No One is Going to Save Us, So We Must Save Us.

It has become increasingly clear that, unless something drastically changes, we are teetering on the edge of a conflict. Our longstanding ally in the United States of America has recently switched from the slow road to fascism, to the fascism superhighway, in a move that should not have shocked anyone paying attention- though that seems to have been surprisingly few people.

I don’t think I have any special sense of prescience: I’ve just been paying attention, know my history, and have a reasonable sense of pattern recognition. I’m certainly not the only person to notice, and I’m not the only person ringing alarm bells; I’m just sick of not seeing anyone addressing the issue of “well, if that’s so, what do we do?”

Perhaps I just have no patience and lack the belief that someone, anyone, is coming to save us. We must save us, if indeed we are to be saved.

I feel insane writing this. Even in my worst catastrophising I did not engage with the idea that, much like European nations on the eve of World War Two, those moderate and centrist voices who have so long claimed to be allies of the vulnerable, allies of disabled people, trans people, people of colour, indigenous peoples, and anyone else pushed to the margins of society would roll over like a paid actor playing a corpse. Crumple like wet cardboard. Disappear underfoot like rotten ice. Pick your metaphor. Regardless, all this to say I knew that the incoming Trump regime would be bad, but I did not think that they would have it so easy.

And yet, I still feel like I have my head wrapped in aluminium foil, or that I’m the crazy person at the end of the bar talking about some crazy mole-people-controlling-the-world theory. Regardless, things keep happening, no lizard-people (or other anti-semitic bullshit theory) needed. Even since I began drafting this post in a hotel room because I had nothing to distract myself from myself, trans people have become functionally unable to enter the US, and the Republican Government is ignoring court orders and placing trans prisoners in jails that align with their (theoretical, I don’t imagine there’s been a DNA test) chromosomes, and not their preferred gender.

It also feels incredibly presumptive to write this. I am no popular leader, I don’t run a mutual aid society, and like most in North America I have little to no real world experience resisting an occupying force on the ground. The best I have is an obsessive ability to research, a decent ability to communicate ideas, and the fact that I have been operating on the assumption that this situation was a “when” and not an “if” for several years now so I have a bit of a head start in terms of asking the right questions and finding some decent answers.

So why am I writing this if I’m so unqualified? The short answer is “To keep myself sane and maybe provide a resource to those looking”, but the longer answer is - Because no one else seems to be. Perhaps my viewpoint is too myopic, but I’ve been looking and not found much. Ismatu Gwendolyn’s “threadings” is certainly a great resource but discusses revolutionary action in one’s own country and less about how to survive against an occupier (though there are thoughts to be had on that, and these other resources), Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg’s “Life is a Sacred Text” has its finger on the pulse but is similarly not tailored in the direction I seek. Josh’s “New Means” feels more like an introductory text for those just waking up, which is critical, but does not often operate on concrete steps to take in the future (I do recommend reading all of them anyway, they have fantastic insights even if I do not always agree). Remove the preppers who think they can sustain themselves by hiding in the woods with a year’s worth of canned food and more boxes of ammunition than is generally advisable for someone so foolhardy, and there are not many places left to go.

So it falls to the fiction writers, of which I align myself with more than I do with any other writers. As has been pointed out elsewhere in many cases, such as those shouting from their social media accounts that “Octavia Butler/Margaret Atwood was right!”, speculative fiction writers often have their fingers on the pulse of the future - indeed, it is their job to look at the horizon and speculate on the trajectory of the stars.

And buds? the forecast is pretty bleak. We are, as the streamers say, “cooked”, in my opinion. No need to ask the Greek chorus that the average streamer chat provides.

So this is my little island of sanity. No, you are not crazy - things are as bad as they seem to be, and even if they aren’t, there’s nothing I’m planning on suggesting that is necessarily a bad idea given the current state of the world as-is.

In following posts, I will have to address first, who is “we”, or, who am I writing this for; second, why I believe WE are our own best chance at survival; and three, what I think must be done to hold off and frustrate those forces which will be coming for us.