An Update
It’s Friday late afternoon, which is pretty much the worst time to post or email something that you’d like for folks to read. But here goes!
We’ve got 6+ weeks to a super critical election. Our media and maybe our entire culture to be in some willful denial and not-honest assessments about the risk landscape in front of us. I haven’t gotten this new nonprofit to where I’d like to, to be able to help with all of that.
In good news, we’re working with a couple of campaigns to help energize voters, and we’re starting up online events to get shift going starting next Wednesday. Those will be announced here on Substack starting tomorrow. Sign up if you’re not subscribed yet to make sure you get in on the good stuff:
The truth is… this whole new nonprofit isn’t where I’d like it to be because it’s super hard to bring something new into the world.
And also: I need more help with it. It’s all good to have big vision and a plan, but you need a Team to make it work well. I need to go about bringing a bigger Team together. With that, if you’re up for volunteering with Shift the Country, sign up here.
Also: We need cash to seriously grow this shift, and I need to get better about asking for it. Donate on the website, or on Patreon. Paying subscribers also help fund this shift.
Also also: I keep being hard on myself for not being farther along with this new organization in time for the election. At the same time, I’m not sure how we could have realistically been any differently positioned for fall. I did take like half of August for family stuff, but not doing that wasn’t a good option. I’ve made a few decisions that have led to overall delays by a week or three, but most everything else that’s impeded progress has been fairly complicated.
That being said, I could do with less character-building opportunities. Less “challenges.”
My own most recent “challenge” is a health development that’s not a crisis, but it certainly complicates things a bit. I’m not sure how much yet. It explains a lot, too - like how I’ve had way less energy to get this shift going than I’m used to. How I’m not as efficient as I’m used to being. How I’ve been uncomfortable and had trouble focusing; but couldn’t figure out why. Now I understand more about why. Again - not a total health crisis. But it’s not fabulous, and it’s a little scary. Not sharing it here or online yet, but I might once I know more.
I’ve been explaining my perceived inefficiency the last few months by blaming general overwhelm given all the things, the continued persistent state of panic up in this country, existential dread about this democracy, and built-up trauma and stress from living a stoic life for so long to bring this new thing into the world. I suspect all of that plays a role — especially in some of the writer’s / creator’s block that I’ve hit — but now I have the benefit of hindsight I know damn well that the health stuff that’s just been discovered is playing a huge role. In any case… now I know, now I can adjust accordingly, and it should be okay in the long run; but I am going to have to have to deal with the health thing, and that will take time.
Authenticity
There are those who wouldn’t even share any of the personal stuff above. That’s totally okay. We all have to share what we’re comfortable with.
Sharing tough stuff, though, is one of the ways we connect. Authenticity isn’t about only sharing the pieces and parts of you or your life that look fabulous and together. It’s about meeting people where they are, and letting them know where we are. It’s about vulnerability. It’s about being present in the moment. Lots of things.
I think authenticity is a key to building connection, community, solidarity, and strength. It’s a thing of tremendous value. I recently listened to a Congressional candidate say that he’s figured out that voters in rural areas have a sort of BS meter, and they’re not interested in hearing a bunch of crap from inauthentic politicians. So he’s straight with them — whether or not he thinks they’ll agree, or vote for him. We need more of that. And if you’re going for a long-shot anyway, why not go for it in a way that you know resonates with the people you’re trying to reach? When you know people value authenticity above so much else, you might have a better shot of influencing their vote from connection… more than anything else.
Authenticity resonates because we like it. We like having a sense that people are being straightforward with us; and even opening up a bit. It establishes trust. It creates a good foundation for going forward. It helps us live in integrity, and speak in integrity.
I met Aaron Stark online in the spring of 2018, just after seeing him speaking authentically on an MSNBC interview. I found him on Facebook, and sent a friend request. He was about the most authentic, forthcoming, vulnerable, and honest person I’d ever seen on television or even in real life. He had to have still been in the MSNBC green room when he accepted my friend request. Since that spring he’s gone viral big time and met people all over the world. I’ve been lucky to develop a friendship with him.
Aaron was on TV then after the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas in Florida because he’d written a letter to local media saying “I Was Almost A School Shooter.” He had points about gun access and trauma and poverty and people who have hard lives, but his biggest point was that in a moment of crisis… someone reached out to him. Someone loved him. It made all the difference.
I am floored by how authentically he tells his story. I’m not alone: Aaron’s viral TEDx talk on that story has 14.5 million views. This year alone he has spoken to the FBI’s Behavioural Analysis Unit (BAU), to groups all over the US, to schools and staff who have experienced school shooters, and to mental health professionals. He’s starting to get requests to speak and reflect on more of his story. I think at least part of that is because people who have been through such deep trauma are not often in a position to have their voices heard. I think Aaron’s grounding and authenticity are another powerful part of why people want to hear what he’s got to say.
