We Know What We're Against
But what, exactly, are we fighting for?
(Enjoy this essay as read by your fearless writer instead of AI!)
Hello, Friend,
Somewhere between 5 and 12 million people marched on Saturday in the No Kings protests in the US (depending on the various estimates.) It’s clear that an increasing number of people are standing up and speaking out. We need to do more. We need boycotts, blackouts, general strikes, and other coordinated actions. The biggest impact will be felt when it starts affecting the bottom line.
Beyond multi-pronged persistent resistance, we need cohesive vision. The word resistance implies that we’re mainly here to fight the bad things. (I’m guilty of falling into this trap.) This is why the bad things are so relentless, chaotic, and noisy. By keeping us focused on reacting to them they exhaust us, which prevents us from focusing on creating our own narratives. We have to fight the bad things, because they’re visceral and real and dangerous and increasing in power and reach. It’s not enough to be against the fascist tide, though. We also have to clearly define what we stand for, what we’d do differently, how we will hold our representatives accountable, and what new systems and approaches we will need to build as an antidote to this ever happening again. We need our Project 2025: Project 2029, Project E. Pluribus Unum, Project We the People, a clearly defined and articulated list of goals, objectives, plans, and values that provide a blueprint for the future.
What, exactly, are we fighting for and how, exactly, do we make it happen?
We need to strike a balance between digging in to understand the complexities of the current players, their agendas, and their overt and covert actions and shifting our focus towards the complexities of creating a bold new paradigm to replace the crumbling infrastructure of what is, clearly, no longer working.
Like most ‘liberals’ I want and need to feel hope. I want and need to feel joy. I want and need to believe in ‘the good in the world that is worth fighting for’ and to be working not just to expose and fight the evil but also to usher forth the good.
We don’t want or need a king or a dictator or an autocrat. We don’t want or need Theocracy or Technocracy or Oligarchy or Wealthy White Male Dominated Patriarchy. We don’t want or need middle of the road party establishment elected officials who are more interested in constant campaigning resulting in kowtowing to corporate donors and lobbyists instead of addressing the needs of the American people.
What do we need instead? How do we reach beyond the broken status quo? The Tech Bros didn’t just show up to the party, we’ve been financing them through taxpayer funded subsidies for years. They’ve been lining the pockets of our elected officials to curry favor for years. When you realize how firmly entrenched they are in most aspects of our government and our now Tech based Industrial Military Complex, it becomes clear that our elected officials have become dependent on them and, therefore, not motivated to reduce their influence in any discernable way. Even if we manage to wrench things back from the current administration, what will it matter if we don’t extricate the tentacles of the Tech Bros, grifters, and Theocrats? We’ve all seen what it looks like when the ‘good guys’ do little to nothing to fight for our rights and instead focus on business as usual with the occasional bone tossed in our general direction to keep us, mostly, preoccupied.
It’s a big part of how we’ve arrived at this singular moment.
The current administration is tearing it all apart to remove any impediments, consolidate their power, and centralize their control. At this point, it’s not enough to be against them. We can’t just complain about how bad it all is on social media, wave a sign at a protest, and show up every two or four years and vote. If insanity is doing the same thing and expecting different results, what do we need to do differently to achieve better results? If we can wrench it back, it will be up to us to build something new, something stronger, something that benefits the citizens, the nation, and the world at large. We are our greatest resource. We are the change that we seek. We are going to need creative and effective solutions to our complex and challenging problems.
So, friend, tell me. If you could start over from scratch, what would you build? If we created a Project 2029, what would it look like? I have some thoughts, but first I’d like to hear yours!
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Just some thoughts:
Margot, I like the spirit and passion you and Concetta show. Yes, viewing the good cartoon from Puck magazine, I’m aware that I’m not in the middle of Summer but at its beginning yet still having dreams.
Brings me back to:
PUCK:
Fairy, thou speak'st aright;
I am that merry wanderer of the night.
I jest to Oberon, and make him smile
When I a fat and bean-fed horse beguile
Neighing in likeness of a filly foal;
And sometime lurk I in a gossip's bowl,
In very likeness of a roasted crab;
And, when she drinks, against her lips I bob
And on her wither'd dewlap pour the ale.
The wisest aunt, telling the saddest tale,
Sometime for three-foot stool mistaketh me;
Then slip I from her bum, down topples she,
And 'tailor' cries, and falls into a cough;
And then the whole quire hold their hips and laugh;
And waxen in their mirth, and neeze, and swear
A merrier hour was never wasted there [2.1.32-57].[3]
Puck made mistakes.
I have many ideas for change. However, I realize each seed of change contains its own germ of destruction.
I remember Aldous Huxley writing ‘Brave New World’ a vision of dystopia as a society evolves into fascism, then writing ‘Island’ a more Utopian island under constant threat in the larger world of greed, ambition and facism. Why? Because Island has large oil reserves.
Even so, I will never succumb to Fascist beliefs.
All through history—the communist revolution that Lenin took over and poisoned leading to Stalin, the French Revolution taken over by those like Robespierre and later giving us Napoleon.
Last October I visited SE Asia including Cambodia and the killing fields. I was shocked to learn that Pol Pot had been a Buddhist Monk for years before his reign of blood. He thought he was doing the right thing. So, I do not trust any leader of any movement.
There's been a lot of chatter about this in different areas, but to summarize my thoughts:
1. Prohibition of misogyny, racism, sexism, rape, child marriage, slavery (including in penal institutions), violent institutions, and hate speech (including Holocaust denial and the "Lost Cause" Southern win of the civil war).
2. Equality of all people regardless of anything.
3. Fully drawn out independence of government and government services from religion of any kind. No more of this Christian nationalism BS and institutional takedowns because of it.
4. Fix the constitutional lapses to get true independence of the three branches. We don't need to go back to 1776, we need to get everything in that was done later after the civil war and WWII that was related to the improvement of civil rights, voting rights, commerce regulations, etc.
5. Prohibition of persons under 14 years of age from working and requirement that they be in school.
6. Insurance for all that includes whatever services physicians deem as necessary.
7. Government benefits to improve the lives of the disabled, elderly, and persons in need, with whatever is needed and not just medical insurance and a pittance to live on.
8. Fully drawn out independence from technocracy. Government data is independent and should be held securely outside of companies like Palantir.
9. Tariffs require congressional approval. The President should not have that duty unless an official war declaration was made by Congress.
10. Education for all through a two year associates degree and then subsidies if you choose to go further in your education to help pay for it.
eta: forgot 11! Bodily autonomy for all!