We Need Collective Inaction
Sometime flipping things upside down reveals simple answers
On good days I can process nuance and uncertainty.
I’m able to remind myself that work is being done, we just can’t see the fruits of it yet. I know that people are working to build the infrastructure for a general strike, but that, due to its mundane nature, it’s not going to be visible on social media every day like the latest crisis or passionate protest.
I see change happening at the local level—at city council meetings and state representative offices—to redirect money towards food, energy, water, and housing resilience, so that our local communities can weather the coming climate shocks amidst the federal funding cuts.
I can believe that working electorally to get halfway sane people into Congress at the federal level matters; that it’s a piece of the puzzle—assuming elections aren’t cancelled or hijacked.
But today is not a good day.
Everything I see and hear feels like noise.
Everything that isn’t about the general strike (i.e. the withdrawal of labor, consumption and data), the only thing that can shut this down, feels like a distraction.
Anything that is happening right now whose ultimate objective is not to reach the place where we are ready to have a general strike feels out of touch, misguided or uninformed.
Any strategy that doesn’t involve boycotting Big Tech, moving money out of Big Banks, and divesting from the stock market feels unhinged from reality, like re-arranging chairs on the Titanic.
Any plan whose first strategic pillar is not stopping and slowing down consumption, labor, and data feels like it must be operating on a different planet or timeline than the one I exist in.
Deep down I know: preparing for the climate crisis to come requires action. I know those things I see on the good day are still true.
But if people just stopped.
Just stopped for five seconds.
Think of all the carbon that wouldn’t be emitted, except the CO₂ leaving our lungs.
Imagine the impact on the environment that not doing anything would have.
All the data that wouldn’t be collected for surveillance. All the power the data centers wouldn’t need.
All the leverage that would go back into people’s hands.
It’s a useful exercise to imagine.
The road ahead is an uphill climb with no promise of success. There is work to be done. But it’s important to remember that much of the solution also lies in NOT doing. The things we are asking people to do, to become part of the resistance, is simpler and less expensive than they might at first appear (and vastly more fulfilling emotionally in time).
It’s a mindset shift as much as anything else. The cancelled Amazon and streaming subscriptions. The return to in-person events. The buying of second-hand rather than fast fashion. The walking instead of driving.
I’m relearning this too.
And of course I don’t mean that doing less is the answer across the board.
We still need to grow food, purify water, maintain sanitation systems, generate electricity. We need to connect with people and build systems capable of meeting this moment. Those things that we see on a good day are true.
But those things that we see on a bad day are also true.
The solution must be driving towards a slowing down of everything that isn’t necessary to make room for the things that matter.
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~ About ~
Peaceful Return is a newsletter born out of the urgency to resist the fascist descent of the United States. Drawing from history, psychology, myth, and religion, it seeks to understand the roots of what we are facing—late-stage empire, collective trauma, moral inversion, and the corrupting force of concentrated power—and identify pathways to a better future.
The “Return” in Peaceful Return points to the need to return to our true nature—before imperial, violent narratives severed us from our basic mammalian birthright: the felt sense of worthiness to be alive. The journey is one of casting off the shame imposed on us from above—by those obsessed with power, domination and hierarchy—and reclaiming this birthright.
The “Peaceful” part indicates the intention of avoiding harm to others in the process. However, the journey is not easy. It requires a relentless resistance to every morally inverted system or thought structure that places power, property and profit above life, love and people.
I love what you wrote! ¡Huelga General!
I think about the beating of the infrastructure drum in politics. People love to talk about how much we should be spending on infrastructure, but no one wants to talk about how we can change our society to demand less of that infrastructure. If thousands of cars don’t have to cross that bridge to get to an unnecessary office every day, that bridge will absolutely last longer, and furthermore that bridge may not need to be there in the first place.