To that end, we’re doing a 1-hour interview with Aaron next Thursday, September 29 at 12 Central / 11 Mountain. It won’t be scripted, because, you know, of the authenticity part… but we’re intending to talk about how to be authentic when you’re telling your story, the emotional aspects to it, and the challenges. We’ll also talk about what can happen when your story goes viral, and what Aaron has chosen to do with it. And why.
I’m convinced that being able to be so present and straightforward is a key to creating content that resonates as we go about making shift happen. I’m convinced it’s a key to telling our own stories, and getting them out there. So - bring your questions, and we’ll see what happens next Thursday.
Eventbrite sign-up for that virtual conversation coming via Substack tomorrow! Standby for that!
Two Demagogues
Perhaps the biggest news developments of the week center on two people: two demagogues. Donald Trump, and Vladimir Putin. As the week has unfolded, the world security landscape has shifted because of these two.
Most of us underestimate true believers. Demagogues are dangerous because they don’t.
These two specific demagogues threatening the security and stability of this planet are wired for fascism, and they know damn well how to make it happen.
Donald Trump became more dangerous this week to US security and stability because he’s now backed into a corner; arguably with little or nothing left to lose.
He may well go all out to hold onto whatever chances he’s got left to hold onto any at all of his money, power, or perceived status. I’m sure there’s a ton of pundit analysis on the lawsuit brought against the Trump family this week by the New York Attorney General, and I’m sure there are a lot of takeaways. I suspect the most important one, though, is that that lawsuit is very likely to kill the Trump family’s chances of ever doing business in New York again, possibly in the US, and certainly not with any major financial institutions that have even a sliver of respectability left.
Trump is going to fight like a rabid, cornered, screaming cat. With claws.
And with hyper-activated true believers.
The US intelligence community has already assessed that domestic violent extremism is one of the greatest national security threats to the US.
Trump has the potential to seriously disrupt our stability, safety, and security if he goes all out activating his true believer followers. A further-destabilized US threatens the world order, and the security of our allies.
A further-destabilized US also helps Russia.
Putin became more dangerous this week because he, too, is backed into a corner. He backed himself into that corner by choosing to invade a democracy full of citizens with a wicked powerful inclination to remain free. He backed himself into a corner by invading a country with powerful allies. He backed himself into a corner by committing atrocities, and by casually burning through his own precious military resources with his unnecessary war and terrible war execution strategies.
Ukraine has gained the upper hand.
Putin made the war all about some mystical, fascist, end game wherein he restores “Mother Russia” and the Russian Orthodox Church by “reuniting” Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine. US media doesn’t do well reporting Putin’s own internal propaganda, but that doesn’t mean it’s not there.
Putin is in his end game. He’s doing legacy-building. He’s building his perceived great role in Russian history. He’s not going to back down.
He, too, is quite likely to go all out.
Not everyone believes that he will use nukes, necessarily, but he’s extremely capable of using all kinds of means to achieve barbarism, annihilation, and terror. Chemical, biological, cyber, or conventional weapons strategically aimed in ways he hasn’t done yet could still do spectacular damage.
And then what? In any one of a hundred god-awful scenarios, one thing we can absolutely imagine (again) is escalation; worldwide. Also not hard to imagine cascading effects… because we’ve been seeing them all year. Expected food shortages from the war itself and from grain blockades are worsening in various parts of the world. Refugee impacts continue all over Europe. Both were by design. The man doesn’t play.
I think we've come out of some of the shock from when the war started in February... and we saw the fresh horrors all the time every day. Russians mowing down civilians; blowing up entire areas of civilization. We learned soon that the Russian military was not that force to be feared worldwide as we had all suspected. Maybe we've been breathing a little easier here on the other side of the world for a while.
But that doesn't mean Russia isn't a risk to be taken seriously. Especially now.
I think we all want things to be calm and go back to some level of order.
I don't think we're doing that. Not anytime soon.
That's not how it works when you're in a time of transformation. And we're in a time of transformation.
Stay tuned. Shift the Country really is starting virtual events next week to help get voters energized this fall… and also to help us keep our collective sanity as we go through this time of elevated risk. It’s going to be different than what other groups are doing, or we wouldn’t be doing it. Announcements posted here tomorrow.
Be well. Take care of yourself. Check in with people. These times are tough. The path is unknown — we need each other to help navigate it.
We will find our way. Or we will make it.
Some of us merely write. Others, like you, write, organize, and get out the vote.
Thank you for your work, Vanessa. It's the essence of what makes for a healthy democracy.
Dear Vanessa, a long and content-filled post! It's an important one, and I will follow up later with some comments. But I want you to know that you are heard...and your thoughts align with what I think we all must consider as we try to steer the country out of the morass of trump--and thread our way through the crisis with Putin. It ain't gonna be easy... More than ever before, we must remain focused on what's important to save our democracy and figure out how to bring others along.