Obviously and luckily, there are many forms of resistance. It would be frankly boring for all of us if there was only one -- forcing us to don boots and helmets and AKs or whatever as our only method of dealing with oppression. Of course, it may turn out that we 202x Americans end up being called upon, either as patriots or more likely as people just trying to get on with life, to take up some such action, but we will only cross that unhappy bridge when we¹ get to it. Until then, we can thankfully engage along with many of our fellow citizens of this world in other more palateable and even positive resistive pursuits. Some of these are admittedly oblique, but even with only tangential leverage against oppression they still have a formidable power. It's in this category that lives: the creative act. A.k.a. the making of art.

To be resistance, creative work doesn't have to be protest art -- it can simply be art. Art's power comes from the positive energy involved in making something new. Creation, simply by being the opposite of destruction, loneliness, and fear, is in itself resistance to tyranny. This is because the oppressor is by his nature a destroyer, who thrives on stopping and ending things. Although he might see himself as an architect of some kind, that self-image as a maker is at best an aspiration and in reality an outright lie he tells himself. Building power structures is not a true act of creation. He is instead, simply, a thief. Of freedom, and of joy. Sometimes that theft of freedom is literal, with jail cells and deadly weapons. Sometimes the taking of joy uses threats or laws or executive actions written to evoke fear.

A former leader of the U.S. said² of Robert Frost after his passing,

"[Frost] saw poetry as the means of saving power from itself. When power leads men towards arrogance, poetry reminds him of his limitations. When power narrows the areas of man's concern, poetry reminds him of the richness and diversity of his existence. When power corrupts, poetry cleanses. For art establishes the basic human truth which must serve as the touchstone of our judgment."

Imagine having someone dedicated to such thoughts again in office. Many political officholders around the world have been familiar and comfortable with the conceptual and emotional power of creativity, and a few were even artists and national leaders. Valcav Havel was an accomplished playwright who used his creativity to imagine a more egalitarian environment for his compatriots. Pianist and composer Ignacy Jan Paderewski led Poland early in the 20th century, signing the Treaty of Verseilles, ending WWI.

Strong leaders know that in wielding soft power, art plays the long game. Art will of course never serve in the moment to stop jack-booted enemies at the gate, but it will exert a more powerful force over time, lifting human beings to the point where they believe that they are worthy of life's full beauty. Art's armaments may be metaphorical, but they matter to the spirit more than bombs. The civilization we build out of culture and creativity makes life worth living. And in seizing this power we harness a force more mighty than any despot.

Today we can't rely on our leaders to reinforce the power of creativity. They won't inspire us to resist an 'officious state' as JFK did. They won't read us their plays, as Havel did. We sadly must rely on pop culture to rouse our sensibilities and our bodies. The irony of hearing 2025's most-poingiant-by-far anti-fascist message delivered through one of the largest entertainment intellectual properties that capitalism has ever wrought is a wild ride for us all, but Karis Nemik's words are undeniable, as are are Maarva's. Nemik's Trail of Political Consciousness is of course channeling both historical and modern political voices for us, and we like having them filtered through actor Alex Lawther's beautiful voice. As pointed out by A More Civilized Age, The Comite Invisibile's The Coming Insurrection is the most recent anarchist manifestation of Nemik's not-so-fictional ideas.

Another modern real-world text that Nemik would no doubt want to share is the crowdsourced We Are Everywhere - The Irresistible Rise of Global Anticapitalism. Tony Gilroy, who wrote Nemik's speech was probably aware of Gramsci and his "War of Position", which describes a movement separate from simple direct and militaristic action (what Gramsci calls a War of Maneouver), utilizing in parallel a popular zeitgeist of constant minor resistance and an anti-capital culture which results in a force of will all its own. He may have also drawn on the idea of Atonomism, a branch of Marxism that emphasized decentralized revolutionary energy. All of the above were synthesized for us in a 2025 work of speculative fiction. As many have said already, this particular strand of Star Wars does not seem very long ago or far, far away.

Art as resistance has a close cousin that's also proving super relevant in 2025: resistance as art. As of this writing it is in full bloom in Portland Oregon, where visiting ICE troops are being met by donuts on fishing poles, an 'emergency' naked bike ride, some kind of magic frog 🐸, and a chicken suit. One Portlander suggested officially changing the name of the city itself to "Epstein Distraction, OR", which is the most art as resistance idea I've personally heard this year.

Aside from pop culture we only have each other. We can rely on our fellow makers, our fellow creative humans for the life-force that we need. And those who inspire others to contribute their their blood, their energy, and their very life force to creation are the heroes we desperately need. They remind us of why this dark, chaotic life is worth living. They bind us together with the faith that our fleeting time here might have meaning.

By contrast, any powerful charlatan with military parades and sycophantic hangers-on knows that he is, in the end, nothing by comparison. He is only angst. The patron saint of bloviation and bile. Rotten. Ridiculous and useless. This self-knowledge fuels his hatred of the world.

Will clinging to our art be enough when the tide of power surges against us? Will it protect us when the bullets fly? We don't know. It may ultimately only give us meaning long enough to have our world stolen out from under us. But maybe we can lift enough human spirits to actually prevent some fraction of that coming apocalypse. And if that's not enough, we will fly, as the love-bent radical futurists that we are, into the solarpunk sky. We will meet our end in an explosion of glitter and sweetness and blinding light. We will look at each other and know that what we've done can never be undone. Our bodies will form a space elevator on which those who come after can climb to sacred orbit. We won't look back - we will have created beauty for each other. And in the end that may be everything. ⁂

Thank you for reading.

2025