For my 75th birthday, a friend gave me a T-Shirt with a quote on the front by Walt Whitman: “Resist Much, Obey Little.” I get more comments on that T-shirt than any other I regularly wear. And I wear a lot of T-shirts. Just the other day, another friend took a picture of my well-worn sartorial statement, and said she was going to order one just like it.
The quote “Resist much, obey little” appears on page 28 of Leaves of Grass in the poem “Inscriptions To the States” by Walt Whitman. The full stanza is:
“Resist much, obey little,
Once unquestioning obedience, once fully enslaved,
Once fully enslaved, no nation, state, city of this earth, ever afterward resumes its liberty.”
This quote, of course, has provoked multiple interpretations. Some say Whitman is advocating that we dance to our own drummer, that we refuse to surrender to ideological or religious dogma, that we break free of our prisons of indoctrination and herd mentality, that we refuse to walk in lockstep to an imposed destination, that we liberate our spirits and celebrate our souls. Others say Whitman meant that we need to challenge the status quo, that we need to ask hard questions, that we need to engage in critical thinking and self reliance, and that we need to expose the manipulative hyperbole in our rules and systems of government, finance, and education. I resonate with all those interpretations.
For me, however, the quote raises three questions:
- To what do we have unquestioning obedience and why?
- To what are we enslaved and why?
- What are we are going to do with our liberty, and why do we think that we are free to do whatever we want?
Let me address each separately and then make some concluding comments.
To what do we have unquestioning obedience and why? My sense is that it’s different for all of us. I’m not sure to what I have unquestioned obedience. My wife? My conscience? My purpose and principles? To the common good? I guess, at some level, I try to be obedient to all of those, although my wife would tell you that her authority is not absolute. I am not obedient to any religion or political party, and I don’t react well to anyone telling me what I should do . . . . . even when I would be better off taking their advice.
What I see happening in the world at large, however, is far too much obedience and far too little resistance. It seems to me that people would do well to question the dogma of religious and political absolutism. Unfortunately, no matter how many facts contradict opinions and beliefs, too many people simply accept as truth the proclamations of their “leaders” or “divine authorities.” For example, according to a recent Guardian poll, 56% think the US is experiencing a recession, while that is simply not true. 49% believe the S&P stock market is down for the year while, in fact, it was up 24% in 2023 and 12% this year. 49% believe that unemployment is at a 50-year high, though it has been under 4% for over two years – a near 50 year low. 72% think that inflation is increasing; it is not. It appears that many people simply fall in line behind the narrative of the day, independent of the facts. I have no idea why beliefs, opinions and narratives go unquestioned or why there is such obedience to perceived or self-proclaimed authorities. I guess it’s easier than doing the hard work of digging for the truth.
One possible explanation, though, brings us back to my second question: To what are we enslaved and why? One obvious example is the internet. The internet has played an increasingly dominant role in our life and keeps occupying a larger and larger share of our mental, emotional, and spiritual bandwidth. While it has provided easy access to an abundance of information, that information is often manipulated and manipulative. How do we deal with the dominance it has exerted in our lives?
The promise of the internet was to bring information, education and insight to a connected world. After more than 30 years of its creeping and creepy scope, the internet has left us less connected, informed, and discerning and more tribal, distrusting, and vengeful. One might question whether it has done a better job of atomizing, antagonizing, and alienating than facilitating connection, communication, and collaboration. And more and more people are feeling more and more unencumbered—unburdened by the difficulties of dealing with differences or by the responsibilities of sacrificing for the common good. Indeed, the internet has even enabled us to be unencumbered by facts. We can simply tune into whatever echo chamber reinforces our beliefs, supports our narratives, or proclaims our chosen ideology. Instead of making us more curious and empathic, it has made us less so. Having said all that, I’m still thankful for email and Zoom.
The internet, of course, is simply one example of our enslavement. We merely have to observe the shift across the world to more authoritative governments that rule by racism, sexism, or theocratic impositions. For instance, a recent survey indicated that 41 percent of European voters aged 18 to 35 have moved toward the right or far right. This populist shift does not bode well. All of these examples point to a strident unwillingness to question and a stunning willingness to obey that lead us to my third question: What are we are going to do with our liberty and why do we think that we are free to do whatever we want?
