Setting Sail
... every person of worth, when dealing with matters of worth, will be far from exposing them to ill feeling and misunderstanding among people by committing them to writing.
- The Seventh Letter, attributed to Plato
This blog will be making a simple argument.
Our lives and the lives of our loved ones are at risk, and it's our right and responsibility to act to ensure we'll be fine. Today, this means we must raise a revolution.
These are treacherous waters. A few words on how I'm setting sail.
Revolutions are violent. I am not.
Lots to say on this, for now just briefly.
Assata had it right, Tortuguita too. It's a tightrope.
The world is at war. Violent power interests are facing off against one another and driving us off the precipice. We get a livable world only if they are neutralized, transformed, abolished, or defeated. No way this will happen peacefully.
This is our reality and I have no wish to deny it. Our predicament will only get worse and more urgent to turn around, and violence, inevitably, will have a place in that. I aim to address, with open eyes, the role of militant action and revolutionary violence in the fight to win a future we now do not have.
I abhor violence. I've seen consequences of war and never want it to happen. I am bad at violence. I aim to understand it, not to incite or organize it, or take part in it if I can help it.
People like me, I'm pretty sure, are the vast majority. I'm focusing on how we can make sense of this context and exert influence within it. Organize, collaborate, challenge, deescalate, put our minds and hearts and hands to the constructive work that needs doing in our communities and ecosystems, so there is a world worth winning ...
... and, inevitably, learn to recognize, support, and hold accountable those who will fight, when it comes to that.
My identity is undisclosed and unimportant.
I am, perhaps, an old man yelling at a cloud.
One, safety.
I will criticize and denounce people and institutions in positions of authority who can make trouble for me, on whom I depend for living, and with some of whom I need and want to collaborate constructively.
Any speculation about my identity, right or wrong, is doxing.
Two, I am not the message. Who I am isn't a part of and shouldn't stand in the way of what I'm saying.
But, MaDFaRT, if you want to reach people, you must build a brand! You're providing online content, you must tell the world how you stand out!
I know I can yell "not I!" till all the clouds are gone and I'm as blue as the sky, this is what people will expect and see.
A message from your "content provider": please don't come here to consume. Come here to read, think, evaluate, make your own whatever fits, and act on it.
Naah, bo-ring!!!
Three, I am not writing as a member of some social group.
Where I fall across various lines of social division informs and influences what I'm on about. It can hardly be otherwise. But it doesn't determine me, nor does it impart special standing to what I'm saying. I am happy to share insights from my corner and defend them on their merits, and am equally happy to learn from others' perspectives, under these terms.
To understand the world we're in, to learn how to stand in solidarity with others, we must talk across our differences.
Everything is a draft.
If I suggest an answer to "What in the world do we do?", I must:
express it simply so it's intelligible to everyone, because everyone's lives and livelihoods are at stake,
lay out the case in coherent and compact terms, so people can draw on it in their own understanding and choices,
scrutinize it in depth, because we're in a complex situation and must comprehend it thoroughly not to mess up.
This order is impossible to fulfill. It is also impossible to ignore.
You know those Wired videos that explain the same subject at five levels of difficulty - child, teen, college, grad school, expert?
Yes, these. I'm starting in the middle of that range, and I'll go in either direction as needed.
Expert direction first.
There are no authoritative answers to "What is to be done?", notable attempts notwithstanding. There are, though, mountains of relevant research and scholarship, and I've had the fortune and the curse to dig into it a lot. I'll broach every topic starting at the introductory college level - think editorial columns, Wikipedia summaries, popular science articles. This will often be in areas where I've delved deeper, but sometimes I'll speculate on matters I'm not very familiar with. I'll disclose which it is. I will investigate and elaborate further as needed, guided by my interests and readers' requests, up to about the level of early stage working papers or public scholarship.
Happy to be challenged, educated, proven wrong. Everything here is a draft that I will revise, rewrite, or retract as necessary.
Now, I'm also facing the general public, and figuring out how to win a livable future is everybody's business. Thus
The blog is for everyone.
Most people today are unaware of how much their lives will change in the coming years, and how urgent it is as a matter of survival to take charge of steering the changes. We need many people from all walks of life either actively on board, or unconvinced but neutral enough to stand aside. The changes we need, such as degrowth, are so major that whoever I don't try to inform and convince, I must expect or choose as my enemy.
Issue is, there are as many ways to explain and persuade someone of a complex argument as there are people. Talking one-on-one, I can adapt to the other person. Writing is hit or miss.
Written words are context-free, and appeal only to the people who can furnish a context in which they make sense. Excellent blogs such as the two I've just linked (ACoUP and Adapt : Survive : Prevail) only cater to niche audiences. I have no illusions I'll avoid that.
To counteract it, I will try to start conversations.
I speak as myself, in my own voice, and am cross-posting on social media and Patreon. You can comment anywhere, I will read it and usually reply here in the blog. I won't debate on social media, but will chat and respond on Patreon - please head over and join, it's free - and you can also reach me by e-mail. There are no comment sections on the blog now, I may add them later.
If you chime in I'll try to meet you where you are, but I'll also challenge you to step out of that.
I'm a competent teacher, genuinely interested in how people come to the views they hold, usually good at picking up how to code-switch to present info to another. I also hold people accountable to facts, reasoned argument, and respect for others, on terms I set - which I'll happily lay out and negotiate.
I tolerate and welcome constructive antagonism. I will use strong language to encourage people to hold themselves and others to higher standards, and when I do so, I'll offer reasons why. I invite and welcome others to do the same. The key word is "constructive", though. Hate speech is out and will be removed and blocked immediately. Rhetorical derailing tactics such as strawmanning or arguments from authority will get one warning.
Aiming for posts 800-1200 words long, splitting up longer pieces. This one should be about the longest (famous last words).
There'll be no chatbot-generated content, ever.
Ideas are free. Find any you like, make them your own, build on them. Put yourself out there, publish. If you specifically build on how the ideas are presented here, you'll need to give me a shoutout and share your work under the same terms, the Creative Commons BY-SA copyleft license.
Writing about "What in the world do we do?" from a place of love, anger, and reason isn't unique. Go ahead, start a sister blog, and let me know about it. Would love to read it.
In the next post, I'll reflect on why I'm mad enough to do this. After that, I'll start diving into the messy heart of the matter.
Welcome to Methods & Demands for a Revolution Today (MaDfaRT). You can start here. To chat, join the page on Patreon. It's free, you can't even donate there, because reasons. Sharing and making any of this your own is support enough, but if you wish, you can donate via LiberaPay, with my gratitude. For more, check out the LinkTree.
Licensed under Creative Commons BY-SA 4.0 International.