Where Hope Lies

So I don't know about you, but for the last few weeks and especially the last few days, there has been a sharp increase in my social feeds from folks exploring what it would take to leave the United States. Discussions about optimal places to relocate and the associated logistics are hot topics with many seeking advice from the expat community that has been growing since Trump's first presidency. Eight years later, it looks like those who did leave were on to something as it becomes more evident each day that the U.S. Empire is falling.

Now, I'm not talking about the recent Presidential debate, the panic Project 2025 has inspired, or SCOTUS rulings that have criminalized houselessness, gutted the protections offered by government agencies, or even the shocking, but also not so shocking decision that expands Presidential powers by codifying an unprecedented degree of immunity for the President. But for abolitionists and others deeply embedded in liberation work, it has been clear that the U.S. has been on the path that led us here for decades. Assatta, Malcolm, Huey, Angela, and countless others have been warning us.

“In the 1960s and ’70s, a group of Black radicals envisioned the imminent collapse of the American empire just as U.S. militarism and the national security state expanded and police violence intensified.”
– Robin D.G. Kelly from Twenty Years of Freedom Dreams

The absolute moralless depravity of America's complicity in the ongoing genocide in Palestine, coupled with the absurdities of American political theater, may have intensified the trajectory or at the least made it more apparent where the U.S. is headed. But it is not new. Nonetheless, a growing group of people have expressed their desire or plans to leave the U.S. Notably, this is an option only a privileged few can even entertain. Even for those who can go, will they?

The likely reality is that most of us will remain in the U.S. as the Empire falls. But it's worth examining why people are entertaining leaving, a choice that will only offer some protection for themselves and their immediate families. The inclination to flee tracks with the insidious nature of capitalism and the cultural focus and discourse on individualism deeply embedded into our psyches. The default has become to think individually rather than collectively because of the conscious and subconscious influence of the usual culprits: White supremacy, patriarchy, settler colonialism, and capitalism. The me has replaced the we, and we have largely forgotten that we are better and stronger together.

Like sands in the gears of a machine, solidarity is an irritant to the beneficiaries of an unjust status quo; helping people see their interests as aligned poses a profound challenge to the capitalist principles of individualism, scarcity, and competition.”
– from Solidarity by Leah Hunt-Hendrix and Astra Taylor

If there was ever a time to learn, explore, and practice solidarity, it is now. It is time to unlearn our collective distrust (largely manufactured but also driven by capitalist principles) in each other and think about how to survive and care for each other in a world hell-bent on destruction. Last month's selection, Let This Radicalize You: Organizing and the Revolution of Reciprocal Care by Kelly Hayes and Mariame Kaba provided many examples of different kinds of communities of care and ways those communities are banding together and showing up for each other. There are models for what we must build that already exist in pockets and places throughout this failing Empire that most of us will continue to inhabit. The principles upon which these communities are built can be sought, replicated, and expanded.

Leaving the U.S. will protect only a few of us. However, staying and figuring out how to create communities that come together to share resources and keep each other safe will offer more protection and minimize suffering for the collective. And perhaps even more importantly, therein lies the tremendous opportunity for us to build and grow what will ultimately be the world we want to inhabit.

What other choice do we have? Choosing to leave or otherwise go it alone concedes to the will of fascists whose actions, if left unchecked and unchallenged, will destroy us and the planet we all inhabit.

But there is hope. To combat the desire to leave the U.S. and abandon what feels like a sinking ship, we should run—toward each other.

“We know from looking at social movements past that human beings have the agency and capacity to radically alter how we live…We need to get organized if we want to see the world improve.”
– from Solidarity by Leah Hunt-Hendrix and Astra Taylor

Our hope lies in running toward each other and creating the communities that will sustain us. Our hope lies in joining together in solidarity. After all, we are each other's.
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We are looking forward to discussing this and more when we meet at the end of the month, Wednesday, July 31st, from 6:00 - 7:00 PM Eastern to discuss all we've learned from Solidarity: The Past, Present, and Future of a World-Changing Idea. Register to join us here:

connease & Alan