On Hope

I wrote this on Facebook, but thought I'd share here:

In one of the Nimoy remembrance threads on my wall there's a discussion about TOS and hope, and I wanted to elaborate on that a bit more. I was at a con a number of years ago and someone in the audience said something like "of course TOS was optimistic, things were easier back then," and a speaker, I think it was Don Baker, responded, "That's the thing though. This was 1966. We were in a terrible war, our political leaders were being assassinated every few years, there was nuclear tension with Russia and frankly, we were convinced that the world was going to end soon. To have Star Trek say 'no, we're going to survive, thrive, and become better' was a HUGE deal then and it is now." And I thought that was so great.

And here's the thing that separates us, then and now: In a lot of ways, the world actually IS better than it was in 1966, even if it's damn hard to believe it sometimes. The thing is, we have the technology in our hands, right now, to make the world the place we want it to be: If we decided to give homes to the homeless, to feed the hungry, to solve any number of problems, we could do so, but we don't. And it's not because people aren't trying, it's because they are shouted down by the naysayers.

Here's the thing: Hope is hard. It really is. There's a reason why, in so many myths, hope is this hidden, locked up thing. It's precious, and it cuts to the bone. To have hope, you have to find strength, and people to share it with, and it's hard. But it's possible.

Star Trek showed us hope. So now we have to do the work. That's all there is to it. It's that easy, and that hard.