This long interview is filled with gems but I especially want to lift up the following quote (italics mine):
“But the situation is such that in our culture, to say you’re optimistic is maybe not the right thing. But hope, optimism, this attitude is a necessary political stance to take, because we are in a position of privilege, and the situation can be saved. And given those two, it’s a dereliction of duty to be pessimistic, to be cynical. It’s just a chicken thing to do.
We need to be strong in a moment of crisis by saying, yes, it can be done. And if we’re in a race between bad catastrophe and some kind of beginning prosperity for all — when you’re in a race that intense, you don’t want to sit down on the ground and start crying. Oh, we’ve lost already. That would be a bad thing to do because you’re in a race.
You actually need to run as hard as you can. If you lose the race, well, that is a dystopian novel. And I don’t really want to go there. If we lose the race, we’re in terrible trouble, and we’ll be in emergency mode for years. But if we win the race, it’s a big win for the biosphere, for the other creatures, and for humanity. So it’s worth pretending to be optimistic, or using optimism as a club, and beating it with people. Yes, we can succeed. Bang, bang, bang.”
~ Kim Stanley Robinson
Full Transcript: Ezra Klein Interviews Kim Stanley Robinson https://nyti.ms/3aJvJUD