Arundhati Roy: The Day When Change Will Come

I first discovered this profound quote by a courageous, strong, and amazing woman I love, Arundhati Roy, inside the book of another courageous, strong, and amazing woman I love, Naomi Klein, in her book This Changes Everything. The wise ones in our midst inspire me and fill me with gratitude. May inspiration, wisdom, courage, and fierce caring for our world be contagious! — Molly

The day capitalism is forced to tolerate non-capitalistic societies in its midst and to acknowledge limits in its quest for domination, the day it is forced to recognize that its supply of raw material will not be endless, is the day when change will come. If there is any hope for the world at all, it does not live in climate-change conference rooms or in cities with tall buildings. It lives low down on the ground, with its arms around the people who go to battle every day to protect their forests, the mountains and their rivers because they know that the forests, the mountains and the rivers protect them.

The first step towards reimagining a world gone terribly wrong would be to stop the annihilation of those who have a different imagination — an imagination that is outside of capitalism as well as communism. An imagination which has an altogether different understanding of what constitutes happiness and fulfillment. To gain this philosophical space, it is necessary to concede some physical space for survival of those who may look like the keepers of our past, but who may really be the guides to our future.   

— Arundhati Roy