Our COVID-19 crisis is already tragic and terribly risky, but as some have noted, it brings under-realized potentials to immediate attention. What a great time to start gardening! Many are gaining increased awareness of the interdependent web of all life, and of the fragility of our upstart and exploitative species.
Perhaps free proactive health care will become a much more popular (and, therefore, realistic) idea. We can develop crisis management and survival skills in preparation for other, possibly bigger crises involving energy, climate, violence and natural disasters. Many have already begun adapting for the Tower Time described by the brilliant witch Byron Ballard. Perhaps we haven't been preparing enough, or in the wisest ways, but now we're extra motivated!
Personally, I feel urgent pressure to reflect yet again on the pros and cons of in-person events vs. teleconferencing and our (terribly under-developed) iterative discussion, design and decision processes. When I refer to terribly under-developed iterative processes, I mean processes which some of us are pretty good at individually or in tight-knit teams, but which I believe we’re all atrociously bad at en masse. Right now, I believe we’re collectively impelled to level up such inclusive organizing skills which I expect to prove essential to the development of sustainable civilization on planetary (or larger) scales.
It felt like I'd already been working in organizational design forever when I wrote Developing P2P Networking and Nonlinear Dialogue in 2017, although it'd only been a few years. If you and I are well-acquainted and you haven't read that two-part essay yet, I strongly recommend it as a window toward understanding what drives me in my deeper reflections and most important work.
Learning p2p networking and inclusive organizing, with each other, won't be easy. It will require uncomfortably extended separations from personal privileges, biases and loyalties. It will require greater intentionality in the design and use of community security systems, including compassionate cultural standards. Ultimately, I believe it will require all of us to develop deeply inclusive compassion, no exceptions, to share this one great land, sea and sky we call home.
In pursuing humanity's cultural evolution and survival, I believe we will drastically reduce many privileges of in-person interactions-- and I say that’s a good thing, despite the priceless value of direct personal contact! The thing that no one seems to say about personal contact is that it's either (a) localized or (b) bloody expensive! You either live near your in-person events, or you're wealthy enough to travel. Now maybe you're only wealthy enough to save up for one or two long trips, and maybe you're happy to do that: but understand, if you will, that our political and economic systems have been dominated for centuries by people who travel practically at will, constrained only by their social strategies. They intentionally spend immense amounts of time and money to solidify personal privileges and loyalties, in-person. People of average or poor material means can never win at that game, but when we develop our tele-communing skills, that advantage will be practically erased. Is the world ready for that? No, it certainly is not, but seeds can grow slowly and surely with good soil and care.
The Internet has existed for barely a blip in recorded history, but right now we all share the urgent challenge of developing inclusive organizing skills, both in-person and remotely, in small to huge groups. We also share the challenge of maintaining our emotional health while learning social distancing and inclusive organizing together. In all of this, I believe we'll find even more value and priceless joy in our most personal relationships and responsible small group gatherings. Digital p2p networking (which is only part of inclusive organizing) can't and shouldn't replace physical interaction; however, digital p2p networking can scale inclusive activities to planetary proportions-- and in its embryonic essence, it's about *a person and another person(, seeing and respecting and helping each other to build their interdependence together. We can and must grow it.
It is perhaps best if you've already been gardening, but now is always the right time to start.