Introduction: On Authentic Hope
My book CITIZENS came out in March 2022, and I’ve been travelling, talking, and learning ever since (as well as doing a bit of actual work along the way). I’ve literally been around the world, from Grimsby to Auckland and back again, discussing my ideas with politicians, football club chairmen, Indigenous wisdom keepers, and more. Along the way, I’ve met Citizens doing the work in their communities, whatever that word means to them: locally, nationally and internationally; where they live or work or around their passions; building everything from brands to campaigns to business networks to an award-winning hotel-cum-restaurant-cum-art-gallery. Time and time again, I’ve seen them take inspiration from the stories I’m able to share, of others doing the same, and redouble their efforts as a result.
Suffice to say, I feel deeply, incredibly fortunate to have experienced all this. But as 2024 begins, I also feel a deep dissonance, and a growing responsibility.
In stark contrast to the experiences and conversations I have had over the last two years, the headlines of our time tell the story of a gathering darkness. Our crises are intensifying. Autocrats, authoritarians, and outright fascists are on the rise. And with elections in over 50 countries, with more than 2 billion people going to the polls, this is going to be one hell of a year. It’s a collective moment of choice for humanity as to how to face the darkness; the choices we make will have a seismic effect on our future, and the options in front of us don’t look great.
All this is true, but the dissonance I feel is the result of seeing with my own eyes that there is another truth too: that people everywhere across the world — literally everywhere — are finding one another, organising together, and stepping into whatever power they have to shape the future for the better. I’ve seen incontrovertible evidence that there is something very powerful and positive wanting to take shape in this time. It’s not fully formed, but I feel like I can see the brushstrokes of another future: a Citizen Future.
The problem is that this picture remains invisible to most, at a time when we all badly need to be able to see it in order to be able to step into it, and build it together. That’s why I feel a responsibility: because in a time when pessimism is growing, I feel genuinely, authentically hopeful, rooted in what I know is happening. It’s the kind of hope Rebecca Solnit describes in her beautiful book Hope In The Dark as distinct from and “an alternative to the certainty” of both optimism and pessimism.
Optimists think it will all be fine without our involvement; pessimists adopt the opposite position; both excuse themselves from acting.
The responsibility I feel now is to help more people see what I can see, because I know that when they do, they act. I know it’s time for me to move into another phase in order to do this; I just don’t quite know what that looks like yet. In order to figure it out, over Christmas I started writing, to make sense of what I’ve learned, what I’m seeing now, what I think that means for the work that needs to be done… and what it means for the work I need to do. This publication is the output. I’m calling it In Search Of Authentic Hope In 2024 in echo of Solnit’s words, which I quoted in the final pages of CITIZENS:
Authentic hope requires clarity — seeing the troubles in this world — and imagination, seeing what might lie beyond these situations that are perhaps not inevitable and immutable.
My plan is to begin with clarity, looking out at the world as it is, and then turn to the work of imagination, and what it might take to build out the future I know is possible. I’d originally intended to get it out there all in one go, but (a) it’s turned into a bit of a beast, and (b) I’m keen to get thoughts and challenge on the steps as the logic develops. I need you to call me out if I’m going wrong, as I’m planning to make some pretty big decisions off the back of this.
Here goes…
Head on to Clarity Part 1: Argentina, Poland, and the space for hope
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