Writing Problems: Things to do Instead of Cycling Through the Same Fears About Civil Unrest

This essay is reposted from November 23, 2023

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The Republican Party is the single biggest threat to the future of organized human life. Dystopian movies and TV shows create the impression that life under an autocratic state will resemble 1984 or A Handmaid’s Tale, but the reality is that in many ways this autocratic state is already here, but is only felt by some and not at all equally.

Poets have a special responsibility to hold the line against encroaching autocracy because we are the keepers of the language. Language is tantamount to thought, and thus the final space of freedom. Your thinking cannot (so far) be tracked, cataloged, data-mined, or replaced with AI.

The initial impulse to autocracy will be panic, but panicking isn’t sufficient. Being prepared is more productive. This is a list of 40 things to do instead of cycling through the same fears about civil unrest.

1. Learn Spanish

2. Research solar panels

3. Practice emotional resilience

4. Strengthen communication skills with loved ones

5. Research how intelligent, ethical people talk to their kids about Trump

6. Look for beauty and meaning 

7. Allow yourself to feel boredom—boredom is like blank space in a poem, allowing a rest

8. Take notes; keep a diary; make a list

9. Cut down on news consumption. I don’t read the news after 9 AM

10. Call a friend

11. Build a cache of whiskey in the basement

12. Get three months’ worth of medication on hand

13. Also over-the-counter medicines: allergy meds, cold and flu, covid tests, Imodium, etc.

14. First-aid kit: gauze, tape, ointment, plastic gloves, etc.

15. Also pencils, pencil sharpeners, paper

16. Cash reserve

17. LED flashlight with a headband

18. Hand-cranked radio

19. Duct tape

20. Matches

21. Candles

22. Find reliable sources of information. I recommend The New York Review of Books, ProPublica, Jacobin, Southern Poverty Law Center, Teen Vogue, and Salmagundi.

23. Find reliable information about positive acts of resistance

24. Find organizations doing meaningful good work

25. Put all your financial documents in one place

26. Make a contact list of everyone you might need to call in case of emergency

27. Make a point of contact person who knows where to find all your passwords

28. Update your client list

29. Update your budget / bookkeeping

30. Write sealed letters to leave with your loved ones; to answer the questions they’ll have when you can’t be together

31. Make a library for your bunker (literal bunker, literal library; metaphorical bunker, metaphorical library; any combination) that contains your trusted guides, thinkers, teachers, and friends

32. Memorize more poems

33. Read poets from countries who have been through autocracy before. Read Polish poets: Zbigniew Herbert, Czesław Miłosz, Wisława Szymborska, Ryszard Krynicki, Adam Zagajewski, Tadeusz Różewicz

34. Read poets from countries who have been through autocracy before. Read Hungarian poets: Attila József, János Pilinszky, Miklós Radnóti, Ágnes Nemes Nagy

35. Read poets from countries who have been through autocracy before. Read Chilean poets: Gabriela Mistral, Mariela Griffor, Nicanor Parra, Gonzalo Rojas, Raúl Zurita

36. Read poets from countries who have been through autocracy before. Read German poets: Ingeborg Bachmann, Paul Celan, Nelly Sachs, Johannes Bobrowski

37. Read poets from countries who have been through autocracy before. Read Korean poets: Ko Un, Kim Hyesoon, Yi Sang, Theresa Hak Kyung Cha

38. Read poets from countries who have been through autocracy before. Read Russian poets: Anna Akhmatova, Joseph Brodsky, Daniil Kharms, Osip Mandelstam, Marina Tsvetaeva, Yevgeny Yevtushenko, Galina Rymbu, Polina Barskova

39. Read poets from countries who have been through autocracy before. Read Greek poets: Tasos Leivaditis, Yannis Ritsos, George Seferis

40. Be courageous when the unthinkable arrives

We happen to live in a time when major voices would prefer a 17th century world. These reactionary forces want a country where the law protects them, though they are not bound by the law; they want everyone else to be bound by the law, but not for it to protect them.

Stanley Kunitz said:

In these times, poems must go beyond trite, individualistic affirmations and platitudes about overcoming, instead finding ways to build community and affirm shared humanity.

We can all do better. We need better tools to fight autocracy, and poetry is a tool to accomplish change of thought.

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About Sean Singer 

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