Zoom Link: ‘How to Navigate an Increasingly Dangerous World’

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There is an excellent article in Waging Nonviolence, entitled: “10 Ways to be Prepared and Grounded Now that Trump has Won.” Many of its principles echo what I have recommended since my 2020 book, Profile of a Nation: Trump’s Mind, America’s Soul—starting with care of the self, coalescing rather than separating from one another, and grounding ourselves in reality and righteousness. Lately, I have emphasized being in the eye of the hurricane and finding our center, from which true action can arise.

I will elaborate more on that later, but here I wish to excerpt the article:

[G]ood psychology is good social change. Authoritarian power is derived from fear of repression, isolation from each other and exhaustion at the utter chaos…. for us to be of any use in [an authoritarian] world, we have to pay grave attention to our inner states….

1. Trust yourself

I started writing this list with strategic principles (e.g., analyze your opponents’ weakness and learn to handle political violence), but actually the place to start is with your own self.

Distrust fuels the flame of autocracy because it makes it much easier to divide…. This is a social disease: You know who to trust by who they tell you to distrust.

Trust-building starts with your own self. It includes trusting your own eyes and gut, as well as building protection from the ways the crazy-making can become internalized….

Then take steps to follow through on what you need. If you’re tired, take some rest. If you’re scared, make some peace with your fears…. the value here is to start with trusting your own inner voice….

2. Find others who you trust

[T]he emotional landscape matters a great deal. Hannah Arendt’s “The Origins of Totalitarianism” explored how destructive ideologies like fascism and autocracy grow. She used the word verlassenheit—often translated as loneliness—as a central ingredient. As she meant it, loneliness isn’t a feeling but a kind of social isolation of the mind. Your thinking becomes closed off to the world and a sense of being abandoned to each other….

Fear breeds distance. We have to consciously break that distance…. Find people you trust to meet with regularly…. Use that trust to explore your own thinking and support each other to stay sharp and grounded.

3. Grieve

No matter what we try to do, there’s going to be a lot of loss. The human thing to do is grieve. [H]umans are also very good at compartmentalizing, rationalizing, intellectualizing and ignoring—but the damage it does to our body and psyche is pretty well documented….

4. Release that which you cannot change

[T]he Serenity Prayer, “God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference” … comes from theologian Reinhold Niebuhr as he was watching the rise of Nazis in Germany….

Chaos is a friend of the autocrat. One way we can unwittingly assist is by joining in the story that we have to do it all….

5. Find your path

… We can’t just be stuck reacting and stopping the bad. We have to have a vision…. In other words: Your path may not be clear right now. That’s okay. There will be plenty of opportunities to join the resistance.

6. Do not obey in advance, do not self-censor

… Timothy Snyder has written a helpful book called “On Tyranny”…. He cites ceding power as the first problem to tackle, writing: “Most of the power of authoritarianism is freely given. In times like these, individuals think ahead about what a more repressive government will want, and then offer themselves without being asked. A citizen who adapts in this way is teaching power what it can do.”

7. Reorient your political map

Even if you don’t want to engage with [those who do not share your political views], we’ll all have to give space to those who do experiment with new language to appeal to others…. Empathy will be helpful here….

8. Get real about power

… Gene Sharp wrote:

“By themselves, rulers cannot collect taxes, enforce repressive laws and regulations, keep trains running on time, prepare national budgets, direct traffic, manage ports, print money, repair roads, keep markets supplied with food, make steel, build rockets, train the police and army, issue postage stamps or even milk a cow. People provide these services to the ruler though a variety of organizations and institutions. If people would stop providing these skills, the ruler could not rule”….

9. Handle fear, make violence rebound

… Black civil rights leaders were targeted by the government of Montgomery, Alabama during the bus boycott in the 1950’s. Leaders like the newly appointed Martin Luther King Jr. went into hiding after police threats of arrest based on antiquated anti-boycott laws. Movement organizer Rustin organized them to go down to the station and demand to be arrested since they were leaders—making a positive spectacle of the repression….. Folks charged were met with cheers from crowds…. Fear was turned into valor.

10. Envision a positive future

[W]e’ve all now imagined storylines about how bad it might get. We would do ourselves a service to spend an equal measure of time envisioning how we might advance our cause in these conditions. As writer Walidah Imarisha says, “The goal of visionary fiction is to change the world.”

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