Do not despair in advance

[dolorosa_12]

The title of this post is taken from the comments under a photo by rblemberg, in which Lemberg documents their letterpress project — a quote from Timothy Snyder's On Tyranny. (I strongly recommend Snyder's own writing in this regard: clear-eyed and realistic about the dangers posed by various fascist authoritarians around the world, practical in its suggestions to resist it.) Preemptive despair has been causing me increasing frustration over the past months and years, and in some ways my own shifts in political thinking have been in direct reaction to these frustrations — sparked as well by numerous global examples of people (as individuals and grassroots communities) with far less agency than I reacting to far worse situations than the political turmoil of flawed democracies with determined, persistent concrete action. It was this, more than anything, that convinced me that the antidote to despair (preemptive or otherwise) is action, no matter how small and no matter how many doubts one may privately be harbouring about its effectiveness. Look with clear eyes at the situation, recognise the limits of your own power, and then ask yourself: okay, but what can I do next?

(I also think it's a good idea to look beyond the borders of one's own country of residence, because it reinforces the fact that there is a continuum of difficulty when it comes to overcoming the threat posed by authoritarianism, and the easiest way to do it is at the ballot box, after which point it becomes increasingly dangerous and difficult.)

I'm fortunate to live in a country that has experienced something of a reprieve, but that doesn't mean we in Britain can just sit back and let the grown-ups take over. Voting every three-five years at an election is like the minimum 'rent' we pay for the privilege to live in a democracy, but democracy is like a muscle, which should be exercised more regularly than that with ongoing political engagement. thissterlingcrew is a good Dreamwidth comm to gather resources and outline specific concrete actions which citizens and/or residents of the UK can undertake in response to political developments in that country. Although we now have a Labour government, the comm will remain active, as this government is a starting point, and will no doubt need to be pushed in the right direction on many occasions.

thisfinecrew is the US politics sister comm to the above. I particularly appreciated this recent post there by petra, 'Things to do other than vote,' which takes a realistic and concrete approach to the risks currently facing the US, and offers practical suggestions in the face of those risks.

I have numerous posts about Russia's ongoing fullscale invasion of Ukraine, most with their own practical suggestions of concrete ways to help Ukraine survive and fight back until the victory. This is the most recent one.

On a smaller, and less global political scale, the recent allegations of rape and sexual coercion against Neil Gaiman (summarised in recent posts by snickfic here and muccamukk here and here) have left many people here on Dreamwidth and the wider fandom community appalled and outraged. One practical direction in which people may wish to channel their anger is by donating to any of the New Zealand-based non-profits providing resources for survivors of sexual assault gathered by chestnut_pod.

Please feel free to list in the comments any suggested concrete actions in relation to the political situation in your own country, or in response to other enraging or upsetting events. Do not despair in advance, and remember that the antidote to despair is action.

Comments

[edwardianspinsteraunt]

Thank you for this post - it's a very helpful and needed reminder!

I particularly like your point that, for those of us living in Western democracies, it can be important to look beyond the borders of our own countries. I've been doing a lot of reflecting lately on my family's experiences in the former USSR, and how that should inform my approach to politics and activism, and it's really reinforced my belief that democracy - even when it's flawed and frustrating - is something we should never take for granted and which we must always fight to actively maintain. Post-WWII, my great-grandfather spent two years in hiding, day and night, behind a false wall in his barn, in a space no bigger than a cupboard, to avoid being sent to a gulag, because he'd protested at the lack of an alternative option to the corrupt local Soviet official in his local "elections". He was tipped off and managed to escape in time; lots of people like him didn't. His story makes me all the more grateful to live in a society with far greater civil liberties, and all the more determined to take action when needed to preserve those rights and freedoms.

As a foreign national, I can't donate to or volunteer for any US election campaigns (quite rightly - I'm passionately opposed to foreign interference in any elections on principle), but I've been donating to US-based pro-democracy organisations like the ACLU, the Center for Constitutional Rights and the Carter Center which *do* accept foreign donations (further suggestions would always be welcome!). On a more local level, I've been meaning to donate to the Good Law Project's campaign against banning puberty blockers. I'm also looking forward to moving in the autumn to a safe Labour seat and being able to write to an MP whom I agree with about a majority of issues!

[dolorosa_12]

What an amazing (and awful) thing for your great-grandfather to have lived through — he sounds like he was a very brave and resilient man.

I think it's important to look not just back in time, but outwards to things happening in other countries right now. As I say, the easiest way to resist authoritarianism is at the ballot box: once it's in power, it's a lot more difficult (as the examples of Georgia, Türkiye, Poland, Hong Kong, etc show).

