Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community?
The infinite month of January + student protests + the power you didn't realize you had.
Every article I’ve written over the past year is essentially a version of summarizing how fucked this world is, listing a few things to be hopeful about, then lifting you up (and myself in the process) by convincing us it will get better! All my pieces are basically a 1,000 to 3,000 word pep talk, equal parts despair and defiance. Call it a depressive cheer, if you will—a rallying cry wrapped in the weight of reality and hope.
Rinse! Repeat.
You survived 2024. Congratulations! You also made it through January. And not just any January—the one that came after 15 months of absolute dystopian mindfuck.
I commend you if you’ve managed to stay a sane, empathetic human being who cares about this world beyond ego and selfish pleasures. And I congratulate you if you’ve evolved enough to realize that nothing good comes from individualism—that our well-being depends on community. Togetherness. Being there for one another. Lending your voice to those struggling beyond your comprehension, even at the risk of your own prospects. Using your privilege for something bigger than yourself.
The world needs you right now—people just like you. You are the glue holding us all together.
“Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?” — Martin Luther King Jr. once wrote.
We go chaos AND community, friends.
I'm so proud of you. Over the past fifteen months, we've felt defeated and thought we couldn't go on—yet we keep moving forward. Every day, we believe we've seen the worst society can throw at us—yet we endure. We keep finding a way. And when we're on the verge of losing all hope, a way finds us.
I’m proud of us for finding ways to live with the built-in pain of realizing what this world truly is. We protest, we advocate, we post relentlessly—and it’s no longer just something we do; it has become our routine, and part of who we are.
Class consciousness has finally hit us, curing us of nationalistic tendencies, party affiliations, and tribalism. There is one world and one struggle. Our fellow human, whether from a different political party, religion, or nation—is not our enemy.
Do you realize your power yet?
We are trained from an early age not to realize our own power. Before we even form our own thoughts, carefully planted foundations of disinformation have already taken root in the corners of our minds. Caitlin Johnstone laid them out well:
Elections are a real thing where we get to choose our government that will work for the betterment of our lives.
A democratically elected government is the only power structure calling the shots in our country.
There are official channels through which the powerful can be held to account and real changes can be advanced.
We aren’t actually ruled by unelected plutocrats and empire managers who often have no position in the official government.
We live in a free country with a free press where the news media doesn’t function as the propaganda services of our rulers.
Western power structure is imperfect and might make mistakes here and there, it must never stop killing and tyrannizing foreigners, because if it does, the bad guys might win.
These deceptions have been ingrained in our minds since childhood. Those in power have spent decades conditioning us to accept a limited worldview—West is good, East is bad; who cares about the suffering of people far away? What’s the latest bag you bought? But the world no longer accepts this. The world is rising. Students are protesting worldwide, from Columbia University to Serbia to Romania to Georgia to Slovakia—people are fed up, angry, and tired.
We aren’t afraid of the police anymore, or military units to keep us in order—we don’t fear anything. The Global South no longer fears America. The poorest people of Yemen do not fear the mighty American military wrath. We simply do not care anymore. We have nothing to lose.
“We are giants who have been tricked into thinking we are insects.”
January also gave America and the free world a new president, but don’t fret—he puts an ugly face and a crass voice on Imperialism—“making the US empire a less effective evil because of how much less hidden he keeps the inner workings of the machine. The hood stays popped open the entire time, showing the whole world how the imperial sausage gets made.” — Caitlin Johnstone.
This is a good thing, believe me. The hood to be open, machinery to be exposed—it’s easier to take it out. We see much better, with the hood open.
“Nowhere is it inscribed upon the fabric of reality that control of the world must be ceded to the dumbest, crudest and cruelest among us.”
Are you aware of the historic moment you’re currently in?
Students around the world are a force to be reckoned with. Did you see what Columbia University students started last year? A historic wave of activism demanding universities disclose and divest from financial ties to Israel, and end the support for the occupation and apartheid. Their movement was so powerful that bills and task forces were introduced to suppress it. Congress fears them. Western governments fear them.
Did you hear about Serbia’s student-led anti-corruption demonstrations, already dubbed “the Balkan country’s greatest ever protest movement”? These protests escalated after a fatal railway station collapse linked to government corruption. Tens of thousands have taken to the streets, demanding accountability from the president's authoritarian regime. Read more about the significance of these protests.
Why are the student protests in Serbia so significant with all that’s been happening in the world? Because these students are not affiliated with any political party. They are self-organized through student committees, without leaders. This makes them the most democratic and progressive self-organized movement, and a threat to any corrupt governments if this spreads throughout Europe.
The world has had enough.
Having your corrupt, totalitarian governments steal your money to fund foreign wars, treat you as an afterthought, and force you to witness a live-streamed genocide for fifteen months, while those in power justify it at every turn—it tends to radicalize people.
“What radicalized you?”
Reality, friend. Reality radicalized me.
Donald Trump signing an executive order targeting pro-Palestinian, anti-war students for deportation, yet they keep protesting. German citizens getting beaten, arrested, and abused, yet they still take to the streets. Citizens of Romania, Georgia, and Slovakia rising in large-scale protests over their political, social, and economic issues.
Mass demonstrations erupting in American cities against Trump's proposal to convert Gaza into a luxury resort managed by the US. Nationwide protests challenging Trump's immigration policies. Thousands flooding the streets in front of the Treasury, demanding action against Elon Musk’s government takeover.
I don’t think a day passed when I walked by The New York Times building, and there wasn’t a protest demanding an investigation of anti-Palestinian bias within its newsroom.
To all of you showing up every day, in the dead of winter—you are the glue holding us together. You understand that chaos AND community matter more than individual ambition. You put your privilege and prospects aside for the sake of a better tomorrow.
The world has been waiting for the people like you!
We are giants who have been tricked into thinking we are insects.
You are a giant, and so much more. Governments fear you. The laws are being passed to stop you.
It doesn’t have to be this way.
Nowhere is it inscribed upon the fabric of reality that control of the world must be ceded to the dumbest, crudest, and cruelest among us.
We are giants who have been tricked into thinking we are insects.
We are a dragon wearing a name tag being yelled at in a cubicle by a short man with a receding hairline whose wife is about to leave him.
We could bite him in half at any time, or light him on fire like a child’s marshmallow on a stick, but instead, we sit there taking it while his spittle frosts our cheeks, silently hoping that we are making the expected level of eye contact.
There is a hungry wolf inside every wagging dog.
Every tiger in every cage remembers the natural order of things and reminds us now and then right when we are in the middle of our favorite sequined Vegas routine.
We have galaxies and sorcery roiling within us.
We have barbed wire wings beneath our sundresses waiting to be unfurled.
The tiger show is over when we decide it is over.
They can lock up Luigi, but they can’t lock up everyone.
There is one world and one struggle. Know your power.
