Manifesto, by Jenna Batchelder

“If you look at the science about what is happening on earth and aren’t pessimistic, you don’t understand the data. But if you meet the people who are working to restore this earth and the lives of the poor, and you aren’t optimistic, you haven’t got a pulse,” (Hawken). This is beautifully written and a wonderful way to view the world. It also reminds me of something Jesse would say to us in Ecofem all the time, “whenever there is violence and oppression, there is always resistance.” There is a lot of “data” and information out there about the state of the world. Environmentally it seems like “we’re fucked,” (Jensen).  And actually it seems like everything is fucked. But the dialog around the idea of hope has been stirring up more and more since the election. The discussions in class around the idea of hope have been interesting to say the least as well. Last week I ended up at the table with all of the quotes from the readings and I remember talking with a few of my other classmates about how we were a little upset that people wrote down a couple of the quotes from the Jensen piece. The quotes we did not agree with all had to do with Jensen kind of dissing hope all together. But why were we so bothered by this? Why did some of our peers write these quotes down? They must have had a good reason.

I think a reason why we didn’t agree with a few of the quotes others choose was because we believe in hope; we don’t want to hear about it in a negative context, and when we do maybe we get defensive. But we were not critically thinking about the Jensen reading either. When I first read this one I did not like it. I still don’t like this one very much when compared to the others but I think my first time reading through I missed a key point Jensen was trying to argue. Going back, doing a closer reading of the text, and talking to others made me realize that at a first surface level read it seems like he is saying how hope is not important and how we don’t need it, or should get rid of it all together. However, I think he is arguing that we should not just rely on hope and that it can be a powerful tool if we use it in a way that is not crippling. Hope should not be “crippling” in the sense that it becomes paralyzing to the point where you just sit back and hope things will change instead of going out and changing them. While I agree that we should use all of our “tools in our tool box” to start creating change now, I think hope is one of my main tools.

I think we wouldn’t be in this major if we didn’t have some level of hope that we could make a difference in the world. Maybe some of us have different levels of hope but I think we all have hope on some level or at least I would like to think so. The small nonprofit I volunteered for in Croatia last summer was small but mighty. They talked about having hope all the time. Hope that they can save the last dolphin species in this region of the Adriatic Sea and hope that they could reach out into the community, and teach others. It was such an interesting perspective to see and hear them talk about how America has so many resources and power to make things happen and yet a lot of times I feel hopeless. Granted when I was in Croatia we were only talking about and joking around about hypothetical scenarios where Trump became president. And now it seems like nothing is going right. However, hearing other people from different countries around the world talk to me about how much power and privilege I have living in the U.S. and how much potential there is for environmental change still sticks with me. It was really a moment that made me think about my own positionality before I even knew what that was. These lovely people I met, pushing to save another species not only based on the “scientific” reasons why but also because they truly believed that this other species has intrinsic value and worth, and people who have such an optimistic outlook on life give me hope.

I guess I’m still figuring out how much of a social change agent I am currently but I know would like to be one throughout my life. Right now there aren’t any skills that I feel like I am desperately missing or need to know right now. I feel pretty prepared after everything I have learned from these last ~4 years. I believe that I will continue to learn after school and I will continue to learn throughout my life however, one thing I want to obtain is just being able to see or know that I making social change. I think this is something all of us are seeking through our different journeys. We learn about all of these terrible systems and institutions of power, privilege, and oppression and I just want to know I am making a difference in breaking these down.

I think just being in this major learning about the things we do can be seen as a social change agent. It seems like we learn about things that most people don’t. We learn about the systems and institutions in society that most people don’t learn about, don’t know about, or don’t care about. I think just acquiring this knowledge can be an agent for social change. We have this knowledge. Now we need to do something with it.