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In this current moment of economic, cultural and social adversity it’s all to easy to give in to cynicism, hopelessness and fear. What’s more difficult is locating the inspiration and optimism necessary to move forward.

Distinguished author and educational leader Parker Palmer reflects on how we got here and where we’re headed in this moving interview with Bill Moyers:

“I don’t think that we should ever doubt our capacity to deny reality. I mean, after all, until you get to be our age, you really believe you’re not going to die. That fundamental human fact of life.

And of course, that’s part of our problem. I mean, I could make the same argument about the current economic collapse. Who didn’t know it was coming? Who didn’t know that a system that encouraged us to live beyond our means and provided all kinds of devious and ethically doubtful ways for us to do that was going to fall apart someday?

Who didn’t know that housing was over-evaluated? That stocks were overpriced? Who didn’t know that a system that makes the rich richer while the poor get poorer will someday face a curtain call? We all knew that at some level, just like we know we’re going to die. And yet our capacity to deny reality is huge.
…
The opportunity now is for us to get real. And I think that’s going to make us, in the long run, more happy. The tragic gap, and I call it tragic not because it’s sad. It is. But more fundamentally because it’s an inevitable part of the human condition.”

– Watch the full interview at PBS or read the rest of the transcript here.

New to Parker Palmer? Check out his video on “Power and Powerlessness”:

Further reading:

Parker Palmer, the Courage to Teach. Parker’s classic writings on the inner emotional life of the teacher.