For what it’s worth, I’m not pitching Mad Max fantasies or survivalist isolation. I’m arguing that systems thinking, even at the smallest scale, is part of how we get to coordinated mass action.
That is to say... building capacity locally, tactically, communally so that when movements do emerge, they’re durable. The state may fear terrorism, but it’s allergic to autonomy. We’re far below 3.5% because we’ve lost the infrastructures of collective resilience. I’m interested in rebuilding those not in spectacle, but in systems.
So yeah, if you’re expecting “the plan,” you won’t find a blueprint. I'd say it's more of a field manual for the long road back to real solidarity.
Most of what I publish doesn’t have a paywall. Only content that is part of a published or soon to be published book. I provide LOTS of resources and make it clear there is ample free material out there, and you don’t need to pay subscribe to me to learn it. I’m not a corporation, or exploiting others labor. I’m just me… trying to make the time I spend on this aid my own simple life.
"Win the hour" has really been a game changer. Especially for me, a guy with ADHD. I do feel stronger after being able to emotionally take on smaller things and actually win. I figured it might have a broader context.
Thanks, really actually supportive. I just checked out Notion and it looks maniac complicated. I have ADHD, too, plus ADHD burnout, which is pretty severe, plus lots of responsibilities, plus a cell level drive for creativity and doing the work for the planet. Exhausted, sure. But still, not giving up. Can't. Thats why the hour thing is practical. It's relevant and listed currently under survival support. My point was, actually: because we seem to think and have similar aims, any suggestions for how to use Notion? Currently I've created a system using Notes which has been awesome for the learning feedback loop, and organic. And you can change colours and add pictures. 🐦
I’m still learning how my ADHD blocks me from action I actually want to do. Which in this case is reply to you! Which I may seem to be doing, but this is me tricking my brain into motion. Because I want to give you a decent, thoughtful reply, but that desire is the very thing that get the attention of the ADHD freeze. That Work for Planet means a lot to me, so those emotions seem like a big bucket of water on a way below freezing day. Thank you so much for asking.
Check out @Gavin Mounsey's substack you'll love his reciprocity approach with nature...
no need to keep reminding yourself of your limits, remember, we manifest our own destiny, so encouraging words may work better for you replace the words you choose to limit yourself with love patience and gratitude...
I’d amend that to “some men.” And if you have more to say about why it feels like a misfit, or what a woman or a child’s approach would look like, I’m curious. Thanks for articulating a nuance.
"Fix a tool" is not necessarily a physical tool. What are the things you can do, and make those things better, and ready. Kids need to be able to work on entertaining themselves learning how to work with boredom(us too!). If shit goes crazy we wont have all the distractions we are accustomed to.
You've got something here... it seems very much more about realigning moral values from the social engineering that has us questioning the whole paradoxical world that is completely socially engineered towards "BELIEVE IN THE SCIENCE" ...
"The media these days regularly lets you know that questioning ‘expert’ consensus doesn’t make you wrong, but immoral and perhaps even crazy. Nowhere is this inversion more visible than in science, which appears particularly odd, given science fundamentally is about challenging assumptions.
Yet, science doesn’t just inform morality these days — it defines it. And that consensus spreads not through debate, but through synchronisation across all major domains.
It’s almost as though this has all been decades in the making. Almost."
This post is awesome at describing HOW this Social Engineering has evolved and what it's motives are, which in all honesty is pretty obvious to those of us who still exhibit a critical thinking brain and a wisdom running deep with morals and knowledge.
Great Justin, I am delighted . I look forward to getting to know you better and making connection.
A lot has changed since I became “collapse aware”, I didn’t think total tyranny would happen so quickly. Just like total collapse could now…although we do keep limping along.
You inspired me and got me thinking about the roles to take on now…insurgent was not on my list until today !
I like the way your brain works, but that doesn't extend to this post, which I see coming from a very wrong-headed perspective.
