A Movement’s Search for Meaning
The last few weeks have been particularly difficult for the greater Movement, especially in terms of our mental health. The strain of the monumental effort we are now involved in is wearing on all of us. I feel it, my friends feel it, and those around me are starting to notice the effect. The bill-which-shall-not-be-named has been passed, and with it the funding necessary to build a true security state, which we have thus far only been flirting with. At this point, the shape of the conflict between autocratic and democratic political forces is now clear, and knowing the outlines of a danger is intrinsically scarier than an abstract thing like “autocracy.” We are now looking into the eyes of the monster that we have created, and we do not like what we see. When this is only the latest legitimate worry, which feels like another log on the fire, how do you steel yourself and continue to go on?
The crushing weight of our national debt—created by decades of errors and an inability to find common ground on issues like taxation and spending—is no longer something the empty shell of our conservative party even pretends to care about. They have mortgaged our collective economic prosperity in service to a toxic mix of cowardice, complicity, and petty avarice. Some of the holdouts traded their votes and their honor for a photograph, memorabilia, and a handshake. The knowledge that history will not be kind to them is a shallow comfort to those whose lives will be destroyed by the choices they have made and the privileges they chose to abuse. The pain has yet to be felt due to delays in most cuts until after the midterms, and the intrinsic strength of our current economy may have some steam left, despite the storm clouds on the horizon. But the die has been cast.
Funding for a budding secret police force has been codified into law, a force that could easily be turned against natural-born citizens at scale. Meanwhile, camps modeled on a cheap tent-city internment facility in Florida are a clear indication of this administration's intentions: the Human Rights abuses we are already seeing will soon be executed at scale. They now seek to terrify us into compliance, and for some, it’s already working. These are objectively horrible and frightening things. The mask is off. They consider transparency about what they are doing a good thing because it scares the masses into premature compliance, while allowing those who normalize the absurd to continue to shift away from any sense of the common good on a bed made from lies and malice. The Overton Window will continue to shift.
What we are seeing now is a kind of epistemological nihilism by what remains of the Republican Party. Gone is any pretense of fiscal conservatism, personal responsibility, or a values-driven foreign policy that elevates democracies and suppresses autocracy. Instead, it has been replaced by a corrupt and reactionary force that moves from invented crises to preventable catastrophes. It makes no measure of the human cost of their choices, because it is incapable of seeing its own error in any way, and it is utterly disconnected from objective reality. This negative system is driven entirely by the whim of one man in communion with a wild-eyed mob that values spectacle, theater, and chaos. To deny this reality is to do the work of the enemies of liberty. We must look into the monster’s eyes and name it correctly in order to defeat it.
The fear is real and justified, but we should be careful about letting it exercise power over the most important fortress: our mind. In the movement, we often talk about self-care. This means taking account of yourself, ensuring that, despite our struggle and our new obligations, we maintain our balance by allowing time for rest and recovery. Our minds must be clear to effectively act in the manner this moment requires of us. Finding the balance between urgency and sustainability is going to be a challenge.
“Marcus Aurelius Statue” by Erik Drost, CC BY 2.0
The real enemy of this movement is existential; a dreadful fear for the future that grinds us down to the nub as each insult irritates the yawning chasm that leaves us unable to rest. The force of this dread, sourced from the media we all consume and inflamed by an awareness that the darkness that is coming must be confronted, is something we must learn to endure. Your self-care toolkit shouldn’t be just rest and relaxation, but also a healthy understanding of the mind's weaknesses and limitations, and taking deliberate action through a thoughtful framing of the day’s events to improve it.
Stories of resilience can be found in history, philosophy, and science. We benefit when we take the time to reflect on the lessons of those who came before us. In Man’s Search For Meaning, Viktor Frankl, a Jewish psychologist and a captive of the German concentration camps, observed, as a scientist, the behavior of both guards and prisoners. In it, he identified several key psychological principles of resilience. Chief among them was that when comfort is denied, the people who remained strong in the face of the worst horrors were those who found their way to meaning and service despite their suffering.
“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances.”
Those who cared for others in the worst of circumstances and, for example, shared their bread despite their hunger had a different experience of the camps than those who collaborated or betrayed their fellow prisoners. Those generous individuals remained resilient both during internment and in the long years after. The scars of their experience were lessened by the grace they gave in the worst of places, at the worst of times.
By simply choosing to be the best version of yourself, by accepting the suffering of the camps as a truth that you lack the power to fix, you can still find human dignity by choosing to endure a little extra on behalf of your fellow prisoners. In service, it is possible to find a kind of mental strength. This work later informed the creation of the psychological discipline of Logotherapy, which was the basis of modern Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT).
