There is a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can’t take part; you can’t even passively take part, and you’ve got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and you’ve got to make it stop. And you’ve got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it, that unless you’re free, the machine will be prevented from working at all!
~ Mario Savio, 12/2/64
I heard this quote for the first time recently, and boy it’s powerful. There are videos of his speech, and I really recommend you watch. It’s moving. Now, this speech was given as part of the Free Speech Movement at Berkeley, so it’s not exactly what I want to talk about today, but the imagery is so evocative I couldn’t help myself.
There is a very popular response, especially given by more centrist liberals, offered when someone expresses anxiety about Trump. They did the first time, and they’re going to keep doing it now. “He’s just one man.” And I find myself instinctually reacting with “no, he’s the focal point of a movement,” or some similar response. Obviously he represents an ideology that extends beyond one man, or we wouldn’t be in this situation again. Most of the time this response is reductive, invalidating someone’s fear with #factsandlogic.
But I’ve been thinking a lot recently about how we actually resist. My first few posts were about responding to the oncoming fascists, but how do we actively stop them. And you know what? I think the libs have a point. He’s just one man.
Now, don’t get me wrong. The system in place that enabled Trumps reelection is vast, and hostile, and totally insidious. But at the same time, all of his bullshit has to get carried out by people. And especially as Average Joseph discovers what a mess this all is, I think there will be a lot of motivation to oppose it. For example, a mass deportation of “criminals” (whatever that means) will require detainment camps and paperwork and infrastructure. PEOPLE have to build those things. And if they chose not to, the things wouldn’t get built.
I know, I know. It’s perhaps obvious that one construction company refusing to do work isn’t going to bring about an anarchist utopia, but it’s the principle of it that has been coming back to me again and again for the last few days. There are so many big and small ways to oppose or at least stall the progress of this authoritarian regime. Imagine you’re the sysadmin for your local RNC office, or the Department of Energy. Or whatever. There’s so much you can do to just kinda fuck around with stuff. And yeah, petty sabotage isn’t really gonna stop anything, but it doesn’t always have to be petty, and it doesn’t have to be just one person.
I guess what I’m talking about is, like, every system is people. Every coercive, faceless, inevitable machine of the state is still people. People who can choose not to take part. To put their bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels. Every history class spends some time talking about how following orders is not a defense, and that a soldier shouldn’t follow a corrupt order. But what about the administrative assistants. Or the custodians. Or the builders, or the accountants, or the graphic designers, or the social media managers.
I know this isn’t revolutionary (no pun intended.) I know that this idea of resistance from the inside isn’t new, but I think a LOT of new agitators are going to wake up or be born in the next two years. I hope they are, at least. And if they are or know people who have jobs in the government, then they have the power to fuck around. And if those people talk to their coworkers, then that power grows.
I feel like I need to stress that I’m not saying anybody with even the slightest proximity to the state has a moral obligation to throw their livelihood away by refusing to operate in that system. Not everyone has that luxury. Most people don’t have that luxury. But I really want to emphasize that it’s the principle of the thing that’s important here. WE ARE THE SYSTEM.
And like Savio said, we need to show the people that run it that until we are all free, the machine will be prevented from working at all.
~Inchoate Clay
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