Fear Itself

What can you do? Give no quarter and find a way to enjoy the fight. It will be a long one. American democracy itself is at stake.

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1.

Back in my early Internet days, a particular favorite of the futurists and cyberutopian crowd was the University of Chicago psychology professor Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, an erudite and accessible thinker who wrote about what might now be called user experience - but also, I think, about the human condition in general. He studied what he called “flow,” the state of complete emotional and intellectual involvement of the mind, where time seems to melt away, along with repression and fear.

“Being completely involved in an activity for its own sake, described Csikszentmihalyi in Wired back in 1996. “The ego falls away. Time flies. Every action, movement, and thought follows inevitably from the previous one, like playing jazz. Your whole being is involved, and you're using your skills to the utmost.”

For me, this is when I’m playing an intense set of music with my band. Or sometimes involved in an hours-long repetitive physical task in my garden. Occasionally when I’m teaching or interviewing someone interesting. Very rarely when I write.

But also, it must be said, that state of “flow” can take over when I fight. Especially about politics, civil rights, democracy, human decency, a better society - but most deeply in opposition to what I perceive as evil or unfair. For example, the extremist authoritarian gang that is taking over our national government on Monday at noon.

Sometimes it’s “on here” and sometimes it’s “out there,” but I have to say, that sense of boundaries and constraints falling away does happen for me when I’m fighting (with words) against the hateful red hat brigade. This is not euphoric really (like music can be) but more utilitarian, like combining weeding a garden with an emotional commitment not to give in, not to back down, not to surrender. To Csikszentmihalyi, a big component of flow - which, to be clear, was a state of satisfying productivity and human joy to be sought and enjoyed - was the absence of fear: "Repression is not the way to virtue. When people restrain themselves out of fear, their lives are by necessity diminished. Only through freely chosen discipline can life be enjoyed and still kept within the bounds of reason."

Our own bounds of reason will be tested on Monday at noon - or at least those of us who cling to the ideal of a liberal American republic. In the same Capitol Rotunda smeared by the feces of his thuggish disciples four years ago, the Trump gang will take power and continue their assault on representative democracy. There’s a lot of fear out there, but in my view, it’s largely misplaced. Yes, Trump (and Musk) may do terrible things and tear down this country. But they may also fail. Either way, we’re all alive right now. Better to simply face the challenge.

2.

“It's really a wonder that I haven't dropped all my ideals, because they seem so absurd and impossible to carry out,” wrote Anne Frank in 1944, just before she was discovered and sent to her death in a concentration camp. “Yet I keep them, because in spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart.”

Absurd and impossible, indeed. It’s only right to feel that this is the bottom, certainly the greatest test of American democracy since 1932, and quite possibly since 1861. When I speak with friends who are good-hearted about opposing this descent into Mussolini style rule in America, I am often asked for advice on how to both weather the storm and take action. Here’s some advice and suggestion - by no means complete, with no guarantees.

Give no quarter.

There’s no point in trying to find common ground with the MAGA movement simply because the overall goal of that movement is your demise. So shrug off any temptation to start a sentence with the phrase “to be fair to Trump” or “normally I disagree, but” - or any of that malarkey. This is a political battle to turn back 1.47% of the American voting public in four years. Contrary to what a handful of quisling Congressional Democrats think, helping MAGA won’t help the country. I agree with Bulwark editor Jonathan Last’s first rule of opposition: “First: Do not help Republicans. Not in any way. On any issue. Republicans can’t pass a budget, or raise the debt ceiling? Tough luck. Do not provide them any bailout votes on any issue. Period, the end.”

Pick your fights - but definitely pick a fight.

There will be many outrages. Oceans of cruelty rivaled only by the vast rivers of stupidity. Don’t get soaked. Decide who and where you want to fight, and what you want to fight about. My advice is to pick a couple of areas and follow them closely, so that you’re a well trained and well armed combatant who can cite chapter and verse. For example, the damage Trump will do to the best-in-the-world American economy. Or the bigoted and cruel underpinnings of his mass deportation campaign. But don’t stand on the sidelines. Fighting is good - for you and for the country.

