Likewise, we suppress our responsibility in unleashing the
plague of global warming on the world and we call it a
natural cycle so that we do not have to change our ways.
Under the unbearable pressure of inconvenient truths, we
ignore them in hopes that they will go away rather than
fester and multiply. But if that is who we are and if we are
incapable of coming to terms with the repulsive past there
is no hope for us. Our fate is already cast and a terrible
price will have to be paid by billions of people and
countless other species. We will reap as we have sown and
misery and death will be our just reward.
If that is indeed the case, then everything that follows
this paragraph may be an exercise in futility; albeit it a
necessary one.
Despite the considerable evidence that suggests we are
collectively—like our ancestors also practitioners of
Manifest Destiny, history has disgorged some notable
exceptions to the idea of American exceptionalism and
entitlement. The people who actively opposed injustice
throughout American history and offered fierce resistance
are a light in the gathering darkness—a beacon of hope to
those living in the present and an inspiration to those who
will follow us in the future. Most of them were ordinary
people who differed from us only in their willingness to
resist the injustice and tyranny of their time.
We have only to follow their example to avoid being ship
wrecked in a history that endlessly repeats itself. There
may be a way out of hell but it will be wrought with
difficulty and characterized by individual and collective
struggle. The willingness of enough people to engage in that
struggle will determine the outcome and define the future.
From thousands of indigenous uprisings against colonial
occupation, to Shay’s rebellion and continuing through
heroic acts of revolutionary unionism and the courageous
peace activists of today’s Code Pink, America has produced a
continuous line of revolutionary thinkers and organizers
intent on fundamentally restructuring society, including the
redistribution of wealth and power.
America is a nation that has always been divided by
socio-economic class with the rich and powerful holding the
keys to political empire and advancing the agenda of the
moneyed gentry over those of everyone else. Yet we persist
in calling our republic a democracy—which suggests that we
have no idea what a real democracy should look like.
There has always been strong opposition to the tyranny of
unjust government and to the prevailing institutions of
oppression and inequality. And where there is resistance to
evil, no matter how small or seemingly impotent, there is
hope. Resistance, apart from being an act of defiance to
illegitimate authority, is also an act of faith akin to
planting a seed that has enormous potential to change the
world.
Resistance creates hope and hope in turn fuels further
resistance. Resistance and hope give birth to a faith that
believes that just outcomes are possible through struggle
and opposition.
Without resistance there is no hope and no possibility of
the transformative change that is so desperately needed. No
matter how seemingly futile the gesture of resistance—hope
is its byproduct. Hope is born of struggle and defiance to
unjust authority. It is born of a rebelliousness that
refuses to tolerate the intolerable and moves to oppose it.
While it is theoretically possible that people can exist
without hope, they cannot flourish and become fully human in
its absence.
Where hope is abandoned, fear immediately rushes in to fill
the vacuum and tyranny quickly ensues. Lacking hope, we are
simply biding our time, stealing from the future and waiting
for the end to play out. We are passive spectators on the
deck of the Titanic awaiting our fate, whistling in the dark
and trying to convince ourselves that these menacing waters
are safely navigable through blind reckoning and
indifference when in fact, they are not.
The great conservationist Aldo Leopold wisely observed: “One
of the penalties of an ecological education is that one
lives alone in a world of wounds.” That is also the penalty
of having a social conscience. Cultivating a social
conscience can be exasperating and it can adversely affect
one’s health. But the failure to cultivate a social
conscience approaches what Dr. Martin Luther King called,
“Spiritual Death.” There are rarely easy ways out of the
moral morasses we create. Opposition and struggle are the
way but they exact costs that too few are willing to pay.
That is why injustice is passed from one generation to the
next and injustice so often prevails over justice. Our core
beliefs should be non-negotiable. Either we stand by them or
we are deluding ourselves.
The situation is exacerbated when our fellow citizens fail
to grasp the gravity of the crises and even contribute to
the injustice, either deliberately or through unintended
ignorance of the important issues. In such times the reward
of struggle appears small and the temptation to quit is
great. As the flag wavers and prevaricators hold sway and
ignorance and darkness, it seems, becomes all pervasive and
hope seems like a Utopian dream as dim as the long lost
sunlight of a nuclear winter.
In the midst of insidious fear and belligerent nationalism,
resistance is never an easy proposition; but it is a
critical component of human nature that gives rise to hope
and, ultimately, to transformative change and justice.
Resistance creates possibilities, whereas capitulation
extinguishes them.
There are those who can look the other way in times of peril
or during the commission of crimes; and there are those who
cannot. We happen to belong to the latter group and we must
try to set things right. We are hard-wired that way—it is
our nature and it is who we are.
The alternative to resistance is as unthinkable as it is
unconscionable. As long as a single voice cries in the
wilderness hope exists and better outcomes are possible. It
is in our DNA to resist evil and, it is the only principled
action available to us. Conscience requires that we act on
the knowledge we have, regardless of our numbers or the
consequences to ourselves. Other good people will recognize
the justice of the cause and a few will join the struggle.
It is said that a journey of a thousand miles begins with a
single step. So, too, a movement is born with a single act
of resistance that is rooted in conscience.
No one knows if enough people will ever care enough to get
involved so we can reach the critical mass necessary to
evoke transformative change, which is why it is so
imperative to continue the struggle. It is impossible to
know where we are on our journey, so we must simply continue
the excursion by moving forward which is what defines us as
progressives and separates us from the crowd.
