#stubborn optimism

[things-from-strings]

if i don't believe things can improve i'll lose my fucking mind 🙃❤️‍🔥

[eldritchbauble]

01.31.2025

One of 3 pieces I wrote for a creative writing course during my last semester of undergrad.

[nono295]

Kansas Day

Today is Kansas Day. In this dark time, I find myself thinking about my state's motto: ad astra per aspera. In English it means, to the stars through difficulties. The world today is one filled with difficulties, but we must not lose sight of the stars. It so important, now more than ever, that we keep dreaming. That we keep believing in a better tomorrow. The path ahead is long and difficult, but at the end we will find the stars.

Happy 165th birthday, Kansas!

[howtostartarevolution]

The most meaningful words

Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité

All men are created equal.

Die Würde des Menschen ist unantastbar.

There are surely more statements that summarize this thought that all people are in the end equal in worth. That they are humans and should be treated as humans. All the same. With some undeniable human rights. 

It has been more than 200 years some of these ideas have been put to paper. Some of them are only as young as the end of WWII. But they show that this idea has manifested in peoples minds and hearts.

And yes in it you can also find the true spirit of some christian teachings of viewing your fellow humans as your neighbors, someone you have an undeniable connection and a responsibility to treat as you want to be treated yourself.

It is if you want as old as humanity itself. Stuck in our minds and hearts from a time when indeed we were all neighbors in our little or further communities.

Because we are at our core in biology and evolution a communal species. That thrives and suffers together. 

Yet over thousands of years there has been the competing ideology that „Some people are better than others.“

I do not want to delve into the question why or where its origin lies. But the fact remains that todays world is shaped by the competing ideas of „Everyone same in worth“ and „Some people better than others.“

At the time of Enlightenment 200 years ago when Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité and All men are created equal. were written down, it very much was a world of „Some people are better than others“. It permeated societies resulting in things like the feudal system, people neatly ordered into „good, better, best“ with the monarch at the top as the ultimate „best“. And yet it was also a time where the order of things were questioned. Where it became more than apparent that the monarch is surely not „the best“ and „the worst“ was at least worth as much as everyone else.

So the idea of everyone being equal found its way into peoples hearts and minds again and took root anew and bore fruit, and so these declarations were written.

It does not matter who people at the time saw as included in the „All“ or for whom to give „Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité“, because it is not specified in the words finding their way to the paper.

It is an idea written down. An ideal. 

It does not need to reflect the true state of things.

Except that it does.

Ever since.

It is the purest of ideals as ideals should be, not as something that is, but as something that is meant to be achieved. The blueprint reality has to be held up to, compared to and evaluated to.

Are we already in a world where this ideal has been achieved? No? Then keep working.

And this, this single ideal, idea, concept has shaped our world the past 200 years. The past 200 years this idea has battled against the prevailing concept of „Some people are better than others“. The past 200 years fights have been won. Fights have been lost. But bit by bit, decade by decade we have inched closer and closer to fit our world to the ideal.

More people have freedom. More people have rights. Less people killed. More people saved. More humane punishments. More diplomatic agreements. A mindset that is more peaceful than it has been in the past.

For 200 years there has been social change to fit our world to that ideal of „All humans are equal in worth.“ Slowly, step by step but always progressing.

200 years is just a blip in human evolution. Even social evolution. There are ups and downs, steps forwards and steps back, but it’s undeniable progress. Progress away from putting humans into categories of „better and worse“ and towards filling just one category „human“. 

And such the feather, the word, has indeed become mightier than any sword. You can not kill ideas.

200 years is just a blip in human time. So do not expect the world to match the ideal yet. It won’t. It will disappoint you. It will make you miss the progress that has been achieved. 

We are still battling the idea of „some people better“, maybe we always will. But we are making progress. We are succeeding. We are winning step by step. Even when the world looks dark and progress seems to revert, it is just a slowing and not a halt.

For the ideal of „everyone being the same in worth“ is humanity itself. It is rooted in the very core of our biology and evolution. It is planted in our hearts and our minds. And even if it withers down and falls dormant for a time. It will sprout again and again like the most loathsome, most awesome weed.

That is the true meaning and true legacy of the words

Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité

All men are created equal.

Die Würde des Menschen ist unantastbar.

[justalittlesolarpunk]

Honestly, I am so, deeply, utterly uninterested in cynicism. Armchair commentators leaning back languidly with a smug look on their faces to tell you ‘that will never work’. People who roll their eyes when you explain what you’re trying, because it’s not a perfect effort so why bother? You know what, I don’t care if I’m naïve. I don’t care if I’m gullible or unrealistic or earnest. The world wants every day to grind you down with work and adverts and bad news and needless, casual cruelty. It’s powerful and worthwhile to keep choosing kindness, to keep choosing optimism, to maintain your principles and do what you can. If you can’t dismantle the system alone (and newsflash, none of us can), then you do what small acts of resistance are possible for you, and you network with others to form community. Like I know there’s no ethical consumption under capitalism, but I can still buy from small businesses and B Corps, because it’s better than not trying, even if only for my own psyche. I know my individual actions won’t make a difference, but I can still seedbomb and sign petitions and go to protests, and upcycle and cook for my neighbours. Everything you do is ultimately too small to change things and will probably even fall short of your own ideals. Heck, we’re all going to die one day, and nothing can prevent that - there’s no magic fix or salvation. But I am baffled and enraged by the idea that the best response to that is just to give up. This is the work of our entire lives, and those who came before and those who will come after. Despair is a luxury and it’s not a good look. So I guess if you like being cynical and providing critique without prefiguration, or complaining about the state of the world without ever getting off your arse and doing something about it, then don’t follow me! We live in different realities.

[eviltyrannicalsocialistbish]

I have this problem of being too stubborn, and because of that I also seem to be able to give up my hope - for this world, for this country more specifically. I don't know if things can be better, but ohmygod I will refuse to accept anything otherwise.

This country will be better one day because I simply can't imagine otherwise. To think so would be to fall into despair - and I won't.

Unfortunetly I can't do this alone;

[hollowsart]

..I'm a pretty boring person, even I gotta admit that.

But... despite how boring I can be.. I do enjoy myself and my time as much as anyone else who is interesting. I'm quiet and don't really do much.. but that's usually just cuz I'm lost in thought.. imagining an adventure.. playing out a story in my head for my own amusement.

I can find an adventure or entertainment in some of the more seemingly pointless things in life. For example: Going to see a movie. Whether it be by yourself or with one person or more.. you end up zoning out and getting absorbed within the pictures on screen. Same with watching a movie at home-- reclining in a seat as the film plays out.. your imagination taking you away.

I'm low maintenance so I'm easily entertained. I could sit by an open window and enjoy looking outside.. or enjoy watching the rain fall in funny patterns along the glass. It's the small and simple things in life I enjoy the most.

Mm... if I go out to a theme park or a convention center it doesn't matter how much fun I had personally but rather how much fun I had as a whole with whoever else I was with.

I am reclusive to some extent.. I do enjoy the company of others but.. only a few at a time as I can't really handle group conversations too well.. I'm not good with social interactions... but I still make the most out of my time.