This is how we compost failure into growth, instead of repeating mistakes

We do need strong metaphors, gardens, compost, pollination, is all about creating ecosystems of hope, rather than rigid, industrialized movements that always collapse under their own weight. Instead of chasing the big factory model of change, we need 100s of small, interconnected projects, cross-pollinating, sharing what works and what doesn’t. The straitjacket of fear is … Continue reading This is how we compost failure into growth, instead of repeating mistakes →

Composting the Mess to Make Room to Plant

In the swirling chaos of the digital landscape, it’s easy to feel lost. The #Fediverse, should be a beacon of hope for a decentralized, community-driven internet, but as always is facing an onslaught of push back and pressures from every direction. The #dotcons loom large, #NGO agendas quietly co-opt grassroots energy, and the #encryptionists lash … Continue reading Composting the Mess to Make Room to Plant →

Open Media Network (#OMN) is a Tool for Change and Challenge, Composting the Mess

In activism and grassroots media, you inevitably face an ongoing, unpleasant truth: when pushing against #mainstreaming and the inertia of the #deathcult, bad faith comes at you like a storm. Your best, and often only, defence is to hold onto your good faith. But good faith alone isn’t enough, we need shared tools to compost … Continue reading Open Media Network (#OMN) is a Tool for Change and Challenge, Composting the Mess →

Composting mess making, activism and #openweb

Most people I interact with are buried deep in the rot they’ve helped create, the path out is hard, but not impossible. The composting metaphor holds — rot can become soil, but only if it’s turned, exposed to air, and given time to break down. The stench lingers, though, and the deeper the decay, the … Continue reading Composting mess making, activism and #openweb →

“Compost tending” the fabric of #openweb

In the current #openweb reboot, let’s look at what makes sense, and let’s look at this from the prospective of collective dynamics, not individual blame. The focus is on mapping the social landscape, understanding the patterns of dysfunction, and then figuring out how to break through those blockages. The idea of switching between #spiky and … Continue reading “Compost tending” the fabric of #openweb →

Is it possible to compost the mess and nurture the people tangled within it?

The new #mainstreaming right-wing crew has become adept at hijacking the language of liberation and twisting it for control. They steal words like “freedom,” “community,” and “resilience,” stripping them of their radical roots and turning them into tools for reactionary agendas. Meanwhile, the left, caught in cycles of internal purity politics and endless critique, fractures … Continue reading Is it possible to compost the mess and nurture the people tangled within it? →

We need to compost the barriers to building shared social truths

With the fragmentation of truth in the “post-truth world” we need to nurture social truths and build useful paths for collective understanding: Addressing the Chicken-and-Egg Problem, to overcome the challenge of needing a critical mass to build momentum (e.g., hashtags gaining traction only when widely used). Start small by beginning with focused communities that share … Continue reading We need to compost the barriers to building shared social truths →

Blindness and Compost

Let’s look fresh at an old idea, and useful path that is currently being blocked. Ideologies are frameworks for interpreting and navigating the world, the #mainstreaming “common sense” of rejecting them amounts to rejecting structured understanding. When people claim to eschew ideology, they default to the dominant paradigm, the #deathcult of #neoliberalism, without realizing it. … Continue reading Blindness and Compost →

Inspiration to pick up the shovel to compost the current mess

A sharp observation on the current state of the “left” and the misplaced focus of many tech strategies. The “left” indeed needs a reboot—moving away from insular infighting and embracing the broader, structural challenges that demand collective action. Meanwhile in tech, the “encryptionists” still try to dominate the tech discourse, promoting a narrow focus on … Continue reading Inspiration to pick up the shovel to compost the current mess →

Metaphors matter, composting the current paths in #AI

This #AI-meets-copyright consultation is another wave of opportunistic grafting, much like the #crypto mess before it. The rhetoric about leveraging AI to “grow the economy” and “improve public services” is justification for a “commons” grab by nasty interests. It’s the normal pushing in the ongoing path of #deathcult worship, 40 years of #neoliberalism, digging us … Continue reading Metaphors matter, composting the current paths in #AI →

We can now talk about composting, the privatisation of our “commons”

The #Thatcher era in the UK pushed #deathcult privatisations, which are now ripe for real and useful contemporary criticism. And this criticism could be used for a useful push for the change and challenge we need. Water Companies, privatized in 1989 with promises of efficiency and investment, have since faced continuous scandals over sewage spills, … Continue reading We can now talk about composting, the privatisation of our “commons” →

Composting the social mess to balance the change we need

In the online spaces I navigate, there’s no shortage of #fashernistas crowding the conversation, diverting focus from the native #openweb paths we urgently need to explore. They take up space and ultimately block more than they build. Then there’s the #geekproblem: while geeks get things done within narrow boundaries, they’re rigidly resistant to veering beyond … Continue reading Composting the social mess to balance the change we need →