IS THERE ANY HOPE?
The short answer is “Yes.” But hope is hidden from the world, because in really hard times, times of war, despair and chaos, people who hope seek refuge, a place to hunker down, to wait out the storm, and work to protect their hope from those who would destroy it.
I believe hope lies in acts of nonviolent non-cooperation with the machinery of death, now a multifaceted electronically interconnected giant. The wall protecting the machinery and network of death is the mammon of this age.
The Wall of Mammon.
When we find ourselves in times of trouble we seek shelter. And in doing so our hopes find shelter too, lest they get dashed against the wall constructed by the mad combination of chaos, entropy and scarcity.
That wall has a name we only whisper, because it is the name of a great godlike energy, That wall has a name, that name is Mammon. Mammon is the fortress of those who believe that power and wealth can provide hope for some few from the effects of the hard times.
It is the followers of Mammon who believe that they will survive the hard times by their wealth and power. It is the followers of Mammon who build the great walls to protect themselves from the ravages of war, despair and chaos.
The Hidden hope: The fall of Mammon.
For the rest of us who cannot take refuge in wealth and power, or who will not, the wall of Mammon is a testament to the reality of death, despair and chaos. But in acknowledging Mammon’s power we also claim the vision of its fall. For we believe, no, we know, that Mammon will fail. The walls will come tumbling down. That is our hope.
We hold that hope close to our hearts, against the day when we can proclaim it publically. But for now, we hid that hope, we see a place of refuge and protection for that hope. And for those of us who are religious, we say we hide our hope in God. We sing, “let us hide ourselves in Thee.” Others may put it in the dominion of the inevitable bending of history. But one way or another we know that the walls will fall, mammon will fail, and war, despair and chaos, on which that wall depends, will cease. Hope hidden in God or in the triumph of Justice is hope as a promissory note. And remember, we have it on good authority that we cannot serve God and Mammon. We must choose to hope that Mammon fails, falls, or is crushed by itse own weight.
Acting in Anticipation
For hope to be real, now, requires us to act now in spite of Mammon, in ways that anticipate the future when our hopes are realized. We must be open to living the hopes yet to come. This will take the form of nonviolent noncooperation with the forces of Mammon, and in the dismantling, brick by brick, of the wall it has constructed.
Nonviolent noncooperation.
So, in this New Year I hope with anticipation:
In our own country, I believe there is promise in creative visionaries who have not supported the building of the walls of the fortress of Mammon, who do not believe that the threats of death, despair and chaos hold power forever. We do not believe in the wall that Mammon builds.
Out of the crumbling of the power of the walls of Mammon in America there will arise new vision in which hope is freed from money and power. The front edge of that vision will be found in non cooperation with the instruments of control by the military industrial and political use of weapons of both mass and localized destruction, the demand for simple human rights for all people, all together, the dismantling of the consumer economy, the reordering of economic life away from the production of arms to the construction of social benefits.
In 2025 in America, non-cooperation with the monied and the influencers who dance to the tunes of Mammon will be the first steps to tearing down the walls of Mammon brick by brick. The vision for this work will come, not from the places of power, but from the small cells of resistance that arise when someone will no longer sit in the back of the bus, stand by while medical care is denied them, have their health or safety limited by decree, or acquiesce when they are discriminated against.
Who will speak for us in our non-cooperation? We will need to be watchful and open to hearing.
Regarding Haiti, a people and country I love: The chaos in the center city is supported by the powerful, civic, economic, social and political, of which the gangs are a part. But out in the country, away and hidden from view, there are the people of Haiti, resilient and free. They will one day soon come down from the Mountains and the deep valleys and overturn the powers in the city. They and the artists and writers who tell their stories, it is they who will bring a new rebirth of liberty, Until then death, despair and chaos will rule. Who will speak for the majority of Haitian people, not living in crowded cities, but in the countryside? It is there that the voices of nonviolent noncooperation will arise. We will need to be watchful and open to hearing.
Regarding the Wars: The sad reality is that everyone except the dead and dying support the wars in Ukraine, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine and Israel. The powers that are present in each of these wars are making huge profits from war. The poor and conscripted die, the rich get rich. Those bombed out in the cities, left destitute in the countryside, dying without dignity and medical aid - they are the place where new vision will be found. It is the mothers of the disappeared, killed, and wounded who will become the voices for peace. Peace will begin with nonviolent noncooperation. We will need to be watchful and open to hearing.
I am convinced that mammon will serve itself no matter the cost in death, despair and chaos. Meeting these elements of mammon’s power with more death, despair and chaos only feeds the powerful. The only way out, forward, the only road to hope, lies the hidden hope for some new way of being.
Will we have the eyes to see, the ears to hear, and the hands to serve the emerging signs of hope in the year to come? I live in hope.
Yes, there is Hope.