This is actually part of why I found myself going back to that passage from Nemik’s manifesto in Andor
Regardless of where it’s from, it’s a concise and powerful articulation of how resistance and rebellion are built on small, local acts by many normal people on the sheer faith that it matters
That's my point here. Do what YOU can. Other people do what they can. Everyone cleans up their tiny corner. Everyone pulls the tiny lever they can pull. We all do this. Don't you see? That's the *point*.
We all have to do what small things we can.
Do not despair.
Do not, I beg of you, despair.
Luke only gets to be the hero because of all those unknown acts of mundane heroism by forgotten and nameless people
All the tiny little points of friction and pressure and the final one that breaks the dam, and how brittle that dam is
“The trail of political consciousness” as Nemik lays it out is so frequently unconscious. It’s not people engaging consciously in a grand rebellion, it’s folks doing what they can do. Taking care of each other. Tossing a handful of grit in the gears
It’s folks being caring, empathetic, as generous as possible with what little they have, refusing to give up on the idea that something still matters
That’s how we survive, that’s how we live long enough to make it possible to fight back more directly when the time comes
Oppressive power wants us confused, cynical, hopeless, exhausted and isolated—and frankly it wants us turning on each other, finding reasons why we can’t build solidarity with people with whom we share a common interest but kinda don’t like
When in fact groups of people who basically can’t stand each other temporarily putting all that aside and fighting shoulder to shoulder in whatever way they can is the only thing that has ever, EVER worked
But also just doing what we can on our little patch of ground, whatever that is
And doing it even—especially—when the odds against it working are so massive that it seems like naive foolishness
Speaking of inspiring media created by cynical capitalism, there’s an Hbomberguy video essay which has kind of become the expression of a core ethos for me
It’s about Transformers
It’s just really fucking good and weirdly resonant, I recommend it. It focuses primarily on revisiting the Transformers animated movie as an adult youtu.be/j7f26gVlDQI?...
Anyway (wow this thread got long), there’s this bit he focuses on, where the characters—on the run from a genocidal force and in truly desperate circumstances—are faced with an intelligent alien species that might or might not be hostile
And they have a Universal Greeting
Which they’ve tried already with another species and which *completely did not fucking work*
So one character is like agh fuck it let’s just shoot em, which as a strategy objectively makes the most sense
But another character says wait
What if we try the Universal Greeting again
