What Can We Do Now That The Worst Has Happened?
The “burn-it-all-down boys” have seized the commanding heights. What can we as individuals and communities do to protect the people, places and values we most cherish? How can we thrive in adversity?
There are moments in history when we humans jump off the deep end into abysses of unfathomable depth. Wars are like that. So, it turns out, are intensifying inequality and a collective fear of the future. We have just voted democratically to replace a flawed democracy with tyranny. In the midst of all this uncertainty and instability, democratic political leaders are finding they can no longer retain the confidence of their peoples.
Today we stand at the precipice of an abyss. A convergence of trends and circumstances long in the making is generating a perfect storm. This uncertainty is ripe for exploitation by would-be authoritarian rulers who promise to act decisively and free their citizens from fear. Of course they have no magic answer either. But by the time citizens have willingly surrendered their sovereignty to a tyrant masquerading as a savior, they no longer have the choice of opting out. Having lost their freedom to speak and organize, they must adapt to a harsh new reality where they no longer have rights but at best just privileges that can be arbitrarily stripped away and are bestowed only as long as they obey.
What can we do as individuals and communities to protect the people, places, and values we hold most dear? And how can we turn adversity into the opportunity to deepen our connections with one another and the natural world?
1. Take comfort from knowing these dark times, however bleak and difficult, will not last forever. This too shall pass and better times will return. Indeed, dark times often presage a returning of the light. Together, we can become that light.
2. Remember that history never moves only in one direction, that as in physics, for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. When bad things happen, whether prompted by nature or human destructiveness, the best in humanity also emerges. You are part of that response.
3. Seek the gifts in adversity, the light amid the darkness. These gifts are always there and will become apparent the more you become attuned to their presence and hasten their emergence. There’s a large body of work about the coming transition and its positive potential along with its inevitable suffering. The long-building breakdown of civilization contains within it seeds of renewal.
4. Don’t let tyrants steal your joy. One of the most subversive acts one can commit in response to the relentless humorlessness of tyranny is to share the simple pleasures of being alive that even the most repressive regimes can’t altogether smother.
5. Live wholeheartedly. In times of great trauma and transition, as in war and revolution, every action gains meaning that it hadn’t had in more ordinary circumstances. Even in repressive regimes people still fall in love, cultivate humor, and create great art. Sometimes they do so still more by being inspired to defy the vulgar tastes of barbarians in high places. Friendship is all the more precious when tested by the high stakes of commitment and the risk of betrayal.
6. Be bold; living under tyranny is no time for timidity. Caution is in order, but so is courage — standing together and stepping forth. Repression can either drive people to huddle alone in fear or together in mutual support and shared strength.
7. Bridge across divides. Drop politics as the lens through which you perceive the world and unseen opportunities emerge. One of civil war’s most tragic symptoms is how it sets brother against brother and rends the social fabric that unites us. The world is larger than our political differences and we must never let them define and divide us.
8. Double up on kindness. Treat people with still greater consideration than before. Kindness is contagious; small acts make a large difference in how people view their world. Your simple gesture of respect — offering a moment of your undivided attention, making way for another to go first, expressing appreciation for small gestures of thoughtfulness — can make someone’s day, and they in turn will pass it on to others.
9. Don’t succumb to fear; draw courage from each other. Realize that those who would oppress us are acting from fear, not confidence; cowardice, not strength.
10. Gain strength from the knowledge not only that we’re not alone but that we are legion and those who would seek to steal our future are not the true majority.
11. Affirm that true wealth resides with those who treat one another and all things with consideration and kindness and that the greedy hold only fool’s gold incapable of nourishing them.
12. Create communities and circles of resilience to shelter and practice core values of kindness, compassion, sharing, and helping to meet one another’s needs. Build on successful strategies, using word of mouth and advanced communications to share innovations.
13. Reach out and invite in those who feel isolated and alone, who in their isolation can easily succumb to fear and tyranny. Welcome them into widening circles of connection and affection.
