What To Do In A Dictatorship

Sometimes, ridicule works just fine.

Here’s an article that might be helpful to us all. “What to do if the Insurrection Act is invoked: With the Insurrection Act looming, now is the time to learn how it might unfold and the strategic ways to respond — including the power of ridicule,” by Daniel Hunter, in Waging Non-Violence. 

In the piece, Mr. Hunter looks at what we can do as individuals should Trump invoke the Insurrection Act, in effect declaring martial law. He offers a variety of useful suggestions ranging from refusing to become violent (Trump will almost certainly try to instigate armed strife. Our refusal to go along with that will infuriate him) to the calculated use of ridicule and humor. 

Maybe not everything Mr. Hunter says will be valuable to everyone, but his article is doubtlessly an important foundation for those of us who wish to consider nonviolent responses to this most dreadful of modern administrations.

How Much Danger Are We In?

Sometimes, when I’m writing these things, I worry about just how much trouble I could get into because of them. Trump and MAGA are not known for their mercy. They have consistently sought revenge on anyone who, they think, has not shown them sufficient deference.

I tell myself that I’m relatively safe. No one reads me, for one thing. So it’s not like I’m a serious thorn in their side. And even if I did have a massive audience, what does that matter? People are protesting and writing and speaking out all over the country, and the Trump/Musk administration still just does whatever it damn well wants to. 

But, still, maybe there is some small danger. Dictatorships have long memories and short tempers. They do remember their critics, even the smallest, even decades later, and act accordingly.

However, I’m hoping that there is safety in numbers. If we all of us…all us Democrats, Progressives, Centerists, and Never-Trump Republicans…continue to speak out and continue to protest, then we will number in the millions. Maybe far too many for even the most efficient secret police to track and imprison. 

And maybe…maybe…in the end…

In our teeming multitudes, each of us alone but joining so many others…

We, and not they, will inherit the earth.

Vote, damn it, or face the end

Like you, like everyone, I am increasingly concerned about where we are headed as a society and a nation. Let’s consider the situation, shall we? We are in the middle of a pandemic, we are on the verge of a serious recession if not an outright depression, we have a president who is irresponsible and ineffective (except in so far as he can wreck the accomplishments of others), we have millions of deplorables who are heavily armed and eager to use their weapons on someone...and, oh, yes, we have enemies both foreign and domestic who are eager to flood the air waves and internet with rumors, falsehoods, and slanders. 

I fear that unless we are very lucky, it is all too likely that we will have serious civil unrest on our hands in the all too near future.

The Future With Trump

The question is what do we do about it? The only thing I can think of is for us all to vote Trump out of the White House...and then stand ready to defend the results of that election from a GOP which looks increasingly like a criminal or fascistic organization, and from Trump supporters who may go into the streets caressing their beloved automatic weapons.

Which means...

That right now the very worst thing any of us can do...the worst!...is to decide not to vote for Biden. If any of us says we “just can’t support him” because a “lesser evil is still an evil,” or because he isn’t Bernie, or because those sexual harassment claims are almost certainly false but “you just can’t be too sure...” or a hundred other reasons, then we actively support Trump’s return to the White House.

And the results of that...

Are too horrible to consider.

***

About me: I’m a writer and former journalist who has published material on everything from computers to the Jazz Age. (Among my small claims to fame is that I interviewed Steve Jobs just after that talented if complicated man got kicked out of Apple, and just before the company’s Board came begging him to come back.)

Please check out my new book, Padre: To The Island, a meditation on mortality, grief, and joy, based on the lives and deaths of two of the most amazing and unconventional people I ever met, my mother and father.

  This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

News, Information, Treason...