“In these times of great darkness – of greed and corruption and evil and deceit – hope seems to be one of the few Noble Truths left standing. And yet in whom can real Hope be found? Who can lead us to its lands of promise? In whom can we trust to validate our glimmering belief in a future where Justice reigns over all the victims of all forms of violence, and where Compassion reigns over those perpetrating those misdeeds?

Rest assured, this hope will not come from trusting in the ultimate goodness of Barack Obama, who — like Herod of old – has fully sold out his people. And this hope will not be realized by chanting packaged campaign slogans or attempting in any other way to influence the jaded vector of the feeble Democratic party. Nor will this hope come through any of our other bankrupt liberal institutions — from the press, or from the film industry, or from the withered stump that is the labor movement.

No, my Friends, real & vibrant hope will only come now through US — through us physically defying the violence of the state. Indeed, all of us who resist, all of us who do so courageously & peacefully, keep hope alive – just as all those who succumb to fear, despair and apathy become an enemy of that hope; enemies who, in their passivity, become active agents of injustice.

Hope is not comfortable or easy, my Friends. Hope requires personal risk. It is not about the right attitude. Hope is not about peace of mind. Hope is action. Hope is doing something. The more futile, the more useless, the more irrelevant and incomprehensible an act of rebellion is, the vaster and more potent hope becomes … Indeed, hope never makes sense. Hope is weak, unorganized and absurd. Hope, which is always nonviolent, exposes in its powerlessness the lies, fraud and coercion employed by the state. Hope knows that an injustice visited on our neighbor is an injustice visited on all of us. Hope posits that people are drawn to the good by the good … This is the secret of hope’s power. Hope demands for others what we demand for ourselves. Hope does not separate us from them. Hope sees in our enemy our own face.

And if we gather the gumption to resist — to stand forth each day and carry out acts of open defiance, no matter how small or trivial they might appear, then hope will never be extinguished. If all that we accomplish today is to assure a grieving mother in Baghdad or Afghanistan the she is not alone, or bulwark the spirits of a young man or woman crippled physically and emotionally by the hammer blows of war, then our act will be a Success.

And yet this hope cannot be sustained if it cannot be seen. And as such, any act of rebellion, any physical defiance against those who make war, of those who perpetuate corporate greed and are responsible for state crimes, anything that seeks to draw the good to the good, nourishes our souls and holds out the possibility that we can touch and transform the souls of others, is the hope that affirms that which we must affirm. And every such act that imparts this hope is a victory in & of itself.” ~ inspired by Chris Hedges

Filed under: Defrocking the Democrats by Scaughdt