Collective Action is the Way Out

Like it or not, the fight is here. And it's time to start fighting.

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The foundation for our political understanding is necessarily limiting. When receiving our education, we are presented the three branches of government, given the details of their operation while being inundated with messaging lauding the “genius” of our Founders, and, all the while, our only given entry point to participation is voting for the individuals who will make up those bodies.

This is coupled with baseline and convenient historical instruction and cultural stereotypes. That history, which has been worn down and sculpted by decades of political influence and the efforts of the wealth class, is a mythology that manages to give just enough time to our struggles - primarily focusing on the Civil War and a brief nod to the near-revolution of the 1960’s and 1970’s, which is conveniently depicted as having “settled” all the problems of race and sex and authoritarian reach instead of having launched the counter-revolution carried out by the wealthy that got us here - to give the story some tension. It intentionally frames the country’s progress as having emanated from the political class, continually stressing that our entry point into the process, our votes, are what made that progress possible.

What goes missing here is the real and lasting point of history: change and progress and reform do not happen naturally. It is resisted, continually, by the powerful, in a bid to hold and enlarge that power. Representative government occasionally represents the interests of the democratic masses, but these moments have been few and far between. And the stories we are taught and raised on sand down the actual events and movements that exerted pressure on the body politic to move beyond cycles of increasing self-interest and provide that representation.

And, so, what is thrust upon us is a system that serves that increasingly self-dealing cycle while leaving vast majorities of the people drowning in hopelessness, giving up on democratic participation in general, and, as we can see now with alarming clarity, a culture ridden through with authoritarian disease and determined to carry the project into the dark night of destructive despair.

Do not mistake what I am saying for doomerism or despair.

Do not allow yourself to see any of this as an invitation to nihilism.

Despite what you have been told, what you have been taught, you do have power. You are capable of winning this existential fight. And what we have seen from history is that there are ways we can place our thumbs on the scale and turn this awful tide.

The Fight is Here

Right now, as you read this, Elon Musk and his team of white supremacist, misogynistic sycophants are working to seize more and more power over the federal government and its near-endless organs of administrative control. They are far from your reach. In fact, members of Congress are being denied entry to the buildings where the dirty work is being carried out (for the record, I think those members of Congress, if they are serious, should force security to arrest them as they push the issue). As the richest man in the world, Musk is so insulated from the rest of us that even standing within feet of him is nearly as impossible and unthinkable as colonizing Mars. You, as a person, cannot physically stop them and likely lack the resources or connections to legally throw an impediment in their way.

I do not want to be flip or sugarcoat any of this. This is a maddening feeling. A lack of control is one of the most activating sensations a human being can withstand. It sends us into a cycle of powerful emotions. We can get lost in worries about what kind of harm is being done and what will be visited upon us. In this case, those feelings are warranted. But it can also toss us into an abyss of despair, leaving us to feel overwhelmed and powerless.

Make no mistake, we are in a generational crisis. When I was writing The Midnight Kingdom: A History of Power, Paranoia, and the Coming Crisis, the crisis I was writing about was this very situation. It is a dire moment that can affect the rest of our lives and generations of lives to come. I don’t want to be here anymore than you do, but we are here.

Let me say it in no uncertain terms: Musk and a cadre of tech oligarchs are using their wealth and specialized knowledge to take advantage of the degenerating state of American politics and culture to seize control. Their plan is to break the back of liberal democracy, twist the American Empire into an organ dedicated to their personal pet projects and personal enrichment, move humanity past the nation state stage and into a new and unprecedented paradigm in which they and their cronies are in charge and beyond any accountability or challenge.

If it sounds bad it’s only because it is bad.

I say all of this not to immobilize you, but in the hopes that it will actually mobilize you. Despite what a lot of liberals, institutionalists, and moderates will tell you, and despite their calls to be patient and trust the process and the institutions, we are being hurriedly thrust into this. It is not time to tune out and it is not time to look the other way.

