260) Day 28 -- Reason #28 to revolt against Predatory Capitalism: Because it's what heroes do

Why join an organization fighting for democracy? Fighting for human rights? Fighting for the environment? Fighting for education? Fighting for LGBTQ+ people? Because, like it or not, the fight is upon us. You can step up, or be a victim. It’s as simple as that. And when you step up, you won’t be alone.

There are many, many organizations fighting to protect democracy, advance human rights, and empower people everywhere to contribute to making a better world. 

When you don’t fully appreciate this, and your view of “the world” is through the lens of the news, and the hand-wringing and fear on social media, and the worst-of-the-worst stories that filter into your awareness, it can be all too easy to succumb to the belief that society is just going to hell in a hand basket, nobody gives a damn, and people are too selfish, lazy, dumb, or misinformed to ever make things better.   

This disempowering, depressing way of thinking is EXACTLY what the wannabe autocrats and dictators and holders of power want you to believe.  This is WHY they cultivate and shape the media to portray the world as it does.  And this is why right-wing politicians, from Trump to Pierre Poilievre, focus on how “the country is broken”, “things are terrible”, “the previous government DESTROYED our country”, etc., because they WANT you to feel fearful and helpless.  

Because the more the population feels like things are hopeless, the more the power-mongers can gain even more money, more power, and less accountability for anything they want to do.  

And also because fear SHUTS DOWN your higher-cognitive-processing abilities.  It’s very difficult to be open-minded and consider new things, to be creative, to be open to “the other”, when your mind is clouded by fear.  This is basic, universal neuroscience.

So the more that a Poilievre type of politician can repeat the message of how terrible and broken everything is, the more HE gains power.  He actually GAINS PEOPLE’S TRUST, by lying, because he’s appealing to people’s desire to circle the wagons, keep everything the same, don’t let them foreigners into “our” country, business-as-usual, trust the system.  This “system justification” tendency is one of the biggest hammers that right-wing media slams us with, precisely because they know it gives them more power, and interferes with the population, the voters, being able to think critically and open-mindedly.  

On the other hand, as people get more involved with organizations that are making a difference, as they see the many, many, many people working for progressive change, as they meet more LGBTQ+ people, more people from other races, other religions, other cultures, as they broaden their worldview to the beauty and resilience and simple Goodness of cultural diversity, and perhaps most importantly, as they see people acting courageously, intelligently, informed by science and deeply-researched facts, they start to feel that yes, there IS hope, yes there IS a better way to be, yes, there IS a better world, and YES, this is possible for us to achieve!!

In short, working with organizations restores your faith in humanity, and in your own ability to make a difference.

As just one example, I was deeply inspired by the article attached at the bottom of this essay.  It’s from the ACLU — American Civil Liberties Union.

As the public was reeling in shock that Trump won the election, and people everywhere were wondering “oh my god what’s going to happen?”, the ACLU was preparing.  Preparing for the onslaught of horrible shit that was about to come, so they could meet it, head-on, like the courageous humans, elves and a Dwarf in Helm’s Deep, surrounded by the Orc army, knowing they were in a fight for their very civilization.  

The ACLU was preparing.  With well-informed arguments.  With teams of lawyers ready to litigate the government and protect the pillars of democracy.  With courageous leaders not afraid to stand up to a bully.  And most importantly, perhaps, with INFORMATION.  So that as the shit-show began, and begin it most certainly did, the ACLU was ready to fight back.  

Unlike most of the rest of us.  Sitting at home, saying “how could people be so stupid?”, “how could Trump say and do x, y, z?”; “Oh my god we’re so screwed”, the rest of us, most of us I imagine, were knocked off balance and, basically, freaking out.  Myself included.

But the ACLU was researching.  Preparing documents.  Waiting for the hammer to fall so that the moment it did, they would be armed with information and strategies, trained, and ready.

THAT is heroism.  

Those organizations, of heroes and deep thinkers, people with integrity and morals, people who believe in the inherent goodness of democracy and who have faith that the public-at-large wants a sane world, not an unhinged dictatorship that subjects us to the whim of a power-hungry narcissist, exist everywhere.  They’re in every community, helping the public in countless ways.

So, join them.  Join the Resistance.  You’ve trained for this, in a sense even wanted this, your whole life.  

Every hero story, every movie, every book, that involved some giant Battle for the Earth (or galaxy, or timeline, or whatever), every superhero, every bad-ass fighting against all odds, from Neo and Trinity and Morpheus, to Indiana Jones, from Mikasa Ackerman to John Mclane, from Luke Skywalker to Izuku Midoriya, from Gandalf rushing into battle “at first light on the 5th day” to the crew of Firefly facing down both the Alliance and the Reavers to spread the truth to all humanity, and from to the crew of Star Trek facing the Borg and refusing to accept that “Resistance is futile” to Aang and Katara, Sokka, Toph and Zuko facing the might of Ozai as he burned the world, to the students standing on their desks in protest of the school’s wrongful firing of Mr. Keating in Dead Poets Society — THAT was your training ground.  

As were the real-life examples.  From Oskar Schindler to Terry Fox, from the man standing in front of the tank in Tianamen square to Nelson Mandela, Rosa Parks, and Martin Luther King, Jr., from the marchers on the bridge to Selma facing the violence of White Supremacists, to the people who jump onto subway tracks to save a stranger they don’t even know, from your own family members standing up to an abuser, to your ancestors standing up to oppression, THAT was your training ground.

Every time you felt that RUSH when the good guys went into battle, when friends rallied and faced down The Enemy, that was you, wanting to BE a hero, to rise to the challenge, to show that you too, are courageous, and on the right side of history.

So find an organization you believe in.  Join it.  And be on the right side of history.