"Millions turned out in what should have been a moment of democratic assertion. And yet, the tanks still rolled. The executive orders will still be signed…We all feel it: the increasing futility of protest, the emptiness of 'raising awareness,' the exhaustion of being perpetually outraged yet politically impotent....if the protest didn’t work yesterday, it’s time to try something else. "
"We all feel it?" It’s one day later. Didn’t work? What are you talking about? It could have been our Berlin Wall moment, or what history will look back on as what started us going in the right direction. How dare YOU declare that what millions of people turned out for "didn't work," as justified by how cornered we are? Ummmm, the point was to get out of the corner, where the most massive public protest in history gave us the heart that might do the job.
"They failed because the system isn’t designed to respond to protest—it’s designed to absorb it."
You went on and on, proving the futility of everything. What do you accomplish that way? You have no right to play a god role, where all you do is make us cower and supply no energy for going on living.
Oh then you tell us how to get out, "moving beyond symbolic gestures and into structured action: routines, protocols, intelligence, feedback loops."
Why don’t you start there and drop the doom-saying? And don’t present your ideas as THE thing to do. Read my Substack for many other things we could do.
Who “told us” this? “We are told that if we just raise awareness, vote harder, or appeal to reason, the system will correct itself. That justice is an eventuality. That power will listen. That change is linear, incremental, and benevolent.” That’s not what my ears hear, nor does anyone else’s in this age of destruction of what we hold dear. And the whole idea of telling us anything, as if there's some organized force to kill all but the one percent, isn’t the way reality works. It is not “as designed” by any auspice that we are in this mess, but it's the natural working out of capitalism, where a system built on endless growth on a finite planet does the dirty job.
Yes to this: "The question is not whether we can save it, but whether we can survive its collapse—and whether we can build something better in its shadow." And all that detail about Win the Hour I find too insistent on something that’s just a suggestion, where I’d be fine if your post just asked, ”How about this idea?”
I’ve read Justin McAffee’s Collapse Curriculum more than once. It’s sharp. Angry. Disciplined. It lays out a doctrine for resistance that feels militarized in tone but monastic in practice. And in a time of crackdowns, surveillance, and corporate feudalism, some of his counsel is damn useful. He’s trying to give people a backbone made of systems instead of slogans.
But somewhere in that field manual, something got left behind—something human, messy, democratic, public. Something that can’t be planned in Notion or executed like an op.
I don’t mean hope. I mean faith in people acting together—not covertly, but out loud.
McAffee says protest doesn’t work. That marches are digested by the system, metabolized into noise. That activism today is a performance the empire enjoys watching. And yet:
Just this weekend, millions marched. Across more than 2,000 cities, under a banner that said No Kings, Americans came out not in ones and twos, but in wave after wave of bodies. Portland to Philadelphia. Denver to D.C. Not for clicks—for conscience.
Was it enough? Of course not. Nothing ever is at the start.
But was it futile?
Too soon to tell.
That was Zhou Enlai’s answer when asked about the French Revolution. At least, that’s how the story goes. Maybe he meant 1789. Maybe he meant 1968. Doesn’t matter. The wisdom holds: no moment reveals its meaning while the dust is still falling.
So anyone calling June 14 a failure—or a triumph—is talking like a pundit, not a builder.
Movements take time. They stall. They splinter. Then they rise again. That’s not dysfunction. That’s the human condition in motion. The Civil Rights Movement wasn’t one speech or one march—it was a decade of slow, hard scaffolding. Churches doubling as strategy centers. Children trained in nonviolence. Lawsuits. Bail funds. Songs that made people brave.
So no—protest hasn’t failed. What’s failed is our capacity to sustain protest beyond the moment. What’s failed is the absence of follow-through. And that isn’t a flaw of the people. That’s the price we’ve paid for decades of disinvestment in public life, civic imagination, and democratic muscle.
McAffee’s error isn’t in his tools. His mistake is one of framing. He’s fighting the wrong war.
You don’t counter creeping fascism by fantasizing about becoming a cell. You do it by becoming a citizen who stays in the light. By organizing not just your pantry—but your block. Not just your exit plan—but your city council. You face the machine not by ducking underground, but by standing in public long enough that others start standing beside you.
