The news that our country is being taken over by oligarchs intent on theft and destruction leaves the average citizen puzzled and baffled at best; worried, scared, and angry at worst. Hope can be difficult to find. But as Parker J. Palmer notes,

“Hope is holding a creative tension between what is and what could and should be, each day doing something to narrow the distance between the two.”

Even without doomscrolling and regularly checking online news sources, one can—and should—follow what is happening to our democracy and then do what we can individually and in community to narrow that distance between what is and what should be.

Timothy Snyder is, for me, one of the voices I trust to provide clear-eyed analysis. In the model of his small pamphlet On Tyranny, he recently laid out steps for different groups to take in this moment: for those who voted Republican but not for the takeover and destruction of government by oligarchs, for members of Congress, for mayors and governors, for federal workers. And he also suggests what the rest of us can do:

“Make sure you are talking to people and doing something. The logic of ‘move fast and break things,’ like the logic of all coups, is to gain quick dramatic successes that deter and demoralize and create the impression of inevitability. Nothing is inevitable. Do not be alone and do not be dismayed. Find someone who is doing something you admire and join them.”

Those who have gone before, like Baltimore native Virginia Hall, the most feared Allied spy of World War II and the linchpin of the French Resistance, have shown us why solidarity in the fight against oligarchical autocracy is crucial. Building back a sense of community as Americans will help us find our way.

Poet Wendell Berry wrote a short poem about what is truly happening when we find ourselves no longer knowing what to do. I first found a portion of it online as a meme.

Here’s the full poem, and the last two lines are critical in this day.

“It may be that when we no longer know what to do
we have come to our real work,
and that when we no longer know which way to go
we have come to our real journey.
The mind that is not baffled is not employed.
The impeded stream is the one that sings.”

Wendell Berry

We’re in this together. We can do this hard work. Snyder’s last paragraph reminds us of the stakes and requirements of freedom.

“What is a country? The way its people govern themselves. Sometimes self-government just means elections. And sometimes it means recognizing the deeper dignity and meaning of what it means to be a people. That means speaking up, standing out, and protesting. We can only be free together.”

More to come . . .

DJB

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*I continue to believe that we should stop, pause and be intentional about how we frame our thoughts, opinions and actions, and to select carefully the media we read or consume. I begin each morning with a meditation from the Center for Action and Contemplation. These are reminders that interior grounding is important as a prelude to external action. I also look to the poets and writers who see the world from a wider perspective than just politics. Historians like Snyder are also some of the voices I turn to, especially the daily newsletter of Heather Cox Richardson. I have a few other newsletters that arrive in my in-box, but what no longer comes is the Washington Post where I’ve cancelled my long-term subscription. The Post has both a publisher problem and an owner problem. I do not watch any television news.

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Photo by Mel Poole on Unsplash