On June 15, nearly two hundred people joined live to learn how we stop reacting to each new crisis and start dismantling the machine underneath them.
This session was organized around an appearance from Stacey Abrams. A last-minute emergency kept her from joining, but the 10 Steps Campaign’s director, Robert Sills, stepped in. What he and Janelle delivered was the real substance of the work.
The hidden gears
The gears that drive authoritarianism are built upon a narrative. Authoritarianism follows a narrative formula:
- invent a threat
- promise a glorious past-as-future
- present a strongman savior who alone can deliver it
- define an in-group and blame the out-group
Once you can see the formula clearly, you see ways to push back on each piece.
The good news is the formula has a counter. Janelle walked us through the Unrig the Future narrative cycle:
- reveal the real threat
- show a better future
- build collective power in place of the strongman
- show how everyone belongs and is included
Janelle’s example from the workshop made it clear. When the National Guard was deployed to D.C. because of “crime,” people argued about crime statistics. But they were more effective when they named what was actually happening: an abuse of power. That reframe helped a national pushback take shape. The problem was never crime. It was power.
The playbook, and the way out
Robert Sills brought it home with the playbook itself — ten steps to autocracy, and ten steps to freedom and power. Not one of them asks you to be an expert or wait for permission. As the campaign puts it: start where you are, with what you have, among those you know.
You can read all twenty steps at 10stepscampaign.org.
Resources from the workshop
The Defeating Authoritarianism Resource Pack PDF
Center for Artistic Activism Campaign Kit PDFs
Slides used in the Defeating Authoritarianism Presentation PDF
The research Janelle cited:
Harmony Labs report: Ultranationalism
Define American report
National Endowment for Democracy
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Defeating authoritarianism was never going to be a single heroic moment. It’s thousands of ordinary, creative, connected actions that add up to something they can’t overwhelm. If you want to be one of them, sign up to design one creative action, join our club meetings, and share it at the final showing.
Step 6 is both validating and threatening
The authoritarian playbook has a step devoted to attacking the arts; defunding culture, intimidating artists, discrediting the truth-tellers.
They do that because they understand what we have built nearly two decades of work upon: art is powerful enough to threaten them. It’s where people imagine something better, and use creativity and innovation to make it happen.
That’s exactly why we need you. Your support keeps creativity on the side of freedom.