He wants precision. So did the people who planned Montgomery. He wants protocols. So did Ella Baker. But they weren’t fighting to survive—they were fighting to govern. They were training people not just to resist the old system, but to shape the next.
McAffee dreams in tactics. That’s fine. Tactics matter. But if you want a future worth surviving for, you need more than survival. You need vision. You need people. You need messy, public, democratic motion—bodies on bridges, voices in courtrooms, fists and flowers alike.
He warns against fatigue. So do I. But I also warn against solitude disguised as strength. Against private resistance that never becomes public power.
So let’s take what’s useful. Let’s build systems, sure. Let’s win the hour. But not because the war has already come—because it still might be avoided.
And if it can’t? Then let our systems be systems that can scale. Systems that don’t just preserve the self—but hold space for the many.
I don’t want to live like I’ve already lost. I want to act like I’m still trying to win. Not for myself. Not in silence. But for the republic we have not yet buried—and may still rebuild.
McAffee wrote a survival guide.
I’m writing this because I’m not ready to surrender.
We need doctrine, yes. But we also need daylight.
We need discipline. And we need democracy.
Win the hour.
But don’t mistake it for the world.
We still have a world to fight for.
And we’ll know what yesterday meant—but not today.
This is beautifully written, and I genuinely appreciate the care in your critique. You're right—we may be fighting different wars. My framing is rooted in the structural entrenchment of neoliberalism, as David Harvey laid out in his writings. From that perspective, protest often gets absorbed, not crushed—especially when the system is designed to metabolize dissent without yielding power.
That doesn’t mean public resistance is pointless—especially against fascism, which can still be shaken by mass mobilization. But I’d argue that’s a lower bar. Neoliberalism is more diffuse, more embedded, and harder to uproot. That’s where I’m focused.
“Win the Hour” isn’t a retreat from the public—it’s a call to operationalize resistance in all dimensions, including the quiet ones that systems can’t easily co-opt. You’re right to ask for vision—though I think I’ve done that here and other posts.
Let’s keep building. We need your daylight. We also need discipline. As my wife likes to say… it’s a both/and situation.
It does feel like the protests of today are ineffective. I have concern that people will burn out. I’m all about mission and thinking outside of the box. It feels like everyone is waiting for the resistance government to form out of the establishment. When… that tower is falling — something else needs to get built in a safe location where operation is not threatened.
I think we need to fashion an exile government base — in Canada, perhaps. Kamala won the election— would she break from establishment to build something new? Or should it just be someone else with new ideas?
This back and forth is what’s needed. Not pontificating. But true dialogue that coalesces thoughts, beliefs, and actions into sustainable efforts. Please continue.
I appreciate this response. I think the response to the situation lands in between the practical and the passionate— without the passion, we can’t sustain the practical.
As a “prepper” or someone who feels far more secure when I am prepared, one of my “mottos” is, “hope for the best; plan for the worst.”
In that vein, I am studying herbalism. I also am protesting, volunteering, and trying to keep track of what is happening, and where.
In the event of the best outcome, I will have done my duty to my country and my family.
In the event of the worst, I will be prepared to help people who are affected by closed pharmacies, hospitals and other health services. That is not to say, herbal remedies can, nor should, replace science; but rather it is better than nothing. I will still have done my duty. Plus, it is fun, interesting, and gives me something to focus on when I need to take a mental break from the world.
This is fantastic and has been my approach too! I have realized we all have a part to play in this movement. We each bring a skill, practice, perspective that is unique and critical in sustaining ourselves, in community with each other. We understand the importance of being present for ourselves first, so that we can connect again to joy and peace that recharges us. We have learned that filling our cups first is the sole reason we have the capacity to share it with others.
And we also now know that isolationism has not served us. We crave community now. How many times have I spoken to someone or overheard someone say, “I have no one I can rely on,” “I’m doing this on my own right now,” “I wish I can just get some land and start over with my friends”? I might have been the one that said that last one. But it’s true.
