Hope in the Dark

1. Hope is an active embrace of uncertainty, not passive optimism

Hope locates itself in the premises that we don’t know what will happen and that in the spaciousness of uncertainty is room to act.

Embracing the unknown. Hope is not a guarantee of a happy ending, nor is it a sunny, naive belief that everything will automatically turn out fine. Instead, true hope is grounded in the realization that the future is unwritten and fundamentally unpredictable. This very uncertainty creates the spaciousness required for human agency and collective action.

A call to action. Unlike optimism or pessimism—both of which excuse us from acting because they assume the outcome is already decided—hope demands our active participation. It is an active force, a tool to break down barriers in emergencies rather than a lottery ticket to be clutched passively on the couch.

Key characteristics of active hope:

• It coexists with grief, anger, and a clear-eyed recognition of suffering.
• It views uncertainty as an invitation to influence the outcome.
• It recognizes that what we do matters, even if we cannot predict how or when.

2. History is non-linear, unpredictable, and full of surprises

History is not an army. It is a crab scuttling sideways, a drip of soft water wearing away stone, an earthquake breaking centuries of tension.

The sideways march of progress. Conventional narratives of history assume a straight, predictable line of cause and effect, but real change is chaotic, slow, and full of sudden ruptures. Major historical shifts—like the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Zapatista uprising, or the Arab Spring—frequently catch even their participants completely by surprise.

Underground preparation. What looks like a spontaneous explosion of popular power is almost always the fruiting body of a vast, invisible underground network of long-term organizing, writing, and shifting values. Like mushrooms appearing overnight after a rain, revolutions rely on quiet, subterranean groundwork that has been laid down for years or decades.

Unpredictable dynamics of change:

• Small, marginal gestures can mushroom into global movements.
• Ideas once considered ridiculous gradually become accepted as common sense.
• The path forward is a convoluted trail of surprises, gifts, and setbacks.

3. Despair is a form of premature certainty and political laziness

The certainty of despair—is even that kind of certainty so worth pursuing?

The trap of certainty. Despair is seductive because it offers a safe, predictable, and low-risk worldview where defeat is guaranteed and no effort is required. It is a form of intellectual and political laziness that allows individuals to avoid the vulnerability of hoping and the responsibility of acting.

The psychology of gloom. Many progressives fall into a habit of "naïve cynicism," focusing so exclusively on atrocities that they become blind to victories and alternatives. This grimness often serves to bolster a self-righteous identity of being "tough enough to face the facts," while actually ignoring the complex, hopeful realities of popular power.

Overcoming political depression:

• Recognize that despair is often a form of fatigue or a loss of faith.
• Understand that waiting for a guaranteed victory means waiting forever.
• Embrace the risk of disappointment as the price of meaningful engagement.

4. Social change begins in the shadows and migrates from the margins to the center

Our hope and often our power comes from the shadows and the margins, that our hope is in the dark around the edges, not the limelight of center stage.

The power of the margins. The official theater of power occupies center stage under bright limelights, blinding us to the creative, radical transformations occurring in the shadows. True change rarely originates with presidents, CEOs, or mainstream media; it starts with visionaries, outcasts, and grassroots organizers at the edges of society.

The food chain of ideas. Outrageous or extreme ideas gradually migrate from the margins to the center through a complex cultural food chain, eventually becoming accepted as common sense. When these ideas finally reach the halls of power, the mainstream adopts them, forgets their radical origins, and pretends they always believed them.

Examples of marginal ideas becoming mainstream:

• The abolition of slavery, which began with a handful of activists in a London print shop.
• The rapid shift in the legal and cultural status of LGBTQ+ rights over a few decades.
• The growing movement to dismantle dams and restore natural ecosystems.

5. Direct action is indirectly powerful, yielding delayed and invisible victories

Direct action is indirectly powerful: now the media scrutinizes those corporations as never before, and their names are widely known.

Indirect consequences. Activists often measure success by whether their immediate, literal demands are met, but the true power of direct action is often indirect, symbolic, and cultural. Protests, blockades, and civil disobedience shift the public imagination, change the terms of debate, and inspire others in ways that are impossible to measure immediately.

Delayed reactions. The seeds of activism can lie dormant for years before germinating, meaning it is always too soon to calculate the final effect of our actions. For example, a small group of women protesting in the rain at the Kennedy White House ultimately inspired Dr. Benjamin Spock to become a high-profile anti-nuclear activist, changing the course of the movement.

How indirect power manifests:

• By forcing corporations and governments to operate under intense public scrutiny.
• By building new networks, skills, and communities that feed future struggles.
• By demonstrating that popular resistance is real, terrifying the ruling elites.

6. Memory is the root of hope, while historical amnesia breeds despair

Memory produces hope in the same way that amnesia produces despair.

