On Feb 9, 2025, at 6:36 PM, Miles Fidelman <[email protected]> wrote:
Hi Folks,
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity. ... Yeats
It strikes me that we - We The People, Americans, Humanity - need an Attitude
Adjustment. We need to relearn how to think & work together for mutual support
& benefit. My best efforts have been to little effect. I'd welcome some
suggestions, some support, some participation. Herding cats is one thing, but one can
only tilt at windmills for so long.
We've networked ourselves together. 6 Billion of us have the power to be anywhere &
everywhere, all at once. To think & work together on a global scale. To think globally focus
our resources to act locally. So what do we do? We share cat pictures, watch porn, flood the world
with spam, and troll each other with political polemics. We've become the Borg, we're living in the
Matrix, and 3-D Printing Westworld around us. Our planet is dying, our infrastructure is crumbling,
monsters rise from the id of our collective consciousness, and we hand the nuclear codes to a
"Reality" TV star, with a penchant for firing people & stirring up WWE style mayhem.
Is there some way back to Life Liberty & the Pursuit of Happiness, E Pluribus Unum, Truth
Justice & the American Way? Or forward to Prosperity & Long Life in Infinite Diversity
in Infinite Combination, Being All that We Can Be, Being Excellent to Each Other & Partying
On?
----
At least some of us, here, were involved w/ FreeNets and the early days of Community
Memory, bulletin boards, FidoNet, community networks - attempts to build an American Public
Telecommunications Network of FreeNets, and an Association for Community Media for cable
access channels. All of that was lost when FaceBook & Social Media & NextDoor
& local websites hosted by big ate the world.
My work at the Center for Civic Networking - and now with Civic.Net and
ThisOldNeighborhood.Net - is an attempt to recreate a network of public spaces on
the Internet - an Internet or Syndicate of Neighborhood Networks & Civic Forums
- but there are not a lot of Neighborhood Networks or Civic Forums to integrate.
It seems like folks don't want to talk with each other anymore. The polarizers, and
propagandists, and market segmentationists have done their work all too well. People don't
come to town meeting or condo meetings. Everyone wants to be a rockstar and a solopreneur,
rather than part of a team, or a community. Folks flock to the latest personality or fad,
a virtual event with a politician or media personality - but actually sit down to think and
work together, to mutual benefit - not so much. Folks will march for this cause or that,
work for politicians, buy snake-oil. Some will go to Cons and LARPs, and build a city in
the dessert at Burning Man; some will show up for Hackathons, Service Days,
Habitat-for-Humanity Builds, rush off to map crises or jump into fires, but collaborate -
think & plan & work together for mutual support & benefit - not so much. We're
oh so much better at shouting slogans at each other - than at looking for ways we can work
together to mutual benefit.
----
I've been doing my damndest to recruit volunteers to organize local civic networks
and community forums- to use platforms they already have to bring people together (the
way WBUR in Boston has organized CitySpace as a venue for events & programs that
bring people together. Or the Whole Earth Catalog & the WELL, back in the day. Or
what MainVest tried to do as a crowdsourcing vehicle for main street businesses - until
their bank failed).
I haven't been getting a lot of traction. I've got a bunch of followers on
LinkedIn, a bunch of (mostly non-paying) subscribers to my blogs - but
practically nobody speaks up - either to talk about what they're doing and
seeking collaboration for, or even to ask folks to join with them to work on
local pressing common problems. And all the media types who HAVE large
audiences, are moving to Substack, spouting the same-old same-old, and inviting
people to attend their lectures, webinars, have coffee with them, send them
money - but offering nothing to help people work with each other. All talk, no
action.
---
It seems like the old line is true - you can lead folks to water, but you
can't make them drink.
Whatever happened to the Spirit of America? What will it take to wake people up?
To motivate people to respond to a clear & present danger the way they did
following the first Earth Day?
Please... Speak up. With serious suggestions & proposals. Save the
pontification for other threads.
Thanks,
Miles
--
In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice.
In practice, there is. .... Yogi Berra
Theory is when you know everything but nothing works.
Practice is when everything works but no one knows why.
In our lab, theory and practice are combined:
nothing works and no one knows why. ... unknown
--
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href="https://exbbn.weebly.com";>https://exbbn.weebly.com</a>
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