Page Lotze
@dinapage
Page Lotze
@dinapage
To hope well is to be realistic about probabilities, not to succumb to wishful thinking or be cowed by fear; it is to hold possibilities open when you should. The point of clinging to possibility is not to feel good – hope may be more painful than despair – but to keep the flicker of potential agency alive.
While it's important to be cautious about making overly broad or universal claims (because not everything applies to everyone in the same way), there's also a need to recognize that some human experiences—like the ability to thrive or suffer—are common across all cultures.
If we say that everything about human experience is entirely dependent on culture or social constructs, then we lose the ability to talk meaningfully about concepts like justice or oppression. To effectively study and critique society (which is what critical social science aims to do), we need to acknowledge that some aspects of human life are shared by everyone, no matter where or how they live. Without this common ground, it becomes difficult to talk about what's right or wrong on a broader, more ethical level.