One aspect of CBT includes voluntarily and gradually exposing the patient to what they fear, to build resilience and acceptance of it. It does not reduce your fear, but it does increase your strength and confidence in spite of it. Just as you have no control over external circumstances, you do have control over how you respond to it. This works by allowing the brain to slowly build new neural machinery to take on greater challenges than it was capable of before. The human mind is not a static system, but an adaptive one. It is possible to modify yourself to almost any circumstance—no matter how horrifying—through the act of embracing the dreadful and the terrible. Just like a weight lifter exposes themselves to greater and more difficult lifts over a period of time.
Philosophy also tells us the same story. Marcus Aurelius was an Emperor of Rome, a nation in decline and beset with problems not of his making. He dealt with a plague, rebellions in the outer provinces, and barbarian raids trying to pillage and steal. He was constantly harassed by courtiers who lied to gain favor and status, and dealt with men of incomparable stupidity and avarice. He struggled mightily to keep Rome functioning, whole and united. Marcus Aurelius wrote a book called Meditations, which is a famous collection of his observations and insights over this tumultuous period of Roman History. Leaders in business, the military, and politics will often swear by the insights of this book, and it is given as gifts to future leaders.
He would be horrified to learn we are reading this book, because it was simply a diary where he would write observations about his own weaknesses and failings. He lived up to the creed that he wrote to himself in that same book: “Be tolerant of others and be harsh with yourself.” He was a practitioner of a philosophy called Stoicism, and in his diary, he wrote honestly about his own struggles of living up to its ideals.
I am a lay person who uses philosophy as a practical framing device to help me decide what to value when society or circumstance forces a challenge upon me. I do not have deep expertise in the subject, but we can use philosophy to extract simple life lessons, or some wise heuristic that helps us get our bearings in a chaotic and uncertain world. It’s not as abstract as people make it out to be; it can be practical. I do try my best to incorporate Stoic observations about human nature and its recommendations for the path to happiness. Sometimes I even succeed, though I am a work in progress, like everyone else. In Stoic philosophy, it is central that you try to frame the world in a particular way. Marcus himself said it better than I ever could:
“The present moment is all we have to live in. The rest either has been lived or is uncertain.”
A great deal of human suffering is not actually suffering at all, but a lament for a past you cannot change or a fear for a future that has not yet arrived. You should not be blind to the errors or injustices of your past, nor should you fail to plan for a proximate and likely future. The emotional signals that lamentation and fear give you are useful because it is information and they tell you what you should remember and what to plan for.
But once these emotions have inserted the seeds of concern they are meant to create for us, they serve no purpose in the mind that is of actual utility. To remain in the present in the mind is difficult, but like the weight lifter, it is an exercise that can strengthen you by making you resilient against the invisible pain of existential fear. If you have something to be afraid of, plan for it to the best of your ability. But do so while also keeping your mind in the present moment and the task in front of you as much as possible. This same logic should be applied to pleasurable activities. Anticipation of joy can at times also be the thief of joy. Stay focused on your work, but when it’s time to play, enjoy that too by embracing it in the present. Leave the drudgery of labor behind and any fears for the future. You have already planned. Worrying will not help you watch Netflix or enjoy a dinner with family and friends. If you do this, then during times of crisis and doubt, your fear will deaden and your mental strength will return to you, in part or in whole.
This is only my feeble attempt at pop-psychology and philosophy. There are things you can read if you have an interest in diving in further. If you feel distressed, you should read about distress and understand why you feel the way you do. If you need help, ask for help. If you need rest, rest. But remember, this movement will call for courage and strength. It is courageous to believe you have it in yourself to do just a tiny bit better, at whatever it is you desire to do.
I’m afraid of many things these days, and a sense of obligation weighs heavily upon me. Most of all, I fear that I am not up to the task before us. The reasoned part of my brain tells me otherwise, and discipline means deferring to that part of you when you have the strength to. I try my best to listen to the body builder, the Emperor of Rome, and the psychologist in a concentration camp, not the scared child in me that wants to run away. If they can do all that they did, I can certainly send a few more emails on a Sunday night, or write just a little longer, or tell a friend in despair that they can lean on me if they want. I have faith that this act of service to another will strengthen us both for all the trials ahead.
For further reading on this topic, I recommend:
Ryan Holiday’s The Obstacle is the Way - the inspiration for this article.
Quoted Books :
Man’s Search for Meaning, by Viktor Frankl
Meditations, by Marcus Aurelius
Bryan Winter can be reached via Bluesky (@savingtherepublic.bsky.social) and Facebook.
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