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Friday, January 24, 2025

RESISTING FASCISM ~ Weitiko Principle by Christopher Soucy

Christopher Soucy is a playwright living in Savannah, Georgia. He has been a theater professional in the south east for over thirty years and is a co-founder of Odd Lot Improv and Savannah Shakes Theater Company.

www.soucywrites.com
IG: @soucywriter
FACEBOOK: @soucyman


     ~ Excerpt published by permission, all rights held by the playwright.

If you enjoy a piece published in the RESISTING FASCISM project, we encourage you to reach out to the playwright to tell them so. If the playwright has not included an email address or website, let us know at info@nycplaywrights.org and we'll pass along your message.

                 MARGE
I don’t know how to handle this deep hatred I have for those mother fuckers. 
 
                 CHOGAN
Yeah... that’s a toughy. 
 
                MARGE
I’ve tried to purge them from my life... But they make up half the goddamn country. I don’t know who’s safe.
                   
                CHOGAN
Mmm... maybe no one is. 
  
                MARGE
Maybe. 
 
                CHOGAN 
You want to combat the evil?  
 
                MARGE
Yes! 
 
                CHOGAN
Good. To make it easier, you must think of the evil as a disease. 
 
                MARGE
What? 
 
                CHOGAN
A disease. Spreading rampantly throughout the land. 
 
                MARGE
What kind of disease? 
 
                CHOGAN
Selfishness. Greed. Excess. All of these things inspire people to cannibalize their fellow human beings. 
 
                MARGE
Those are choices, not a disease. 
 
                CHOGAN
Perhaps. But when we think of it like a disease, it makes sense to still engage with those infected. We hope that they will come to health. We hope that we can provide a means for them to come to health. 
 
                MARGE
That’s crazy. That won’t work. They don’t think they are sick! 
 
                CHOGAN
And that is why it spreads so virulently. Fight the evil. Not the person. Forgive the person. 
 
                MARGE
I can’t. 
 
                CHOGAN
And that’s okay. I’m not saying it’s easy. I’m not sayingbyou’ll succeed. But you must not let the same evil consume you. 
 
                MARGE
What? I’m not!
  
                CHOGAN
No? You are not feeding your rage. Pitting yourself against everything and everyone. 
 
                MARGE
They’re wrong. 
 
                CHOGAN
And they will never learn to be right if they are cut off from examples. If you vilify them, they will respond with villainy. 
 
                MARGE
But they won’t change. 
 
                CHOGAN
No. They won’t. But what’s important, truly important, is for you not to change. For you not to give in to fear and hate and prejudice. 
 
                MARGE
This is ridiculous. You don’t know what you’re talking about. 
 
                CHOGAN
I’m a figment of your imagination. A slightly racist figment. But, I’ll let it slide. The nation is facing a terrible crisis. My people call it Wetiko. An evil that preys upon the spirit. It contaminates and twists otherwise good people into selfish acts. 
 
                MARGE
It sounds like you’re asking me to just roll over. 
 
                CHOGAN
What? No. Fight. Fight with everything you have. Show nobility. Show understading. For as selfishness can be spread from person to person, so can compassion. 
 
                MARGE
What if I fail? 
 
                CHOGAN
We do not do these things to succeed. We do them because they are right. And sometimes, what is right does not win. But that is no reason to stop trying. 
 
                 MARGE
 So... what? I just let these fucking pieces of shit back into my life? 
 
                CHOGAN
No. God no. But maybe stop filling yourself up so full of venom that it comes spilling out so readily. Try to evaluate the people in your life on an individual basis. Perhaps, some of those you have cut out of your life may have a place in it after all. 
 
                MARGE
You think I should take Ben back? 
 
                CHOGAN
Fuck no! That guy’s an asshole and a half. 
 
                MARGE
Okay... Thanks.
                     
                CHOGAN
Don’t thank me... I’m probably just a manifestation of a Wikipedia article you read once and forgot about. 
 
                MARGE
Right... 
 
                CHOGAN
Good luck. 
 
                MARGE
Thanks. 
 
                CHOGAN
It’ll be hard, but it will be worth it.


The latest fascist atrocity: Trump pardons thousands of violent criminals and traitors

History will remember this as one of the worst moments of the United States of America, and the people who supported this monster will be rightly condemned as fools and cultists.

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