Being Numerous: Essays on Non-Fascist Life

"It's a political imperative to believe (impossibly) that another world is possible, while necessarily being unable to explain that world from the confines of this one."

Being Numerous: Essays on Non-Fascist Life is a wonderful collection of essays by Natasha Lennard. An extremely timely read, especially with the many eco-fascist arguments circling the internet in light of Covid-19 ("humans are the virus" etc."), Lennard challenges the reader to examine their everyday life to examine how their thought patterns and actions can have larger societal consequences.

She examines her personal experiences, from Standing Rock to sexual encounters, and shows the reader why its important, not only to examine the choices that we make, but how those choices have come to be the only ones available. She reevaluates the idea that the personal is political, and examines the world critically through the philosophical lens of Michael Foucault (who I have never read, and need to). Her prose is beautiful. 

I highly recommend this collection of essays for everyone. Political bents from all sides can benefit from Lennards ideas, and she serves as a reminder that one cannot condemn bad behavior in others before first rectifying those problems in themselves. I give Being Numerous five out of five stars.

"All stories are ghost stories, in which reading invokes a return to the present of specters-say, a dead writer, or an idea from the past."