Down to the wire : confronting climate collapse / David - Index of

chapter 7
Hope at the End
of Our Tether
Fraudulent hope is one of the greatest malefactors, even enervators,
of the human race, concretely genuine hope its most dedicated
benefactor.
—Ernst Bloch
Nothing that is worth doing can be achieved in a lifetime; therefore
we must be saved by hope. Nothing which is true or beautiful or good
makes complete sense in any immediate context of history; therefore
we must be saved by faith. Nothing we do, however virtuous, can be
accomplished alone; therefore, we are saved by love. No virtuous act is
quite as virtuous from the standpoint of our friend or foe as it is from
our standpoint. Therefore we must be saved by the fi nal form of love
which is forgiveness.
—Reinhold Niebuhr
Ma cleared her throat. “It ain’t kin we? It’s will we?” she said fi rmly.
“As far as ‘kin,’ we can’t do nothin’, not go to California or nothin’;
but as far as ‘will,’ why we’ll do what we will.”
—John Steinbeck, Grapes of Wrath
We like optimistic people. they are fun, often
z
funny, and very often capable of doing amazing
things otherwise thought to be impossible. Were I stranded on a
life raft in the middle of the ocean with the choice of an optimist
or a pessimist for a companion, I’d want the optimist, providing he