'The Interview': Rebecca Solnit Says the Left's Next Hero Is Already Here

What It Covers

Writer Rebecca Solnit discusses her new book *The Beginning Comes After the End* with NYT interviewer David Marchese, arguing that cultural amnesia fuels progressive despair, that right-wing backlash signals prior success, and that collective civic action — not individual saviors — drives durable political and social change.

Key Questions Answered

• •Backlash as progress indicator: When the far right mobilizes to reverse feminist, civil rights, and environmental gains, it signals those movements succeeded. Solnit frames Trumpism explicitly as fury at a world already transformed, not evidence of progressive failure. Recognizing backlash as confirmation of prior wins reframes political setbacks as defensive reactions rather than proof of defeat.
• •Temporal framing combats despair: Solnit argues that pessimism and doomerism stem from a narrow time horizon, not knowledge of the future. Expanding perspective to 50- or 100-year increments reveals consistent progressive momentum. Despair and historical amnesia are linked; hope and historical memory are equally linked. Deliberately studying past change is a practical antidote to present-tense political paralysis.
• •Reproductive rights: global vs. national framing: Overturning Roe v. Wade affected 4% of the global population. Simultaneously, Argentina, Mexico, Ireland, and Spain significantly expanded abortion access. Solnit uses this data to demonstrate that framing a single national setback as a global movement's failure is statistically and analytically inaccurate — a corrective lens applicable across many policy areas.
• •Collective action over individual saviors: Solnit cites Buddhist teacher Thich Nhat Hanh's concept that "the next Buddha will be the Sangha" — the community, not a lone figure. She applies this directly to U.S. politics, arguing that civil society, including disparaged groups like suburban women activists, consistently drives more durable change than charismatic political leaders or celebrity politicians.
• •Energy transition as underestimated progress: Solar and wind energy shifted from marginal to the cheapest and most scalable power sources available since 2000, yet this transformation registers poorly in public consciousness because it is incremental and technical. Solnit identifies the primary obstacles to full climate action as political and financial — fossil fuel industry lobbying — not technological or public-opinion barriers.