“TO
BE HOPEFUL in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on
the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also
of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness.
What we choose to
emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see
only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember
those times and places—and there are so many—where
people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and
at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a
different direction.
And if we do act, in however small a way,
we don’t have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an
infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human
beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a
marvelous victory.” ― Howard Zinn
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