When Empires Fall, We Save Each Other
Dear Community,
My partner is brilliant. She also loves archaeology. She listens to lectures like other people listen to true crime podcasts, and she reads research papers as easily and enthusiastically as I read over my Sunday comics in the South Seattle Emerald. Her favorite is Maya’s history from 250 CE to 1697 CE, followed by the histories of the Phoenicians and Assyrians. I’ve learned so much simply from sharing our home with her.
Because of her passion for ancient history, she is also well-versed in the rise and fall of empires. Ironically, on Thursday we found ourselves in a 6-hour-long conversation about empires’ collapse, cycles of oppression, and the critical need to create new systems (you know, typical stuff) before either of us realized that the first US presidential “debate” was coming up that evening. She watched a portion; I refused. But one thing she said well before the debate began rings clear as a bell in my mind.
When empires near their end, they double down. And then the leaders take everything they carry and leave the people to the empire’s scattered remains.
According to Substack’s analytics, most of seedgiver’s readers reside in the belly of the beast here in the United States. 20% of you are reading from the United Kingdom. So you know it well. But the cruelest thing about empires is that their tyranny impacts more than its residents - it spreads its tentacles to every corner it can reach. We all live in Western imperialism’s shadow, and the descendants of the empire’s original architects are still reaping the benefits at the cost of our lives.
We are seeing horrendous rollbacks of hard-fought progress, watching in real time the sacrifices of our elders being disintegrated. We are fighting against a dying world order - and god, the closer to death it gets, the harder it fights. We are covered in scratches and bite marks, and we are watching it chew innocent lives up and swallow entire communities whole. It’s an insatiable beast, this empire, these corporations, the rich and their political pawns. This small, greedy group of people who control 8 billion human lives and hoard billions more currency.
They are never satisfied. They know what they’re doing to us and our home. They are grabbing Indigenous land to build themselves bunkers and building rockets to escape a planet they are actively killing. They lecture us on money management while stealing from us. Whenever we have even one voice speaking out in our political structures, they drop just 1.5% of one of their billions and unseat them - or just buy them off and add them to the machine’s inventory. When their products endanger human life, they kill the whistleblowers and call it an accident. On the rare occasion when one of their own is caught and becomes a liability, they kill them, too, and call it a suicide. When a journalist does their job and report on international tax evasion, fraud, shell companies, and other wealth-hoarding mechanisms, they kill the journalist. When a child throws a stone at their soldiers, they kidnap that child and detain them.
They sow invasive seeds of disparity and hate, and they reap the rewards with their arms deals and forced prison labor. They kick their feet up and watch us fight for a slice of the pie while they withhold the entire bakery. They manufacture stories about an “Other'“ to divide us and they send the hungry, working masses to fight their wars. They distract us with their entertainment puppets and steal more lives, more land, more resources, more money, more, more, more.
And it will never be enough for them.
“The function, the very serious function of racism is distraction. It keeps you from doing your work. It keeps you explaining, over and over again, your reason for being. Somebody says you have no language and you spend twenty years proving that you do. Somebody says your head isn’t shaped properly so you have scientists working on the fact that it is. Somebody says you have no art, so you dredge that up. Somebody says you have no kingdoms, so you dredge that up. None of this is necessary. There will always be one more thing.”
Toni Morrison
In 1975, Toni Morrison said this in a speech called “A Humanist View.” She then encouraged people to not waste time or energy fighting the fever. She compelled us to fight the disease - greed and the struggle for power.
After the 2020 uprisings, nearly every organization ran to put out their anti-racism statements, meaningless land acknowledgments, and co-opted social justice language to maintain the status quo. Our call for justice and liberation was watered down into diversity, equity, and inclusion - which is now further funneled into “DEI” because who in this white supremacist, capitalist culture has time to say or write diversity, equity, and inclusion in full? Then they shuffled these “DEI initiatives” into monthly committee meetings and HR offices and called the work done.
This is nothing short of useless. Police violence has only grown since the 2020 uprisings, and indeed we see police everywhere carrying out their work and brutalizing us. The US paid the bill to Kenya to send Kenyan police to Haiti. Simultaneously, on top of the billions sent to Israel to terrorize our Palestinian community, the US empire is spending billionaires more of OUR money to build massive cop cities in nearly every state and more prisons.
Racism is a deathly symptom, as is ableism, homophobia, transphobia, Islamophobia, xenophobia, antisemitism (actual antisemitism - which despite what they tell us, is not equivalent to being an anti-Zionist), classism, and the rest of the long, long list of symptoms that run rampant in this brutal, unbroken system.
I repeat: unbroken. All of our suffering is by careful, cruel design. And it is for power - power over our lives, our communities, our families, our children.
When any corporation or nonprofit releases an “anti-racism statement” and does nothing to disrupt the system, the statement remains just that - words. They do nothing not because real action jeopardizes their bottom; it is because they actively benefit from this system and its fatalistic symptoms.
To retain their power, they adapt their tactics. The manufactured “Other” changes to suit their political needs. They take someone’s identity, carve out their humanity, and create a mask to stereotype and manipulate.
On Thursday night’s mockery of democracy, Trump used the word Palestinian as a slur. He called Biden a “very bad Palestinian” as an insult. When Biden took offense, it wasn’t because a community was insulted - it was that Trump challenged his loyalty to an apartheid state as if Biden does not sign regular checks to Israel or blatantly lied about beheaded babies on October 7th or sold more US weapons of destruction or withheld funds from UNRWA or denies genocide.
The US presidential debate was nothing short of a shoe-shining contest, for all Biden and Trump licked AIPAC’s boots. While people are dying, these cruel, self-absorbed old white men argued about their golf games. They claim to represent the American people when I doubt either of them has even talked to an average human being who isn’t a sycophantic follower or underpaid staff member in years.
