Emma Goldman, cancer and struggling on through Grimdark America

Well, the Felon of the United States has done as he promised and hit the ground running. In bad directions. Reversing Biden policies for lowering healthcare costs. Removing Secret Service protection from his enemies. Starting the gutting of civil rights. Pardoning not only the J6 terrorist traitors but convicted drug dealers (when Republicans talk about Dem policies letting dangerous criminals out on the street, it’s projection. Again). Attacking birthright citizenship. And, of course, co-president Musk giving a Nazi salute.

There’s a part of me that feels doing anything besides resistance is insane. Cowardly. Failure. How can I have fun when America is sliding into tyranny? I’ve seen a few people complaining online about exactly that — how can anyone enjoy themselves in this darkest timeline?

If you feel some of that, this Bluesky thread by Mishell Baker may help: “Being a person with deadly, incurable cancer who is nonetheless still alive for an indefinite timeframe gives me an interesting metaphor that helps me deal with things like large-scale corruption in government or commerce. To wit, she focuses on cancer when she’s in treatment or talking to her doctors; when she’s with her family, watching movies or whatever, she stops. “Every minute you focus on that horror when you are *not* actively doing something to evade or improve or ameliorate the situation (receiving chemo, taking Zofran, listening to the doctor, etc.), you are WASTING WHAT’S LEFT OF YOUR WILD PRECIOUS LIFE.”

Similarly, the legendary anarchist and feminist Emma Goldman has been quoted as saying “Don’t join the revolution if they won’t let you dance.” The actual quote is longer and more nuanced but the same point: the fight for justice and equality is serious business but that doesn’t mean you have to be serious all the time to prove your commitment or your worth. We may fail in our cause. We will definitely die someday. Doing good and having fun don’t have to be in opposition.

Now, some other inspirational thoughts:

“I know this sounds weak, I know it. But kindness is one of the few things we carry that can make a difference for each other. We can’t undo all this hate, but we can still make life a little easier for others. I do not mean to people trying to hurt others. I mean be kind to each other.” — Gail Simone.

By contrast we have right-wing pundit Megan Basham warning people that Jesus doesn’t want you to help people like the Good Samaritan. Just be callous like her and trust Jesus to wash away your sins. I think Simone’s closer to where we need to be.

“Technical fixes are ones where the solution can be known; you maybe need to call in the right expert, but there’s clarity about what to do.Adaptive challenges, on the other hand, are ones that put us onto entirely new terrain. Nobody has ever solved this problem before, not in this way, with these factors. Or maybe it’s just new terrain for us, but there’s an existential change in there, something that alters our identity.” — Rabbi Danya Rutenberg. “When we give ourselves space to feel the loss, we can get over to the place of understanding what is happening, without illusion, without pretending, and without telling ourselves that there’s nothing that we can do. Because that is another lie.”

““When you have decided what you believe, what you feel must be done, have the courage to stand alone and be counted.” — Eleanor Roosevelt (quoted in this pre-election post)

“Somehow the church tends to pick up the idea that we’re supposed to win. That our place in the world is not one of suffering love, but victorious power. It’s so easy for the church to forget that Christ did not call us to rule but to serve. He called us, as Dietrich Bonhoeffer put it, to come and die. The church’s role in history is to live the way of the King, the way of the cross, the way of self-giving love.” Or as Daniel Berrigan put it (quoted in the same piece) ““One is not commanded to be on the winning side, but to be in the right place when the Lord returns.” — from another pre-election Kristin Kobes duMez essay (I liked it though I realize it won’t jibe with everyone’s religious perspective).