No institution has any interest in doing anything (except to upkeep it’s existence). Only people can dream and follow their dreams.
That is why we believe in people - individuals - as our greatest allies.
Those who need our work. Who invite us to their squats, provide us with food and shelter, in exchange for our expertise, building rocket stoves or solar water heaters.
Those who believe in our mission. Who support us with money, equipment, food, fuel and good word spread about FreeLab.
Those who share our approach. Who join us for couple days, weeks or months, to take part in the great mission - vaster and longer then Freelab itself, or our life spans.
And those who simply give us job - for food, wood or a bit of money. Because they do support us all the same.
Hi Petros, just now I’m working on an article about Edgeryders and radicalization in finding creative solutions to solve most ardent problems. I would like to include your story as an example… My argument is that initiatives which may seem isolated and people living “off-the-matrix”, like you say, are/should not necessarily, and with a little bit of good will from institutions or people vested with policy power, these new ways of making a living, participating and building resilience can be supported for the wellbeing of all => In fact they are only radical in so much as they are innovative, because they operate under assumptions that the society at large shares.
I’ll share the paper here in a couple of days, as soon as I have a first draft, and you can let me know what you think…? Thanks for sharing with us your story!
All proceedings of FreeLab are available under CC-BY-SA, so you are free to use whatever I write on behalf of FreeLab.
Having said that, I do not agree with the assumption you expressed.
Off-the-grid initiatives are undermining the very fundation of the modern global-ish society - the long distance interdependencies. This ‘feature’ keeps general life control beyond powers of any single local community, thus creating the ueber-class of global moguls, who may at least pretend that they control the situation.
The current crisis comes from the fact that pretending is not enough anymore. Even the best actor, playing a brain surgeon, cannot run the real operation.
However, there is one thing that the controlling institutions surely can try - to survive. Abandoning increasing area of social space (Erasmus case - being the latest), they tighten the grip on whatever they can still controll.
So, any support for the off-the-system living models may only come from them as a sort of ‘letting steam off’ measures, or the support for theme villages at best.
Besides, the ‘good will’ attribute - by definitiion - do not apply to institutions. It is solely related to a human being. To present a good will you need to have any will first.
A bit more hope I see if it comes to the people - be them rich and powerful, or not. But that’s just what I wrote in my report.
Anyway - feel free to talk and write about us, keeping in mind what is our position. Any PR may help.
between institutions and people who make the institutions, sometimes I forget to put an emphasis on it. Although I see where you’re coming from, I myself don’t have a strong position because I haven’t been hit hard. yet.
Anyway, here is a first draft I wrote, I’m open to any critique. It probably is too melow for your taste? It’s a depiction of Edgeryders as community and space - even institutional channel -, which in itself is not an proof or lack of will, although anyone can bring to the table whatever they feel is wrong or doesn’t work with institutions at large, because we’re being constructive. But I know you know that already :) Thanks for being here!
I respect immensely your attitude and your courage. But, for the records, I disagree with your first point. True, like all organizations institutions maximize their survival expectancy. But people in institutions are people too, and they come in all sizes and colors. This means that - under the right circumstances - institutions can be exapted to do interesting stuff.
We - in fact - agree on institutions. Being exapted by people within - yes. Act benevolently on their own - never heard of. I clearly distinguish between institution and people it contains.
Nice to see we agree; even nicer to see we are using similar intellectual tools (exaptation as a concept is getting more popular, but still pretty exoteric outside complexity science).
