podcast friday

[sabotabby]

 It's three years into the new year and already the sadness has set in, so please check out Conspirituality's short interview with Rebecca Solnit. Solnit has made a career out of reminding us that if the situation was hopeless, their propaganda would be unnecessary. The opposite of despair isn't hope, it's agency. Though of course, Solnit talks a lot about hope too, not as a solution but as a practice.

I really appreciated this talk. I listened to it, and last night, I went out with my neighbourhood group and put up Palestine posters all over the street. Which I was going to do anyway, but it's a reminder to get up and do a thing. Just do it. Don't wait for someone else to start. That thing will lead to doing other things.

Comments

[blogcutter]

I love that thought that the opposite of despair is not hope but agency. Although without the feeling of hope and faith, maybe we'd never get as far as the agency?

[sabotabby]

I've managed to get pretty far without either. :) Though, perhaps I'd be more effective in terms of agency if I had 'em.

[dewline]

I do wonder sometimes how much further I'd have gotten in my own life before now with those things.

[dissectionist]

Agency can also come from spite and resentment. There’s times when I’ve had no hope of things changing, but still had the energy to exercise agency, because being as much of a problem as possible for my oppressors is its own reward.

It can also come from solidarity. There are times I take actions that have no actual chance of changing anything, but they make other marginalized folks feel supported. It’s worth doing even if all you’re doing is making someone else feel seen for a moment.

[blogcutter]

Hmmm, good points. You've given me some food for thought.

[sabotabby]

Always my goal!

[smhwpf]

I've never heard her voice before. It's higher than I expected.
I got so angry with her year because of her almost complete silence on Gaza, and her uncritical cheerleading of Biden and Harris,
I've more or less forgiven her, just about. But I was unhealthily obsessed for quite a while about how bad she was on this. Not that she was pro-Israel, she said enough to be clear she wasn't, but that she seemed to treat it as a side issue to be passed over for the sake of beating Trump.
But she is so good and wise on so many things.

[smhwpf]

I've never heard her voice before. It's higher than I expected.

This is internalised misogyny on my part. Higher voices are associated with women. I have huge respect for Solnit's ideas and writing, so I associate her with a lower voice, more masculine.

[sabotabby]

I was also surprised by her voice. Not so much the pitch but she sounded a lot older than I'd envisioned.

I didn't know she hadn't spoken out. I just assumed she did.

[flamingsword]

*saves episode to play while knitting*

[sabotabby]

I just noticed that I wrote "three years" instead of "three days."

[flamingsword]

You were speaking an emotional truth.