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Rebel with a cause

Posted by Molly Webb at 7:12pm on Tuesday, 9th January 2007

"Optimism is a political act" says Alex Steffan in the first sentence of the 'politics' section of the WorldChanging book (from the people at the worldchanging site) out late last year.

Are social movements fueled by optimism? Or rebelliousness? Eric Prydz has captured the latter mood in his re-mixed Pink Floyd's ‘Proper Education' (See the video on YouTube) where kids in a North London council estate run around replacing light bulbs, turning off tvs and putting bricks in freezers (that's one I didn't know!)

Apparently, people in clubs went crazy for it. "It's about kids taking this climate change thing into their own hands" says Eric in this video interview on the www.global-cool.com website.

Comments

1
Reminds me of my favorite "radical democrat" Cornel West who talks a lot about the difference between optimism and hope - not so much about rebellion:

You have to draw a distinction between hope and optimism. Vaclav Havel put it well when he said "optimism" is the belief that things are going to turn out as you would like, as opposed to "hope," which is when you are thoroughly convinced something is moral and right and just and therefore you fight regardless of the consequences. In that sense, I'm full of hope but in no way optimistic.
Posted by Paul Lawrence  at 6:17pm on Wednesday, 10th January 2007
2
Is it having a vision for a better world? Perhaps VISION is part optimism and part hope. When we can see that vision we are enthused to work towards it and can bring others along with us as well. I don't know who said it but "Without a vision, the people perish"...I would be interested to know the origin of that saying.
Posted by Lorraine O'Halloran  at 7:37am on Monday, 15th January 2007

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