Resist Much, Obey Little

Walt Whitman's advice for our time ... for ALL time.

Whitman in later years. Public domain image.

This short poem, To The States, first appeared in the Inscriptions section of the 1871 edition of Leaves of Grass. It was a reminder that unquestioning obedience, especially obedience in advance, is the font of tyranny.

TO the States or any one of them, or any city of the States, Resist
much, obey little,

Once unquestioning obedience, once fully enslaved,

Once fully enslaved, no nation, state, city of this earth, ever after-
ward resumes its liberty.

I thought about this poem on Saturday while participating in the No Kings march in my town. There was a young man lurking around the perimeter. He couldn’t have been more than 20 years old. He was wearing a blue windbreaker with ICE IMMIGRATION printed on the back and ICE over the left breast. He wasn’t a federal agent, but he was clearly an ICE groupie, and before long I heard him arguing with an older couple that had engaged him on the subject of deportation. I wonder if that young man has ever read Whitman. I wonder if he reads at all, or if he has simply turned his mind and will over to Donald Trump. I wonder if he aspires to the kind of anonymous, uncritical thuggery we’re seeing in the streets of this country every day. I wonder if he has suffered the kinds of life-wounds that would drive someone to leave their home and migrate to a foreign land. When he’s in his fifties or sixties, I wonder if he’ll look back on this time and feel ashamed. I wonder if he believes in and fears a just God.