A Simulation of Activism

What we have been given is a pseudo-environment filled with simulations of resistance. The ongoing corruption of representative government has coincided with the oligarchical takeover of the economy and, in turn, the corporatization of the public square. This, when coupled with the misleading education I spoke of earlier, has left us dangling in the wind and screaming for someone, anyone to help.

The two-party system has only made this worse. The Democratic Party laid the foundation for this moment by entrusting the tech oligarchs, in their infancy, with the keys to the administrative state and economy, betting that their “endless innovations” would create prosperity and usher in a new era of American dominance. They were coddled. Deified. Left without checks and balances. To regulate would have meant hindering the digital transformation of the New Century, and instead of doing their jobs and preventing the rise of the oligarchical class, they were instrumental in greasing the rails so they could move faster and break more things. We were told to divest from the humanities and virtually ever other pursuit in order to turbo-boost STEM investment and raise these would-be techno-kings on high, all while the government shoveled more and more money their way. And now, in the face of their predictable takeover, we are left with meager representation at best.

Instead, what we got was social media. A reality designed and controlled by the very oligarchs who would come to do this. It gave us a simulacrum of representation. We could respond to our politicians, leave them desperate messages they would never see. It gave us a locus of control, a feeling that we were engaging in activism which satisfied our urgent need for action and channeled into a digital jar that held it until it simply evaporated into the pixelated ether. All along, we were able to feel a sense of catharsis. We could believe that we had done our part, that things would be taken care of, and we could go back to working our parts in the growing authoritarian machine and enjoy the spoils of Neoliberal globalism while they lasted.

If you’re reading this, chances are you finally realized the futility.

Make no mistake, actual activism and actual resistance is dangerous. Retweeting is a relatively safe pastime. It certainly means you don’t have to take time out to fight and, if left unquestioned, it provides an immediate dopamine hit while the actual work is long and regularly painful. It meant you didn’t have to risk being physically or legally hurt by an increasingly aggressive police state and relatively kept from the roving, cruel eye of the authoritarians. If you get involved, you could get hurt. And, it’s no coincidence, that in recent years, whether it was the BLM protests in 2020 or the Palestinian protests, we were given a flood of instructive examples of how standing up for what is right is also risking personal safety.

Add to that the escalating attacks on funding and personal fortunes. The takeover of the administrative state has resulted in a slew of financial penalties. Restricting of funding. Loss of employment. Being barred from federal grants and loans and jobs. A constant, multi-tiered communication that if you’re going to speak out you’d better do it in the oligarch-owned spaces and, probably, just stop speaking out entirely.

A Weak, Frightened Class

These communications and captures are happening for a reason. The wealth classes are cowards. In every utterance, in every conspiracy theory, in every action what radiates through is an omnipresent fear that the many will overwhelm the few. And this is at the heart of authoritarianism and fascism, and what they represent is a throbbing need to barricade themselves against democratic energies and cut off any possibilities for resistance at all costs.

The first month of the Trump Administration was designed to pummel us into submission. It was a frenzied blitz of actions intended to overwhelm us, leave us addled and frightened, and head off any resistance before it began. Fortunately, these men are cowards and, fortunately, these power-grabs always result in equal backlash.

For Musk and Trump and the oligarchs and authoritarians they work with in lock-step, this process requires a sense of inevitability. We are supposed to see all of this and feel demoralized and powerless. We are supposed to think of Musk in those rooms, his goons coding control without oversight, and feel as if there is nothing we can do. We are supposed to view Trump and the immunity gifted to him by a stolen Supreme Court and his base of cultish acolytes and feel outnumbered and small.

Those are the conditions in which this work. In fact, they are the only conditions in which any of this works.

To succeed, Musk and Trump and the oligarchs need us to look at their crimes and their coups and their cruelty and give up. They need us hear about roving ICE squads, the military, to think of the rigged legal system, to hear the quiet part loud when they casually float finishing the ethnic cleansing in Gaza, when they began plotting to ship US citizens to hellish prisons in El Salvador or Guantanamo Bay, where we can be abused and tortured beyond the protections of the Constitution, and make a political calculation that they are more than happy to kill us, hurt us, and take any measure at their disposal to win this fight.

