Quick Note: If you’ve been feeling uncertain about how to respond to the federal government’s ongoing cruelty and you long for a sense of clarity about how to focus your energy on creating a better world, please reach out.
I’m thinking about putting together a pay-what-you-can workshop to help folks find their activism-related roles in these times. If we have a solid group, then I’ll do it. If you’re interested, please reply to this email to let me know. Thanks!
On Wednesday, a client who organizes with a national union wrote me these thoughts (I share with consent):
“In light of what just happened in MN, one thing that feels particularly challenging is the feeling that I’m not doing enough, that none of us are doing enough, in the face of these horrors.
It feels very difficult to keep going about my business, as important as it is to change lives and build a better future in the long run, when things are tumbling so rapidly down the authoritarian rabbit hole. This is not just the normal ‘not enough’ stuff.”
By “not the normal ‘not enough’ stuff,” my client meant that her concerns don’t stem from internalized messages of insufficiency or low worth. Instead, she’s anxious that there just hasn’t been enough collective pushback to keep us from sliding farther into authoritarianism.
My client’s email struck a chord in me. Reading her words, minutes after learning about the ICE murder of Renee Nicole Good, I felt a sudden cocktail of stress hormones surge through my body.
Whenever I feel triggered like that, I turn to my journal to search for clarity. Today, I want to share some of what I wrote.
As you’ll see, I still don’t have answers about what “enough” means. But I share this in the hopes that some bit of it may also feel supportive to you, as it did for me. Please get curious about what serves you and leave the rest. Here’s a slightly-updated version of I wrote:
She’s right. We’re probably not doing enough collectively to stop us from sliding much farther down the authoritarian rabbit hole.
Trump just kidnapped the Venezuelan president. ICE just murdered a protester. It’s true that more people are realizing who Trump really is. But as Antonio Gramsci wrote, when hegemony can no longer use mind control, it uses force. That is what’s happening and will likely happen more.
So, am I doing enough?
This question makes me think back to when I was a college student in March 2003, protesting every day against the War in Iraq. I wondered then whether I would drop out of activism after college, as so many people from my parents’ generation.
Twenty-plus years later, I haven’t dropped out. The College Activist part of me is grateful I’m still engaged. And, I think she understands why I haven’t been protesting in the streets about the government’s actions in Venezuela (though I have called my representatives asking them to take a strong stance for deescalation—and I hope you will, too).
I think my college student self knows that I’m showing up where I believe I have the most power—locally.
Maybe that’s a more helpful question—What is within my power? And, what role am I called to play now?
I have the privilege to have a very clear role right now. As a city councilor, I’m working to pass a gender protection ordinance, stop Flock surveillance, amend our public assemblies ordinance, and bring progressive elected officials together. And that’s just my current focus.
Besides, all our political challenges arise from separation and supremacy culture, in the words of bell hooks—imperialist white supremacist capitalist patriarchy.
Because all issues are interconnected, I believe that working on these issues in my community are in some small way an act of protest against the invasion of Venezuela. While it is not within my power to stop the sequestering of foreign leaders, it is within my power to chip away at manifestations of imperialism locally.
Perhaps another question to ask is—How do I believe change happens? And am I focused there?
While I don’t know much about what history will bring us next, what I know to be true is that good organizing builds community. And building community builds power. Each campaign for change, if done with an aim to build relationships, builds our capacity to create more change in the future.
(Jiva Manske talked about this in our recent conversation. I take a lot of solace in what he shared, and I highly recommend listening if you haven’t yet—Practical Steps to Undermine Authoritarianism & Grow Democracy in Your Community.)
A community building approach takes more time in the short term, but it builds more power, capacity, and potential of change in the long term. And, I feel good about how I’m focusing there.
But, really, am I doing enough? Maybe a more practical set of questions is—What is within my capacity, and am I doing that?
Other ways to look at capacity are—What can I do without harming my health or reducing my capacity in the long run? And, am I making the sacrifices that are mine to make?
To be honest, after a winter’s break from deep organizing, I do think I have a bit more capacity to step up my pace. So, I’m committing to having the conversations I need to have over the next two weeks to move several items on my plate forward. That’ll take time and energy, which is my sacrifice to make now.
Still, though, am I doing enough? Are we doing enough?
What occurs to me is that this question is bigger than me. The perspective needed to answer this question is bigger than me. It humbles me. I am too small to be the arbiter of enough.
It also occurs to me that there’s a difference between collectively enough and individually enough. I fear we are not doing enough as a collective to stop the further slide into authoritarianism. And yet, as individuals, we only have the capacity to choose our own actions (even when those actions include organizing others to make choices that honor the collective, too).
Part of my ongoing work is not attempting to be bigger than I am. To notice when a sadness about collective inaction starts contorting itself into a sense of personal guilt at not doing enough and pressing pause.
I don’t want to try to define enough. But I do want to continue to discern what is within my power, what I will give to this moment, what my role to play is, what I will sacrifice, and how I will sustain myself for the long haul. And I will continue focusing my energies in ways that build community. That is within my power.
Your Turn
That was a lot of journaling from me! None of those were new thoughts, but it certainly settled my nervous system to sit with them this week.
Now, I invite you to take a turn and journal on the questions I shared:
- What is within your power?
- What role is your role to play at this moment in time?
- What is within your capacity? What can you do without harming your health and reducing your capacity in the long run? And, are you making the sacrifices that are mine to make?
- Finally, how might you show up in ways that build community (i.e. power) in the long run? How we show up is just as important as what we do.
If you’d like to reflect more on what role you might play in showing up for social change, you can read this article from a few years ago—How You Might Show Up for Social Change.
Finally, if you want help figuring out how you will show up for change in these times, please reply to this email. If there’s enough interest, I will convene a pay-what-you-can course / coaching experience to help you get clear and show up in ways you feel really good about.