Apr 5, 2020
Seeing the World
Elsewhere: Rural Mutual Aid in Appalachia and David Forbes on
Journalism, Asheville and Anarchism
(image by Nicole Marie Burton, used with
permission)
This week you’ll hear two conversations after we hear from Sean
Swain on making it through isolation. The text can be
found below.
[00:02:42-00:11:05]
First, Matt from Rural Organizing And Resilience, or ROAR, in
Madison County talks about efforts in the country to shift mutual
aid efforts to address difficulties associated with the covid-19
pandemic. More on their project at ruralorganizing.wordpress.com.
[00:11:05-00:35:47]
And we also got to sit down with David Forbes, who is an
independent journalist here in Asheville, about her work, some
updates from here in the mountains, ways to think about journalism,
and the online platform The Asheville Blade which she founded and
helps maintain. To see more you can visit ashevilleblade.com, follow her on
twitter @davidforbes,
and donate to the Blade at patreon.com/avlblade!
[00:35:59-01:20:41]
Announcements
Sean Swain is
Ill
Sean is currently suffering from a bacterial lung infection and
not being offered adequate healthcare (nothing new for prison). If
you are concerned for his health as the novel corona virus swells,
consider visiting his
support site to read more. Anyone reading this should feel free
to contact Buckingham at (434)
983-4400 . Either Warden John Woodson or
Assistant Warden Jeffrey Snoddy are there each day
during normal business hours. Ask for one, and he’s not there, ask
for the other. Feel free to fax this update to them, (434)
983-4017.
Final Straw 10th
Anniversary
Still coming up, plague
bedamned. We've been running the show for coming on 10 years and
would love to hear your thoughts, memories, suggestions. This is an
opportunity to share with us and share your ideas directly with
other audience members. You can leave us or a signal voice-memo or
a voicemail at +18285710161, or
email a link to mp3 audio via wetransfer.com or another service, or
you can share it with the googledrive for thefinalstrawradio@riseup.net
or thefinalstrawradio@protonmail.com!
. ... . ..
playlist
. ... . ..
also available at SeanSwain.org
Sean On Strategies in
Isolation
The latest concern that folks are expressing during this
zombie apocalypse is their inability to cope with isolation and
quarantine. We’re just a few weeks into this thing and already
folks are going a little bonkers. This is strange to me, given that
I’ve spent years at a time in total and complete isolation. It’s
almost hard for me to fathom that someone wouldn’t know
how to cope in such an environment. So, this week is going to be
something of an instructional video – only, without the video, and
maybe not very instructive.
OK, first things first. You gotta stay mentally organized, and
staying mentally organized means living in a way that’s organized.
You need a routine. Routine is key to longterm segregation. You
want to get up in the morning at the same time. Set an alarm. Get
up, get out of bed, make the bed. It doesn’t matter that you have
nowhere to go. It doesn’t matter that you’re not leaving that
living space. You get up at the same time and you make the bed,
because the sleeping period is over. Create for yourself set times
for eating your meals, or a small range of times for those meals to
happen in. Set a time for showering or bathing and personal
grooming. It doesn’t matter that you’re not going anywhere.
Laying in bed all day in the same sweater and underwear from
last Tuesday is not mental organization. It’s surrender. Yes, I’m
talking to you. No, you, there. Yes, the one in the sweater and the
underwear. Right.
Break up your day into chunks. Fill those chunks with
activity. Maybe you like to read. Designate a period of your day
for reading. Designate another part of your day for writing,
another part for skyping and twitter and social interaction. Doing
this gives you routine, but it also gives you benchmarks as you
travel through your day. You can say to yourself “I’ve gotten this
done, at such-and-such a time, it’s time to do X.” You are now
doing your time, your time is not doing you.
Your time will move faster, you’ll get more
accomplished.
Which brings me to my next point: accomplishing. Each day will
bring you multiple opportunities to fulfill goals. Get something
written. Get something read. Go a certain time on your stationary
bike. Dispose of the body of that annoying next-door neighbor…
former neighbor. Just kidding. Don’t kill your neighbor. There are
security cameras everywhere. I digress.
The thing is: each day you meet some small goal, then another,
then another. You take in calories, you move from activity to
activity. Most importantly: you survive. Each day you end still
breathing is a mission accomplished. You’re not just writing emails
or riding your stationary bike, you’re fighting for your very
survival, albeit in a mundane kind of way.
Physical exercise. The human body is a machine made for
motion. So move. My captivity workout, I do sets of push-ups,
crunches and squats, one set after another. It works major muscle
groups, gets my heart pumping, gets me sucking oxygen, and helps me
to think more clearly. It allows me to release tension. Now more
than ever, that’s important, not just for your survival, but for
the survival of your annoying neighbor. So get exercise and
whenever possible, in a way that’s safe, try to get an hour of
direct sunlight outdoors. Go outside and breathe deeply and feel
sunlight on your face. It matters.
Now, if you’re all alone, you can organize your day any way
that you want. You can modify your routine at will until it works
for you. But if you’re not alone, you have to synthesize your
routine with the lives of those around you. Urge them to adopt a
routine. Socially, it helps keep the peace. You know what other
people are doing at given chunks of the day, and they know what
you’re doing. You want periods of solitude and periods of social
interaction, time set aside for your own projects and time for
collective and communal activities.
Through the course of this, you’re going to experience
heightened anxiety. It’s easy to dwell on your own situation and
let the worry spiral out of control. It’s easy. We all do it. So
what you do, to get out of that spiral, you focus on the struggle
of someone else. Get out of your own head. Contribute to someone
else’s plight. This isn’t just some Mother Theresa kumbaya crap.
It’s not just some virtuous selflessness. It’s a selfish act. It’s
motivated by your desire to further your own survival. If you get
out of your own head and help someone, you’re exiting that spiral
of anxiety.
Some other tips: While it’s good to do some planning for the
future, force yourself to stay grounded in the now. Daydreaming
about when this is over just makes the now suck worse. A little of
that can go a long way. Also, be realistic about how long this is.
Don’t wake up every day thinking that we’re all going to pour out
into the streets like some flashmob dance routine. It ain’t
happening, probably for months. So get yourself into a comfortable
routine, for months. This is your reality. It is what it is.
Also, when that reality feels overwhelming, remind yourself
that this is just temporary. It will pass. Even if it takes months,
it doesn’t take forever. Nothing is forever.
Don’t forget, however bad you’ve got it, others less capable
than you have gotten through longer chunks of time in far worse
conditions. I did a year with virtually nothing, on starvation
rations, with very little soap, locked in a space the size of a
bathroom with another poor bastard. We were both idiots, and yet we
both survived. You will too.
Resolve to survive this. Walk around your living space. Tell
the walls: “You won’t defeat me.” Tell your couch: “You won’t
defeat me.” Tell all your furnishings: “You won’t defeat me.” Then
look in the mirror and tell yourself: “This won’t defeat me.” And
mean it.
You have two choices, flat-out. You can survive this, or you
can sit down on the curb, and sooner or later the dogs and the
birds will eat you. It’s your choice. I’ve made my choice. Hope I
see you on the other side of this shit.
This is anarchist prisoner Sean Swain in exile from Ohio at
Buckingham Correctional in Dillwyn,
Virginia. If you’re surviving, you are the resistance.