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Tomgram: Rebecca Solnit on the Year Goliath Took It on the Chin

The United States has always been the land of second chances and proud of it. So, in the true American second-chance spirit, Tomdispatch has given Rebecca Solnit, our favorite optimist, two shots at nailing this year to the wall -- and both have turned out splendidly. (That's not surprising, since 2005 generated enough material for twenty end-of-the-year pieces with something left over.) The early-bird version of her take on 2005, Three from Out of the Blue, focused on the surprise appearances of Cindy Sheehan, hurricane Katrina, and that back-from-extinction award-winner of the century, the Ivory-billed Woodpecker. Now, from a perch in distant Tierra del Fuego, she offers us 2005 as a David-and-Goliath struggle.

In the meantime, her Tomdispatch-generated book, Hope in the Dark: Untold Histories, Wild Possibilities, is within days of being reissued (but can be preordered) in an updated edition from Nation Books. She and I first "met" at the site when she sent in a piece, Acts of Hope, that later was transformed into Hope in the Dark. Now, the book -- a paean to the unexpected, to the wonders of what we don't know is coming -- has been fortified by material from her recent Tomdispatches, whole new chapters considering hope (and despair) in the context of the reelection of George Bush and the emergence of figures like Sheehan. Think of this as the upgraded or 2.0 version of the original -- and as a must-have for the new year.

What a surprising year 2005 turned out to be! Don't expect less of 2006. So read Solnit, buckle your seatbelt, and prepare yourself for a wild ride. Tom


2005: Bad Year for Goliath
How About David?
By Rebecca Solnit

To say that it was a bad year for Goliath doesn't mean it was exactly a good one for what George Bailey, in annual holiday It's a Wonderful Life reruns, calls "the little people." U.S. public opinion has almost caught up with the rest of the world in opposing the war, but Iraqis are still being bombed and American soldiers are still dying.

I write this from Buenos Aires, which attracts activists from afar for its progressive social movements, but up close is more compelling for its armies of the poor -- such as the cartoñeros who come out after dark to collect recyclables, families pushing huge loads through the summer night toward whatever pittance a pile of old cardboard brings in. In the same way, you could focus on how Hurricane Katrina damaged the Bush administration's standing, but the suffering of people displaced on roofs, and then in sports stadiums, and now out of view (but in hardly less precarious circumstances around the country) might matter more.

The most compelling images of 2005 are those of war, flood, and riot, but perhaps the most summary one wasn't even of human beings. It was a novelty photograph that appeared in many newspapers in late September of a huge non-native python that choked itself to death trying to swallow an alligator in Florida. It proved a lasting image of overwhelming and unsuccessful greed. All around the world this year, the snake choked and the alligator refused to see itself as lunch -- if you will let "alligator" stand in here for "civil society," for all the groups, organizations, publics, and citizenries who stood up for their rights.

Click here to read more of this dispatch.


Note: Tom Engelhardt's Tomgrams are partially republished on this site with the kind, explicit permission of the author.

posted by Annamarie at 2:07 PM