Hope is a weapon that empire fears
The spiritual and political necessity of refusing to surrender to despair
Written July 22 2025
I am thinking this morning about the radical possibilities of hope amidst genocide, fascism, collapse of empire, climate crisis.
Hopelessness is a delusion we cannot afford to indulge in.
Families who have been displaced 10+ times, surviving under genocide in Gaza, still grow a garden. Still bet on the possibility of a seed transforming to bloom.
People who have been kidnapped from their lives by ICE and forced into concentration camps still rise every day and search for threads of humanity in a place hell bent on dehumanizing.
Those of us alive now who have any modicum of safety and stability must use our life force energy towards cultivating hope, cultivating justice, cultivating a future world where everyone has their needs met and everyone gets to exist in their truth. If we fight back without holding the thread of hope for a better world-to-come, what exactly are we fighting for?
It is by design that we look around at the poly-crisis-world we inhabit, read the day’s devastating headlines, witness the millions who ignore the starvation, genocide, and forced displacement of our brethren, and think, “It’s too far gone. We’ve lost. Whatever happens, happens. There’s nothing I can do.”
But that is to accept that there is no other future but the one that we are being co-opted into believing: a future of war, domination, scarcity, threat, destruction.
That is not a future that is guaranteed. It is a future that is chosen.
And we do get to choose differently, every day.
These are dark times. Grief-soaked times. Heart-shattering, pain-filled days and confusing, scary nights.
And — it is a great responsibility to hold tight to the seeds of hope, imagination, and vision within us that know we do not have to live like this. We do not have to accept a future marred by oppression-of-the-many for the benefit-of-the-select.
Our future can be abundant, where every human and more-than-human has enough to thrive. Our future can be joyful, where we play and dance and make love and are at peace. Our future can be communal, where we care for one another as deeply as we care for ourselves and the world.
As we fight for the lives at stake now and for the lives of the future generations, let us carry our hope fiercely like the strong weapon it is. No matter the circumstances we are in, if we are up to the call, our hope cannot be killed, disarmed, or defeated.
Let us carry our hope and our visions and our dreams at the center of every day.
We are fighting for a world of abundance, joy, peace, and liberation for all.
And we hold radical hope that this vision is possible and that this vision will one day come to be.
Blessed be!
Hope isn’t just a passive force. It is an energy that seeds our action and births new possibilities. Here are some small, quiet actions you can take that are infused with hope. In a world that is training us to numb out, disassociate, and give up our power to chaos and destruction, these are ways to stay deeply human.
Tend to life anyways. You could plant a seed, leave water out for the birds and bees, compost your food to tend the soil.
Be seen, be counted, be heard. Show up to a vigil or a protest, sign the petition, call your representatives. Be a thorn in the side of the empire.
Write to someone you love. Send out a card, just because, to someone you haven’t spoken to in a while. Send a thank you note to someone you hold deep gratitude for but maybe haven’t expressed.
Grieve. Grieve the losses of the pandemic, of climate crisis, of the genocide in Gaza, of police brutality and state violence, of any and all crisis and war and oppression. Each life lost matters and we must tend to the grief, individually and collectively.
Create something just for the act of creating. Don’t share it, don’t sell it. Just create for you, for the sake of beauty, for the sake of expression.
Use your voice to tell the truth. Whether it’s in a small conversation where truth is usually swept under the rug, or on a larger platform where it feels risky or inconvenient to share. Speak the truth.
Pray. Meditate. Breathe. Call in peace, abundance, joy, and share it freely with all of humanity and all of the world.
Mend something broken. A shirt with a hole in it, a drawer in your dresser that needs repair, a torn relationship.
Learn the story of a freedom fighter and liberatory ancestor who came before you. Remember that this isn’t the first time the world has ended, and we have much to learn from ancestors who have survived.
Make a collage of the future world you wish to see. Share it with a friend. Or better yet, make collages with your friends!
Ask someone how they’re doing, and really listen. Really.
What other small acts of hope are you tending to?
