“Hope begins with the ability to imagine alternatives. And there is always an alternative.” - part of a brilliant graduation address by Cory Doctorow ( @pluralistic ) to York University.
A great piece about science fiction, optimism, pessimism, fatalism, humane agency, Luddites, tech bros, inevitability, and the need to always seek alternatives… and to find hope.
"Optimism is the belief that things will get better, no matter what we do.
Pessimism is the belief that things will get worse, no matter what we do.
Both deny human agency, that we can intervene to change things.
The belief that nothing will change — that nothing can change — is the wrecker’s most powerful weapon. After all, if you can convince people that nothing can be done, they won’t try to do anything." - Cory Doctorow's NY Univ. graduation address
'Then his face fell. He hung up and said, “He says they only teach literature.”'
The farther you go in academia, the more you realize that it has weird priorities ... it's a very inward looking prestige hierarchy.
I think many students realize this during grad school. Looks like Cory was unlucky (or perhaps lucky?) enough to see the inside of the sausage early on.
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