The Homing Crisis — Part 1.

Don’t we already have enough crises?

Trump, Brexit, Isis
Poverty, Robots, Climate

I believe there’s a connection.
A shared thread, a point of convergence.

It lays at the core of our society. An essential foundation that has been eroded, now a mere myth for many.

Home — the dream of the disenfranchised and displaced.

Homes have many cliches attached - from where the heart is, to where you hang your hat. But my heart is scattered to many lands and people.
A hat stand’s just a glorified nail in a wall. Home is not a house or shelter, it’s more.

Home is many things combined.
Country, city, village, family,
Religion, place of work, identity
But it’s not just these interacting ecosystems.
It’s your place and your sense of place within them.

Home is where you belong.

This Century is becoming the Century of the Displaced.

This Displacement is at it’s most obvious when houses and property are destroyed or people are forced through poverty to migrate to a working economy. But other forms of Displacement are also taking place.

When companies relocate, those left behind are Displaced. They no longer have a place, a role, or sense of purpose. Trained to behave like a machine part, they can’t transfer their skills, and have no place for their use.

Displaced by staying put.
What they are were part of moved,
now they stand apart.

Alone.

This doesn’t just happen on the level of infrastructure, but also with society and culture. As it swings from “left” to “right”, those not resonant with the Zeitgiest get left behind. You no longer belong. Forced to amputate yourself just to survive. Or resist and seek out others joined by rage.

If you are of an open mind,
you likely feel this knot inside.
The world just shifted,
leaving you behind.

This is the same feeling felt by those labelled bigots, idiots and racists. Many are not those things, their reasons more complex. We’ve grouped them as an “other”, assisting the disconnect. Yet among them there are those who’s behavior is truly racist. Those who hold tight to bad ideas, as it’s the last thing they can connect with. Their last place of belonging. Their identity. Their beliefs, their myths, their notions of history. Through them ideas take action, violence against individual, group or nation. But are we not equally guilty of such crimes through the lens of “liberalism”? Criticising Muslims for their treatment of women, whilst our Nations drop bombs on them. Whilst it’s not the reason given for such attacks, such arguments are used to create empathy gaps. Our own values used to muddy our morality, our compassion clouded due to weaponised identity.

Some ideas are toxic. The reason we fight them is to fight for a home for others. Women, LBGTI, Refugees, People of Color. Those also seeking a home, comfort and security, essential needs denied them by society. But the fight wasn’t framed around Ideas, but pegged to Identity. Binding ideas to people. Boy did it get ugly.

It’s hard to write about this stuff, because to do so I must use labels and each label is false. Each box a lie that constrains, each label itself a source of pain. Even if self chosen, they create unhealthy limitations.

I appreciate this issue must be handled carefully. As a white male it’s easy to call for empathy. I’m not the one under attack daily. If it were me, I too would be angry. My privilege makes it easy for me to float, observe and disconnect. I’m not constantly confronted with violence or even death.

Isms run deep, we breath them in daily
Part of the cultures in which we grew
Toxic soups that shaped our identity.
Yet there’s another ism in the brew,
The one that judges poverty.
Chav, Pov, Hillbilly
Hick, Scum, White Trash
Deemed less than, because they lack the cash
Born in the wrong place in our “liberal” society

We need a movement of true solidarity
Not everyone fighting for their individual identity
But Diverse Spectrum Unity
An authentic state of Global Equity

Incidentally I googled povertism to see if the word already exists. Google returned some results - numbering 666.

To each according to their need, to each their own ability.
For everyone equitable rights, and equitable responsibility.
Working together to harness the power of our diversity.

Every new box we create only serves to complicate. These shifting sands of how to engage, can often serve to further isolate. The bitter truth is that even those fighting for their rights are sometimes exclusionary. As long as we connect isms to individuals, we create antagonistic identities.

Sexism, not Sexists
Racism, not Racists
Insert whatever prejudice,
it’s an ism not an ist.

We need to fight the battle on the right plane of existence.
Fight the ideas, love the human.

It’s important to think about this strategically. In instances where true individual change has taken place it’s through the medium of friendship. For example see Matthew Stevenson and Daryl Davis. But where the change is really needed is systemic.

