idea of the good life is filled with complexities and uncertainties. Rooted in grief and rage and inflicted with despair, we give in, knowingly or unknowingly, somehow initiating the operation of our own extermination. With thoughts scattered in the wind and visions blurring into the dark, we keep quiet as we feel the fear rise, listening for a hint of danger or an inspiration.
Dystopian visions always surge in popularity during tough times. With all of us rocked by death, destruction, shifting economic paradigm, inflation crisis, it certainly feels like we are living through uncertain, confusing and even frightening times. People might even sense that the world as they know it, is dying, and they are frightened beyond belief. It is an extraordinary time full of vital, transformative movements that could not be foreseen and also a nightmarish time.
As much as it is easy to dream up, the dystopian visions can be wake-up calls, whether this is the road we’re on, and we’ll come to a nasty end if we don’t change course. The conflict we have been witnessing for months, with no end in sight, has fuelled a fear so big there is no name for it. Just when things seem to have quietened down, the universe weighs us down, depriving us of hope and crushing our yearning desire to feel okay.
Bogged down by pessimism, we get used to experimenting with doom and gloom, finding creative solutions immeasurably hard to fathom in spite of the fact that we have the know-how. Not to mention our bedrock belief about human nature, that it is warped toward selfishness, greed, and cruelty. It is a whole lot harder now to imagine a future where people behave with generosity and kindness.
So we give in. But that's when the real work begins. To find hope where there seems to be absolutely none at all. And maybe we have to get a little messed up before we can step up, bearing in mind that the good days always outnumber the bad ones. That no matter how dark it gets, the sun's going to rise again. That there is always a light at the end of the tunnel.
We need to fan the flames of hope and imagine big to solve the existing problems and not just suffer from them. Because only with imaginations that spacious will we have the energy and courage to tackle the problem itself. Possessing belief that what we do matters even though how and when it may matter, who and what it may impact are not known beforehand. We may not, in fact, know them afterwards either, but they matter all the same and history is full of people whose influence was most powerful after they were gone.
To quote Charles Dickens opening line in his novel ‘A Tale of Two Cities’ set during the French revolution, the author wrote ‘It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.’
Hope is an essential component in the pursuit of peace. It locates itself in the premises that we don’t know what will happen and that in the spaciousness of uncertainty is room to act. Can we imagine a better future? For a change? Literally.
(The views expressed are personal)
