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jenny_islanderI continue my read-through of On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century by Timothy Snyder.
"Lesson 15: Contribute to good causes. Be active in organizations, political or not, that express your own view of life... Then you will have made a free choice that supports civil society and helps others to do good."
Right now this may seem like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic--but Snyder, remember, is a pragmatist as well a historian. He focuses, always, on what works.
Václav Havel began the downfall of a regime by asking what might happen if the people of Czechoslovakia stopped going through the motions of glorifying the Party in order to escape its attention, and instead went on with their lives as if the Party were irrelevant. He advised doing something community minded--not necessarily political, but something that involved associating with others without the imprimatur of tyranny, talking with them about something other than tyranny, and increasing the supply of happiness. His go-to example was brewing good reeb.
Pick something socially positive to do, and do it with little or no discussion of the tyrants, even if they want whatever you are doing to vanish or become subject to their power. What have you been meaning to get around to? Socializing cats at the pet shelter? Taking a free sign language class at the library? Learning how to mend clothes at the college? Joining a choir? Do not allow tyranny to so occupy your mind that you can't choose to live without reference to it even for an hour. Do not allow tyranny to so isolate you that the only company you have is at a protest.
If you can't get out and about, look for things to do at home. Somebody with a computer but no money might join a citizen science initiative that distributes packets of scientific data in volumes that ordinary people can analyze using a program that runs in the background. Somebody with money but no time might pick a good cause or two to support via automatic payments. Somebody with no money and an old computer can write the story they always wanted to read and put it on a free fiction site so that whoever needs it will see it. Somebody with a bit of money and a lot of social anxiety might put a little free library in their front yard. The point is to exercise what Snyder calls your "capacity for trust and learning," which is a foundation for government of, by, and for the people.
"Lesson 15: Contribute to good causes. Be active in organizations, political or not, that express your own view of life... Then you will have made a free choice that supports civil society and helps others to do good."
Right now this may seem like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic--but Snyder, remember, is a pragmatist as well a historian. He focuses, always, on what works.
Václav Havel began the downfall of a regime by asking what might happen if the people of Czechoslovakia stopped going through the motions of glorifying the Party in order to escape its attention, and instead went on with their lives as if the Party were irrelevant. He advised doing something community minded--not necessarily political, but something that involved associating with others without the imprimatur of tyranny, talking with them about something other than tyranny, and increasing the supply of happiness. His go-to example was brewing good reeb.
Pick something socially positive to do, and do it with little or no discussion of the tyrants, even if they want whatever you are doing to vanish or become subject to their power. What have you been meaning to get around to? Socializing cats at the pet shelter? Taking a free sign language class at the library? Learning how to mend clothes at the college? Joining a choir? Do not allow tyranny to so occupy your mind that you can't choose to live without reference to it even for an hour. Do not allow tyranny to so isolate you that the only company you have is at a protest.
If you can't get out and about, look for things to do at home. Somebody with a computer but no money might join a citizen science initiative that distributes packets of scientific data in volumes that ordinary people can analyze using a program that runs in the background. Somebody with money but no time might pick a good cause or two to support via automatic payments. Somebody with no money and an old computer can write the story they always wanted to read and put it on a free fiction site so that whoever needs it will see it. Somebody with a bit of money and a lot of social anxiety might put a little free library in their front yard. The point is to exercise what Snyder calls your "capacity for trust and learning," which is a foundation for government of, by, and for the people.