To change a person truly, they must want to change. To do so they must feel safe. The more we rage, the more they rage, until blind and bloody deeds are done. We must look to the root of how they were wronged, and show them the thing that’s truly hurting them — an exploitative neoliberal system. Right now I feel vulnerable putting my ideas into this space. An ill considered phrase has a high price to pay. The context clipped, the meaning turned, suddenly you’re a straw man for everyone to burn.

Yes some of them have bigoted ideas,
but they still need your empathy.
If you want people to grow,
they need a place of security.

Globalisation shifted the world beneath their feet.
Now the the world lashes back.

Cultural Elasticity.

We are all connected,
yet we left them behind,
anchored only by identity.

As the world catapults back.
It’s going to hit them harder in the face.
For humans as a whole
are now being displaced.

Robots walk within us,
they use us as skin.
Puppets of flesh disguise
the hidden systems within.

For most of us managed by this system, we only notice when it fails us. When we fall out of the box — the point we don’t belong. The boxes were designed by the privileged to keep them in their place, or maybe they just failed to make boxes for anyone but them. Benign vs malignant is a subject for debate, but still it doesn’t change our current state. At the top they rarely need the boxes at all. They can live comfortably outside, and manipulate the rules.

There is already an unseen AI that rules our fate.
It’s the Bureaucratised Nation State.
Lines of code — Laws dictate.
Freedom can be bought if you have the cash to escape.

60 words, a line of law, of code, gives the US military scope to make you an enemy.

Can I have a home? Computer says no.

I see the power shift from one group of disconnected white guys to another. There’s no real replacement, just another layer. The boxes that define who belongs will no longer need a human to decide who fits. AI acts but your fate is decided by the human that programs it. If you fall outside of the categories and boxes listed, your life may get deeply complicated.

It’s Franz Kafka meets Phillip K. Dick.

Society benefits those who fit.
You only see the matrix
when you’re no longer in it.

AI and Robots now have new ways to impact the material world. more of us become unnecessary, but perhaps for a mask of empathy. A sad smile and a human apology, or a scornful stare as they take your dignity.

Your place will be taken. You’ll become irrelevant, systematically.

We’re not focussed on human needs,
but building worlds for our machines.
So we bomb for oil and energy,
to sustain the beasts we’ve bred.
Our cities and systems must feed.
But what about our Human Needs?

Our creations compete with us for our shared resources.
Algorithms can afford real estate that humans only dream of.
There are cars which are better housed than humans.

We’re creating a world for our machines, displacing ourselves in their wake. Is this really the future we wish to create? We displaced ourselves from Nature, now our dependance on our systems has enslaved us.

So now we come to the more obviously Displaced, those De-Homed by Nation States. Refugees, Immigrants, Involuntary Expats? I prefer Displaced People as this more accurately reflects reality. Seeking Refuge — Sure, but without reason it’s just focussed on the need and not the cause. Immigrants is even more loaded, it suggests a choice.

Economic Migrants are faced with little option.
Just because you slow down the cause of death,
it doesn’t stop it stalking your children.
Yet the means by which you are killed or oppressed
defines whether you’re worthy of compassion
More boxes to decide whether you deserve a Home.
Systemic Violence has many means. War is but one.

Now it gets really messy. A conflict of the Homeless. Imagine yourself one of the Indigenous Displaced — the “Unnecessariat”. Through the lens of the media, you see “Others” coming, stories distorted. They have a different idea of what Home should be - their own conflicting identity.

The last bar of your prison, the last wall of your Home.
Outside the world is changing, frightening, full of storms.
You are told you’re racist, a bigot, that YOU don’t belong.
While liberals clamor to assist the refugees,
when you were never worthy of their empathy.
For them you became the enemy.
Equality for all (except those suffering poverty).

I’ve been there — yes me a total hippy. I too touched upon these thought-loops of toxicity. I’ve felt that bitterness unwind, in the shadow spaces of my mind. How can they get help, when I stand alone. Why are they worthy of care, and welcomed into what should be my home. They get a home, yet I have none.

