To give you a quick rundown of what you’re about to read; it’s going to start out as a bummer, but I promise this about hope and ends on an up note.
I used to refer to myself as a “techno-optimist”. I think that term even once landed me a job. The CEO was Star Trek fan, and he understood the egalitarian utopia I envisioned by use of the phrase.
I’m not sure what I would call myself now. I still believe in the promise of technology but I can’t say that I’m bullish on the proper utilization of said promise. Technology, rather than freeing us from the artificial constraints of capitalism, seems to have only cemented a future where every dollar is allocated to a subscription service and every occupation asks that you accept less and to be less.
The optimism portion has been replaced with a guarded numbness. I scroll the news like everyone does and each headline reads like a pointed assault against a bright future. I swipe away. I close the app. I shut down. It’s more than I can bear.
With the People’s Accord I found a plan that I believe addresses a good portion of our fundamental national problems, but there are so many relentless injustices that it doesn’t fix, doesn’t acknowledge, that are beyond the scope of the Accord, that it makes me wish I could throw my energy and efforts into absolutely everything. If only I could be the superhero I dreamt of being as a child.
But, today I got teary eyed at a Tik-Tok and was reminded once more that hope springs eternal.
It’s so hard to trust anything on the internet these days that I reflexively tore apart what my eyes were telling me, but that techno-optimist in me saw a quick glimpse of the post-scarcity, solar-punk future and my want for it to be real overtook my suspicion of a scam.
This young scientist, and you know he know he’s deep science because of the elbow length protective gloves, addresses a fairly small gathering of people in the back of a non-descript building, who’ve come to witness an incredible scientific proclamation. That even that many people want to believe and give a shit is like a kiss to my heart. But with a relatively small amount of coffee looking liquid held aloft triumphantly, he announces that he’s created plastic-diesel; a clean burning fuel made entirely from plastic waste. Our ecological disaster transformed into the fuel to power us. The stuff of dreams.
I looked it up.
Our young scientist is mostly Tik-Tok, but his YouTube videos can be found searching “plastic diesel Portland”. There seems to be yet any investigative work on his specific claim, but even a cursory search reveals that he is far from the first to apparently demonstrate that fuel can be made from plastic waste. There were videos of plastic diesel from fifteen years ago and further back than that. I still can’t say if it’s real.
But I hope it is. And there it is: hope.
It’s a reminder that the future could still be incredible. It’s late, but it’s not too late. The future isn’t here quite yet and we have an opportunity to decide what it will look like.
I will continue to envision the best for us. And this pursuit of hope, this belief that solutions exist, is why I’m committed to building the future we deserve through The Allied People’s Union.
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