Non-resistance is NOT the same as passivity or giving up!

In my last post, I suggested that we not resist yesterday's catastrophe.

It happened, it was decisive, and we will have to live with it.

Just like we've had to admit that the least "Christlike" Christians are in fact Christians--and typical ones, to boot--we have to admit that we as a nation are not "better than this." We ARE this. The sooner we come to terms with this sad, sobering fact, the better.

We don't have to like it or approve of it any more than we have to force ourselves to eat broken glass and enjoy it, but we have to admit it and see it for what it is because it IS what it is. 

Alas, it is what we are.

Fighting what's happened is like punching the tar baby--it only besmirches and exhausts us. It does nothing to support our beliefs in everything good or advance our causes to promote the common good.

It only tires us out and wears us down.

So I say: don't resist.

Accept and allow what has happened to happen. It's already happened, and we can't change it.

Accept and allow what will happen to happen. It's going to happen, and I seriously doubt we'll be able to change it.

But that doesn't mean giving up.

In the coming darkness ahead, each of us will see opportunities to be the light for ourselves and the next person--and we will do it.

We will find ways we can help each other because we're woke--we see other people as people, and we habitually do everything we can to uplift others and soothe their suffering.

So let's keep our eyes open and act with love and kindness every chance we get. If that's not anathema to maga and everything it and tr*mp and the republicans stand for, I don't know what is.

And let's keep our eyes open for opportunities to throw just a little sand in the maga machine to grind its gears for a while.

maga craves dystopia, so let's give them what we can of it right now.

STOP buying from fascists, like amazon, home depot, goya, mainstream newspapers (including wapo, nyt, wsj), cable TV, cable news, ...anything corporate.

Let's stop all discretionary spending we can--not only should we save our money because we're likely to need it, but let's keep every penny we can out of the pockets of the oligarchs. Get your passport ready to go, but don't travel for fun.

If you can grow any of your own food, grow it. If you can join a co-op, join it. If you can patronize a farmer's market, patronize it. Move your money out of the corporations and into your own backyard and into the pockets of those who need and appreciate it most and who provide the greatest good for your dollars.

If you have investments you can move out of the stock market and into bonds, do it now--especially because tr*mp will crash the market when he gets back in.

Remember: compliance is non-resistance, and malicious compliance is still compliance!

Slow-rolling, foot-dragging, oversharing...get creative. Malicious compliance is not actually malicious, and it can be a lot of fun!

I have a nosy relative who asks me questions that are really none of their business. I know they have an almost non-existent short-term memory and even less of an attention span, so I amuse myself by answering their questions in way more detail than they ever cared to know--I know they won't remember a word, and they'll be sorry they ever asked. But hey--I didn't resist. I complied.

Someone I knew a long time ago told me a story of when he had to go to an IRS audit. I don't know how apocryphal the story is, but it's a funny story and a great illustration of what I mean by malicious compliance.

Dude didn't contest the audit appointment or rail or rage or complain--he did not resist. He complied, and he went in with a plan. He stopped showering a week before his appointment with the IRS agent. He stopped brushing his teeth three days before his appointment. He bagged up all of his receipts and paperwork into three large garbage bags--he actually knew where each receipt and paper was, but he knew it wouldn't look that way to the agent. He slouched into his appointment dressed like a hayseed with a toothpick hanging out of his mouth. Whenever he spoke to the agent, he paused several seconds before speaking and drawled the slowest, thickest, drawliest drawl ever drawled. When the agent asked him for this or that receipt or paper, he'd dive into his trash bags, shuffle and ruffle around, take as long as he could until he could tell that the agent was about to lose his patience, and then pull out the right piece and hand it to the agent "triumphantly." He went on with this charade for a good three hours, as he tells it, until the agent had finally had enough, "blessed" his tax returns, and sent him on his way.

So let's all keep malicious compliance in mind going forward into this impending long, dark, ugly night. Don't resist, but don't give up. Don't fight, but don't be passive, either. Comply, but don't make it easy for them.

Let's make getting through this disaster as easy on ourselves as we can so that we can get through it as fast as we can. Let's take care of ourselves and each other the best we can so that we can start building a better society right here in our own little lives and circles. 

Hopefully, there's a more just, loving, egalitarian, non-capitalist America--and world--on the other side of this nightmare.