It’s tempting to say chaos is the new normal. Even those of us viewing with alarm the destruction wrought by the Trump badministration find ourselves, at times, so overwhelmed by the incursions against due process, habeas corpus, the rule of law and all other democratic norms that we start to get numb. This is an effect of what is known as hypernormalisation–the idea that we know our leaders are corrupt and dangerous but feel that they are too powerful to oppose. It’s the numbness that you feel when you begin to freeze to death–and just as dangerous. Because if we canaries pass out and keel over, who is going to sound the alarms as things continue to get worse?

This is not a time for silence. If anything, a redoubling or trebling of effort will be necessary to overcome the pull of listlessness and apathy. We need more protests, more phone calls, more petitions, more letters, more signs, and more heat on those who have shown they are willing and eager to dismantle our democracy and who embrace the new cruelty. Hannah Arendt, who so often has the final word on fascists and fascism, wrote that “The death of human empathy is one of the earliest and most telling signs of a culture about to fall into barbarism.”

Let’s talk about that for a minute. We’ve heard words and phrases like “oligarchy,” “kakistocracy,” “stochastic terrorism” and “performative cruelty” tossed around a great deal in the past six months. We’ve also learned that the mission statement of the Trump badministration has nothing to do with moral, ethical governance and everything to do with doing the most harm to the greatest number. So what is their ultimate objective, or objectives?

First, take a good, hard look at the current state of unemployment. Then factor in how many more millions of jobs will continue to be lost as AI and automation technology continue to grow and learn. What will happen to all of us rendered unemployed by technology? Will we become a society of artists, using our now-unlimited supply of time to gain new skills and advance human growth? That sounds wonderful–even Utopian–but how likely is it?

What’s more likely–and what seems to be the aim of this administration–is the sloughing-off of these millions, gradually cutting their access to good medicine, mental health, food and shelter until they are reduced to a subservient, dog-eat-dog existence. At the same time, the 1% continue to profit from their technological innovations. It’s no secret that many of these individuals refer to the commonwealth as “useless eaters.” The math and the logic of their machinations seem to lead inexorably to a culling of Earth’s population, either through disease, starvation, exposure or–most likely–a combination of all three.

For more on the basis of this inhuman plan, see Thom Hartmann’s essay “Red State Hell: The GOP Plan to Keep You Desperate, Sick, and Too Damn Tired to Fight Back.”

And the current strategy to reduce dissent is a highly effective one: fear of imprisonment, fear of becoming unemployable–that’s enough right there to silence a lot of people. For too many of us, our work is our worth, a spurious and delusional ideal that is built into Western industrialized society. Religion, for all its faults, reminds us that we are all children of the creator, and thus possess innate worth–which cannot be traduced nor discounted.

This brings us back to our question: how do we stand against all this moneyed power? How do we resist and resist meaningfully? When do we reject the role of being good little consumers and start being authentically human? That time is now, and any action of resistance – even if it’s the wrong action – is better than sitting with our hands in our laps.

So, yes, keep making phone calls. Keep making signs. Keep writing letters. Keep going to protests. If you think of other ways to protest, try them and if they work, suggest them to others. Above all, don’t let the naysayers tell you that you’re wasting your time and energy and that the overlords aren’t paying attention. They are. And any sign of resistance is worrying to them because it means that there are people who aren’t giving up and giving in, who are continuing to dissent despite the risks.

“I decline to accept the end of man…I believe that man will not merely endure: he will prevail. He is immortal, not because he alone among creatures has an inexhaustible voice, but because he has a soul, a spirit capable of compassion and sacrifice and endurance. The poet’s, the writer’s, duty is to write about these things. It is his privilege to help man endure by lifting his heart, by reminding him of the courage and honor and hope and pride and compassion and pity and sacrifice which have been the glory of his past. The poet’s voice need not merely be the record of man, it can be one of the props, the pillars to help him endure and prevail.” –William Faulkner