A Light for When All Other Lights Go Out

I love stories - specifically fantasy, science fiction, mythology - anything where heroes overcome monsters that threaten humanity's existence. I think they tell us something about the light of humanity and offer a window through which to glimpse our own inner spark. So, I haven't been able to help looking to them to see what they say about the answer to a tRumpire spreading its dark, dictatorial wings over the U.S.... and the rest of the world. 

For evil to triumph, all that is required is good [people] to do nothing.
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~A popular saying misattributed to various people, usually Edmund Burke, but the origin of which is ultimately uncertain.

Darkness gains power because no one effectively opposes it early enough. To be fair, the things one would do to put an end to it early are often the same things that make Darkness dark. It's hard to be the ethical hero and execute people before they are obviously the Dark Lord. Things have to get bad enough for the world to accept what you have to do in the hero's guise.

Our system of government, with checks and balances of congress and the supreme court, are like the magical wards of stories that trap the horde of monsters in some other dimension. We've been watching those wards fall, and now the monsters are loose, and the land is being ravaged.

I wish it need not have happened in my time," said Frodo. "So do I," said Gandalf, "and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.

~ Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien

This is not the only time this has happened. It's repeated again and again the world over. Sometimes people stepped up; sometimes civilizations fell. But this is our time. Our darkness. It falls to us to stop it. And we are truly looking at a global threat… A monster-dictator who is actively working to bring about a human-made cataclysm simply to hurt his enemies. That's what a monster represents -- irrational destruction.

Since it is so likely that children will meet cruel enemies, let them at least have heard of brave knights and heroic courage.

~C.S. Lewis

Fairy tales do not give a child their first idea of a bogey [monster]. What fairy tales give the child is their first clear idea of the possible defeat of bogey [monster].

 ~G.K. Chesterton

Our monster horde is seeming immunity to the protections that have kept us safe for hundreds of years, the constitution and law. That's because they use those very processes to abuse their power. Heroes have to find new ways to defeat monsters. Often, they employ some form of magic, which we don't have… or do we? Magic really represents applying a different energy than what made the problem. We have to find that different energy and strategically apply the resources we have in different ways. It is never easy, but there is hope because there are good people who will stand up, and Darkness can be defeated.

Nobility's worth is not proved by the brilliance of its glory but by the light it lends to others in the dark night of need.
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~Stephen Lawhead, The Mystic Rose

Self-interest is the realm of monsters. Heroes act not just for their own benefit, but for the good of the world. They have empathy and a desire to lift everyone up, even at the expense of their own lives. And the heroes don't always start out heroic--e.g., Hobbits. They are simply the ones who stood up and pressed forward. Sometimes it takes people who value food and cheer and song above gold and valor to step out of their normal role and save the world.

There are times when men of good conscience cannot blindly follow orders.
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~Captain Picard, Star Trek TNG

When you choose an action, you choose the consequences of that action. She had also emphasized the corollary of this axiom even more vehemently: when you desired a consequence you had damned well better take the action that would create it.

~ Miles Vorkosigan thinking of his mother Cordellia, Memory - Vorkosigan Series, Lois McMaster Bujold

If we want something different than this, we have to do something other than nothing. And that doesn't mean sitting on our hands hoping we get another chance to vote. If you are clinging to that hope, understand that voting was one of the wards, and the wards are down. We are at a decision point. Survive or resist.

Survivor

This is everyone not in the stories or that are there but only in the background. They are just trying to get through this day, go to sleep to dream about better times, and maybe wake up tomorrow to find someone has fixed everything. This is corporations bending their knee to the dark overlord hoping, not so much for favors that come with a bitter aftertaste, but just to be overlooked for as long as possible. This is individuals gathering resources hoping to ride out a storm of indeterminate duration. Surviving isn't cowardice. It is a strategy. But with the dismantling of environmental initiatives, medical research, and aid programs that threaten everything we depend on, survival may be a very harsh road.
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I realized I don't have any quotes that fit this path.

Revolutionary

Being a revolutionary appears infinitely more dangerous. You are putting yourself in the direct path of fire. But if no one does that, if everyone just survives, there will be no better tomorrow to survive for. However, it's important to note that revolutionaries come in different forms.

Violent Revolutionary

The simplest, most straightforward answer to monsters in the stories is that you smite them with a magic sword. You fight the monster/dictator and overthrow him. History shows, however, that this is not the most successful approach. That's because any attempt to overthrow a dictator will be spun by the regime to make the revolutionaries into the aggressors and justify the use of harsher measures on the public.

