3. Connect with others to share knowledge, ideas, and opportunities for action

Why it matters

As Naomi Klein has pointed out, part of the Trump administration’s strategy is to keep us in shock, disoriented, and fearful. When catastrophes happen for which we don’t have a narrative, it’s easier for corporate forces to come in and shape the narrative in service of their own profit-driven agenda. An important strategy for resisting this “shock and awe” tactic is to find each other, share our ideas, read, listen, connect, and develop our own narrative, together.

What to do

• Start a reading club focused on corporate power, democracy, and resistance. Here are some great reads to consider:

  • Naomi Klein, “This Changes Everything”
  • Rinku Sen, “Deciding to Lead With Love, Despite an Enraging Political Climate”
  • Rebecca Solnit “Hope in the Dark: Untold Histories, Wild Possibilities”
  • Saru Jayaraman, “Forked: A New Standard for American Dining”
  • Gene Sharp, “From Dictatorship to Democracy”
  • Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor,  “From #BlackLivesMatter to Black Liberation”
  • Rebecca Solnit, “Protest and Persist: Why Giving up Hope is not an Option”
  • Frances Moore Lappé and Adam Eichen, "Daring Democracy: Igniting Power, Meaning and Connection for the America We Want"
  • George Monbiot, “Neoliberalism -- The Ideology at the Root of all our Problems”
  •  Andrea Flynn, “Justice Doesn’t Trickle Down: How Racialized and Gendered Rules are Holding Women Back”
  • Michelle Alexander, Naomi Klein, and Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, “People Were Resisting Before Trump”

Have another idea for a great book we should all discuss? Share it with us:

• Hold dinner discussions with like-minded people. Consider inviting folks outside of your inner circle. Your neighbor, your barista, or the person who always seems to be on the same laundromat schedule as you just might have a new perspective or connections to local organizations that you’ve always wanted to participate in.
   
• Take part in the #ReadersResist conversation on Twitter every Friday.

< Be vigilant