The crushing weight of the social systems at play around us can be overwhelming. We live in a world where every aspect of society is built up to insidiously maintain a wicked status quo, and thus it is easy to say that it’s naïve to assume that we can change the system with the tools that have been presented to us by the system.

Fighting can feel pointless. It can all feel like nonsense. Like we’re trapped in an eternal night where the sun will never rise. It can feel like digging for windows. 

But I’m here to tell you all that fighting is still important, and that such hopeless feelings only help the status quo.

Yes, the omnipresent grasp of capitalism is enough to overpower and extinguish the light in anybody’s heart. But so was the clench of monarchy, or the grip of feudalism. The facts of history are abundantly clear: the human spirit is indomitable, and it has weaseled its way out of numerous other dire circumstances and oppressive environments over and over again. 

That isn’t to say that we can stand by idly, clasp our hands together, and pray that everything has a happy ending. We have to fight, and we have to struggle. The world is fucked, and we severely need to unfuck it. But the world is also filled with abundant beauty, wonderful people, and incredible happenings. The endless possibilities of the future will never stop glimmering through the present, no matter how dark it may be. What drives us and motivates us varies from person to person but love for each and every one of your fellow human beings is a damn good place to start. 

Che Guevara, the face of the Cuban Revolution, once said “At the risk of seeming ridiculous, let me say that the true revolutionary is guided by a great feeling of love.”

 When have you ever heard of someone who managed to change the world by sitting around and wallowing all day? When have you ever heard of change happening because of an unmotivated populace? The simple answer is never. Change only happens when people have hopes, dreams, and visions about the future in their mind, and radical love filling their hearts.

 Yes, it may be impossible to radically change the system within the bounds set by the system itself. But that doesn’t mean that positive material changes are impossible to win at all, or even that we have to play by the rules all the time. It’s not only fatalistic to assume that this is the final version of the world as we know it, it’s just wrong. A better world is always possible. Losing hope only pacifies the human spirit and causes inaction, and inaction is where change goes to die. The most radical reforms in American history, from the abolition of slavery to the expansion of women’s rights and more, weren’t won by the twiddling of thumbs and playing by the rules. They were won by average, everyday people like you and me who stood up and worked towards change.

 So, when Texas proposes a bill making it legal to bounty hunt drag queens, or when the president approves a new oil drilling project, or when the Supreme Court takes bodily autonomy from women in America, it’s important to not lose heart. Don’t let the evils of the world move you to despair, let them radicalize you and motivate you to fight for your fellow human beings. Revolutionary optimism isn’t just a mindset, it’s a set of actions. And now, we need action more than anything else.