I've also seen US friends (not on Dreamwidth, but elsewhere) posting things like 'What are your plans if Trump wins the election?' and I feel that that is not the correct question to be asking, yet (or not the only question to be asking right now). Instead the key question is 'what are you going to do right now, and for the next few months to do what you can to prevent Trump from winning the election?' And I also feel if some of these people looked outside their own borders more (at some of the examples I've outlined above), they would realise that the other questions to be asking right now are: what are you prepared to do? what are you not prepared to do? what are you prepared to have done to you? and what are you prepared to lose? People who live in authoritarian or totalitarian countries (or countries which are at immediate risk of turning into such things) ask themselves those questions, and react accordingly (even if the answer is that they are prepared to do and lose nothing — but they are least asking that question).

The Good Law Project does excellent work, so I'm sure your donation will contribute to a lot of good; likewise your donations in the US, and your plans for writing to your new MP.

[chestnut_pod]

I'd like to recommend the chatbot Resistbot, which for USAmericans, makes it way easier and faster to dash off a letter, fax, or email to one's representatives. One can simply write in a messaging app, and they take care of addressing the message and sending it on its way.

It can also check voter registration, find polling places, and top-to-bottom list elected officials from the state government level on up. It has many other functions which I use less often, all listed here.

[dolorosa_12]

Thank you — that sounds like an excellent resource!

[hoarmurath]

big tired but thank you for caring about Gaiman. I am expecting people to give him leeway because he has been an author beloved by many (not me, but I mostly disliked him based on marrying Amanda Palmer who at this point might also be a victim of his but has also proven to be a deeply unpleasant and careless person more than decades ago so I side-eyed hard), so seeing people not do that is helping.

I will be staying away from the transcripts, they sound a bit "could have been me had I walked into a man like him" and I can't handle that at the moment.

[dolorosa_12]

You're very welcome. A lot of his books were very important to me 10-15 years or so ago, and I've enjoyed more recent TV adaptations of his work, but unfortunately I'm very familiar with 'beloved male author turns out to be a sexual abuser' at this point, and am sad on behalf of his accusers, unimpressed by the reaction of the SFF publishing community as a whole, but not as devastated by the revelations as I might have been a decade ago.

I don't think anyone needs to read the transcripts in order to gain an understanding of the awfulness of the situation (the summaries I've linked to make everything clear enough) — you should do what you need to do to protect your own mental health.

[hoarmurath]

Yep yep yep. I live in somewhat fear of my favorites turning out to be abusers. *fingers crossed*

My best friend I think read to the first middle and to be honest, the whole situation and apparently Amanda Palmer saying to her or the other survivor that "I have heard of about 15 different cases" is just...ugh. But like we know these people are serial abusers, in fact at this point I am more surprised to hear of a sexual abuser that does not do it more than once.

I would just love it if people stopped doing that. My best friend said that "Gaiman would not have had any problems scoring multiple consenting and aware partners" but I guess abusing people who had been basically children just a year ago (sorry a 17 year old is still a child in the context of being approached by a 40+ year old man) is so much more fun! Or something. Why do I even try to understand how these shitheads think, I don't know.

In any case, thank you again. Weird thing to say, but you're often very clear and articulate about events and how shit they are and what people can do and I appreciate seeing it on my reading list a lot.

[gingicat]

Thank you.

[dolorosa_12]

You're welcome.

[muccamukk]

I signed up to volunteer for my political party, and am doing training to learn to canvass and sign people up. We have a very scary election coming up in the spring, and it feels like doing something is better than panicking at home.

Thanks for sharing those links!

[dolorosa_12]

That is exactly the spirit in which I hope people respond to scary political situations. Good for you!

I’m glad the links were helpful.

[lynn82md]

The good thing about me being an immigrant turned citizen in another country is that I have to look beyond the borders of where I live to the borders of where I am from. However, I have been looking beyond the borders of where I live due to my passion in history and geology (particularly disasters). With disasters in particular, I know that people get lulled into a false sense of security and that they are under the belief that nothing bad will ever happen in their lifetime that will cause them to be concern with anything beyond where they live. In fact, it has lead to some of these people dying (Mount St. Helen's eruption in 1980 is a good demonstration of that or those that refuse to leave their homes during, say, a hurricane). And it isn't just natural disasters. It is any disaster...environmental disaster like Chernobyl and Pincher in Oklahoma to war. So, because of this background (even though I am an amateur), this has caused me to look more beyond than my borders of where I am from because I wonder..."What would happen if this happened here?" and "What is my back up plan if it does happen here? Will I try to stay and salvage what I can? Will I go to where I know someone? Will I go to a new place?"

So, I vote. Not just in US elections (when it is federal). I vote in Swedish elections and now I can vote for federal there due to becoming naturalized in 2020. I can also vote in EU elections now because of that citizenship. I know the power I can yield with voting not just in one, but three elections. I also participate in surveys, petitions, and rallies if there is one near me (in Sweden, not so much...but when I lived in the US, yes I did go to those).