Hope in the Dark: The Untold History of People Power

Solnit proposes that instead of adopting the Judeo-Christian idea of a perfect world and a fall from grace, it’s healthier to imagine one presided over by Coyote, the flawed Native American creator who made a world that was unfinished. Thus, instead of being complete, creation is a continuous phenomenon.

As we live in Coyote’s world, a surprising fact is true: Viagra (a pharmaceutical drug that promotes male potency) is good for the caribou deer. Before this drug’s introduction, velvet from the antlers of teenage caribou, along with the parts of many other animals, were used in Chinese medicine against impotence. Thus, Viagra spares caribous. Similarly, while the US military invented the internet, it’s also “one of our most valuable weapons against” (75) the military and a means of organizing peace marches, such as those in 2003 to protest the Iraq war. Solnit observes that if “the Angel of Alternative History asks us to believe in the invisible; Coyote asks us to trust in the basic eccentricity of the world, its sense of humor, and its resilience” (75). Thus, no moral absolutes exist in activism.