The danger of amnesia. The status quo relies on our collective amnesia to make itself seem permanent, inevitable, and invulnerable. When we forget how much the world has changed in the past, we lose the ability to see that it is changing now, or that we have the power to change it in the future.

Reclaiming our victories. We need to actively remember and celebrate our victories—both large and small—to sustain our momentum and build political confidence. Amnesia robs us of our history of popular power, leaving us feeling isolated and defeated when we should be standing on the shoulders of giants.

Crucial historical shifts to remember:

• The dramatic improvements in women's rights, reproductive freedom, and workplace safety.
• The successful environmental battles that saved rivers, species, and wildlands.
• The global anti-nuclear movements that prevented full-scale nuclear testing and proliferation.

7. The Angel of Alternate History values the catastrophes we successfully prevented

Citizen Alert’s biggest victory is almost forgotten: the cancellation in the 1980s of the MX missile program that would’ve turned eastern Nevada and western Utah into a giant sacrifice area...

The invisible victories. Many of the greatest achievements of popular power are completely invisible because they consist of things that did not happen. The Angel of Alternate History looks at the pristine forests that were not logged, the rivers that were not dammed, and the nuclear waste dumps that were not built because ordinary people stood in the way.

The challenge of celebrating absence. It is difficult to rally people around an absence of devastation, and these victories are easily forgotten once the threat has passed. However, recognizing these "non-events" is essential for understanding our true power and the efficacy of our resistance.

Examples of prevented catastrophes:

• The cancellation of massive road-building schemes in the UK due to anti-roads protests.
• The defeat of the Ward Valley nuclear waste dump by a coalition of indigenous tribes and activists.
• The prevention of saturation bombing in Baghdad due to global pre-war protests.

8. Prefigurative politics means embodying the future we want in the present

Suppose you had the revolution you are talking and dreaming about... How would you live, you personally, in that society? Start living that way now!

Living the future now. Prefigurative politics is the practice of embodying the values, relationships, and democratic processes of our desired future society within our current activist movements. Rather than waiting for a distant, post-revolutionary utopia, we can create temporary autonomous zones of freedom, joy, and mutual aid in the here and now.

Joy as an insurrectionary force. Resistance should not be a grim, puritanical duty; it can and should be a source of joy, creativity, and community. When we come together in public spaces to dance, share food, and make decisions democratically, we are already winning, because we are breaking the isolation and alienation of modern capitalism.

Core elements of prefigurative action:

• Using non-hierarchical, decentralized, and consensus-based decision-making.
• Creating temporary spaces of celebration and mutual aid, like Reclaim the Streets or Occupy Wall Street.
• Focusing on the integrity of our means rather than just the achievement of our ends.

9. Effective activism requires breaking rigid ideological binaries and building unexpected alliances

We should take care so that we will lose none of the jewels of our soul. We must begin, now, to reject the white, either/or system of dividing the world into unnecessary conflict.

Beyond right and left. Rigid ideological binaries and sectarian righteousness often divide potential allies and isolate progressive movements from the broader public. To build a truly powerful grassroots movement, we must move beyond the traditional "right vs. left" paradigm and seek common ground based on shared local interests and human values.

The radical center. In the American West, ranchers and environmentalists—longtime enemies—have formed powerful alliances to protect open spaces from developers, proving that unexpected coalitions are possible when we set aside ideological purity. These pragmatic, local partnerships focus on what people have in common rather than what divides them.

Strategies for building broad coalitions:

• Focusing on shared, concrete goals rather than abstract ideological agreement.
• Using a diverse toolbox of tactics, from litigation to direct action and dialogue.
• Reaching out to working-class and rural communities with respect and open-mindedness.

10. The climate crisis demands systemic change, proving that everything is coming together while falling apart

Everything’s coming together while everything’s falling apart...

The dual reality of our time. We are living in a nightmarish era of rapid climate change, ecological destruction, and corporate greed, but we are also witnessing an unprecedented rise in clean energy technology, divestment campaigns, and global climate justice movements. Both realities are true, and our actions in this critical window will determine which force prevails.

The necessity of systemic change. While personal lifestyle changes like recycling and bicycling are virtuous, they are entirely inadequate to address the scale of the climate crisis. We must demand and organize for massive, systemic changes—such as keeping fossil fuels in the ground, ending subsidies for oil companies, and rapidly transitioning to decentralized renewable energy.

Milestones of the climate movement:

• The rapid growth of the fossil-fuel divestment movement, pulling trillions of dollars out of the industry.
• The successful blocking of major pipelines, coal plants, and fracking operations through grassroots resistance.
• The historic mobilization of millions of people worldwide in climate marches and direct actions.