What We Must Do

The countervailing force in these situations take a few forms. In some cases, there is a seemingly out-of-nowhere power grab and it is met with strong political resistance and sometimes resistance through military and institutional bodies. These moves can catch the body politic unaware and win out, or they can be defeated relatively quickly. Our present circumstances mostly rule out the political response as the Democratic Party is still attempting to reason with the authoritarians or, at best, responding with photo-ops and speeches without much in the way of solutions. Our institutions are so thoroughly corrupted that they are either standing down or relying on a spate of lawsuits and judicial rulings. We don’t know if they’ll pan out or even be heeded. There’s reason to believe they won’t. And, as for the military, well, I doubt you need me to explain to you why waiting on a military action to bring an authoritarian to justice doesn’t often turn out well.

Popular resistance and democratic action are our route to facing this crisis. Already we know a few things: 1. The vast majority of Americans find this disturbing and untenable. 2. Outrage is palpable. 3. Protests are organically growing around the country. 4. Trump and Musk are acting quickly and disturbing large coalitions and power blocs that are beginning to mobilize.

The concentrated attack on organized labor has lasted for over a century and has left it a husk of its former self. Musk and Jeff Bezos and their oligarchical brethren have made their intentions clear to rid the government of the National Labor Relations Board in order to undermine a resurgence in organizing. If they were smart, and they are not, and if they were patient, they are not, they would leave the NLRB alone. But already we’re hearing that it is in the crosshairs of this power-grab, along with the Department of Education. Teachers and staff have been faced with ongoing austerity and the wealth class’s push to destroy public education. Destroying the ED would only make it clear where all of this is going.

Institutional capture primarily relies on catching people unaware and carrying out the process over time in order to stymie resistance. The attacks on labor and education have certainly done that, but these actions, which constitute dramatic escalation, also communicate to those affected that any means of administrative representation is going to be eliminated. In other words, it’s like being kept in a pool where the water is rising and having your captors make it clear that they’re about to remove any ladders.

I cannot tell you for certain that this will lead to mobilization and collective action. There is a possibility the damage done is too much. But there are growing signs that this continued overreach is spurring that mobilization.

As individuals, we have suffered these indignities for too long. Doubtless, you’ve dealt with austerity. Increasingly worse working conditions. This is the nature of Neoliberal capitalism. Depending on your work and what sector you reside in, the elimination of the NLRB and ED might not be an action that directly affects your employment, but the true nature of our interdependence means you will be affected and that separation between what you do and these people is merely cloaked and hidden.

What this moment requires is collective action, and, if necessary, a general strike. This constitutes a moment in which the business of the country comes to a grinding halt because conditions have become too nefarious and odious to continue. If Americans of all stripes and locations were to walk off the job, stop purchasing things, and announce collective resistance, the operations become untenable and the crisis of the authoritarian choosing is replaced with a crisis of our own.

I do not say this with the delusion that this is easy. Imagining this will simply happen is equivalent to the old cliche of thinking “maybe we should just all decide to give peace a chance” would grind war and violence to a halt. It takes work. Actual work. And courage.

A general strike will not just occur tomorrow. It has to be built and prepared for. After all, Neoliberalism has created conditions of precarity in which to decide to walk off the job is prevented by fear of lost wages, lost employment, and an escalating sequence of consequences. A general strike is a swift movement built on a series of discussions, an intention to organize that takes time, and individual choices.

We must talk to others. Coworkers and neighbors. We must weigh the realities of the situation against the fear. We must decide what red lines would be crossed that would necessitate this type of action and be prepared to do it if the moment comes. It is predictably difficult. There are threats and doubts. It must happen simultaneously at the local level and at the national level. It is logistically difficult. And, returning to what I said in the opening of this article, we have not been taught how this works or that the option even exists.

