I found the writing style really hard to parse for most of the book, both in written and audiobook forms. I could never be sure if the author was quoting someone or not, and I had to re-read a lot of the sentences multiple times to understand them. It also felt very meandering, with the start of a paragraph being about something completely different than the end. That said I think the message was quite powerful, especially the last parts of the book, and I'm glad I read it.
Actually that's not quite fair. I wish I'd read this when it first came out, because it would have saved me several years in getting a sense of what the nebulous-sounding global social justice movements that spawned things like the Seattle WTO protests were about. But reading it in 2018 I found myself too often reacting with either "how did you not see that [e.g.] Chavez was a problem?", or "yes, that's nice in itself, but we're so manifestly losing this battle". There are some useful rays of light in it, and Solnit's a great writer, but on balance I think this book left me feeling more hopeless and depressed.
Actually that's not quite fair. I wish I'd read this when it first came out, because it would have saved me several years in getting a sense of what the nebulous-sounding global social justice movements that spawned things like the Seattle WTO protests were about. But reading it in 2018 I found myself too often reacting with either "how did you not see that [e.g.] Chavez was a problem?", or "yes, that's nice in itself, but we're so manifestly losing this battle". There are some useful rays of light in it, and Solnit's a great writer, but on balance I think this book left me feeling more hopeless and depressed.
Rebecca Solnit never ceases to amaze me. Although this book was written during the Bush administration, there is much that applies now.
I was unconvinced early on in this book, thinking (as I do a lot lately), that while I'm certainly not on the right, I have a hard time identifying with the left. That the left seems to be caught in a past that seems utterly unrealistic.
But she turned me around. And the turning point was when she was talking about the marches against the Iraq war on in February 2003. I marched in London with thousands of other people. And I watched, in dismay as the voices of millions of people the world over were ignored, as our governments marched headlong into disaster, as thousands and thousands of people died. As that happened, my belief that anything I could do would make a difference died with them. …
Rebecca Solnit never ceases to amaze me. Although this book was written during the Bush administration, there is much that applies now.
I was unconvinced early on in this book, thinking (as I do a lot lately), that while I'm certainly not on the right, I have a hard time identifying with the left. That the left seems to be caught in a past that seems utterly unrealistic.
But she turned me around. And the turning point was when she was talking about the marches against the Iraq war on in February 2003. I marched in London with thousands of other people. And I watched, in dismay as the voices of millions of people the world over were ignored, as our governments marched headlong into disaster, as thousands and thousands of people died. As that happened, my belief that anything I could do would make a difference died with them.
Once Obama was elected, I was hopeful, but I stopped paying attention. I stopped trying to make any kind of difference. I incorrectly assumed that I was no longer needed. I expected (much like the Nobel Prize committee) that Obama would do it all.
Solnit seeks out and offers us example after example that there is hope; hope that people can change the world for the better. Not by gaining power, not by gaining the highest office in the land or by being the most powerful person in the world. But by doing what has succeeded again and again: changing the world by changing minds. This is everything I loved about "Pandora's Box and the Volunteer Police Force." in [b:Men Explain Things to Me|23302490|Men Explain Things to Me and Other Essays|Rebecca Solnit|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1412360595s/23302490.jpg|26233826].
She also argues that in order to act, you do need to be a part of "the left." In fact, at one point, she quotes Naomi Klien:
At the moment, anti-corporate street activists are ringed by would-be leaders, anxious to enlist them as foot soldiers for their particular cause. It is to this young movement's credit that it has as yet fended off all of these agendas and has rejected everyone's generously donated manifestos.
This brought a smile to my face. It is exactly these would-be leaders with their one true way that has often put me off trying to act. What Solnit seems to be saying is that it is those who act outside of these prepackaged ideologies who are likely to have a meaningful impact.
The standout essay in this book was "Viagra for Caribou", in which Solnit sets out a vision of the world presided over—not by an all-knowing, all-seeing, all-powerful God—but by Coyote, the Native American trickster. She paints a world in the making, a world that is always changing, always adapting. She finds hope in the unpredictability of this world:
Coyote asks us to trust in the basic eccentricity of the world, its sense of humor, and its resilience. The moral worldview believes that the good is accomplished through virtue, but sometimes army bases become de facto wildlife preserves, sometimes virtue falls on its face
Much of the latter half of the book brought a smile to my face.
If you, like me, have been trying to find a way to act, to help bring about a better world, but struggling with how to go about this. This book is for you. It may not have the exact answers you're looking for, but it will give you everything you need to go find those answers for yourself.
