Every night for the past couple of weeks, I’ve been going out to a major intersection near the end of our street to bang on pots and pans for 5 minutes with my neighbors.
It may sound like a random act of lunacy, but it’s actually a style of protest with a long and storied history.
Beginning as mock serenades, noise casseroles became a popular form of protest in France in the 1830s, re-emerged in Algeria in 1961, and has since spread around the world, from South America to the Philippines and beyond.
In our case, we’re protesting the federal takeover of our local police force and the phony emergency that’s being used to justify calling out the National Guard.
And it’s not just happening in our neighborhood; it’s in every neighborhood. No matter where you are at 8:00 pm in our nation’s capital right now, you’re likely to hear a sudden outburst of pot-clanging, whistle-blowing, and horn-honking.
It means more than you might think. Lots of small actions add up to a big action. Seeing people taking action inspires other people to take action; the number of participants in our nightly protest has been steadily growing.
Protesting, especially in small groups, is a way to cultivate collective courage, counter fear with hope, and express solidarity across communities.
Yesterday, hope, courage, and solidarity were all on full display as thousands of people opposed to the federal takeover of D.C. gathered together for a huge . . . “music festival.”
It was amazing. It felt great to be a part of it.
Why am I so fired up about this?
Because everything that our government is doing right now runs counter to everything I was taught about the idea of America.
I’m placing the emphasis on the word idea because the reality of United States history hasn’t always been glorious. If it had, the ultra-nationalists running our government wouldn’t be so anxious to re-write or erase it.
Still, it’s important to ask, “whose idea of America are you talking about?”
I’m certainly not talking about ideas like exceptionalism, expansionism, individualism, or imperialism.
I’m talking about the idea of the United States as a place that stands for everlasting virtues in human society; virtues that Superman fights a never-ending battle for and that are summarized very nicely in this verse from the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam:
This passage appears in a chapter that describes varnashrama: the intersection of a person’s civic duty—in accordance with their natural aptitudes and inclinations—and their stage of life.
All of us have an essential nature that make us who and what we are. How we express our essential nature, and the specific ways in which we contribute to society, change over time.
But the core values and essential characteristics of people living in an enlightened society—or a society oriented toward enlightenment—provide a changeless foundation for everyone’s material prosperity and spiritual upliftment.
The reason my objection to the current administration is so fierce is because every aspect of it is characterized by the exact opposite of every one of these everlasting virtues.
A society based on the idea that we are defined by our nationality, ethnicity, gender, or other bodily designation rather than the soul within, that normalizes justice being applied based on one’s power rather than on the truth, that deems facts as inconvenient and malleable, that glorifies word jugglery or even word salad as a symptom of scholarship, and that posits wealth is a sign of proximity to divinity is a society that yoga wisdom describes as demonic:
So, of course, I don’t want any part of it.
And I certainly don’t want to live in a city that’s being used as an incubator for authoritarian policies rooted in duplicity, arrogance, conceit, anger, cruelty, and ignorance.
Building relationships is one of the things that makes social movements—or, in this case, resistance movements—successful. That’s why I’m going to be out on the corner with my neighbors cooking up a noise casserole every night for the foreseeable future.
If you’re in the neighborhood, come out and join us. Bring an extra loud frying pan.
Wishing you all good fortune,
– Hari-k