Following Trump’s election it is natural to be distressed, but we must be careful not to let discouragement lead to passivity and pessimism that nothing can be done. We must not let discouragement push us into isolation. Because, as Timothy Snyder says, an anxious and lonely populace is what makes authoritarianism possible.
We “must be in the moment in order to get through the moment” and then remember who we are and decide what we must do.
And Rebecca Solnit warns us against giving in to despair.
“Despair demands less of us, it’s more predictable, and in a sad way safer. Authentic hope requires clarity—seeing the troubles in this world—and imagination, seeing what might lie beyond these situations that are perhaps not inevitable and immutable.”
“Paul Goodman famously wrote, “Suppose you had the revolution you are talking and dreaming about. Suppose your side had won, and you had the kind of society that you wanted. How would you live, you personally, in that society? Start living that way now!”
― Rebecca Solnit, Hope in the Dark: Untold Histories, Wild Possibilities
A Sparrow's Cry 