Also a good idea

I like arrangements of three, but there was never a third professional caution that stuck with me the way "First, do no harm" and "... to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable" did.

While I admit it does not have quite the same resonance, the Boy Scout slogan "Do a good turn daily" has been growing on me.

It's a good idea.

While I definitely hope that any resistance I do will end up being good, there is good to do that may not necessarily fit under resistance.

You could make a case that anything we do to care for each other under a regime that thrives on dehumanization is resistance. I can't argue with that.

Regardless, I am thinking of it more as that no matter how much we are looking at the big picture, we must not get so caught up in it that we forget each other.

We cannot always do big things, but there are small acts of service and caring that are always within reach. They can have a huge mental impact for both the giver (I can still do something) and the receiver (someone cares).

I have been pretty clear about my frustration with artificial intelligence and the damage it can do, but I can't help but know that it would not be so destructive if people were not so vulnerable and isolated.

(The decline in critical thinking is also a factor, and also makes me sad, but for the purposes of today's post it may be more useful to focus on the loneliness.) 

We need to be looking out for each other. 

It's not just that there is no point in accomplishing any resistance otherwise, though that is again an argument that you can make.

If we don't value each other, or if we intend to value each other but think we need to put it aside temporarily until some of the more pressing issues are solved, we are not going to make it.

One of my frustrations with leftists is that they are so scornful of harm reduction; otherwise how can insist that the party that keeps incrementally reducing harm is just as bad as the party that actively thrives on harm?

That gives us people who are currently wavering between silence or arguing the President Harris would also bomb Iran as various protections get dismantled. They are not contributing to the common good. 

When we decide that harm doesn't matter, or that it's a fair price for some other goal on the horizon, we can end up being just as destructive. 

Actively looking for ways to help -- for family, for coworkers, for strangers -- keeps us in touch with what is needed and what is possible. 

It may lead us to the next most important steps.