Writing Problems: Things to do Instead of Cycling Through the Same Fears About Civil Unrest
This essay is reposted from November 23, 2023
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.
Learn Spanish
Research solar panels
Practice emotional resilience
Strengthen communication skills with loved ones
Research how intelligent, ethical people talk to their kids about Trump
Look for beauty and meaning
Allow yourself to feel boredom—boredom is like blank space in a poem, allowing a rest
Take notes; keep a diary; make a list
Cut down on news consumption. I don’t read the news after 9 AM
Call a friend
Build a cache of whiskey in the basement
Get three months’ worth of medication on hand
Also over-the-counter medicines: allergy meds, cold and flu, covid tests, Imodium, etc.
First-aid kit: gauze, tape, ointment, plastic gloves, etc.
Also pencils, pencil sharpeners, paper
Cash reserve
LED flashlight with a headband
Hand-cranked radio
Duct tape
Matches
Candles
Find reliable sources of information. I recommend The New York Review of Books, ProPublica, Jacobin, Southern Poverty Law Center, Teen Vogue, and Salmagundi.
Find reliable information about positive acts of resistance
Find organizations doing meaningful good work
Put all your financial documents in one place
Make a contact list of everyone you might need to call in case of emergency
Make a point of contact person who knows where to find all your passwords
Update your client list
Update your budget / bookkeeping
Write sealed letters to leave with your loved ones; to answer the questions they’ll have when you can’t be together
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
Memorize more poems
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
Read poets from countries who have been through autocracy before. Read Hungarian poets: Attila József, János Pilinszky, Miklós Radnóti, Ágnes Nemes Nagy
Read poets from countries who have been through autocracy before. Read Chilean poets: Gabriela Mistral, Mariela Griffor, Nicanor Parra, Gonzalo Rojas, Raúl Zurita
Read poets from countries who have been through autocracy before. Read German poets: Ingeborg Bachmann, Paul Celan, Nelly Sachs, Johannes Bobrowski
Read poets from countries who have been through autocracy before. Read Korean poets: Ko Un, Kim Hyesoon, Yi Sang, Theresa Hak Kyung Cha
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
Read poets from countries who have been through autocracy before. Read Greek poets: Tasos Leivaditis, Yannis Ritsos, George Seferis
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.
About Sean Singer
I like “the best way to cope with the Adversary is to confront him in ourselves.”
If all life is connected in unfathomably complex systems, maybe me taking care of the part of myself that IS a bully can somehow reduce the total amount of bullying in the world in ways that extend beyond just one person’s contribution.
Maybe by changing myself, I can send ripples out that change the culture, and maybe those changes to the culture can reach those people who “want to live in the 17th century.”
I have saved both the webpage and a hard copy of this essay. Thank you for writing it and for sharing it. We each are capable of and responsible for bringing illuminating truth in the darkness. Your work is doing that.