Humankind is rarely uplifted by its majority or by those who
play it safe by looking the other way in the face of
injustice. It is advanced by those who see wrong doing and
choose to do something about it—the conscientious few that
stand on principle and act in accordance with those
principles for the betterment of everyone.
Without principled resistance there is no possibility of
transformation from an unjust society to a just society; and
no possibility of driving a wooden stake through the heart
of the imperialist ambition that is killing our children and
the children of other people like us in distant lands in war
after war.
Fighting injustice is an antidote to the debilitating
despair that casts a dark pall over the nation and across
the world. Giving in to that despair can only assure its
continuation. Opposition to evil is preferable to
capitulation to it; and, moreover, it is the only
appropriate response. The beauty and joy is in the struggle,
in knowing the rightness of the cause; the stubborn refusal
to cooperate with evil or to commit crimes against earth and
humanity.
While our struggle often feels lonely and futile, we are
rarely as isolated as we think. There are almost certainly
kindred spirits in our own communities. Put out your hand to
see if anyone takes it. You might just be surprised to know
who is there.
For every front line activist there are tens of thousands
who agree with them in principle but who remain on the
sidelines as spectators. As conditions deteriorate and
others come to appreciate our position in the same light as
we do, more of them are likely to become involved in the
resistance. The untapped potential of our moral supporters
is both enormous and grossly under appreciated. Fear and
uncertainty is all that keeps us apart but they can be
overcome through networking and solidarity.
Sweeping change and justice will never come from the inert
masses who occupy the safe middle grounds. As corporate
fascism spreads across the planet there are no safe places
for anyone but the fascists themselves. Nor will
transformation come from the neo-conservative regressives
occupying the far right, as embodied by the likes of Trent
Lott and Rush Limbaugh and their ideological brethren in
corporate America. It will not be enacted through
neo-liberals such as Hillary Clinton either, or indeed
anyone in the mainstream.
Justice will come, as it always does, from the far left that
champion the cause of the disenfranchised and the
defenseless. It will be derived from ordinary
citizens—people like you and I working for justice and
accepting nothing less; by standing up and being counted and
refusing to sit down and be quiet. Ordinary people must
become interested enough and they must care enough to take
ownership of government and demand fair and equal
representation by it. But awakening is often a painfully
slow process and patience is so difficult when urgency is
needed.
Government that is not accountable to the people is
accountable to no one. That kind of government can only
become fascist and prey upon the people it is supposed to
serve. Such government must be abolished and replaced by
genuine democracy—government of the people, by the people,
for the people—all of the people, not just those with wealth
and social status.
Obedience to authority that is not derived from the people
themselves will ultimately result in injustice and economic
inequity. Obedience can only assure the continuation of the
established orthodoxy and a future that is significantly
worse than the past and the present combined. If we truly
believe in what we claim to hold dear we must be willing to
fight for those beliefs without compromising them. Faith
that is not driven by principled action is useless—it is not
real faith at all.
Yet, despite our best efforts, it may well be that the best
we can hope for is to slow the spread of the racist dogma of
American exceptionalism that, unfortunately, continues to
define us as a nation. Perhaps there are simply too few of
us actively engaged in resistance to stop the purveyors of
hate and extremism. But even if that is the case and
resistance is futile, it does not change the moral
imperative to resist. Injustice is wrong and it must be
opposed. Stepping out of the way or quitting is to
cooperate with the evil we rail against. Apathy and
hopelessness are the great enablers of tyranny and we must
never give in to them.
Given the enormity of the evil that stalks decency
everywhere, rage fatigue and depression are the prevalent
symptoms that follow. All of us are susceptible to them to
various degrees because we feel so alone and understandably
frustrated. The few are expected, as they always are, to do
the work of many from which all will benefit in the end.
Dealing with the defining issues of our time and the
blundering apathy of the multitudes can be infuriating and
demoralizing. We cannot do everything but each of us must do
what we can to affect the things we can change. Outrage and
anger can be powerful tools for motivation or they can
become debilitating liabilities. We must take care that they
motivate rather than destroy us. Righteous indignation and
fury is a just response to what is being done in our name
but it must be harnessed and directed.
Continuous resistance is exhausting and necessary work. It
is work that will probably never bring us the admiration of
our fellow citizens who are more likely than not to hold us
in contempt. People fear what they do not understand and
most still subscribe to the myth of American exceptionalism.
But it is the most important thing that any of us will ever
do. It is for us to show the way and keep hope alive.
In these trying times of doublespeak and group think it is
easy to feel overwhelmed and demoralized. But action is the
antidote to despair. It is vital that we stay connected to
other people engaged in related struggles; that we provide
mutual support to and encourage one another to continue a
spirited resistance that does not know how to quit. We are
rarely as alone as we are lead to believe.
It is immensely helpful to know there are other people out
there doing the important work that the times require of
each of us. Seeing others engaged in resisting wrong doing
may inspire others to take up the cause and a powerful
movement may someday be born. It is the certainty of that
knowledge that keeps hope alive and makes existence not only
bearable, but enjoyable.
I am not expecting anyone to do the impossible or to offer
oneself up for crucifixion or martyrdom. I am calling upon
all good people to simply live a wholesome and simple and
decent life and to uphold the principles of fairness,
decency, sharing and empathy for others and, most
importantly, justice. An injury to one truly is an injury to
all.
Charles Sullivan is a nature photographer, free-lance writer
and community activist residing in the Ridge and Valley
Providence of geopolitical West Virginia. He welcomes your
comments at
csullivan@phreego.com.
