The discussions, collaborations and collective actions aimed at change are continuing to increase in intensity, depth and scope. It makes me want to clarify how I imagine change. In my mind, it’s a two-step process.

Step 1. Deep inside, say good-bye and get detached from the system you want to replace. Withdraw creative and social currencies such as attention from it.

  • “One who should inspire and lead must be defended from traveling with the souls of others.” So, progressors need to share a “magic circle” such as a game (D&D?), abstract math, spiritual practice (40 days in a desert?) or a sci-fi universe (Babylon V?). Their third place has to be sufficiently out-of-this-world.
  • “Scales, times and places are declared largely irrelevant.” It matters little anymore if the old system involves millions of people, has been going on for decades and is happening where one lives. This makes it somewhat easier to be brave.
  • “Don’t seek legitimacy from dominant institutions.” We can seek resources from them, if it does not mess up the emergent economy of the new systems. Just don’t make that grant from an old system one of the main promotion points.
  • “Reject the act of labor required for everyday production.” Well, not all of it – don’t starve – but a lot of labor should go into creating new systems rather than participating in the old ones.
  • “Nothing is created until something is destroyed.” The destruction here is purely informational. Shift attention to new systems, and stop caring for and discussing the old ones. Attention is an incredibly strong currency. Criticizing a system only makes it stronger, by investing the attention currency into it.
  • “Don’t equate the detachment with disappearance.” Be visible and welcoming to people participating in any system, especially during Step 2. As an aside, this increases the personal safety, since it’s harder “to disappear” visible people.

Step 2. Build.

  • “Tell me, do you stand up and speak out when you encounter a moment of unexpected joy, warmth, beauty or compassion in your life?” Be a support activist for good people. Pay attention (place the attention currency) in new systems, and spread the word.
  • “Don Quijote didn’t ship.” Take on tasks that can finish successfully and quickly. Don’t discuss redoing all k-20 curriculum “come the revolution” – help a next door family appreciate a math topic, today, and share the know-how with colleagues.
  • “Think globally, act locally.” Make working prototypes that work well and grow. This means making a lot of prototypes that don’t work or don’t grow, and discarding them quickly.
  • “Ragtag bunch of misfits” is a trope about unlikely heroes winning the day. It’s heartening to believe it.
  • “Loving one another in the context of Perl.” Don’t fight within the bunch, just because fighting big old systems is too frustrating and hopeless. Actually, don’t fight, love. In the context of the new systems.
  • “Do small things with great love.” Because new systems will be small at first. Love is the engine of growth. Don’t let that love stand in the way of discarding prototypes as needed. It has to be a non-attachment love.
  • “Unlimited self-generated morale.” As well as other self-generated and emergent entities: DIY structures and sustainable economies. Collaborations within networks are fine, but dependencies on the systems being replaced are problematic.

When in this process do we fight the old systems? In my picture, never: the new systems just recruit and grow until they are as strong as necessary. Old systems can then die from the lack of recruits, continue to support those who love them, or evolve into something new. It’s none of my business what they do. The only type of fighting I support is the immediate defense of projects from hostile takeovers. This is, for example, the tactic of homeschoolers. Homeschooling, the second-fastest growing education system, normally pays little attention to school systems. But news of any action that would restrict homeschooling freedom spreads through the networks within hours, and meets a very strong response that is usually enough to prevent it. Online education, currently the fastest growing method, does not directly fight any old systems either. It just grows by hundreds or thousands of percents a year.

So:

  1. Let go of old systems, in the heart and in the mind
  2. Build new systems
  3. …
  4. WIN!