Bob Schwartz

Get sane and balanced

Regimes thrive in an environment of insanity and imbalance. They encourage it. Whatever process or technique you use to cultivate more sanity and balance, practice it or find one. You cannot resist a regime if you and your cohort are not thinking straight. So move toward sane and balanced and help others to get there.

Strategize

Once you are thinking straight, think strategically. This means knowing what you want to achieve, what the point is, and how to achieve it. There is a natural tendency to conceive the ultimate objective as the end of a regime. In the case of a democracy that has become authoritarian, that takes the form of planning to win the next elections. Winning elections is a worthy goal, but that is going to take time, and is not guarantee. Reigmes are built piece by piece, and resistance must be built piece by piece.

Mockery, ranting and rhetoric are not action

Mockery, ranting and rhetoric can be cathartic. These may have a strategic point, as in encouraging ourselves to be optimistic and committed. And it’s really fun to laugh. Some combination of laughter and anger may be beneficial and uplifting. We may not want to stop, but it is important to investigate what the laughter and anger accomplish by way of resistance.

Don’t be distracted

This is a time of almost literally infinite distractions. Our interests and passions are elements of our lives. But just as being over-obsessed with a regime imbalances us, so does over obsession with any of these distractions. Is it “important” that a superstar is launching the latest era of their career? Nothing says you have to care more about the rise of the regime than you do about that superstar. It’s a matter of balance.