We can’t continue to crave community, while simultaneously not sharing from our cups. Community is built by being in it. Engaging in it. Growing it. Supporting it. Holding space for all.
The world crumbling right now needs each of us to contribute in our own ways. Whether it’s by tactical planning, protesting, growing our own community garden, shopping local….it is our way of attacking fascism from all angles.
No, defeatist and wrong. Protests, along with boycotts and civil disobedience work. They worked during the Vietnam War, they worked during the civil rights movement and even the Black Lives Matter movement (even though there was a strong backlash).
It’s not defeatist to say this thing doesn’t work but here are things that do. The protest movements before the mid 70s worked in their moment… but the white washed history is that there were no radical flanks not strapped down by non-violence that made it possible. The ruling class structurally changed the system in direct response. Now it is unresponsive. This is called neoliberalism. David Harvey wrote about this in his book on neoliberalism. I recommend it. You have to understand the game to win. It’s important. And the game in this situation is rigged. So we can’t continue to play by their rules and expect to win.
An important detail here -- you're contrasting radical and nonviolent, and those particular movements were radical partly because they were nonviolent. I know nowadays people will use the word "nonviolent" to mean "nondisruptive," which is a surefire recipe for ineffectuality. But that's not actually what the word means.
Interesting detail. Though I still think it's important to acknowledge there were violent flanks in those movements as well, and they rarely get any acknowledgement let alone credit.
For example, people like to think of Nelson Mandela and his movement as radical non-violence. That simply isn't true. He was the leader of an armed militant group.
Okay. While non-violence was a primary tactic, it certainly wasn't a rigid doctrine. The movement was consistently protected by armed self-defense, particularly in the Deep South, where African American communities faced violent threats from Klansmen and other white supremacists. Guns were stockpiled, activists escorted by armed protection, and movement bases fortified, indicating that the line between armed self-defense and non-violent civil disobedience was often blurred.
We should also underscore the significant role played by more radical, confrontational segments (who I previously referred to as the "radical flank"), such as those associated with Black Power, the Black Panther Party, and black guerrilla groups. The presence of these more militant factions exerted pressure on political powers, making non-violent demands appear moderate by comparison. Without figures like Malcolm X advocating more radical positions, the more moderate demands championed by leaders like Martin Luther King Jr. might not have gained as much traction or achieved legislative victories like the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
What mealy-mouthed rubbish, you are deliberately whitewashing the fascists. Collect food? For what, another protest?
"These movements didn’t rely on the momentum of protest..." Actually they relied on KILLING the perpetrators of fascism and seizing or destroying their power bases.
As our Founders knew and did, fascist systems can't be saved or reformed, they must be eradicated. Our problem isn't Hillary, Obama, Biden or Trump. If you demonstrate for a piece of the pie or against the other guy's piece, you are missing the problem. If in another year you are wearing an "I Voted" sticker, you are the problem.
Win the hour ... my new mantra. I appreciate the structure you propose and am going to apply it. It'll help make sense of the scattergun of actions I engage in everyday. Many of which I'd not seen as important, until just now. GRATITUDE.
For what it’s worth, I’m not pitching Mad Max fantasies or survivalist isolation. I’m arguing that systems thinking, even at the smallest scale, is part of how we get to coordinated mass action.
That is to say... building capacity locally, tactically, communally so that when movements do emerge, they’re durable. The state may fear terrorism, but it’s allergic to autonomy. We’re far below 3.5% because we’ve lost the infrastructures of collective resilience. I’m interested in rebuilding those not in spectacle, but in systems.
So yeah, if you’re expecting “the plan,” you won’t find a blueprint. I'd say it's more of a field manual for the long road back to real solidarity.
I can share historical relevance if it's helpful.
That’s scary shit. That’s why I write to try and spread this idea of how necessary this organizing is.
