Listen to Zinn on how to change society

The death last week of Howard Zinn has seen an outpouring of recollections for a great American and true dissident.

Below is a small extract from his autobiography, You Can’t be Neutral on a Moving Train:

There is a tendency to think that what we see in the present moment we will continue to see.…  We forget how often in this century we have been astonished by the sudden crumbling of institutions, by extraordinary changes in people’s thoughts, by unexpected eruptions of rebellion against tyrannies, by the quick collapse of systems of power that seemed invincible.

The bad things that happened are repetitions of bad things that have always happened–war, racism, maltreatment of women, religious and nationalist fanaticism, starvation.…  The good things that happen are unexpected.

Unexpected, and yet explainable by certain truths which spring at us from time to time, but which we tend to forget:

Political power, however formidable, is more fragile than we think. (Note how nervous are those who hold it.)

Ordinary people can be intimidated for a time, can be fooled for a time, but they have a down-deep common sense, and sooner or later they find a way to challenge the power that oppresses them.

People are not naturally violent or cruel or greedy, although they can be made so.…  Human beings everywhere want the same things: they are moved by the sight of abandoned children, homeless families, the casualties of war; they long for peace, for friendship and affection across lines of race and nationality.

Revolutionary change does not come as one cataclysmic moment (beware of such moments!) but as an endless succession of surprises, moving zig-zag towards a more decent society.

We don’t have to engage in grand, heroic actions to participate in the process of change.…  Small acts, when multiplied by millions of people, can transform the world.

To be hopeful in bade times is not just foolishly romantic.…  It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness.

What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives.…  If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something.…  If we remember those times and places–and there are so many–where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us he energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction.

And if we do act, in however small a way, we don’t have to wait for some grand utopian future.…  The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory.

Text and images ©2024 Antony Loewenstein. All rights reserved.

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