4.1 Mischief
Deep activism requires work, hard work, and lots of it. So why didn’t I call this chapter, “Working against the game”?
Because deep activism has a deep undercurrent of…
Play.
Actually of…
Mischievous play.
In the Rider-Waite Tarot deck, the Seven of Swords is often called, “Stealing the weapons of the enemy.” There’s a trickster spirit to this card.
And we can bring that spirit to our work.
Why do we want to get to know the game we’re in? Not so we can get better at playing the game, but…
So we can play against the game.
Which is the kind of thing a trickster would say. Or a…
Mischief-maker.
When we play against the game, we’re…
Breaking the spell of tribalism.
We’re…
Dragging it’s secrets out in the open where everyone can see them.
And we’re…
Surprising our adversaries.
Namely the people who are running the tribal game all around the world, along with their followers.
By digging deep into the way tribal fundamentalism works, we become experts at the inner workings of our adversaries…
We get to know them better than they know themselves.
We can then hold up a mirror and give them a chance to see themselves for real for once.
We can tell them the true story of who they are and maybe free some of them from the false comfort of the delusional stories they tell themselves.
Even when they come after us, and we’re having to defend ourselves…
We can still keep inviting them out of their tribal trap into a better way of life.
Not that most of them will take us up on that offer, but it’s good for us to boldly go there and make that offer and in so doing, to practice…
Invitational self-defense.
Our adversaries want to beat us down and get us to identify as losers. But instead…
We get to operate with the mindset of winners, even when we’re losing.
Because we are in fact winning, that is…
In terms of moral depth and moral courage.
Our adversaries pack as much destruction and defeat as they can into every single day. They’re hoping to drive us so deep into despair we’ll never climb back out. They’re hoping to exhaust us so we’ll give in and give up. Then they’ll have a free hand to take from us whatever they want to take.
But when our activism is full of mischief and our mischief is full of spirit, we’re saying to our adversaries…
“You do not own us.
“We will not collude with you. We will not make it easy for you.
“Watch us give your despair right back to you and keep our fight.
“And watch us ramp up our mischief, which is sweet to us and sour to you, which makes it quite a treat.”
Maybe some number of swing voters will see how spirited we are and how we’re defending ourselves against despair and they’ll feel jealous and decide…
“I want that, too.”
And maybe they’ll come to us and ask us to help them find their fight.