Most of what I publish doesn’t have a paywall. Only content that is part of a published or soon to be published book. I provide LOTS of resources and make it clear there is ample free material out there, and you don’t need to pay subscribe to me to learn it. I’m not a corporation, or exploiting others labor. I’m just me… trying to make the time I spend on this aid my own simple life.
Stronger just reading this
"Win the hour" has really been a game changer. Especially for me, a guy with ADHD. I do feel stronger after being able to emotionally take on smaller things and actually win. I figured it might have a broader context.
🫰🫰🫰🫰
excellent cogent necessary. thank you.
Thanks, really actually supportive. I just checked out Notion and it looks maniac complicated. I have ADHD, too, plus ADHD burnout, which is pretty severe, plus lots of responsibilities, plus a cell level drive for creativity and doing the work for the planet. Exhausted, sure. But still, not giving up. Can't. Thats why the hour thing is practical. It's relevant and listed currently under survival support. My point was, actually: because we seem to think and have similar aims, any suggestions for how to use Notion? Currently I've created a system using Notes which has been awesome for the learning feedback loop, and organic. And you can change colours and add pictures. 🐦
Would love to hear about "what are you doing the work for the planet?"
I’m still learning how my ADHD blocks me from action I actually want to do. Which in this case is reply to you! Which I may seem to be doing, but this is me tricking my brain into motion. Because I want to give you a decent, thoughtful reply, but that desire is the very thing that get the attention of the ADHD freeze. That Work for Planet means a lot to me, so those emotions seem like a big bucket of water on a way below freezing day. Thank you so much for asking.
Check out @Gavin Mounsey's substack you'll love his reciprocity approach with nature...
no need to keep reminding yourself of your limits, remember, we manifest our own destiny, so encouraging words may work better for you replace the words you choose to limit yourself with love patience and gratitude...
and of course peace within...
Thanks that's very generous. And you're right. Off to check out Gavin...
I endorse Gavin too.
I think this is excellent for men. Women will need a different approach, as well as children.
I’d amend that to “some men.” And if you have more to say about why it feels like a misfit, or what a woman or a child’s approach would look like, I’m curious. Thanks for articulating a nuance.
And “some” women may need a different approach. Not all.
"Fix a tool" is not necessarily a physical tool. What are the things you can do, and make those things better, and ready. Kids need to be able to work on entertaining themselves learning how to work with boredom(us too!). If shit goes crazy we wont have all the distractions we are accustomed to.
You've got something here... it seems very much more about realigning moral values from the social engineering that has us questioning the whole paradoxical world that is completely socially engineered towards "BELIEVE IN THE SCIENCE" ...
"The media these days regularly lets you know that questioning ‘expert’ consensus doesn’t make you wrong, but immoral and perhaps even crazy. Nowhere is this inversion more visible than in science, which appears particularly odd, given science fundamentally is about challenging assumptions.
Yet, science doesn’t just inform morality these days — it defines it. And that consensus spreads not through debate, but through synchronisation across all major domains.
It’s almost as though this has all been decades in the making. Almost."
This post is awesome at describing HOW this Social Engineering has evolved and what it's motives are, which in all honesty is pretty obvious to those of us who still exhibit a critical thinking brain and a wisdom running deep with morals and knowledge.
The Venice Declaration:
https://escapekey.substack.com/p/the-venice-declaration?publication_id=1710745&post_id=165819959&isFreemail=true&r=7c7si&triedRedirect=true
This is most uplifting, sensible and practical article I have read in a while. Thank You.
There is much to do , breaking it down into a hour is doable.
Even short bursts help, like my weekly Poetry of Resistance 🧡
I’m only 7 years into the collapse journey. Always nice to meet a veteran of the poly crisis battlefield. Subscribed!
Great Justin, I am delighted . I look forward to getting to know you better and making connection.
A lot has changed since I became “collapse aware”, I didn’t think total tyranny would happen so quickly. Just like total collapse could now…although we do keep limping along.
You inspired me and got me thinking about the roles to take on now…insurgent was not on my list until today !
I like the way your brain works, but that doesn't extend to this post, which I see coming from a very wrong-headed perspective.
