What could possibly go right?
By Vicki Robin
As we explore questions around Arts and Climate Change, we introduced the work of philosopher Roman Krznaric; The Good Ancestor – How to think long term in a short-term world?
From the reach discussions which ensued, one question came up: Hope and Fear is a very dualistic way of looking at the future? What is beyond hope and fear?
This question has remained central to our conversations with our following guests Jude Anderson and Greg Pritchard , as they shared their experience and thought-provoking actions and arts projects through the theme of our relationship to the land.
As we continue to build on these conversations, we’d like to share the work of another amazing thinker, Vicki Robin, a prolific social innovator, writer and speaker.
She hosts a very inspiring podcast/YouTube interview series, What Could Possibly Go Right?, born during the pandemic as she asked herself: Is the tide turning? Has the pandemic and the murder of George Floyd disrupted the exhausted skirmish line between left and right, business and environment, quarterly earnings and long-term thinking? What is possible now that wasn’t just 6 months ago?
This question birthed her new podcast and video series, What Could Possibly Go Right? sponsored by Post Carbon Institute.
She’s invited cultural scouts—a diverse set of long-term changemakers—to let us see, through their seasoned eyes, the landscape in front of us. If the wall of the old order is now showing cracks, where do they see glimmers of light?
We are not asking for glimmers of hope, as in a renewed sense that good, in the end, will prevail. Hope, like love, is complex. The definition might change over a lifetime of uneven results from dedicated work and partially realized dreams. Hope for changemakers is an act of imagination. It is generated daily through not giving in to despair and finding joy in the journey. It is moral action without expectation of results.
We are asking instead to see what is in the circle of light cast by our scout’s head lamps. Where do they see fertile ground, potent ideas, evidence of something fresh appearing out of the fog of confusion? We are looking for emergent stepping stones, be they policies, or stories, or alliances, or strategies, or movements on the rise.
In this conversation, she brings together Roman Krznaric and economist Kate Raworth, conceiver of the famous Doughnut Economics model, which has already been adopted by cities like Amsterdam as their plan to recover from the pandemic and commitment to addressing climate change.
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