In our specific situation, even if successful, a violent revolution would undo the democratic process the revolutionaries claim to champion. How do you overthrow an elected tyrant and justify installing your own leader in the name of democracy? What does an election mean after that? Violent revolution keeps one foot in darkness. The stories, unfortunately, don't often reach that far. They end with the nice, tidy downfall of the dark lord.

But again, smiting the enemy with a magic sword is primarily a metaphor. It's about waging that battle inside and bringing yourself to the level that allows you to act beyond your own personal interests. Consider a few examples:

• Obi wan Kenobi. He seemingly fell to Darth Vader but became more powerful in death.
• Chirrut Imwe, in Rogue One. That whole movie is about people not surviving to save the galaxy.
• Gladiator. He fought, but it’s the manner of his death and personal sacrifice that moves people.
• Gandalf the Grey. He has to die in order to unleash Gandalf the White.
• The Hobbits in Lord of the Rings. They resisted the power of the One Ring long enough to carry it to Mordor.

​The battle isn’t always about physically crushing one’s enemy. It is about figuring out the right path and finding the courage to follow it. 

Peaceful Revolutionary

If you want to change the world, change the metaphor. Change the story…

~Joseph Campbell

Peaceful revolution is about illumination, forcing the monster into the light and revealing its true nature. That's not to say there is no risk. In the face of a calm, peaceful but unwavering resistance, the monster will rampage, spitting fire and venom. It will lash out. It will destroy. But it loses its story of defending itself against a hostile enemy. In peaceful resistance, the revolutionaries control the narrative. The monster will be forced to own all of its inhumanity. And those who have simply been blindly following orders will be forced to decide between killing unarmed civilians and opening their eyes. Star Wars exemplifies this:

Give in to your anger…. Take your weapon. Strike me down with all of your hatred, and your journey towards the dark side will be complete!

~Palpatine/Darth Sidious to Luke Skywalker in Return of the Jedi

Palpatine also promised to teach Anakin how to save Padme from death if Anakin joined the dark side. Anakin did. He was willing to accept and participate in atrocities to get that one thing he wanted most and which he never received.

Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, and hate… leads to suffering.

~Yoda to Luke Skywalker in The Empire Strikes Back

Yoda also highlights the path of peaceful resistance. In the end, Luke defeated Palpatine, not by fighting, but simply by awakening Anakin/Vader to the light. It is hard to stand in the face of the monster and not attack it with weapons. That's why it's the domain of heroes.

tRump is Palpatine. He promises whatever people want and they will do anything to get it. What we need is for the Republican Vader’s to come around, remove the monstrous emperor, and take their party back from the fascists. That’s the avenue to restoring democracy. Anything else sets up a cyclical arena of warlords and power vacuums.

In Lord of the Rings, Aragorn and company mopped up. As rightful king, Aragorn represents the just establishment. As such, he could hold the line and lead the recovery, but he was never going to bring down the shadow of Mordor. That task fell to the hobbits. Likewise, our representatives are not going to bring down our version of Sauron on their own. We have to get control of the story and cast the monster into the light where it destroys itself. This is what Ghandi and Martin Luther King taught.

And it works. The Greensboro Four, 1960. They had decided that, when refused service at the whites-only counter in a North Carolina Woolworth's, they would remain in their seats. They did. The next day they were joined by more people. Then more. They sparked a nationwide sit-in resistance that challenged racial segregation and helped ignite the broader youth-led Civil Rights Movement and contributed to the passage of the Civil Rights Act. 

It's all wrong. By rights we shouldn't even be here. But we are. It's like the great stories, Mr. Frodo, the ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger they were, and sometimes you didn't want to know the end because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad has happened? But in the end, it's only a passing thing this shadow, even darkness must pass. A new day will come, and when the sun shines, it'll shine out the clearer. I know now folks in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn't. They kept going because they were holding on to something. That there's some good in this world, Mr. Frodo, and it's worth fighting for.

~Samwise Gamgee, Lord of the Rings

I'm not saying you have to be a revolutionary. I'm saying to sit down with yourself and the stories you hold close to your heart. Be honest about what you are willing to do and prepare yourself to do it… whether that something is putting resources in place to survive or making sure you are prepared to act at the appropriate time. It's hard, but we can do this because:

We have not to risk the adventure alone, for the heroes of all time have gone before us.

~Joseph Campbell

And...

We are all bigger on the inside.

~Doctor Who