Push Back the Darkness — Four Things You Can Do Right Now
For the last year and a half, I have been travelling across Canada, speaking with local activists and resisters, trying to bring analysis to the threat facing us.
But I realize that people need more than analysis. We are being overwhelmed by the endless barrage of bad news and menace. People need to find their footing — both internally and in terms of their community. The far right has been using the strategy of keeping us off balance — to flood the zone with shit, as Steve Bannon said.
There is no way MAGA could have succeeded in a democracy where people were active and engaged. The far right exploited cracks in society that have been growing for decades. The cracks began when people stopped seeing themselves as citizens with responsibilities and started seeing themselves as individuals. We moved from a sense of obligation for the common good toward self-interest.
German philosopher Peter Stoleridijk, writing in the early 1990s, noted,
“Increasingly people are sealing themselves off not just from institutions or parties but from society itself… A growing multitude of loosely connected individuals drift, propelled by the inner logic of industrial life, into a second-order solitude among their peers… a solitude for which the usual moralizing labels like ‘apolitical’ or ‘antisocial’ do not apply.”
This trend of disconnecting from social organizations and public engagement grew larger over the ensuing decades. But then COVID hit. Our growing isolation broke into deep social fractures.
The solution is not simply political. We have to rethink our relationship with each other — to return to a sense of citizenship and community.
I would like to share part of my speech from a recent Meidas Canada Town Hall in Halton, where I offer four steps we can take right now to restore our sense of place in the world. The video goes into greater depth, but here is a synopsis of four simple steps of resistance:
Rewire your brain
No generation has ever been more connected than ours. People have unprecedented access to knowledge and “connectivity” through the tap of a screen. And yet our attention spans have grown increasingly fragmented. We have become susceptible to doomscrolling, uncertainty and depression.
We need to rewire our brains. Get off the screen. Read a book. Get out in the yard. Take up a hobby. Study a new subject. Go for a walk.
As society becomes more addicted to AI, our interior space will be increasingly hollowed out. We need to resist both internally and externally.
Sing. Write poems. Paint. Cook. Carve wood. Learn an instrument.
Whatever you do is better than anything AI will create because you are awakening your own authenticity.
We need to restore the creative and reflective side of our brain because these are the things that make us human.
Get out and meet people
The world can’t be restored by keyboard warriors or Zoom meetings.
We have to be active in our community.
The health implications of isolation and loneliness are enormous: increased Alzheimer’s rates, heart disease, depression, addiction. In 2023, the US Surgeon General stated that “rebuilding social connection must be a top public health priority for our nation.”
The political implications are equally serious. Isolation has led to the rise of extremism; it has also led to a sense of helplessness in those who wish for a more civic-minded society.
Volunteer with a non-profit organization. Join a community group. Door knock for local campaigns.
It is essential to get out and meet people outside your worldview.
In our parents’ generation, meeting and talking with people from across the political spectrum was simply part of the fabric of living. It helped people learn to understand one another.
In our age, such activities require more investment of time. We need to be intentional in finding those pathways to people we otherwise wouldn’t engage with. Becoming a volunteer or helping out in the community builds a sense of shared purpose. It makes us want to get up in the morning.
Do your part for the planet
The most dangerous thing in the face of the unfolding climate catastrophe is despair.
If you have a garden, plant so that the butterflies and bees have a place to land. Join or organize a neighbourhood park clean-up. Support local conservation initiatives.
It may seem like trite advice, but it is all hands on deck, and no effort is too small. We must do whatever we can to help sustain the world around us.
I think of the words of Maude Barlow, whom I interviewed in my recent book Dangerous Memory. She reminds us that,
“There is an incredible amount of good stuff happening. We are winning fights. The need to protect biodiversity is being heard at levels of government that weren’t heard of before. There is reason for hope, and we need to embrace wise hope.
This is not about a ‘don’t worry and be happy’ false hope. Wise hope requires that we look the situation in the eye, learn as much as we can about the crisis and then take action anyways.”
Show up
Above all else, we need to recover our sense of citizenship.
Cynicism, rage and negativity are the work of lazy people.
And cowards.
Resistance is about calling it out and pushing back. Nobody is coming to save us. We are the front line, and if everyone does their part, we just might get through this time.
Show up. Participate. Speak up.
I go back to the foundational difference between the US - founded with the ideology- that every individual has the right to “ LIFE, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” which is all about the individual. And Canada, founded with constitutional ideology- charging our elected officials to create first-“ peace, order, and good government” which is all about the society. It was 100 years later before Canada produced the charter of rights and freedoms.
The rights of the individual are important, but in an unhealthy unbalanced angry society, they will begin to deteriorate then slowly vanish- which is what we are watching in the US; a small segment of the population enjoys massive wealth and privilege, a lot of people are just doing OK, and vast numbers of people are barely surviving with essentials like food, shelter and healthcare. Many of them are under educated, they are angry, they are scared- And they are all armed.
I am grateful every day to live in Canada, where we continue to make imperfect attempts to create a compassionate society, were the rights of the individual are safer. Now to help people understand this- and focus their attempts on protecting it. It is the social contract that is embedded in our constitution of peace order and good government- that gives the rest of it a chance. 🙏🏼🇨🇦❤️🇨🇦
Could not agree more. Now it's the doing.... Together!