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.

More lessons to learn...if we survive

It looks like we as a nation have more lessons to learn...if we survive.

The sad part is that what we've just decisively created won't just damage us--it will damage the entire world and the planet herself because, like it or not, we lead in many ways that other nations follow.

Women's bodies.

Every marginalized community--people of color, LGBTQ+, people with disabilities, anyone with a disadvantage that can be exploited or used against them in any way.

Our health care system.

Our education system.

Our economy.

Our ecosystem.

Our children and their future.

Ukraine.

Gaza.

Jews.

Our media, which were already fascist enough to do more harm than good.

Every principle that Americans hold dear.

Everyone and everything will suffer.

Everyone and everything is now a commodity--a plaything for the rich and the theocrats.

Everything is now just a mere transaction--nothing matters.

American justice is dead--the criminals are in charge now.

American sanity is defunct--the lunatics are running the asylum now.

American democracy is dead--tr*mp will never leave "office" while he lives, and he'll surely pass the reins to one of his equally damaged spawn for them to reign for the rest of their life.

Welcome to Gilead, Project 2025, and 1984 all rolled into one.

rfk, jr, wants to antivax us to death; elon wants to impoverish us to death; and tr*mp is happy to let them, the republicans, our adversaries, and whoever else wants to do us all to death. The only thing worse than a narcissist losing is a narcissist winning. The revenge tour will be staggering.

They're not joking about putting us in trauma and austerity--the cruelty is the point. It helps them oppress us.

I can't believe that this is actually what a majority of American voters really wanted, but here it is.

As I've said before, they should get to live in the dystopia of their dreams, but they shouldn't have the right to drag the rest of us down into hell with them.

But they've done it, and here we are.

The damage that will be done will be incredible. Many of us will die needlessly, just like during tr*mp's mishandling of the pandemic. He's not kidding when he says it's going to be a bloodbath--in this case, it will be a bloodbath because he won.

It's going to be worse than any of us can imagine.

I guess we as a species still have a lot of lessons to learn--if we even survive this.

Once a nation gives up its democracy and hands itself over to a dictator, it is incredibly difficult to recover that democracy.

Just ask Alexei Navalny.

Or ask anyone who thought anointing Hugo Chavez or Fidel Castro dictator was a good idea.

Friends, we are in for one hell of a bumpy ride. This is going to take decades to recover from if we even can. 

Although this sure wasn't the timeline I was hoping for, I still believe that, somehow, even though I sure can't see how, it must be the best one for humanity's growth. 

Maybe this is what we as a species need to finally come to terms with the fact that we are one. There is only energy, and we are all just different aspects and facets of it. Maybe this is how we stop othering and being othered.

So here's what I suggest.

We have a few months of grace--let's enjoy them to the fullest and make lovely, warm memories that will support us down the road.

And as I've said earlier, turn off the news. Just turn it off. Its only purpose will be to frighten and harass us, so let's please just focus on the good we experience and can create around us. Let's focus locally and do the best we can to make our own little worlds as good and as bright as they can be.

We're going to have to be patient. I don't know how long it's going to take for the system to eat its own, but it will. Everyone who is celebrating today will become fodder for that inexorable machine's deglutition--no one is pure enough, so it's just a matter of time. Like I said, it may take decades, so let's gird our loins and prepare for a long, uphill road ahead.

It's going to be ok.

We are going to get through this.

It's not going to be fun or comfortable or pretty, but we will eventually come out the other side better, stronger, and wiser...if we survive. 

So don't give up.

And, believe it or not, don't fight it--what we resist persists.

The only way out is through, and the fastest, easiest way through will be the path of the most love and the least resistance.

We can't change what others do to us, but we decide how to use what happens. We can choose to be traumatized, or we can choose love and joy.

Let's MAKE this the best possible timeline for humanity every way we can. Let's do our best to love ourselves and each other, step away from the churn, and step into the flow. 

Keep the faith and hang in there--we are all in this together.

Much love to you and yours!