The Surprising Lesson “Simon Says” Teaches About Political Power
Even when we’re outgunned, we have more power than they want us to know.
“The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.”
— Alice Walker
“Simon says, stand up in front of everyone and pull your pants down,” I shout into the bullhorn from the steps of the Pasadena Police Station, where hundreds have rallied to protest the gruesome killing of George Floyd.
Though the game rules couldn’t be simpler, no one obeys my order. They don’t just disobey the order, they laugh it!
“The name of the game is Simon Says,” I repeat. “All you’ve got to do is whatever Simon Says. Okay? Simon says, pull your pants down.”
The crowd refuses.
They stare at me instead.
Defiant.
Grinning.
Pantsed.
Why Simon Needs You
One thing about me: I’mma’ find a way to play Simon Says with an audience.
I’ve played it in gold-plated sanctuaries with white-haired saints in the SoCal foothills, in brick-walled classrooms on the north side of Bogota with Colombian niños (in Español, no less!), and —as I’ve already mentioned— many times from the steps of government buildings occupied by enraged protesters.
I play Simon Says to teach a lesson about power. Power is the ability to make things happen. In “Simon Says,” Simon appears all-powerful because things seem to occur at his command.
Players forget that Simon only has power because they decide to obey him in advance. But when I — as Simon—command them to pull their pants down, punch their neighbor in the stomach, or make out with a stranger, they remember. Suddenly, Simon can’t make things happen by fiat.
Nonviolent strategists and scholars call this principle of power many things:
- People power
- The Consent Principle
- The “Legitimacy Approach” (Erica Chenoweth)
Choose whatever jargon you prefer. The idea is that oppressors need collaborators. The more people who refuse to collaborate with them, the more disadvantaged the oppressors become.
This also means that the more people we recruit to participate in wise, strategic, and skillful nonviolent struggle, the more power we have.
Disobeying Simon in Real Life
In the winter of 1943, a group of ordinary, unarmed German women rescued their Jewish husbands from the Gestapo. For weeks, they rallied outside the Rosenstrasse community center, in the snow, where their husbands were held captive, with one demand:
“Release our husbands!”
It was an exercise in Simon Says. The Nazis ordered their Jewish captives not to respond to the cries of our wives outside. They disobeyed. When the fascists turned their guns on the protesting women, warning they’d open fire if the crowd didn’t disperse, it only intensified the women’s resolve.
“MURDERS,” they chanted.
Partly because the Rosenstrasse protest was gaining international attention, the Nazis capitulated to the protesters and released their Jewish prisoners.
The Rosentrasse protest is one of hundreds of real-world examples demonstrating that the Simon Says principle is more than theory. It explains every successful campaign of nonviolent resistance. If people understand they have the power to disempower oppressors, they can be intentional about doing so.
What About When Simon Is Armed?
Some people are skeptical about the Simon Says principle. They say things like:
“Yeah. Well, if those women have been Black, the Nazis would’ve shot them.”
“For every story like this there are two where the authorities kill the protesters.”
“Yeah. Well, in Simon Says, Simon doesn’t point guns at you and say ‘Simon says do this or else…”
“You only believe that because you’ve had the privilege to live in a relative deomcracy all your life.”
But those types of rebuttals miss the point.
The point of telling the Rosentstrasse protest story isn’t that there’s some guaranteed method of revolution that never fails. It certainly doesn’t suggest that if you engage in nonviolent collective action, The Powers That Shouldn’t Be won’t fire on you. It’s to explain why collective action works when it does.
We do well to remember that theory is the child observation. This means the Simon Says principle didn’t spring from the forehead of Zeus. It was drawn from analyzing real historical events. And history supports the fact that the threat of violent repression doesn’t invalidate the Simon Says principle.
- The billy clubs, police dogs, and water cannons didn’t stop Civil Rights Activists from marching, sitting in, and boycotting until Birmingham was desegrated.
- The beatings inflicted by British soldiers didn’t stop Indians from rebelling against British rule: hundreds were wounded in Gandhi’s Great Salt March.
- The Marcos regime greeted their protesting Filipino subjects with tanks!
The fact of the matter is that Simon is always armed. Always! But sometimes — sometimes!—ordinary, unarmed people beat Simon, even when he has an army at his disposal.
These stories happen more often than The Powers want you to know. In a massive study from Erica Chenoweth and Maria J. Stephan, movements succeeded twice as often as armed struggles where uprisings were sustained, nonviolent, and reached critical mass (which is smaller than you think, but more on that in another blog post). This was especially true where movements were well-organized and incorporated a diversity of nonviolent tactics.
History shows that the Simon Says principle applies to several species of oppressive power, no matter if The Powers are authoritarians, totalitarians, alleged democracies, major corporations, or something else.
So…
I urge you to stop making excuses. Stop coming up with reasons why the task is to great and the opponent to strong to be overcome. Instead start looking for ways that Simon depends on our help and refuse to give it to him. Hold your cooperation for ransom.
This is all easier said than done, but the point of this blog is that you understand one thing: You have more power than Simon wants for you to know.
Disobey.
WAS THIS HELPFUL?
This blog is on the house. But if you want to support my work, please join my email list, where I send out songs of resilience and positive change, as well as practical insight for taking positive action.
