(An observant reader asked me a simple question that I’d like to treat at some depth today. The question: What constitutes resistance?)
In common use, the term stays close to its Latinate roots – to stand against or oppose. When you put that idea into life’s many contexts, though, the attitudes and actions of resistance take on a variety of meanings. In the setting of present-day politics, those many meanings, synonyms and applications can be useful and liberating.
In health-related contexts, immunity is a form of resistance against what’s virulently harmful. In behavioral terms, resistance is a part of your automatic defense mechanisms. Suppression is one way to resist what’s gotten out of hand. When you apply the drag of friction to something moveable, you’re resisting its capabilities. Refusal is a relational resistance—as in “No, I won’t.” Revolt is a widespread form of pushback. When resistance infects enough societal enterprises, resistance becomes ungovernability. “The Resistance” is a time-honored descriptor of organized opposition in time of war. One perhaps-overlooked definition of resistance is the concept of a sturdy defense that cannot be overwhelmed. At the level of discourse or ideation, resistance shows up in the rhetoric of contradistinction. Any hindrance, barrier, deflection, impedance, clogging, blockage, speedbump, bottleneck, inhibition, delay, detainment, setback or constriction is a form of resistance. Hardness and toughness are physical/mental/emotional qualities of resistance.
Find yourself anywhere in this word-buffet? Do any of these understandings of resistance open windows into possible actions or attitudes? Do you see ways to climb out of the depths of real or imagined powerlessness?
To turn the question back on myself, the answers are all positive! I have probably limited my thoughts and actions regarding our national quagmire to one or two of the most obvious meanings of resistance. But with a broader understanding of how I can thwart thwarters, I feel a lot more capable of being a *resistor!
*Again, a metaphor from the world of electronics. See other Resistance Primer blogs for explanatory notes!