"Millions turned out in what should have been a moment of democratic assertion. And yet, the tanks still rolled. The executive orders will still be signed…We all feel it: the increasing futility of protest, the emptiness of 'raising awareness,' the exhaustion of being perpetually outraged yet politically impotent....if the protest didn’t work yesterday, it’s time to try something else. "
"We all feel it?" It’s one day later. Didn’t work? What are you talking about? It could have been our Berlin Wall moment, or what history will look back on as what started us going in the right direction. How dare YOU declare that what millions of people turned out for "didn't work," as justified by how cornered we are? Ummmm, the point was to get out of the corner, where the most massive public protest in history gave us the heart that might do the job.
"They failed because the system isn’t designed to respond to protest—it’s designed to absorb it."
You went on and on, proving the futility of everything. What do you accomplish that way? You have no right to play a god role, where all you do is make us cower and supply no energy for going on living.
Oh then you tell us how to get out, "moving beyond symbolic gestures and into structured action: routines, protocols, intelligence, feedback loops."
Why don’t you start there and drop the doom-saying? And don’t present your ideas as THE thing to do. Read my Substack for many other things we could do.
Who “told us” this? “We are told that if we just raise awareness, vote harder, or appeal to reason, the system will correct itself. That justice is an eventuality. That power will listen. That change is linear, incremental, and benevolent.” That’s not what my ears hear, nor does anyone else’s in this age of destruction of what we hold dear. And the whole idea of telling us anything, as if there's some organized force to kill all but the one percent, isn’t the way reality works. It is not “as designed” by any auspice that we are in this mess, but it's the natural working out of capitalism, where a system built on endless growth on a finite planet does the dirty job.
Yes to this: "The question is not whether we can save it, but whether we can survive its collapse—and whether we can build something better in its shadow." And all that detail about Win the Hour I find too insistent on something that’s just a suggestion, where I’d be fine if your post just asked, ”How about this idea?”
I’ve read Justin McAffee’s Collapse Curriculum more than once. It’s sharp. Angry. Disciplined. It lays out a doctrine for resistance that feels militarized in tone but monastic in practice. And in a time of crackdowns, surveillance, and corporate feudalism, some of his counsel is damn useful. He’s trying to give people a backbone made of systems instead of slogans.
But somewhere in that field manual, something got left behind—something human, messy, democratic, public. Something that can’t be planned in Notion or executed like an op.
I don’t mean hope. I mean faith in people acting together—not covertly, but out loud.
McAffee says protest doesn’t work. That marches are digested by the system, metabolized into noise. That activism today is a performance the empire enjoys watching. And yet:
Just this weekend, millions marched. Across more than 2,000 cities, under a banner that said No Kings, Americans came out not in ones and twos, but in wave after wave of bodies. Portland to Philadelphia. Denver to D.C. Not for clicks—for conscience.
Was it enough? Of course not. Nothing ever is at the start.
But was it futile?
Too soon to tell.
That was Zhou Enlai’s answer when asked about the French Revolution. At least, that’s how the story goes. Maybe he meant 1789. Maybe he meant 1968. Doesn’t matter. The wisdom holds: no moment reveals its meaning while the dust is still falling.
So anyone calling June 14 a failure—or a triumph—is talking like a pundit, not a builder.
Movements take time. They stall. They splinter. Then they rise again. That’s not dysfunction. That’s the human condition in motion. The Civil Rights Movement wasn’t one speech or one march—it was a decade of slow, hard scaffolding. Churches doubling as strategy centers. Children trained in nonviolence. Lawsuits. Bail funds. Songs that made people brave.
So no—protest hasn’t failed. What’s failed is our capacity to sustain protest beyond the moment. What’s failed is the absence of follow-through. And that isn’t a flaw of the people. That’s the price we’ve paid for decades of disinvestment in public life, civic imagination, and democratic muscle.
McAffee’s error isn’t in his tools. His mistake is one of framing. He’s fighting the wrong war.
