In the age of Trump, however, it's so much easier to focus on what we can't do and on what disastrous harm is being done to us and the country. We can't build bridges, or get out of any of our wars, or scrub the insides of industry smokestacks, or even think about stopping those global waters from rising. But, if we put our minds (and hands) to it, we can still grow food, block by block, yard by yard, and feel a hell of a lot less dystopian in the bargain.
What would it be like to be mobilized by my government -- and I emphasize "my" because as far as I'm concerned, Donald Trump's version of it doesn't qualify -- into some collective effort to make this country a better place.
When we entered World War II, the United States rushed onto a war footing and, disastrously enough, in many ways it's never gotten off it again -- except when it comes to the public. We Americans were demobilized long ago when it comes to war, even as military spending headed for the heavens (or for hell on Earth) and the national security state became the defining branch of government. We, who are eternally to be kept "safe" by that militarized state are also eternally not to raise a hand when it comes either to the war "effort" or much else.
No Victory (or in this era, possibly, Defeat) Gardens for us. Few of course could even name all the countries in which the U.S. military is at war these days, no less list the strategic or political goals behind our trillion-dollar conflicts. Many of us don't know any active duty service members in our now "all-volunteer" military. Our eyes tend to glaze over when we stumble on a war news story.
All our government has wanted from us in its war effort (and this has been totally bipartisan) is our complacency, our inattention, our distracted and ill-informed consent or at least passivity. In exchange, our leaders regularly suggest to us that there's no need for sacrifice or scarcity or hardship on our part. We are, that is, to be prepared for nothing.
President Trump has put a new twist on this American compact. He's ready to mobilize us, but only to render him our loyalty (whatever that may mean) and adoration. Giving him such loyalty these days is a growing white supremacy movement emboldened to emerge from the shadows and into the streets with its hate and violence on display. The Trump presidency has certainly provoked disdain, disgust, mistrust, resistance, and protest -- but so far, not sustained, alternative, creative activity, the sort of things that would support this country literally and figuratively over the true long haul.
Still, Victory Gardens are alive and well, at least in Milwaukee. There, the Victory Garden Initiative will come to your house (if you ask them and pay them) and install garden beds in your yard. In the Bay Area, a "gardener on a tricycle" will deliver your Victory Garden starter kit and build garden beds for you out of untreated redwood. For those thinking about sustainability in tough times, you can find a dozen books that contemplate the concept.
I must admit that I haven't yet gotten into the habit of calling our front yard a Victory Garden, but it is at least vibrant and vital. It already sustains me (and Madeline and Seamus) in tough times, even if it will be months before we can actually eat the few ears of corn our little patch produces, if the birds and bugs don't feast on them first.
The kids want to have a corn party with our neighbors. It's an idea that fills me with satisfaction, even if those ears won't nourish us for more than a few minutes. Still, our fleeting (and delicious) ability to feed one another might help us grow a bigger patch next year and face with a greater sense of self-assurance whatever zombies Washington sends our way.
Frida Berrigan, a TomDispatch regular, writes the Little Insurrections blog for WagingNonviolence.org, is the author of It Runs In The Family: On Being Raised By Radicals and Growing Into Rebellious Motherhood, and lives in New London, Connecticut.
Tom Engelhardt is a co-founder of the American Empire Project and the author of The United States of Fear as well as a history of the Cold War, The End of Victory Culture. He is a fellow of the Nation Institute and runs TomDispatch.com. His latest book is Shadow Government: Surveillance, Secret Wars, and a Global Security State in a Single-Superpower World.
Copyright 2017 Frida Berrigan
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