Questions:
- Is religion and spirituality a crutch for hope? Can it truly create change?
- Is there any space in the extremes between the absolute empirical and the numinous? Are they both used as solid “knowns” for the aspects of our world that are unknown?
- How can we keep radical hope when we see history repeating itself over and over? Is the downfall inevitable?
I loved the conversation about Diaz being a “Breaker of silence.” Like he said, silence is used as a survival tactic, and I thought that was extremely powerful, especially in context to how dangerous but necessary art can be when it breaks that silence. I loved the visual of artists breaking the comfortable, safe silence.
I was struck by Diaz's description the recent Trump election as a“Sharpening of the already present madness,” it highlights the powerful fact that Trump lit up a part of societies madness that had always been there
“What are we in this game, if not for love?” vs. “hegemonic masculinity — that one is not vulnerable, that one is not penetrated, that one has a narrative where intimacy is not necessary” In order to harbor and create love you need vulnerability, you need to feel, and you need intimacy - artists strive to keep that alive.
“Our multiplicity is our damn strength” Drawing strength from communities and the history of how communities have overcome in the past; in periods of catastrophizing, “I look at what my community has done to change that, when I look over what my community has done to make democracy possible, when I look at what my community has taught this world about justice and about humanity, in the face of abysmal inhumanities, well, I’ve got to tell you, that alters the calculus of hope. And it gives me hope.”
For me, radical hope is the act of stopping and taking a breath in a period of extreme catastrophe, where the automatic response is panic. I agree with Diaz that in order to survive we need to feel, and in order to feel we need to feel vulnerable. We need to see and accept the state of the world today, take a breath, and move forward courageously towards it as a community. The other end of radical hope is numbness and cynicism, which is so dangerous. Radical hope is exposure, it's action, it's being inspired and ignited instead of silent and afraid.
Radical hope is what we need to get up out of mourning and fight as a community, which is the only thing that will create movement.
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