You don’t counter creeping fascism by fantasizing about becoming a cell. You do it by becoming a citizen who stays in the light. By organizing not just your pantry—but your block. Not just your exit plan—but your city council. You face the machine not by ducking underground, but by standing in public long enough that others start standing beside you.
He wants precision. So did the people who planned Montgomery. He wants protocols. So did Ella Baker. But they weren’t fighting to survive—they were fighting to govern. They were training people not just to resist the old system, but to shape the next.
McAffee dreams in tactics. That’s fine. Tactics matter. But if you want a future worth surviving for, you need more than survival. You need vision. You need people. You need messy, public, democratic motion—bodies on bridges, voices in courtrooms, fists and flowers alike.
He warns against fatigue. So do I. But I also warn against solitude disguised as strength. Against private resistance that never becomes public power.
So let’s take what’s useful. Let’s build systems, sure. Let’s win the hour. But not because the war has already come—because it still might be avoided.
And if it can’t? Then let our systems be systems that can scale. Systems that don’t just preserve the self—but hold space for the many.
I don’t want to live like I’ve already lost. I want to act like I’m still trying to win. Not for myself. Not in silence. But for the republic we have not yet buried—and may still rebuild.
McAffee wrote a survival guide.
I’m writing this because I’m not ready to surrender.
We need doctrine, yes. But we also need daylight.
We need discipline. And we need democracy.
Win the hour.
But don’t mistake it for the world.
We still have a world to fight for.
And we’ll know what yesterday meant—but not today.
Like the statesman said:
Too soon to tell
This is beautifully written, and I genuinely appreciate the care in your critique. You're right—we may be fighting different wars. My framing is rooted in the structural entrenchment of neoliberalism, as David Harvey laid out in his writings. From that perspective, protest often gets absorbed, not crushed—especially when the system is designed to metabolize dissent without yielding power.
That doesn’t mean public resistance is pointless—especially against fascism, which can still be shaken by mass mobilization. But I’d argue that’s a lower bar. Neoliberalism is more diffuse, more embedded, and harder to uproot. That’s where I’m focused.
“Win the Hour” isn’t a retreat from the public—it’s a call to operationalize resistance in all dimensions, including the quiet ones that systems can’t easily co-opt. You’re right to ask for vision—though I think I’ve done that here and other posts.
Let’s keep building. We need your daylight. We also need discipline. As my wife likes to say… it’s a both/and situation.
Mine too! Great discussion. Let's keep going.
I was also thinking both/and. Wonderful to read both of you. Lots to think and feel in these words.
It does feel like the protests of today are ineffective. I have concern that people will burn out. I’m all about mission and thinking outside of the box. It feels like everyone is waiting for the resistance government to form out of the establishment. When… that tower is falling — something else needs to get built in a safe location where operation is not threatened.
I think we need to fashion an exile government base — in Canada, perhaps. Kamala won the election— would she break from establishment to build something new? Or should it just be someone else with new ideas?
Well said.
💯
This back and forth is what’s needed. Not pontificating. But true dialogue that coalesces thoughts, beliefs, and actions into sustainable efforts. Please continue.
I appreciate this response. I think the response to the situation lands in between the practical and the passionate— without the passion, we can’t sustain the practical.
As a “prepper” or someone who feels far more secure when I am prepared, one of my “mottos” is, “hope for the best; plan for the worst.”
In that vein, I am studying herbalism. I also am protesting, volunteering, and trying to keep track of what is happening, and where.
In the event of the best outcome, I will have done my duty to my country and my family.
In the event of the worst, I will be prepared to help people who are affected by closed pharmacies, hospitals and other health services. That is not to say, herbal remedies can, nor should, replace science; but rather it is better than nothing. I will still have done my duty. Plus, it is fun, interesting, and gives me something to focus on when I need to take a mental break from the world.
This is fantastic and has been my approach too! I have realized we all have a part to play in this movement. We each bring a skill, practice, perspective that is unique and critical in sustaining ourselves, in community with each other. We understand the importance of being present for ourselves first, so that we can connect again to joy and peace that recharges us. We have learned that filling our cups first is the sole reason we have the capacity to share it with others.
