if we're cooked, get in the kitchen & put out the damn fire

or: a case against the myth of inevitability

Jun 24, 2025

*Pan on Fire. Linocut print by Calla Lily Linocut, South Bend, IN.*

So, Beloved, Trump circumvented Congress to launch illegal strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities this weekend.

The authoritarian used our tax dollars to attack Iran in support of Israel’s murderous rampage across the SWANA region so Israel may continue its genocide against live-streamed Palestinians with impunity.

The empire no longer bothers with manufacturing consent. Despite having full control of the Senate and the House, despite eager support from old warhawks in office, the regime is not bothering with social niceties. Just like its colonial project in the Levant, this empire’s new regime does whatever it wants without recourse or accountability. In their of terror, might makes right and war is the biggest money-maker.

Since then, the comments have come in:

Here comes World War 3.

it was nice knowing y’all

we’re so cooked lol

People say this about the climate crisis. They say this while 60+ cop cities are built nationwide. They see this after every election, and each time the regime strips another protection away. They say this about price gouging, the housing crisis, rising unemployment, and colleges terrorizing their own students. They say this when data centers drain resources and AI enters the market to replace people, art, and culture. They say this when our land is sold, privatized, and our air and water is poisoned. They say this whenever evil signs checks for another war.

They say this with resignation, as if resistance is futile, as if our earth is forfeit, as if all of humanity is doomed. It is the myth of inevitability.

The myth of inevitability is empire’s quietest tool, wielded by the very people it oppresses to cut down resistance before it starts. It’s the delusion that those in power will remain in power and do what they will. It’s daily compliance with tyranny. It’s the belief, generated by terror and sustained by fear, that what is will always be.

But everything has an end.

A hundred years ago, the end of the British Empire was inconceivable. The first and second French empire fell within 55 years of each other. Before that, the Holy Roman Empire fell after nearly a millennium. China’s last emperor stepped down five years before the Romanov dynasty was overthrown. Once it was even said that the sun never sets on the Spanish Empire.

We were born into an age of collapsing empires and toppled dictators.

We live in capitalism. Its power seems inescapable. So did the divine right of kings. Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings.
- Ursula K. Le Guin

Is World War 3 inevitable? Is the vision of a technofeudalism destined to consume our lives? Is it over for our planet and all that live on it?

Well, let’s start with a few facts: The United States is the world’s arms dealer. This empire creates the most weapons, and it is responsible for 41.7% of international arms deals - shipping tools of death to over 110 countries. In 2023, the US Department of “Defense” spent over $916 billion. Meanwhile, the Pentagon hasn’t passed a financial audit in seven years.

Translated: We know where the weapons are made. We also know where its software is developed, who and where its military recruits, and where they get their money. We also know the politicians are not very smart, nor are they careful enough with covert military plans.

The bombs used in the illegal attack against Iran were made in southeast Oklahoma. The Airmen flew from a military base in Missouri.

War is produced and exported from the empire because of our labor and resources. So, what is to stop us from not making bombs? From withholding our taxes, which fund genocide around the world? From counter-recruiting young people before they join the military?

Each of us has our own risk tolerance, but a million acts of small resistance grind the gears of war longer, saving more lives than a single extreme act.

We know there is a fire in the kitchen, but we’re not cooked. Not yet. War is not an inevitability of the human condition.

Seeds of Change

Are you or someone you love in the military? Make sure you call the GI Rights Hotline.
Read “Heed the Call!”: Black Women, Anti-imperialism, and Black Anti-War Activism
Haymarket Books is offering these selections on the abolition of borders and police: Unbuild Walls by Silky Shah, Border & Rule by Harsha Walia, and No Cop City, No Cop World by: Lessons from the Movement edited by Kamau Franklin, Micah Herskind, and Mariah Parker.
DecolonizeU: Militarism on Turtle Island - a free online course provided by About Face
Mike Alewitz: Breaking Walls & Building Solidarity

Read Transformative Justice Knows No Borders: Learning From Community-Based Responses to Harm Around the World
For active-duty servicemembers, the Center on Conscience and War has a wealth of information about becoming a conscientious objector. They also provide resources for young people who refuse to register for the Selective Service System.
Share The Pentagon Wants Your High Schooler with your local PTA moms
Check out War Resisters’ International resources on resisting police militarization

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