I was driving recently, headed south on the Park Presidio Bypass, that little stretch of highway 1 that cuts through Golden Gate Park. And, as I came out of the park onto 19th Ave, I saw the large graffiti message “RESIST” painted on what must be a two to three story retaining wall up on Turtle Hill. In typical fashion, my brain began the argumentative debate that seems to be its natural state:
Headvoice 1: RESIST. Fuck yeah!!
Headvoice 2: Resist what though? You can’t just resist everything.
HV 1: Duh. I mean like resist the man, resist the system, resist people stepping on your liberty. Don’t accept injustice.
HV 2: But isn’t resistance futile if there isn’t an alternative option proffered.
HV1: Proffered? What are you, a British barrister?
HV 2: I’m just saying resistance is a step. It’s not a solution in and of itself.
HV 1: Well then what are the steps, smart guy? Oh and they have to be alliterative or no one will remember them.
HV 2: Well I don’t know. I’m trying to drive, not create a guide to political activism for the world.
HV 1: Then you shouldn’t have brought it up.
HV 2: I was just thinking out loud.
HV 1: No you weren’t. This an internal dialogue.
HV 2: Whatever, dick!
[Beat]
HV 2: Are you hungry?
HV 1: No. But I could eat.
HV 2: Yeah me too. Let’s tell the dude with the wallet.
Or something like that. I’ve since done a little thinking on this (and I’m not being humble when I say “a little” so lower your expectations).
We live in an imperfect world. It is full of injustice and needless suffering. We should be primed to resist systems that bolster those injustices and further that suffering. We should be invested in creating a more just and equitable society.
[Side note 1: There’s an old philosophical notion that is cannot get you to ought. So using the word should here is highly problematic. We can investigate that further at a later date. For now, I’m just going with my gut which says that seeking solutions to injustice and needless suffering is an inherently good objective.]
So yes when I see the word RESIST painted on a wall my impulse is to say “Fuck yeah!” But resistance alone is not enough. It’s a command built on the word “no,” the equivalent of a toddler refusing to eat her peas. Resistance cannot be a solution because it is merely the active work of impeding things as they are. Resisting the current paradigm is not the same as conceiving a better way nor is it a pathway to implementing that better way.
My sense is that the fuller expression of social change is: Resist, Reenvision, Renew, Revise.
Alliteration applied to help me remember it.
Resist to help us acknowledge that things as they are can be challenged in the interest of improving them to become what they could be.
Reenvision to help us define what the possibilities are, what the end goal is, and to justify how and why the new paradigm will indeed be objectively better than the current paradigm.
Renew to put the practices of the new paradigm into effect. Tangibly enacting change so that we can test the original hypothesis – we can see if injustice and needless suffering are reduced.
And Revise to help us humbly acknowledgement that we may have gotten it wrong, that the world will always surprise us with how complicated it actually is and our plans are never quite adequate to the challenge before us.
I feel like in our modern political world, we get stuck believing resistance is an end in and of itself. Yelling “no” whether you’re an ACAB activist or a Mom’s for Liberty lunatic does not get anyone to “yes.” And it certainly doesn’t convince the people who derive benefit from the current paradigm to engage in dialogue about changing it.
So yes - please RESIST, fight the good fight, but be clear about how you envision an alternative path and be open to being wrong or misguided. Improving our society requires resistance. It needs us to say no. But it also needs vision and a plan of action so that we can convince others to say yes. And, finally, it requires the humility to acknowledge when our solutions are failing and to start the process all over again.
Internet of the day
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
The Good:
I haven’t skated in a long, long while. And even when I did skate I wasn’t particularly good at it. I didn’t have the requisite blase attitude about pain and injury. That said, the ethos of skating – particularly street skating – has always appealed to me and so I still dabble in skate videos, especially of local spots. There’s something about the camaraderie bred out of fearlessness and self expression that just tickles the happy place in my gut. Enjoy.
The Bad:
Just saw an interesting video trying to answer why Middle Eastern countries today tend to have higher levels of poverty than their European Mediterranean counterparts. You can watch the video to learn more, but what I learned that I didn’t know was that the Ottoman Empire banned Guttenberg’s printing press for 200 years after its invention and Turkey’s literacy rate didn’t match that of the 15th century Netherlands until the 20th century. A smart move for the religious rulers of the Ottoman empire who never had to deal with the social disorder of the European Reformation, but not great for the economic growth enabled by a more educated populace. Remember kids - being able to read is a gift. Go get a book. Celebrate your literacy. (Final note: I’m no economic historian, so have no idea if the video above holds up to academic scrutiny.)
The Ugly:
Monarch butterflies are officially endangered. Not sure when this designation happened, but that ain’t a good thing. The unintended consequences of the industrial revolution are sehr schlecht (German’s word for “bad” belongs in the Good paragraph. It is almost onomatopoeic – you just kinda feel the bad as you say it).
Finally:
