Hope: a messenger of change and a gift for a better future
We are living in bad times, when it appears that pain and despair are our collective destiny. For more than a year, our country has been ruled by a doggedly reactionary political force that is hostile to any and all features of social justice, progress, and democracy. Our people are tired after more than 40 years of wars, invasions, and recurrent social and political disasters augmented by increasingly frequent natural and environmental calamities.
It is easy to be hopeless while the horrors of our daily living experiences are constantly making “the world’s saddest headlines.” That is why a sense of hopelessness is palpable in the narratives of our people. We are terrified of this unfolding nightmare and what the future holds. But in this situation, it is important to remind ourselves that the dark clouds of hopelessness are our most dangerous enemy. They lead to fatalism and intellectual slumber. The Taliban want to build a politically submissive and intellectually paralyzed society. Pessimism and scepticism about the future serves their interest, not of ours.
To guard against political cowardice we must strive to keep our hopes alive. We should boldly envision, discuss and plan building a humane society where we can govern our lives and leave a better world for future generations. To begin with, we should acknowledge the enormity of the problems, the massive and burdensome social and political crisis we are facing. But we should also acknowledge that the only way out of the current nightmare is to not accept defeat, and to not lose hope in building the society we deserve to live in. We deserve to live in a free and prosperous society.
Hope lies on the ground. In the past year, we have witnessed women, workers, students, writers, artists, and intellectuals act against the Taliban regime, usually under very difficult circumstances. They have done so with hope to change their inhumane circumstances.
Facing immense social and political problems, the Taliban finds itself unable to earn legitimacy and consolidate its theocracy. It is already faltering. In the past year, we have witnessed the birth of countless new ideas and innovative ways to confront the Taliban. Sometimes, it is the work of an individual who speaks out, who creates an art that speaks for itself. Sometimes, it is sung in the slogans of women marching on the streets and bodies confronting the barrels of guns. Their courage inspires us at Zan Times to stand in solidarity with them and be part of the conversation we must have as responsible citizens.
The struggle of the marginalized majority in our society — women, youth, workers, students, intellectuals — has created hope amidst despair and darkness. These are all indications that they can define and forge a new future.
The difference between our species and the rest of the animal kingdom is that we can envision and build our future, of course under the given circumstances. We can do this at an individual level, and we can do this at societal and collective level. Our humanity allows us to shape our circumstances and build a society according to our imaginations, preconceived plans, and the accumulated knowledge and experience of the previous generations. That is why we must not lose hope. If we fail to redefine politics and provide a new alternative, the new generation would follow the old and tired reactionary politics. In that case, we would not be able to break the vicious cycle of recurring disasters and the next generation would inherit a reality far worse than the one we are enduring.
The most fundamental aspect of the historical crisis of our country is that our people never achieved the right to self-determination and could not become the masters of their destiny. In contemporary history, it has been competing superpowers — and the local elite politicians whom they enabled — that have shaped our destiny behind our backs. Now, the return of the Taliban has brought that long-running crisis to its worst point, but in turn, the failures of their harsh regime also provides a chance for progressives to seize their own historic opportunity to redefine politics and determine our own collective future. For that to happen, we need to begin envisioning a peaceful and egalitarian society for our future. We can build on the experience of more than a century’s worth of struggle and defeat of progressive forces in Afghanistan to imagine, plan, and organize for building a better society.
The Taliban tyranny will not last. But if our people do not become in charge of their destiny under a new progressive and democratic politics, the fall of the Taliban regime is not going to be enough to solve the historical crisis of our society. Change starts with hope, plan, work, and organization. Hence, hope is an important ingredient of building a new world. It is a messenger of change and a gift for a better future, which we should start building now.
