Small Things We Can Do
with Great Love
Hello, Friend,
I may not be in charge of you, but that doesn’t mean I will not try to persuade you to action. I care too much about the people I love, the world in which we live, and the future we are leaving for the next generations.
“Not all of us can do great things, but we can do small things with great love.”
Mother Theresa
I know you care, too, because I saw that passion in your fervent posts leading up to the election. I have also observed your silence in the days since. I understand that it all feels overwhelming. Self-care is important as we navigate this Brave New World. I know that we’ve been deflated, I know that our hearts are broken and our spirits are low, but we have not been defeated unless and until we surrender. We don’t have to spend every moment digesting the toxic slop, but we can remain diligent.
We can stay awake.
We can do small things with great love.
“For to be free is not merely to cast off one's chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.”
Nelson Mandela
Now is not the time to look away simply because it is uncomfortable and messy and painful and cruel. This is how autocrats take power: chaos, violence, threats, fear, exhaustion, and hopelessness which lead to eventual indifference. If you were a keyboard warrior and you’re back to posting cat memes with some vague hope that you’ll be safe, know that none of us are safe except for the people in the inner circle. Even they’re not safe, because safety is an illusion.
Your silence now doesn’t negate your former engagement. Nothing digital disappears, even if you ‘erase’ it. Now that Zuck has made it clear where his loyalties are, you can be sure your social media posts are being combed over by AI for key words and phrases. Your likes, shares, and follows have been duly noted. As long as you stay on anti-social media platforms, you are not only supporting the Broligarchs, you are handing them the right to monitor you and also monitor your contacts, including those who are not on these platforms. Unless you opted out when you signed up, you have given Meta permission to track them. Did you know that Zuck makes shadow profiles for people who aren’t on Meta so he can sell their data to advertisers? Did you know that Meta puts trackers all over the internet which end up on your computers and phones and tablets? Did you know that even if you delete Meta, you still have to go into your phone and computer to remove their tracking over and over again? Do you understand that Meta (and other Big Tech companies) are monitoring your every move, every purchase, every search, every word tapped into a keyboard or spoken into a receiver or out loud near your ‘smart’ devices?
How many warnings have to come through about your digital communications being compromised for you to realize that none of us are safe? No one is taking care of your information. You are a commodity. Big Brother is here.
Every artist, every scientist, every writer must decide now where he stands. The artist must take sides. He must elect to fight for freedom or for slavery.
Paul Robeson
There are more of us, but if most of us give up, then all of us will fall. Your safety pin or knit pink hat or Facebook frame over your photo or passionate words of defiance tapped into a keyboard when you thought we might win are meaningless if you do nothing now.
This is when the fight begins, the rest was prologue.
No, I won’t tell you what to do. We all have to do what feels best for us, but I will try to persuade you to do something, even a small thing. We can keep pressing our elected officials to represent the rights of their constituents through emails, letters, and phone calls. We can let people we know who are not safe in this moment that we are there for them and will fight the good fight with and for them. We can support each other with words of love and encouragement.
Now is the time to find your voice and find a way to take a stand. There are small ways to do that. Small things done with great love in big numbers can have significant impact. Even if it’s one small thing or a few small things, something is more than nothing.
Here are just a few small things you can do:
Stop using Big Tech browsers and search engines that track you and profit from your data, try these alternatives Brave Search, Duck Duck Go, Mojeek, and Startpage.
Use a VPN (Virtual Private Network) when online.
Support businesses willing to take a stand, the Progressive Shopper has a list to help and also lists organizations that support ethical consumption.
Shop in person with cash so your purchases aren’t tracked.
Instead of a week long protest, consider deleting your profiles on Meta platforms (Facebook/Instagram/Threads/WhatsApp, etc.), X/Twitter, TikTok, and YouTube, try BlueSky (find me there!) and Substack instead. (It is possible to move your businesses, profiles, and followers here, but it will take effort and little creativity. You can do it, really!) Anti-social media platforms are going to continue to errode now that the guardrails are removed.
Use private messaging apps instead of email, texts, or What’s App. Here is a list!
Shop small businesses instead of tech owned retailers.
Support organizations fighting to retain human rights under the new administration.
Sign up for the newsletters from Marc Elias and Democracy Docket! (You can find a lot of other great accounts to follow on Substack in my subscription list.)
Shop second hand instead of buying new.
Support independent media. (I’m personally not giving up on the few folks still on corporate owned media trying to fight the good fight, selective viewership does have impact.)
Get updates on health news from these accounts listed here.
Sign up for Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security emails to keep track of global health news.
Practice random kindnesses as often as possible.
Connect with other people, try not to become isolated. There are social groups like Living Liberally or you can join a local branch of a political group dedicated to election related efforts, here is a list of progressive groups.
If you are reading this and you have some other actionable small things people can do, please share in the comments. We can’t all do all the things. It is scary and overwhelming and that is by design. But if you’ve ever asked yourself what you would have done in 1930s Germany, know that you’re doing it right now.
“And the trouble is, if you don't risk anything, you risk even more.”
Erica Jong
We can do small things with great love. That is how we will save the world.
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Forward!
Just what I needed to hear. Small things with great love.
The woman in that image at the top of this article is unlikely to represent Joan of Arc because the figure has a Phrygian cap from the Revolution and one breast uncovered (which Joan of Arc certainly did not have at any point), so the figure probably represents French liberty.