I didn’t discover “hopepunk”—a term coined by author Alexandra Rowland as the counterpoint to grimdark—until after I had finished writing the first draft of Karma Ledger, but it is exactly what Karma Ledger is! While the setting and aesthetic are very much informed by, and inspired by, cyberpunk fiction, the arc of its characters (and Nexus-Hub as a city) trends towards the “shattering of shackles”; the underlying notion that the characters have the power to potentially reshape Nexus-Hub from dystopia to utopia through community, small non-violent acts of defiance, and kind behavior.

I recently read a paper titled “Hope Is the New Punk” by Beatriz Hermida Ramos and found it to be very much in line with my philosophy while creating Nexus-Hub and the characters that inhabit it:

Challenging the status quo implies a desire to dismantle the hegemonic hierarchies that position certain bodies as lesser, which can only be accomplished by the use of solidarity and community as strategies of unity. Seeing each other as human in a capitalist system that profits from dehumanization is an act of resistance and resilience, and one that is necessary to not only being able to imagine a better future but also to act upon it together.

I highly recommend reading the article. For me it inspired this post, as well as more in-depth thinking of the concept of optimism as a source of agency. In Buddhism, there is a general sense that, despite karma and conditioning (which often leads us to suffering), we have the capacity to rewire ourselves.

…Whatever a [practitioner] frequently thinks about and ponders upon, that will become the inclination of his mind.

— Dvedhāvitakka Sutta (translation by Bhikkhu Bodhi)

The concept is closely related to “setting intentions” or “manifesting,” which are notions that have developed in the popular culture surrounding modern witchcraft, spiritualism, and new age thought. More or less it amounts to visualization or the invocation of positive outcomes towards making them a reality. Buddhist psychology takes that notion a little further and suggests that your mind literally changes as a result of your practice (meditation and sīla), and that changed mind leads to changed behavior.

Although it starts with a conscious effort and repetition, it’s that change in behavior that makes the significant difference. Beyond it being just an intellectual or philosophical underpinning motivating your willful actions, it becomes standard practice. It develops into muscle memory. It morphs into a psychological force that shapes your actions even when you are not necessarily conscious of the merit that you are putting out into the world. There is an effortlessness that feeds the power of your agency towards change, and it doesn’t even read as “work” all the time.

We live in capitalism. Its power seems inescapable. So did the divine right of kings. Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings. Resistance and change often begin in art, and very often in our art, the art of words.

— Ursula K. Le Guin, National Book Awards acceptance speech, 2014

Of course this is all easier said than done. It does almost always read as work at first. The world in its present state makes it incredibly easy to follow a cynical conditioning that perpetuates the status quo. It feeds anger, fear, and an “us versus them” mentality. But we have to be able to pull ourselves out of it, avoid its hook, and then prove—to ourselves and to others—that we don’t have to be reactive, cynical, and angry. And it doesn’t require a major paradigm shift or years of meditation and self-discipline. It just takes a single act of defiance. Today. And you can decide what it is: maybe you just decide to not share an angry or condescending post on social media. Maybe you yield the right of way to somebody and forgo giving them the finger. Maybe you smile at somebody that’s having a bad day even if you’re also having a bad day. Just choose one of those things today. Then next week maybe you do two of them. The week after that, do all three. This is how it starts. It’s how kindness can begin to flourish, and optimism becomes a source of agency.

Sources

  • Hermida Ramos, Beatriz. “Hope Is the New Punk: Politics of Storytelling, Queerness and Marginalized Communities in Becky Chambers’ The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet.” Gaudeamus: Journal of the Association of Young Researchers of Anglophone Studies 0 (Winter 2020): 27–46. gaudeamusjournal.org
  • Ñāṇamoli, Bhikkhu, and Bhikkhu Bodhi, trans. The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha: A Translation of the Majjhima Nikāya. Dvedhāvitakka Sutta (MN 19). Boston: Wisdom Publications, 1995.
  • Le Guin, Ursula K. Acceptance speech, Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, National Book Awards, November 19, 2014.