The Dandelion Insurrection is here. (And remember: the people win in the end.)
“What’s it like to wake up and find your novel has come to life?” A reader asked me this recently and I answered. “Strange. Wild. Frightening. But remember: I also know the end of the story.”
The Dandelion Insurrection was written as a speculative fiction in 2013. Thirteen years later, my extrapolations seem to have leapt off the page and into our lives. Lucky for all of us, I based the plot on my studies of nonviolent revolutions around the world, from Serbia to Chile and from the Philippines to the Balkans. Like countless millions of courageous people have done in real life, the characters show how to use nonviolent action to kick tyrants out of power and restore democracy to their nation.
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I wrote The Dandelion Insurrection in the wake of the Occupy Movement and the 2008 Crash, when the ‘banks got bailed out, we got sold out’. The framework of the novel excoriates extreme wealth and sets up the political crisis as a ‘hidden corporate dictatorship’ of rich people running the federal government for the benefit of their corporations. I envisioned that this would be stealthy, secretive, and hard to spot. Instead, the corruption and graft of the rich is right out in the open. We see it in Starlink contracts and FCC rulings, Citgo and the Venezuela takeover, and too many things to count. We see the obscenity of Trump’s obsession with wealth in his gold-plated Oval Office, the destruction of the East Wing to build a billionaire-funded Golden Ballroom, the ‘gift’ of Qatar’s luxury jet, and the way Trump is personally stockpiling Venezuela’s oil in Dubai.
There are some stark divergences between the book and reality. Namely, I underestimated the blatant racism that we’re seeing in the Trump administration, which is brazenly displaying white nationalist slogans with ties to the Nazis and KKK on federal podiums and website. I posited widespread repression of protesters and the use of detention centers in a mass crackdown, but didn’t foresee that immigrants would be the scapegoats the regime vilified and targeted. I calculated that a corporate regime would want their undocumented (and thus, exploitable) cheap labor. I didn’t realize that deportation and detainment itself would become the mega-industry that it is, a tax-payer funded, privatized money-maker for a web of corporations. It’s as sinister as everything I imagined in the Dandelion Trilogy, though.
To my credit, I did envision government doublespeak and offensive slogans. I knew lies would be rampant, climate denialism would be official policy, media would be censored, and we’d see infuriating headlines like Climate Is Nothing To Get Hot And Bothered About. I knew we’d have wars for oil and wars for [whatever reason], though I never imagined that we’d try to steal Greenland or that we’d alienate Canada over tariff wars and threats to make them our 51st state. In the novel, unchecked militarism is a driver of economic hardship for the average American, with the military budget ballooning to 70% of the annual budget and public services being slashed to pay for it. The Dandelion Insurrection starts with soldiers on the streets, tanks rolling through town, and the US-Canadian border closed. In reality, we have ICE and Border Patrol turned into roving paramilitary forces, with 3000 agents sent to one city after another, often backed up by National Guard deployments.
I could go on … and on … and on. The parallels are eerie. The divergences are thought-provoking. But the most important comparisons between the novel and reality are the golden-hearted dandelions springing up everywhere.
Mass resistance is bolder, braver, and as beautiful as Charlie and Zadie, Inez and Tansy, Valier and Tucker, and all the rest of the characters in the book. We’ve seen the inflatable frog in Portland, Sandwich Man in DC, Angie the ICE Chaser in LA. Juries have acquitted protesters over and over. Federal judges have sided with the people. Neighbors have sheltered people persecuted by the regime. Whistleblowers have revealed critical information. Millions of people have demonstrated, not once, but relentlessly throughout the year. Hundreds of groups hold overpass banner actions over highways every single week. Boycotts have forced major corporations to reverse course and break off their abuses.
By my estimation, our real life movement is about midway through the arc of the novel right now. We’ve grown beyond small acts of defiance into widespread resistance … but sustained mass noncooperation is still yet to come. It is coming, make no mistake. We will see our nationwide shutdowns, our collective walkouts, and our general strikes.
Host a book group – and I’ll talk with you
about all this on zoom.
On January 20, Women’s March is coordinating 750 Free America Walkouts as the start of #WalkoutWeek. On January 23, Minnesota is holding a statewide strike with no shopping, no school, and no work, demanding that the 3,000 ICE agents leave. These are signs of what’s brewing, the muscle-building actions that build strength for the work ahead. They show that we have the power to do what’s needed. Think of our successes with Telsa Takedown, #CancelSpotify, and the boycott on Avelo Airlines (which recently forced them to end deportation flights). #BoycottDisneyABC protected free speech by canceling 1.5 million subscriptions. Over 50% of federal workers refused to reply to the 5 Things Emails in the largest act of mass compliance in our nation’s history, ultimately ending the requirement. The #NoKings Protests on Oct 18 turned out 7 million people at 2700 demonstrations in the largest-ever single-day protests.
The Dandelion Insurrection is here. For better or for worse, we are living this story. And, just like the indomitable dandelions, we will prevail. I have no doubt about it. We will rise. We will resist. We will restore democracy. It’s only a matter of time … and let’s make sure the change comes sooner rather than later.
Be kind, be connected, be unafraid.
Rivera Sun