The Protection Challenge

What will YOU protect?

Most of us will protect ourselves in some way.

Most of us will protect our families.

Most of us will protect some of our friends.

Now, Go Deeper

How willing are we to protect a stranger?

How willing are we to protect an ideal or value?

How willing are we to protect wildlife, or the environment?

Perhaps I’m getting ahead of myself.

Let’s back up…

What is Protection?

Protection is the willingness to intervene in order to interrupt or prevent harm.

It’s worth noting the difference between protection and vengeance or justice, which are actions that take place after the harm has taken place.

But protection cannot take place after the harm is done.

• We cannot protect our children after they’ve been kidnapped.
• We cannot protect our neighbor after they’ve been abducted or shot by masked thugs.
• We cannot protect our republic after it has fallen.

That’s what it is, but why do we do it? Why would we ever put ourselves on the line?

Why do we Protect?

I want you to think about my original question: what will YOU protect?

When you look at the answers that come to mind, you will likely notice two themes:

1. You care deeply about what you would protect: yourself, your family, your values, etc
2. You believe yourself to be (or aspire to be) a certain type of person, and what you protect reflects that identity

To state it simply, who and what we protect is rooted in our identity and our values.

But here’s the trap…

What matters to us has always been subject to manipulation.

We have been structurally conditioned into a culture of individualism such that the circle of who and what we care about continues to shrink.

When we do care about something, we’ve been given too many easy answers to big problems. We get told to vote every four years, to donate money to someone else who will fix it, or occasionally convinced that the problem is simply too big to fix, so we’re better off not thinking about it.

All of this keeps us passive––waiting for someone else to step in, rather than recognizing that protection requires us to act directly.

Even once those spells wear off, our civic engagement and ability to build community becomes harder and harder as more people fight to keep their heads above water.

What happens if we don’t break free?

• Unless we deliberately indulge our creative energy, it will dwindle into apathy.
• Unless we practice standing in discomfort, our resolve will evaporate.
• Unless we find something worth protecting, we may find ourselves alone when we are in need of protection.

The Protection Challenge

When I wrote The Superhero Code, I wrote it in the context of living life like a Superhero, and through the lens of what I value.

Today, I want to challenge you to think about Protection. I challenge you to expand your scope of who and what you are willing to protect.

Our biggest challenge in doing this work is to reclaim our dreams and ambitions for who we are or aspire to be from the quicksand of hopelessness.

Next Steps

Start by writing down a list of 10 people, communities, values, or causes you would be willing to protect right now.

Then, expand that list by adding 5 more that you want to care about enough to protect, but haven’t fully stepped into yet.

Finally, pick one thing from that expanded list and find one small, direct action you can take this week to practice protecting it. Not donating. Not voting. Not waiting for someone else. One tangible intervention you can make yourself.

True protection isn’t about waiting until you’re ready –– it’s about expanding your scope one action at a time.

The Strength of We

If you are struggling to think of a satisfying list of who and what you are willing to protect, then I encourage you to seek out new communities of interest. Find people who share a passion for what you do, or those who would bond with you over a mutual opposition to something.

The ultimate goal of protection is to see everyone and everything as worthy of our protection. To see that collective direct action is capable of interrupting and stopping any form of harm.

You are strong. We are unstoppable.

I hope you enjoyed this post!

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