People of Radical Imagination

Below, from Prof. Kathleen Dean Moore's commencement speech last spring at SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry. On this rainy May morning, hope for a sea change from philosopher/environmentalist whose new book Great Tide Rising just came out from Counterpoint Press.

http://www.riverwalking.com/great-tide-rising.html

"How did they finally do it? our grandchildren will ask. How, at the absolutely last possible moment, did that generation crank the heavy, creaking wheel of the world to make the great turning? The great turning away from a culture enslaved by fossil fuels, away from a culture that prided itself on accumulating wealth instead of sharing it, away from a culture that gobbled up the fecundity of the planet instead of nurturing it, a great turning away from an economy of infinite extraction that could have been a giant going-out-of-business sale.
How did they make a great turning toward a new understanding that human beings are kin, woven into a world of living beings, who all share the same origins, who will share the same fate? How did they create a culture based on gratitude, reciprocity, and restraint? Who were these people?
I think I know.
The everyday heroes of this time will be people of intellectual integrity, educated to viscerally understand the evolutionary, ecological, indigenous story of a world that is finite, resilient, interdependent, and astonishingly beautiful.
They will be people of radical imagination, reinventing everything. Starting over. They will know there has to be a better way, so they will set about to imagine it into existence.
They will be people of deep moral courage, who refuse to be made into foot soldiers in the old economy's war against the world, who refuse to be disempowered by despair. They will be people who love this raucous, reeling world, who affirm its absolute value and defend it fiercely and faithfully, for all time.
You have the education, and you have the wild, roaring imagination. May you summon the moral courage, and may it sustain you in the great work ahead."

Comments

  1. I love the hopeful tone of this. I wonder if these people of moral courage and radical imagination will be able to sway those at the top...

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