Centuries in the future, Terrans have established a logging colony & military base named “New …
"So Earth, Terra, meant both the soil and the planet, two meanings and one. But to the Athsheans soil, ground, earth was not that to which the dead return and by which the living live: the substance of their world was not earth, but forest. Terran man was clay, red dust. Athshean man was branch and root. They did not carve figures of themselves in stone, only in wood."
In the tradition of Octavia Butler, radical self-help, society-help, and planet-help to shape the futures …
"I’ve watched several public takedowns, call-outs, and other grievances take place on social and mainstream media. Some of those have been of strangers, but recently I’ve had the experience of seeing people I know and love targeted and taken down. In most cases, very complex realities get watered down into one flawed aspect of these people’s personalities, or one mistake or misunderstanding. A mob mentality takes over then, an evisceration of character that is punitive, traumatizing, and isolating."
(...)
"But lately, as the attacks grow faster and more vicious, I wonder: is this what we’re here for? To cultivate a fear-based adherence to reductive common values? What can this lead to in an imperfect world full of sloppy, complex humans? Is it possible we will call each other out until there’s no one left beside us?I’ve had tons of conversations with people who, in these moments of public flaying, avoid …
"I’ve watched several public takedowns, call-outs, and other grievances take place on social and mainstream media. Some of those have been of strangers, but recently I’ve had the experience of seeing people I know and love targeted and taken down. In most cases, very complex realities get watered down into one flawed aspect of these people’s personalities, or one mistake or misunderstanding. A mob mentality takes over then, an evisceration of character that is punitive, traumatizing, and isolating."
(...)
"But lately, as the attacks grow faster and more vicious, I wonder: is this what we’re here for? To cultivate a fear-based adherence to reductive common values? What can this lead to in an imperfect world full of sloppy, complex humans? Is it possible we will call each other out until there’s no one left beside us?I’ve had tons of conversations with people who, in these moments of public flaying, avoid stepping up on the side of complexity or curiosity because in the back of our minds is the shared unspoken question: when will y’all come for me?"
(...)
"destroying a person doesn’t destroy all of the systems that allow harmful people to do harm. These takedowns make it seem as if massive problems are determined at an individual level, as if these individuals set a course as children to become abusers, misogynists, racists, liars."
(...)
"The places I’m drawn to in movement espouse a desire for transformative justice—justice practices that go all the way to the root of the problem and generate solutions and healing there, such that the conditions that create injustice are transformed."
"Continuous education is one of the international principles of cooperation and an important strategy for cooperative economic development and business success. The success and growth of many cooperatives appear to depend on education strategies—orientation and training about both what it means to be a good co-op member and how to operate in and manage a particular business. Future co-op business development also depends on reaching young people with knowledge about alternative economic structures and cooperative economics, as well as experiences with entrepreneurship."
Mutual aid is the radical act of caring for each other while working to change …
"Solidarity and an ever-expanding commitment to justice emerge from contact with the complex realities of injustice. This is exactly how movements are built, as people become connectedto each other and as one urgent issue unspools into a broader vision of social transformation."
Why, in our affluent society, do so many people live in poverty, without access to …
"We are living in an era where mutual aid and trust in others has been thoroughly dismantled by the forces of neoliberalism. The only way to rebuild these trust relationships is through face-to-face community building and local municipal politics, at least at the start.
There are surely those who say that such humble actions will never bring about change in time. But communities, regional associations, and social movements whose reach seems restricted to the local are finding ways to link up with comrades all around the world in solidarity, and it is here that hope for the future resides. We are already seeing how various local movements are beginning to construct networks with other movements around the world to fight global capitalism. As Via Campesina puts it, “Globalize the Struggle, Globalize Hope!” "
"The state becomes the manager of the representations through which class society as a whole comes to know and regulate itself. The rise of a vectoralist class put an end to this arrangement. The vectoral class uses the state to extend and defend the privatization of information. It attacks the socialized science, culture, communication and education that other ruling classes for the most part left in the hands of the state. “There is an intellectual land grab going on.”"
Any similarity with the state of the big tech and its "AI" development is NOT a coincidence!!!
In the tradition of Octavia Butler, radical self-help, society-help, and planet-help to shape the futures …
"There is such urgency in the multitude of crises we face, it can make it hard to remember that in fact it is urgency thinking (urgent constant unsustainable growth) that got us to this point, and that our potential success lies in doing deep, slow, intentional work. We need to go beyond having a critique/counter analysis/alternate systemic plan for society — we have to actually do everything differently, aligned with a different set of core principles for existence. Especially our movement building. How do we live compassion, justice, love, accessibility, in alignment with this planet and with the people on it? How do we live our values?"
Why, in our affluent society, do so many people live in poverty, without access to …
"The other thing Piketty emphasizes is the difference between participatory socialism and Soviet-style socialism. As a regime where all decision-making power resided with officials and experts who also controlled information and thought, the Soviet Union was antithetical to the democratic nature of participatory socialism. In contrast to the authoritarian Soviet Union, participatory socialism is an attempt to transition to a sustainable society through nurturing the seeds of mutual aid and citizen self-rule."
"My life felt as if it was being pulled apart (...) It was as if some dispassionate tinkerer had made a series of small cuts and extracted the spine, the plot and structure of my life as it to say, 'Let's see what happens now.'" -- David Treuer
"Individualism was a luxury that sharecroppers simply could not afford." -- Jones (1985)
I am impressed by how long it took me to encounter this connection between individualism and luxury, even more considering I have studied cultural individualism for many years. It shows me I was not reading about collectivism from the perspective of marginalized communities (in this case, black farmers in the US.)
It is also very impressive how clearly Jones's statement can be applied to most working groups in current days (40 years in his future). The concept of the "individual success" is a huge barrier to be transposed before we can start inventing a sustainable future.
