I still think the revolution is to make the world safe for poetry, meandering, for the frail and vulnerable, the rare and obscure, the impractical and local and small. Rebecca Solnit More Quotes by Rebecca Solnit More Quotes From Rebecca Solnit People are actually very good at being communists in the sense that they instantly abandon capitalism, that they love these relationships of mutual aid, because the astonishing thing about disasters is that people are often weirdly joyous in them, because they've recovered a sense of agency, a sense of power, etc. Rebecca Solnit etc agency people The poor have often been subversive just because they don't always believe their own depiction as brutes and loafers and leeches, and new economy is making lots more poor or recognize their fellowship with the insecurity of the poor, the portion of the population for whom the system does not work. Rebecca Solnit leeches insecurity believe I often think that the reason capitalism hasn't completely destroyed everything is that a huge amount of anti-capitalist endeavor goes on, from labors of love, nurture, friendship, and barter to gift economies and different kinds of exchanges, not just one alternate model but a whole host of other ways in which we engage with each other and with the world that aren't financial and debt-based. Rebecca Solnit debt goes-on thinking Hope is not like a lottery ticket you can sit on the sofa and clutch, feeling lucky.... hope is an ax you break down doors with in an emergency. Rebecca Solnit hope feelings doors Walking articulates both physical and mental freedom. Rebecca Solnit strolling trekking walking A place is a story, and stories are geography, and empathy is first of all an act of imagination, a storyteller's art, and then a way of traveling from here to there. Rebecca Solnit empathy imagination art It's all about a war of social impulses and beliefs that is as powerful in its way as a big hurricane. Rebecca Solnit powerful war way The promenade is a special subset of walking. Rebecca Solnit promenade special walking The Earth we evolved to inhabit is turning into something more turbulent and unreliable at a pace too fast for most living things to adapt to. Rebecca Solnit living-things pace earth We are entering an era of heightened disaster, thanks to climate change. Being prepared for disaster will mean being prepared to sift truth from rumour, and being prepared to adjust our worldview. Rebecca Solnit entering climate mean There are fossils of seashells high in the Himalayas; what was and what is are different things. Rebecca Solnit himalayas fossils different All gardening is landscape painting,' said Alexander Pope. Rebecca Solnit landscape-painting pope garden We fly; we dream in darkness; we devour heaven in bites too small to be measured. Rebecca Solnit darkness dream heaven The power of large corporations is still a scourge on the earth, but at least the arguments supporting them are undermined now. Rebecca Solnit corporations argument earth While a lot of people want to join the left to react against the mainstream or right, I in many ways react against the left - not a lot of its fundamental commitments, but its often dismal tone, righteousness, defeatism, etc. Rebecca Solnit fundamentals people commitment Books are solitudes in which we meet. Rebecca Solnit solitude book Previous technologies have expanded communication. But the last round may be contracting it. The eloquence of letters has turned into the unnuanced spareness of texts; the intimacy of phone conversations has turned into the missed signals of mobile phone chat ... ('you're breaking up' is the cry of our time). Rebecca Solnit phones communication technology Sometimes it seems that the fate of the world is decided entirely in the ether of electronic communications and corporate backroom deals. Rebecca Solnit fate communication world There's enough food in this world. There's enough housing in this world. There's enough shelter in this world. There's enough clothing in this world. There's enough teachers, there's enough universities for everybody's needs to be met, and the reasons they aren't is not because of lack of resources. It's because of distribution, and that's the politics of hate, which is why this is a movement against that. It's a politics of love. Rebecca Solnit hate teacher love Women often find great roles in revolution, simply because the rules fall apart and everyone has agency, anyone can act. Rebecca Solnit agency roles fall