Realities of a General Strike

Strikes are intended to put pressure on the wealth class to acknowledge existing inequalities, address exploitation, and create an untenable situation that must be answered. They are, by definition and by strategy, uncomfortable. Workers put their own livelihoods on the line and disrupt production and operation, forcing the issue and shifting the tension from their treatment onto the bosses and larger economic and cultural arena.

If such an action were taken, it would answer the present political crisis, which is somewhat opaque and hidden, with a countervailing crisis, which would be everpresent and all-consuming. Collective action, including targeted worker strikes, mass protests, and possibly even civil disobedience would present a fortified front that opposes the oligarchs carrying out this assault and force Americans from all different geographic, political, and economic backgrounds.

Politicians would have to swiftly decide whether they would ally themselves with the action or oppose it. Media would be forced to cover the mass disturbance as it becomes the major and most pressing issue in the culture.

Such an action is, again, hard to create and also incredibly turbulent.

Would there be violence exercised against participants? Very likely. And Trump and his cronies have communicated a willingness and even eagerness to mete that violence out.

Would there be economic risks? Absolutely. Individuals would be risking most everything.

Would it work? We don’t know. But it could.

What we are assured of is that there are, at present, no definitive strategies that oppose this takeover. We know the political class will either capitulate or collaborate with the exception of a handful of outliers. We know Trump and Musk and the people he represent are completely unafraid of legal repercussions and have an entire framework at their disposal to avoid any of those repercussions. If Musk is charged with a crime, Trump will pardon him, and Trump, as we all know, is immune from prosecution as President of the United States.

We also need to understand that, despite what we are told, political realities are not set or concrete things. Watching political parties and hoping they’ll change doesn’t get the job done. And we also know, from studying the actual histories of progress and reform, that progress and reform originates from democratic, grassroots movements that demand change and exert pressure on the political and economic systems. This is how labor unions were able to win regulations, limit exploitation, and put an end to egregious workplace abuses. This is how the Civil Rights Movement pushed the Democratic Party to pass legislation. This is how the Progressives were able to begin reining in the Robber Barons and how the New Deal coalition shifted politics away from the disastrous laissez-faire consensus and saved the country from fascism and complete economic melt down.

It wasn’t just politicians waking up and deciding to do the right thing. It was through the concentrated work and bravery of the people.

Thoughts for the People

This isn’t a call to stop protesting. Absolutely you should participate if you can. This work builds the larger foundation and communicates a growing anger and exemplifies the building backlash. To leave Musk and the tech fascists to do their work in the darkness without pushback right now is to surrender and we cannot afford that. All of the attention so far has come from journalistic revelations and popular reaction. The Democratic Party has began talking about this because they recognized the growing response. They should do more, so much more, but we should also recognize what we have made them do simply by saying enough is enough.

If you are going to protest, be careful. I’ve talked previously about tips for taking care of yourself and knowing your rights. Do not go into this situation without understanding the consequences or threat.

Collective action will rely on a huge constellation of organizations to work in tandem. This includes labor unions, worker collections, mutual aid groups, and ungodly amounts of people to have their backs and provide for one another in the face of hardship. This means that it is necessary to get to work coordinating with people around to be prepared if this comes to pass, because movements like this rely on taking advantage of opportunities. Even as I type this, Musk is busily dismantling the Department of Education. Such emotionally-charged and dangerous moments can be the sparks that set off such actions. But we have to prepare for flashpoints so that, when they happen, we are prepared.

Talk with people. Communicate what we have to gain and that simply watching and waiting is an assured path to destruction. Discuss what the red line is that would have you and your associates walk out and get in the streets. Discuss what you will do if you see groups like the major labor unions or teachers take action.

Hopefully, we never have to do this. Maybe, and I’m being charitable here, Trump or Musk and the oligarchs self-destruct. Hopefully the opposition gets with the program and pushes back. Hopefully something I can’t even predict here happens and the issue becomes null and void. You cannot account for everything. But I am telling you now, these things are unlikely and you cannot put off the necessary planning and coordination in the hopes that something increasingly unlikely will happen.

This is a lot.

I know that it is.

But I do believe we will win. One way or another, we will. This is the work that this moments asks of us.