They dehumanize our Palestinian brothers and sisters as if we don’t have more in common with the people of Palestine than we ever will with them or their evil, wealthy sponsors. As if we have not spent the last half year watching Palestinians show us what compassion is, what community is, what radical generosity is, what faith is, what hospitality is, what kinship is, what love is, what revolutionary hope and optimism is, what humanity is while under relentless shocking violence.
Calling someone a Palestinian should be a compliment. If anyone ever compares me to a Palestinian, I would cry at such praise. The world would be a better place if all of us lived the values Palestine does.
It becomes clearer and clearer each day that these governments are not ours - these political structures and institutions belong to the rich. As more people wake up to the realities of colonization and capitalism, the more oppressive these institutions will become. They are openly preparing for it.
We have to take care of each other.
We must divest our time, money, labor, and attention from them and put it into each other. Know our neighbors by name and check in regularly. Grow our food and feed each other. Learn how to sew and upcycle the more than 17 million tons of fabric made each year. We must develop our skills and share them in trainings and teach-ins. We must create free repair workshops and free mutual aid fairs. We must protect each other. We must clean up our homes and steward these lands and share freely with one another. We must build our own homes, repair our neighbor’s dwellings, and take back the empty houses just sitting there as part of some distant rich person’s portfolio. We need to take back the medicine science has gifted us, and we must heal each other in peer groups. We must hold each other.
Generosity, love, kindness - these are the ultimate threats in a hyper-individualistic, profit-motivated system. There is a reason previous movements centered on peace and love were broken down, why marketing campaigns and propaganda tried so hard to reduce to “hippie” movements. It’s because that is where the change is, that is where we reclaim our humanity.
Nada Alkhatib is a wonderful Palestinian artist. With her permission, her artwork is shown throughout this entire newsletter. Each piece was created by Nada after October 7th, documenting her community’s survival and resistance.
Here is her message to us, written and shared with the world a few months ago:
Greetings to All Who Believe in New Beginnings,
I am Nada Alkhatib (Instagram account), a 23-year-old artist, sister, daughter, and dreamer from Gaza's once vibrant but now shattered streets. My world, like that of my family, has been turned upside down by a relentless war that spares no one.
Our family home in the Nuseirat camp, once a haven of laughter and love, now stands fractured and marred by war's relentless touch. Each corner of destruction around us is a stark reminder of the peace and tranquillity that seem like distant dreams. Within these broken walls, my family, encompassing my parents, siblings, and young nephews, clings to fragments of hope. We live with the constant fear of getting lost in the rubble or succumbing to the relentless barrage of rockets. This war has not only demolished our physical abode but has also shattered our pillars of education. The university where my sister Hala studied English literature now lies in ruins, a poignant symbol of our shattered educational aspirations. My younger siblings, once eager to embark on their educational journey, now stand at a crossroads, their paths to learning and growth obscured by the debris of war.
In Gaza, the birthplace of my dreams and art, the scenery has been permanently altered by war. This war has taken from us much more than our homes and familiar surroundings; it has also robbed us of cherished friends. Each loss has taken a toll on my spirit, gradually fading the future I had imagined for myself and my family in these turbulent times.
As we confront this harsh reality, we are preparing to embark on a journey towards new beginnings, guided by faith and hope. The cost of this journey is indeed daunting. To relocate the 14 members of the Alkhatib family, which includes my elderly parents, five sisters, brother, and the little ones, we anticipate the need for between $5,000 and $6,000 per person.
This campaign is more than a plea for financial assistance; it is a call for empathy, understanding, and solidarity. My brothers Hasan and Abdulrahman, both software engineers in Malmö, Sweden, have been our support through this crisis. However, the path ahead is more than what two individuals can handle alone.
We seek not just donations but a connection with hearts and souls who stand with us in our gravest hour. With winter already upon us, our resources dwindle daily, and the war in Gaza only expands its reach, bringing the shadow of death closer than ever. Essentials like clean water and food are now luxuries we can scarcely afford. In these dire times, your contribution becomes more than aid; it transforms into a beacon of hope.
Together, let's transform this story of loss and despair into a narrative of hope and new beginnings. Every contribution, every shared word, can pave the way towards a safer and brighter future for the Alkhatib family.
With gratitude and hope, Nada Alkhatib and the Alkhatib Family from Gaza.
Thankfully, Nada and her sister Amal have safely evacuated Gaza into Egypt just two days before Rafah was invaded. However, the rest of their family are still in Gaza and endure unimaginable horrors every day they remain there. Nada, Amal, and their brothers Hasan and Abdulrahman are working tirelessly to bring their family members home, but they cannot do it alone.
Please support the Alkhatib family today and help them evacuate Gaza. They need close to $50,000 USD to reunite their family and build a more secure future together. Already they have raised over $25,000 USD but they need our help, and time is of the essence. Each day is another day living in a warzone, and tomorrow is not guaranteed.
I know that it is financially harder for all of us but if you have the means, please donate. If you do not, you can still support the Alkhatib family by sharing their story, their GoFundMe campaign, and ask your community to help.
Your support will help the rest of Alkhatib family find safety.
Kamal
Elham
Soha and her children, Nehad, Dana, Maryam, and Muhammad
Nisreen and her children, Khaled and baby Mosab whose entire life has been in the midst of genocide, as he was just born on November 16, 2023
Hala
Muhammad
Siba
May the Alkhatib find safety. May they and their neighbors find reprieve in this war and someday soon, return to their home in Gaza and rebuild. May we see Palestine free once more. May we build a better world together where everyone has shelter, food, education, healthcare, safety, and joy. May we create this world for our children and live together in community.
Until next time, my friends.