I Don’t Know If I Can Do This

tl;dr: In times of repression hope is not optimism, it is action in the face of the unknown. Here is an invitation into rebellion as a process of relentless experimentation.

I’ve already talked about Andor. The Star Wars offshoot that is preparing us for the sacrifices demanded of those who rebel against fascism. There is a poignant moment towards the end of the final season. He is rescuing Senator Mothma. They are coming face to face with the violence of repression. And she says:

“I don’t know if I can do this.”

He replies:

“Welcome to the rebellion.”

Hope lives in that not knowing. Hope rises out of despair.

I keep coming back to Byung Chul Han and his beautiful essay, The Spirit of Hope. He argues that both optimism and pessimism close the door on the future. While hope “enters into the unknown, goes down untrodden paths… into ‘what is not yet.’”

If we are walking into “what is not yet,” if we are walking into the unknown, then, by definition, we “don’t know if we can do this.” To rebel is to try anyway. The suffering, the challenge, the injustice get to a point where we have nothing else to do but rebel.

Hope… is born of despair. It emerges from suffering and challenge and directs us toward novelty.

-Byung Chul Han

When I work with clients who are finding their way through our times of volatility, uncertainty, ambiguity and complexity (VUCA), I help them to make a distinction between problems that are complicated and problems that are complex.

A complicated problem requires an expert that knows how to solve it. There is a direct relationship between cause and effect. And it is a problem with a solution.

A complex problem on the other hand is a problem that does not yet have a solution. Cause and effect cannot be predicted in advance. You can’t fully plan or control outcomes, but you can influence them.

So if we are dealing with a complicated problem, the smart thing to do is to find the expert who knows how to solve it. If someone built an engine, they probably know how to fix it, even if most of us don’t.

When we are dealing with complex problems we need a different approach. What I do is train leaders into taking a posture of sensing and relentless experimentation. We keep feeling our way into the solution that does not yet exist by poking into the problem through numberless iterations.

When we are working with complex problems we root ourselves in a simple yet courageous mantra:

This might not work.

Here we go back to Senator Mothma:

I don’t know if I can do this.

And to Andor’s response:

Welcome to the rebellion.

We must rebel. And we don’t know if it will work.

There is lots to learn from rebellions in times past. Some things tend to work over and over again. Other things have been tried but have not worked. Let us be wise enough to learn what we can learn. This is why I’ve been recommending “We Are Not Weak: Lessons on How to Stop a Dictator.”

But let us also understand that there is no way to know what’s next. The future cannot be controlled.

What we do know is that there is a deep indelible truth to Karis Nemik’s Manifesto (also from Andor):

There will be times when the struggle seems impossible. I know this already. Alone, unsure, dwarfed by the scale of the enemy.

Remember this: Freedom is a pure idea. It occurs spontaneously and without instruction.

Random acts of insurrection are occurring constantly throughout the galaxy. There are whole armies, battalions that have no idea that they’ve already enlisted in the cause.

Remember that the frontier of the Rebellion is everywhere. And even the smallest act of insurrection pushes our lines forward.

And then remember this: The Imperial need for control is so desperate because it is so unnatural. Tyranny requires constant effort. It breaks. It leaks. Authority is brittle. Oppression is the mask of fear.

And know this: the day will come when all these skirmishes and battles, these moments of defiance, will have flooded the banks of the Empire’s authority, and then there will be one too many. One single thing will break the siege.

Remember this: Try.

We live in challenging times. Today, the President of the United States is speaking out against an imagined genocide of white South Africans while looking away from the very real, devastating mass murder of Palestinian people. Here in the United States people are being caged and shipped out on a large scale.

The threat is real.

We can trust the cause of freedom. But we must understand that it does not come without loss. Nor does it come without trying. Without moving into the fray even when we don’t know if it can be done.

PS: I write as I succumb to a sense of powerlessness as the unthinkable happens to the Palestinian people. I feel a sense of shame before my own lack of imagination as to what to “try” and “experiment” with in resistance to this devastation. I hold the painful awareness of my own responsibility as a citizen of the empire who was also born a colonial subject. I know that those missiles have my name on them. That my taxes support this insanity.

I consider my place under a regime I did not choose. And I consider the Israelis of conscience who are also contending with their own maniacal regime. I grieve. And I pray. I pray for the courage and wisdom to find a pathway to stand for what is right. And I feel stumped. There is cause for despair.

Here I share a scathing and terrifying indictment from Chris Hedges. As well as Jamie Wheal’s very different effort to take a stand for liberalism. Finally, I also share my recent talk on a Post-Liberal World Order.

What is it that is ours to do now?