Things Are Not Getting Worse, They Are Being Uncovered~adrienne maree brown
It's Time to Pull Back The Veil
Dear readers, we know it’s been a while since we have posted, not because the universe hasn’t offered us a firehose of daily news and events, but because it is becoming harder to discern what is important to say. Our inboxes and social media overflow with hourly updates of disturbing news. We are relentlessly reminded of the indecent, inhumane and corrupt actions of elected leaders and their minions. Our devices are literally becoming purveyors of trauma.
Our mission at H4D is to make meaning of the events that fill our days, not to regurgitate what everyone else is writing about. So, our writing team has gone through a period of writer’s block. We have learned to trust these lulls and wait for the muse to speak to us.
Did You Know
Social scientists and historians who study the rise and fall of empires suggest that we are in a time of societal collapse. It can be said without hyperbole that we are living in apocalyptic times—not in the radical evangelical fundamentalist pseudo-Christian understanding of apocalypse, but in the true meaning of the word which is to unveil or to reveal. The word apocalypse originates from the ancient Greek apokálypsis, meaning revelation, uncovering or disclosing. In this moment of collapse, when it feels as if the world is literally falling apart, we are called to pull back the veil of our illusions, misperceptions and untruths in order to see what is being revealed.
adrienne maree brown (she prefers lower case letters) writes about the meaning of apocalypse as being a time of unveiling. She is an author, social justice facilitator, healer and doula who lives in Detroit. She explains that in this time of revelation and uncovering, we must “hold each other close” and engage in not only resistance work but ‘radical futuring’ together. She wrote these prescient words in a 2017 blog:
we must increase our collective tolerance for truth. this means we must learn how to hold the full breadth of emotions we feel upon hearing the truth, and to keep listening, changing, taking action, learning. we must be willing to look at what actually needs to happen to address the truth.
we must deepen our connections to each other. there is no way the majority of us will survive this time if we continue working in isolation or in competition. we must meet at the intersections and lovingly figure out how to be in right relationship. we need the largest, and most authentic, collaborative efforts for justice and liberation that have ever been witnessed on this planet.
we must take the risk of leading. we must be willing to assert the solutions we believe in, to experiment with alternative ways of being human on this planet at this time. we must be willing to try out post-normative paths, we must be willing to say unpopular things.
we must divest. i am still trying to figure out what this looks like in real time. i know part of it is boycotts and buycotts and I am excited to see the lists of places we can stop putting our money and where to redirect it already moving around the internet. i know part of it is really being willing to stop financially supporting all of these things we so viscerally disagree with.
i also think we need to learn to divest our attention from the circus in DC. i do not mean to ignore it or to escape it, but it’s not going to work to continue to spend the majority of our hours saying what the fuck what the fuck what the fuck to what’s coming out of DC.
Why It Matters:
If we are to survive this time of collapse so that healing and rebuilding work can happen, we must not avert our eyes to the catastrophic damage that has been done to our country and our world; damage that was in some ways self-inflicted and has been incrementally occurring for decades. Our response to this collapse must be done with compassionate resolve while accepting our own complicity and naming what is happening in ways that can be heard by those who are ready to hear. We cannot solely rely on social media platforms to be sources of meaning making and truth telling, nor allow ourselves to fall victim to their addictive nature.
The most effective way to share these difficult truths as we pull back the veil of our delusions, illusions and blindspots is in community and through our conversations. We must rebuild community that has been torn asunder, knit together new relationships that are diverse in perspectives and experiences, and engage in meaningful conversations that bring new understanding and broaden our insights. We must learn how to listen to one another and how to ask authentic questions that when answered can open locked doors. We must continue to build this pro-democracy, pro-decency movement one relationship, one connection, one question, one conversation at a time.
What We Can Do
There is powerful resistance movement that is growing across the country and across the world. The No Kings Day 3.0 that occurred on March 28th, was the largest national single day protest in history. There were approximately 3,100 different geographic sites across the country with an estimated 8 to 9 million people participating. These single day protests that have been occurring since last April continue to grow larger and more diverse with each successive event. However, single day protests are not enough. They are vital but only part of the solution.
National organizing groups such as Indivisible, 50501, AFL-CIO, and MoveOn are encouraging a ‘tactical escalation’ from our advocacy and single day protests. Social movements that have successfully toppled authoritarian regimes included civil disobedience and economic boycotts and work stoppages. Indivisible’s What’s Next plan of action includes two primary organizational and resistance tactics:
Host local organizing, solidarity meetings to build capacity for collective actions of noncooperation. Gather your people and expand who you think of as ‘your people’. If we are to be successful in rebuilding our democratic republic, we must move from mobilization into a more robust and sustained movement. Their toolkit for community groups gives you everything you will need.
Create local awareness and connect with your civic groups and grassroots organizations to support a May Day work stoppage on Friday, May 1, 2026. Make a plan for no work, no school and an economic boycott on that day. Spread the word and stay tuned.
The actions and movement building we do now will build power to ensure the integrity of the midterm elections and that every vote is counted. The November elections will be a bellwether moment for the resistance to this fascist takeover. We won’t get a second chance.
The collapse and corruption of our beloved institutions, the erosions of democratic norms and the cowardice and lack of basic decency in most of our elected officials is real. We are in apocalyptic times. That doesn’t mean that we should despair or give up. It is a time of revelation. We hold the power, not the little man behind the curtain.
We are in this together!
Debbie and the H4D Team
Notes: Check out our free H4D Solidarity Network communication resources: Hoosier Solidarity Communication Guide; HoosierSolidarity Book and Movie Guide, and HoosierSolidarity Reaching the (Un)reachable Guide
Ellen, you are absolutely right. We have to rebuild community and connections not just for mobilization but for belonging. The hard conversations, the compelling questions, the rubbing elbows across generations and perspectives will be how we grow a pro-democracy, pro-decency movement. Holding each other close and planning our next communal action!
Thank you for reading!
Well done. It was with the wait. Building community, not just for political action, but for relational, supportive, and purposeful connection is essential.