Understand the state of play.

We’re at the beginning. Nothing can change an elected four-year term in the White House for Trump or Vance. The mid-terms are 22 months away. We will win them, but it will be a very long 22 months. So please settle in. Fire some clean shots, but keep some of your powder dry. Allow them to drive their cybertruck off the road, into the trees, and down into the gulley. Jump clear of the flames by all means. Keep up with your family, your health, your work and your hobbies. Laugh a lot.

Change your media habits.

Old media is gone. Don’t wait for it to come back. The New York Times is broken. The Washington Post has fallen. No one is watching the endless talking heads on cable news any more. Find a combination of sources that works for you, that is reasonably accurate, and that - with experience - you find you can trust. Be sure to include writers and reporters with political views that don’t exactly align with your own.

Be a volunteer.

We cannot organize our way out of this. There will be all the usual demands to attend rallies, make calls, circulate petitions, make contributions, knock on doors, amplify messages. That’s all important to the process, but don’t expect simply doing more of that to turn the tide. I recommend volunteering for a nonprofit organization or campaign in an area that interests you - for example, direct services to the working poor or immigrant communities, environmental work, justice reform, civil rights efforts. One of the fastest paths out of despair is to go help somebody out.

Be a public person.

Finally, consider this. You’re a good human. Other people know this about you. Yes, lecturing friends and family about right and wrong is rarely effective, if ever. But standing up publicly for your values does matter and can make a massive difference. So speak out whenever you can - in whatever venue makes sense. Don’t hide your opposition. Understand that there is no great man (or woman) coming to save the republic from this naked attack on liberal democracy. Nobody is just over that hill. There are no perfect candidates. No saviors. But you have the courage of your convictions. Your courage will be noticed. Your leadership is crucial. Always do the right thing.

3.

On July 10, 1924, the liberal Italian legislator Giacomo Matteotti left his house near Piazza del Popolo in Rome to make the short walk along the river Tiber to the capital’s parliament building. He never arrived. An eloquent and widely respected opponent to the rise of fascism in Italy, Matteotti was a thorn in the side of Benito Mussolini and his fascisti henchmen, as they tightened control of the media, brought wealthy industrialists to their movement, and attacked the system of free elections. Weeks earlier, he undertook a secret mission to meet with representatives of Britain’s ruling Labour party – including recently elected prime minister Ramsay MacDonald. That mission did not succeed. Britain did nothing to intervene.

Weeks later, Matteotti’s corpse was discovered with multiple stab wounds, apparently inflicted by a wood file. He had been murdered by Mussolini’s fascist agents. A year later and facing public backlash, Mussolini gave a speech in which he admitted “political responsibility” for the murder. Yet he used the episode to expand his power and basically end the fledgling Italian democracy for a generation. In their excellent account of the Matteotti murder and its consequences, the historians Andrea Pisauro and Gianluca Fantoni describe what happened next.

Mussolini’s speech ended with a rhetorical invitation to indict him – to a parliament now populated only by fascists. Instead, they applauded and cheered their leader. The speech signalled the end of Italian democracy. In the 48 hours that followed, Mussolini imposed draconian limitations on the country’s free press, and granted local authorities the power to close all branches of opposition parties.

In considering our own opposition to what is happening in this country, I am admittedly moved by the motivation of Pisauro and Fantoni to explore a political murder in Italy more than a century ago:

By shedding new light on events leading up to Matteotti’s murder, we aim to highlight the plight of all political dissenters amid the resurgence of autocratic governments and corrosion of democratic values – including in Italy. By paying tribute to an early 20th-century martyr of democracy, we stress the need to understand and address the mechanisms that are still used today to silence opposition and strengthen authoritarian regimes around the world.

This is very important, just as bearing witness and demanding accountability is today. We may be down, but we all have a role to play in fighting back. As Giacomo Matteotti himself declared:

“Liberty may make mistakes but tyranny is the death of a nation.”

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