Nemik’s Manifesto and the Rebellion Growing in American Souls

From inside a fictional universe, wherein free people, regular people, psychologically normal people are just trying to live their normal lives, creeps the shadow of modernity’s greatest and most destructive evil: fascism.

In the Star Wars series, Andor (the only truly well-written and inspiring tale from that universe in decades, IMO) we get a page from a journal kept by the rebel Karis Nemik musing upon the nature of fascist tyranny — and how to fight it.

And it is extraordinary, deeply humanistic, and hopeful. If you haven’t read it, prepare to be struck deeply…

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.

Replace a few words, and it could have been written yesterday — in Minnesota.

When I watched the two seasons of the show Andor, it struck me as deeply relevant to these past 10 or so years in America. We watch an authoritarian lawlessness attacking people in the name of ‘law and order’ while denigrating and abusing the people, citizen and non-citizen alike, and reigning constant hammer blows upon the very idea of rule by law, Nemik’s brief words and call for the rememberance of simple facts have become ever more resonant for me, and ever more obviously insightful about the inherent weakness of tyranny.

We have all watched in dawning horror that same fascist shadow creep and claw its way into our daily lives, and invade our peace of mind in ways that the government of a free people should never be allowed.

We have never before smelled such a stench of desperation from our government, except perhaps in the days before Nixon resigned — for reasons that seem tame and barely outrageous in comparison to today. We have never been struck by such utterly implausible and bald lies spat contempuously from the lips of the powerful. We have never watched in amazement from between our fingers the faithful dolts and wannabes accept the fevered distortions of even our very recent history — that all of us witnessed! We have never before been splashed by the flop sweat of a blatant buffoon insisting on deference and flattery from all in his orbit so outrageously, so parodically, that one can hardly even laugh at it: it is so appalling and humiliating to everyone involved that all we have left, after passing through disbelief, confusion, outrage, and apathy, is pity, and a perhaps vague disgust.

Never before has our civic life felt so contemptable, so parodic, and so alarming.

But take to heart Nemik’s reminders: abusive authority is brittle, unnatural, and takes constant and deperate effort to maintain. It is especially hard to maintain fascism when the hearts of its intended victims have recently been warmed by freedom, still yearn for it, and are willing to fight to keep its fire burning.

Know, and be comforted, that every skirmish, every outrage, every overreach, and every voice raised in defiance weakens that illusion of control just a bit more. Until, one day — and that may be sooner than any expect, the time comes that just one more angry “Fuck ICE,” just one more act of needless agression is caught on camera, just one more cleverly homemade sign reminds us all of the absurdity of it all, or just one more act of compassion and mutual support between our folk shatters the brittle foundations and the whole edifice collapses like a pancaking skyscraper. Small acts can have exponentially outsized effects on history.

So we will win. We are winning. We only need remember to try.

Even those among us who have plucked out their own eyes so to no longer see the truth cannot impede our victory. Still our rebellion grows.

Our people, united, can never be defeated.