To be hopeful in bad 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 the 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.
Howard Zinn in A Power Governments Cannot Suppress
