I’m working my way through the anti-Trump reading list. Back
in January I started reading Things That Can And Cannot Be Said, which
is primarily a dialogue between Arundhati Roy – the famous Indian novelist and
activist – and John Cusack. Yes, that John Cusack. The Actor. Of Say Anything
fame. Apparently he’s a big freedom of the press activist and he became friends
with Arundhati Roy through a board they serve on.
There are so many improbable things about this book,
starting with the relationship between its authors. But it gets even crazier –
the book is essentially a dialogue they shared around the time they decided, together,
to take Daniel Ellsberg (yes that Daniel Ellsberg. Of Pentagon Papers fame.) to
Moscow to meet with Edward Snowden. This fact alone – the setup, the
circumstances, the beautiful prose of two artists framing a discussion of
tragedy and betrayal – make it worth the short read.
The deeper messages though are disturbing and prescient. The
core of the conversation is about citizenship and what is the true purpose of
government, and how do whistleblowers fit into all of it. Arundhati Roy is a
huge anti-corporate activist and she sees the plight of Edward Snowden through
that lens. The lens that focuses on how corporations own and run our
government. We believe we, the citizens, control government and its actions,
and that is either (or both) naïve or stupid. In fact, governments act in the
interests of the moneyed classes but they sell those interests to us, convince
us to vote for them, on the basis of projected values – like patriotism and
nationalism, among other things. She questions patriotism at its core, asking
what is the point of loyalty to an idea. She considers use of nuclear weapons the
logical extreme of the nation-state, which only exists, in her mind, to protect
empire. Meaning, to protect our right to extract resources and value out of
other places, regardless of what the people who live there think or want.
Into this situation comes someone like Edward Snowden, who
become alarmed by the NSA’s unlimited ability to spy on American citizens. His
outrage, his sense of betrayal at that fact, is only possible because he
believed so deeply in the promise of America. Our singularity. Our unique
belief in freedom and rights.
And so he spilled the beans. His telling of the story – in a
dialogue with Daniel Ellsberg only partly shared in the book – hinges on the
fact that via NSA, the moneyed class knows everything about us but we know
nothing about them. And that means democracy, at its core, is basically broken.
Because they can convince us of anything, because they know everything about
us. And we know nothing about them.
It is a scary vision that feels too true to me. Part of the
book includes Arundhati Roy detailing all the American interventions in other
countries, and of course Daniel Ellsberg’s confession that he combed reports to
find instances of atrocities that could be used to justify American bombing of
Vietnam. At this moment, when we’ve just bombed Syria supposedly in retaliation
for gassing their own citizens, it feels apt to be reminded of how many other
times we’ve bombed other countries, at what cost, supposedly for greater goods that
fail to materialize. If Snowden though America’s promise was its ethics,
Arundhati Roy argues it is all based on a lie.
Arundhati Roy is a fierce revolutionary. She has been
vilified by some factions in India for arguing against non-violence. She argues
that when indigenous people face complete subjugation by corporations – for example
when mines are being dug or dams being built – what is the point of non-violence.
Those people may face certain annihilation at the hands of an entity that isn’t
even a real thing. Of course they should fight back. The book, published in
2014, presages our current national conflict over Standing Rock. I have heard
people try to discredit the Standing Rock fight by claiming its activists are
not really non-violent. But Roy, and I, would ask: why should they be? Their
very survival is at stake.
She also points out that Narendra Modi, current Prime
Minister of India, preceded Donald Trump into office but shares his divisive nationalist
populism. They are cut from whole cloth. The movement we are up against is
global. I don’t know if I find that comforting or terrifying. Probably both.
This book blew my mind and it references a gazillion big
ideas that need more books to explain and be explained. But it reinforced my
belief that Edward Snowden is a hero of any fight for real freedom. Is
government a force for good or evil? I guess it depends on how much citizens
can wrest control of it away from corporations and the super-rich. And
understanding what we’re up against is part of that fight.
It doesn’t help right now to be paranoid. Or to feel that
the obstacles we face are too big to confront. But it does help to try to see
clearly, and to put our current events in some context. So much of the Bhagavad
Gita and the Yoga Sutras are about clearing away the noise and distractions so
we can see clearly and know what action to take.
I’ve been thinking a lot about the tropes of resistance
lately – are we really resisting? Or are we just feeling really good about
ourselves because we look good at the rally? And we feel fierce? A final
thought from Arundhati Roy – she writes about how easily resistance and
opposition are coopted and turned into something cool that fuels consumerist
culture, but robs resistance of any real power. If you followed the brief
rollout of the Pepsi ad that included a rally, you can see how this is already
happening. It’s important that we stay clear on our true aim. It’s not to
rally. Rallies are a tool to accomplish something else – for me, the full liberation
of all peoples, and claiming power for people against the agendas of corporate and
individual wealth.
We are so lucky to live in a time that flourishes with
ideas, insights, analyses. However much I feel overwhelmed, I’m also grateful
for the sages who offer us wisdom in this moment of darkness.
With gratitude, solidarity and love.
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