I am loving this series of essays and as an aside I really love the way you write as if we are having a conversation, accessible and erudite at the same time.

I hope that in my lifetime we see a change in our social order. Its hard to keep the faith but when I get despondent I return to Ursula le Guin’s brilliance:

‘We live in capitalism. Its power seems inescapable. So did the divine right of kings. Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings. Resistance and change often begin in art, and very often in our art — the art of words.’

Just today I read a post, admittedly on Facebook and admittedly unverified, about politicians secreting vast sums in tax havens, seemingly for years and seemingly without any comeback. I don’t know if its true or just typical Facebook clickbait but I was totally unsurprised at the idea. We have it seems become so accustomed to our leaders stealing from us and from our children’s futures that the idea of billion dollar offshore accounts for the benefit of the world’s elite is not surprising at all.

My mood vacillates between despair, that nothing can change, that the hold they have on us is too strong and that there are too many of us who somehow still buy the bullshit they feed us about what’s good for them is similarly good for us, and elation, that we will have a socialist elected in the US who will be able to work with and against the oligarchs in congress and in the offices of lobbyists, that here in South Africa our constitution will prevail and corrupt politicians will resign.

It seems to me that the revolution, however it comes, will only come if we do not give up, despite the despair we may feel and despite the seemingly insurmountable piles of shit in front of us. We have to keep on keeping on, one foot in front of the other. The change will come; as a South African I know that even change which seemed impossible is possible, it may not be as we envisaged, it may not fulfil all our desires, it will most definitely be flawed, but it will come. And it will be better.

So thank you for being a beacon and helping me to keep the faith.