Dimensionally Barrett

On the face of it, this seems platitudinous. “Help out X charity, it’ll help the greater cause.” To be sure, that is or can be, the case. However, Snyder is aiming at something subtler and no less important. To paraphrase him a bit, being active in organizations “political or not”, express your own view of life. Not only that, but supporting a group or organization is very much a way of engaging in civil society. By now, it should be apparent that almost every suggestion that Snyder has presented meets the individual on her own terms and addresses her place in the wider civic context. All politics is local and just as much, if not more, personal. The support of a group that aligns with your values amplifies those values. “Political or not” is a phrase I don’t understand; as I’ve stated baldly, everything we do is political. Some would have me qualify that with “in the Aristotelian sense”, but I genuinely mean it. It doesn’t mean that I’m...

Much of what Snyder suggests here are steps many of us have taken already to preserve some degree of privacy in an internet-connected world. Given circumstances, securing a dimension of privacy is more important than ever. There’s always been the fallacy of “well, I don’t have anything to hide” that few ever grasp. Even with a relatively benign authority, your iife and the lives of your loved ones are not your own, and should anyone want to make use of your data to compromise you, they very well could. Even if it was all manipulated and libelous, consider how your life would be updended. Consider the damage to reputation, legal fees, and again, how this would affect those you care for and about. The current regime is, emphatically, not a benign authority. If privacy was a specious commodity at best before now, it is now a potential weapon to be used private citizens as well as more public figures. Most of us assume that the right to privacy is part of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of...

The Reverend Al Sharpton devised this as an action to protest the attack on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion that we’re seeing swiftly erased from policies across the board and used as a cudgel by the regime to bring corporations to heel. What critics of DEI don’t seem to  understand is how necessary it is. They don’t seem to understand that the reason affirmative action policies and programs exist is to level the playing field, to open up opportunities for all Americans so that they cannot be discriminated against because of race, gender, disability, or age. DEI is being used by the hardline conservatives as a term of derision or to use as an example of how much Democrats and liberals have rotted the fabric of America. The issue is that the fabric has been fraying for decades. Freed slaves were met with Jim Crow, immigrants were met with xenophobia in the form of legislation like the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, homosexuality was a crime, and women couldn’t get a credit card wit...

Snyder continues with another entry on what I call embodied politics and he refers to here as “corporeal” politics. “Power wants your body softening in your chair and your emotions dissipated on the screen. Get outside. Put your body in unfamiliar places with unfamiliar people. Make new friends and march with them.” I was taken aback when I heard a pundit recently downplay the effectiveness of protesting or demonstrating. Yes, there are other modes of effective protest, but showing up, putting your time in with others to raise your voice in a collective measure to fight oppressive policies, oppressive government is not to be reduced to the merely performative. It never really is. Even if there are people who only march to get a photo-op or put something up on Instagram, they still get. Credit for taking the time to do so. And truthfully, I’ve not met anyone at any protest or demonstration who attends for some superficial reason. People protest, march, and demonstrate because their live...

If Snyder’s earlier chapters were of a more intellectual bent, here he begins with an embodied approach to what we can do on a daily basis.  The emphasis in this chapter is on appraising one’s psychological landscape and determining who is trustworthy, but I’d like to add two more ingredients to the mix.  One, our day-to-day pleasantries serve to share bonds with everyone we meet, even those who might otherwise wish us ill online or on forums, and possibly, even in life, were public denunciations or tribunals to come to pass. Politesse is not merely polite. It can, as Snyder points out, be a political tool; but prior to that, these moments of being-with-others are intimate in a way that we rarely, if ever, take into consideration.  If we are kind to one another, open to however small a degree, there is an exchange of appreciation, and perhaps, of power. If you are met with acceptance, then it’s the power of forging an alliance; if not, then, the power resides with you. Th...

This chapter is the last of the “epistemological” chapters in the sense that we started with language and truth, and now are tasked with researching and determining what are and are not valid sources of information and how to move through political terrain. Snyder’s checklist opens the chapter: “Figure things out for yourself. Spend more time with long articles. Subsidize investigative journalists by subscribing to print media. Realize that some of what is on the internet is there to harm you. Learn about sites that investigate propaganda campaigns (some of which come from abroad). Take responsibility for what you communicate to others.” On the surface, this all seems fairly straightforward, but let’s be clear that all of this requires discipline and vigilance. Figuring things out for ourselves is important, but in doing so, we need to be aware of and confront our confirmation biases. Bertrand Russell in his entry on Truth in the Britannica Encyclopedia (if I’m remembering this correct...