Rebecca Solnit on the Limits of Individual Heroes

I suppose it’s a bit of a stretch to consider the following by Rebecca Solnit as a “Quote of the Day,” given that it was first published over two years ago. Then again, thanks to a friend who recently brought to my attention the article from which it’s excerpted, I’ve discovered that Solnit’s words are actually timeless in their wisdom and relevancy.

[A problematic] part of our rugged individualism and hero culture [is] the idea that all problems are personal and they’re all soluble by personal responsibility – or medication that helps you accept what you cannot change, when it can be changed but not by you personally. It’s a framework that eliminates the possibility of deeper, broader change or of holding accountable the powerful who create and benefit from the status quo and its myriad forms of harm. The narrative of individual responsibility and change protects stasis, whether it’s adapting to inequality or poverty or pollution.

Our largest problems won’t be solved by heroes. They’ll be solved, if they are, by movements, coalitions, civil society. The climate movement, for example, has been first of all a mass effort, and if figures like Bill McKibben stand out – well he stands out as the cofounder of a global climate action group whose network is in 188 countries and the guy who keeps saying versions of “The most effective thing you can do about climate as an individual is stop being an individual.” And he’s often spoken of a book that influenced him early on, The Pushcart War, a 1964 children’s tale about pushcart vendors organizing to protect their own in a territorial war against truck drivers on the streets of New York. And, plot spoiler, winning.

– Rebecca Solnit
Excerpted from “When the Hero Is the Problem”
Literary Hub
April 2, 2019

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Rebecca Solnit on How 9/11 Should Be Remembered
• Marianne Williamson on the Tenth Anniversary of Occupy Wall Street
• Balancing the Fire
• The End of the World As We Know It . . . and the Beginning As We Live It
• See the World!
• Making the Connections
• The People’s Climate Solidarity March – Minneapolis, 4/29/17
• “The Movement of Love and Inclusion Has Just Been Unleashed”
• “It Is All Connected”
• Rocking the Cradle of Power

Image: Trent Davis Bailey.