First They Came
Dear
reader,
Last
night, a video from Gaza popped up on my feed. I engaged with the video to help
it get better reach and I immediately scrolled on, looking for something to soothe
me. Maybe a dancing dog or some silly meme. Anything to distract me.
A
lot of us do this and lately, it’s got me thinking: what does that say about
where we’re at? The footage is too much to handle and scrolling past it feels
like the only way to keep functioning. But I wonder how many times we can push
these exits before the world we’re avoiding just disappears from view. And how
privileged we are to be able to look away whenever we feel discomfort.
Gaza
has only recently started to get more coverage, sandwiched between mukbangs and
AI slops. So much suffering doesn’t even make it far. Sudan’s war has raged
past three years now; genocide at the hands of the Rapid Support Forces, the ethnic
cleansing in Darfur and millions losing their homes or starving. Eastern Congo
has been burning since forever and the world is completely unaware. What gets
pushed down our throats is celebrity gossips and more AI slops. In Afghanistan,
women were once doctors, teachers and civil servants. Now even their voices
can’t be heard. Rohingya families still stranded in camps, Uyghurs monitored
and locked up, Yemen’s Houthi seiges, cholera outbreak, economic collapse and
famine. Armed gangs hollow out Haiti and the ecological crisis and economic
collapse due to war in Iran. Nobody’s keeping count and that seems to suit a
lot of folks just fine.
And
then there’s India. Turned 79 this year but people are still fighting for
scraps promised by the Constitution. Kashmir has seen everything from mass
killings, enforced disappearances, torture, sexual violence to political repression
and suppression of freedom of speech. Since 2023 in Manipur, hundreds have
died, tens of thousands lost their homes, armed groups with political backing
roam freely while official help moves slowly or not at all.
Then
there are protestors getting detained and lathi-charged by police who seem to
have forgotten that they are public servants, there to protect everyone and not
only the elites and the powerful. We have sections of society, teetering on the
edge. Women feeling unsafe while walking home even in broad daylight. Bahujans
and religious minorities facing violence and exclusion, in village wells and in
university corridors alike. People with disabilities meeting buildings and
classrooms built without them in mind. Gender and sexual minorities still can’t
count on safety at home or at work. It is 2026 and people are still reminded,
in a hundred ways, that they belong to a “marginalised community,” as though
they chose the margin. Meanwhile, Association for Democratic Reforms found that
in the 2024 Lok Sabha election, candidates with criminal charges won at 15.3%,
while candidates with clean records only managed 4.4%. Having charges against
you basically tripled your chances of winning. Reading this stat doesn’t
surprise me at this point.
The
person raising their voice gets called a threat and the one with criminal
charges sits in Parliament. People in power fear people who speak up and one of
the easiest ways to quiet a crowd is to wear it out. Keep piling on horror, let
every protest seem pointless and just wait. Psychologists call this learned
helplessness. After enough tries that lead nowhere, you stop bothering, even
when the door swings right open for you to make it out. It feels like a
personal weakness. But a good chunk of that is manufactured and someone profits
when we give up.
That’s
why it is difficult for me to take World Mental Health Day related posts at
face value. Almost everything I saw this week treated distress like it’s just
about sleep, water or habits. Those things help but mental health gets shaped
by whether you can afford rent, protest safely or if anyone actually believes
you’re suffering. Mental health has always been political and the work in this
field will get sharper when we acknowledge that. In India, most of the
conversation is steered by people cushioned by caste and class, which makes me
ask: when we talk about “lived experience,” whose lives are we talking about
and who is left standing outside the door? After World War II, a lot of
countries decided governments owed citizens at least a basic floor: pensions,
healthcare, security. That conversation feels overdue again.
Somewhere
in all this, I ran across Ekta Hattangady (@liberationwithekta), a social
worker, who shared “nervous system skills for the revolution.” She begins by
saying that a body outraged by injustice is just reacting sensibly and asking
people to “calm down” about violence really means asking them to accept it.
Instead, she offers ways to carry the fire without burning out.
First
is orienting. When things feel overwhelming, focus on what’s true right
now: look around, feel your feet, notice who’s near you, maybe spot a tree
outside. Next is titration. Feel enough to take action but not so much
you break. She also talks about resourcing.
Find what gives you strength before a tough march or conversation. A song, a
friend, prayer, poetry, etc. Then there’s pendulating. Move
intentionally between action and rest, grief and joy, outrage and beauty. Last
is co-regulating, i.e., being with other people. Authoritarian systems
try to isolate us but real liberation happens together: eat, sing, cry, march,
side by side.
I’m
reminded of a popular piece of prose by Martin Niemöller:
First
they came for the Communists,
And I
didn’t speak out
Because
I wasn’t a Communist.
Then
they came for the Socialists,
And I
didn’t speak out
Because
I wasn’t a Socialist.
Then
they came for the Trade Unionists,
And I
didn’t speak out
Because
I wasn’t a Trade Unionist.
Then
they came for the Jews,
And I
didn’t speak out
Because
I wasn’t a Jew.
Then
they came for me
And
there was no one left to speak out for me.
They’re
counting on us to look away. I’m trying to look a little longer and to tell
someone what I saw. We are harder to ignore together.
Down
with the fascists. Power to the people.
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