Apparently, on the far right, liberty is construed as being free from the “discomfort” of taxes, regulations, choice, diversity, equity, and inclusion. Yes, there is a reason the anti-woke folk hate DEI. It is a movement against comfort, obedience, enslavement, patriarchy and hierarchy. To me, liberty means freedom from abuse, authoritarianism, and imposed ideologies. Liberty, however, carries with it the weight of responsibility. Liberty requires us to do the right thing and to look out for the common good. It does not justify anarchy, insurrection, or doing/saying whatever you damn well please.
I’m wondering at what point unquestioning obedience will lead to being fully enslaved. As Walt Whitman said, “Once fully enslaved, no nation, state, city of this earth ever afterward resumes its liberty.” It seems to me we are getting way too close to that point.
In a sick society, adjusting is not a sign of health. Oh how quickly lies and deceit become normal. How quickly we become desensitized to the most aggressive accusations and ugly tantrums. How quickly we shift from questioning authority to obeying tyrants. How quickly we become fully enslaved.
Since I was writing this post on Memorial Day week-end, I kept struggling with how to convey the message that resisting much and obeying little was an appropriate way to honor all of the Americans who have died in the failed wars of the last 50 years—one in which I fought and lost friends. One day I was playing basketball with Ed Sonichson at our base in Saigon; he next day he was dead from a Viet Cong ambush. He was a tremendously talented, warm, and thoughtful person with unlimited potential – what a waste that he should lose his life for a wasted effort. He deserves to be remembered.
It seemed to me that it was important to recognize the whole lives that were broken or destroyed by bad decisions and blatant lies. And then I came across an article in the NYT by an ex-Marine who captured the very essence of what I couldn’t convey adequately. Here it is. It’s the best rationale I could imagine for resisting much and questioning authority. I highly recommend it.
The article raised a larger question for me: What do we need to change in order to avoid these failed military interventions that cause us to mourn on Memorial Day?
What I have found in over 50 years of experience leading change of one sort or another is that there are four required factors for achieving more desirable and peaceful end-states: Commitment, Capacity, Capability, and Culture. Not surprisingly, the two factors that most often receive less attention and investment than they need are the first and last. In a recent project in Traverse City with community leaders, we identified the commitment and cultural requirements for success. The commitment requirements were:
- Being open to the facts
- Acknowledging the complexity of the problem
- Working together at all levels toward shared goals
- Creating a timeline for what’s most urgent and important
- Honoring each other’s knowledge and experience
- Focusing on results
- Contributing the process (all partners)
In addition to making those individual commitments, the collective leadership agreed to create an environment of trust in which conflicts could be aired AND compromises made. The leaders determined that the most important cultural norms to establish were:
- We have a shared vision
- We have clear expectations
- We are open to collaboration
- We coordinate resource allocation so that everyone grows
- We seek interdependent relationships
- We are curious
- We recognize that words matter and strive to be credible
- We are honest and reliable – we do what we say we are going to do when we say we will do it
- We are transparent
- We are driven by our purpose and principles
- We are humble; we check our egos at the door
- We look for common ground
- We seek to find the truth
As a result of those commitments and cultural norms, the community is making progress. I will share the results of that work in another post. While one little project in Traverse City is a small example of what can happen with sufficient commitment and cultural support, the principles still apply to the largest issues we face globally. Let me end with a brief poem that builds on Whitman’s idea in Leaves of Grass:
Resist much the lure of lies
Obey little the theocratic tyrants
Resist much the seduction of simplicity
Obey little the pandering politicians
Resist much the normalization of nonsense
Obey little the cynical celebrities
Resist much the dominant dogmas
Obey little the memorized mandates
Question what oppresses you
Shed what enslaves you
Celebrate what frees you
I’m hoping we can resist the normalization of evil and tyranny. And I’m hoping that instead of blindly obeying false narratives and empty ideologies, that we will instead obey our consciences, our hearts, our souls, our higher selves, and our personal purposes. Indeed, I hope we will resist much and obey little. May we remember not only those who have died in wars, but also what’s possible when we work together to avoid wars.
Also published on Medium.
Well done Ricky-thank you!