And we also now know that isolationism has not served us. We crave community now. How many times have I spoken to someone or overheard someone say, “I have no one I can rely on,” “I’m doing this on my own right now,” “I wish I can just get some land and start over with my friends”? I might have been the one that said that last one. But it’s true.
We can’t continue to crave community, while simultaneously not sharing from our cups. Community is built by being in it. Engaging in it. Growing it. Supporting it. Holding space for all.
The world crumbling right now needs each of us to contribute in our own ways. Whether it’s by tactical planning, protesting, growing our own community garden, shopping local….it is our way of attacking fascism from all angles.
And that is our common enemy.
Yes!
No, defeatist and wrong. Protests, along with boycotts and civil disobedience work. They worked during the Vietnam War, they worked during the civil rights movement and even the Black Lives Matter movement (even though there was a strong backlash).
It’s not defeatist to say this thing doesn’t work but here are things that do. The protest movements before the mid 70s worked in their moment… but the white washed history is that there were no radical flanks not strapped down by non-violence that made it possible. The ruling class structurally changed the system in direct response. Now it is unresponsive. This is called neoliberalism. David Harvey wrote about this in his book on neoliberalism. I recommend it. You have to understand the game to win. It’s important. And the game in this situation is rigged. So we can’t continue to play by their rules and expect to win.
An important detail here -- you're contrasting radical and nonviolent, and those particular movements were radical partly because they were nonviolent. I know nowadays people will use the word "nonviolent" to mean "nondisruptive," which is a surefire recipe for ineffectuality. But that's not actually what the word means.
Interesting detail. Though I still think it's important to acknowledge there were violent flanks in those movements as well, and they rarely get any acknowledgement let alone credit.
For example, people like to think of Nelson Mandela and his movement as radical non-violence. That simply isn't true. He was the leader of an armed militant group.
Yeah, I'm specifically thinking of the Black Civil Rights Movement of the 50s and 60s and its contemporary spinoffs.
Okay. While non-violence was a primary tactic, it certainly wasn't a rigid doctrine. The movement was consistently protected by armed self-defense, particularly in the Deep South, where African American communities faced violent threats from Klansmen and other white supremacists. Guns were stockpiled, activists escorted by armed protection, and movement bases fortified, indicating that the line between armed self-defense and non-violent civil disobedience was often blurred.
We should also underscore the significant role played by more radical, confrontational segments (who I previously referred to as the "radical flank"), such as those associated with Black Power, the Black Panther Party, and black guerrilla groups. The presence of these more militant factions exerted pressure on political powers, making non-violent demands appear moderate by comparison. Without figures like Malcolm X advocating more radical positions, the more moderate demands championed by leaders like Martin Luther King Jr. might not have gained as much traction or achieved legislative victories like the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
-Auxiliary
-Underground
-Guerrilla
Everyone has a skill and a role; find your place and do it with rage.
What mealy-mouthed rubbish, you are deliberately whitewashing the fascists. Collect food? For what, another protest?
"These movements didn’t rely on the momentum of protest..." Actually they relied on KILLING the perpetrators of fascism and seizing or destroying their power bases.
As our Founders knew and did, fascist systems can't be saved or reformed, they must be eradicated. Our problem isn't Hillary, Obama, Biden or Trump. If you demonstrate for a piece of the pie or against the other guy's piece, you are missing the problem. If in another year you are wearing an "I Voted" sticker, you are the problem.
The book "Liberty's Daughters" has a lot of real world examples of organizational successes and failures within a strategic framework.
Thank you for this Justin. I really appreciate your writing.
Win the hour ... my new mantra. I appreciate the structure you propose and am going to apply it. It'll help make sense of the scattergun of actions I engage in everyday. Many of which I'd not seen as important, until just now. GRATITUDE.
That’s awesome to hear. For real... what a reframing to see the stuff we do every day as the work, even when it doesn’t feel big or dramatic.