To Spin Hope
Truly great artists—-
the ones that shape the zeitgeist—
have the bravery to take themselves seriously.
Never irony
—- honesty is the coin of their realm.
The willingness to look a fool.
The audacity to be earnest.
The confidence to be vulnerable.
Cynicism comes cheap in the postmodern era,
but you get what you pay for.
The product is a titanic defense mechanism
that, clanking and heaving
disguises one sorry fact.
You’re flat out of ideas.
…..Let us, then,
the disillusioned generation,
claim it for aspiration.
By raising our sights to the classical values
— hope, stoicism, belief in each other —
we will take the fight to depression,
loneliness, and the great moral fatigue
that plagues the youth of the world.
We will be honest.
We will be vulnerable.
And we will start anew.
We will spin hope from
that bare thread of despair,
and in the process weave a new
and tender narrative
for us all to inhabit.
— excerpt, Hello, internet user, by Dan Hackett
Adbusters Magazine July/August 2019
I like these words. They are a manifesto, a statement of resolve. “We will spin hope from that bare thread of despair.” Indeed this is something that one would not dare attempt alone. We will…weave a new narrative that everyone can inhabit.