All this against media psy-ops of “Muslims are the enemy”. What do you think happens to a young man who grows up in a country with such conflicting identity. Struggling to find himself, told he doesn’t belong daily. Media bullies judge and condemn his beliefs, taking potshots from the newstands and online memes. There is no place he can feel comfort and security. He retreats online and finds Brotherhood, Fraternity. There are terrible ways to balance a lack of Oxytocin, especially when combined with a heady mix of testosterone and adrenaline.

Back to the “Unnecessariat”. Along comes a Farage, a Trump. One who understands their rage. A strong man to stand behind, to take back their Home for them. Probably they see the sham, but there’s nothing left to gamble. For too long they’ve been denied a place at the Table. Grueling poverty and Apocalypse were the cards in their hand. So they said “Fuck it. Give me fascists, I’ll know where I stand”.

Now “whatever we are” find ourselves Culturally Displaced.
Although in truth, many of us were pushed from our own nests long ago….

Displacement Dominoes.

I grew up in Suffolk. East of London, near the coast. Half working class, half middle. Belonging to neither. Loved by both. First of my family on my dad’s side to go to university. I studied Design, on returning, my “Home” had no place for me. No jobs that fitted, no prospect of property — locals having been priced out by second homers and retirees, seeking refuge in the country. No longer a country boy, but not fully city.

But long before that I was already an immigrant, for my parents were not of the village or county. One from the Fens, the other West Country. My mother served on the Village Council after living there 18 years. Once a woman turned on her and snarled “what do you know, you’re not from round here.”

Home runs deep, and many of us are rootless. Disconnected from land, seeking something to cling to.

This is a local town for local people. Don’t touch the precious things.

This Othering is hidden and more subtle than Gender, Sexuality, or Race, but still it lurks there beneath the surface. “They’re not from here, they’re not like us.”

So the migration began. The search for a home. In each place I landed an outsider, driving up the price of property. Unconsciously displacing the community before me. Although it should be noted, this is largely the fault of the market. My contributions to a place sometimes serving to improve it, yet at the same time increasing it’s appeal to those outside. Until such a place is gentrified, and I myself can no longer afford to live there. In Berlin Old Punks and Artists lament the commodification of the space they changed.

Berlin was a rare free space,
nobody left there to displace.
Little gold stones outside my house on the pavement,
served as a reminder of the previous inhabitants
who’s removal from this world was forced and violent.
Victims of Genocidal “Life Displacement”

“Stolperstein”, small memorials to Jews sent to death camps in Berlin. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stolperstein

The World Wars, a great tear in History. Displacing generations from root and reality. My granddad only spoke of the war once, of stealing chickens, of high jinx. Yet even this was too much, tears dripped as he remembered his friends. An entire generation displaced. A dark chasm in history. A tear in our identity. Yet even this tear pales in comparison, with the rape of Africa, and slavery. A continent pillaged, cultures erased. Civilisations denied a place on the map of our shared heritage. A mediated image promoting deserts and starvation. Little kids with flies on faces, pot bellies from malnutrition. As a child of the 80s for years Africa defined, by Comic Relief and “Let them know it’s Christmas time.”

We all fight for a Home, and in doing so have none.
I cannot be secure, unless my neighbor can sleep soundly.
We must love each other without boundary.

We have moved from Subject to Object, now Object without Place. Objects without Place get tidied away.

So now it’s time to turn this story around. I hope you can see we share some common ground.

I write this not from a sense of despair but to show that as Humans there are some things we share. A Home for us all is a complicated affair.

This Guy has the right idea.

This Texan get’s it. Standing outside a Mosque week after Trump Elected.

Focus on what you can do within your community. Come together and show unity. A public sign, a smile, an invitation to dinner. Get to know your neighbors first — love comes later. Get to know those outside your filter bubble, the more diverse the better.

When you hear an idea or see an idea that’s toxic, please address it. But address the idea not the Human, the ism not the ist. Show them the danger of the idea and where it leads. Division leads to violence, it cannot lead to peace, and only in peace do we find security. Look behind the anger, to identify the pain — what is the thorn in their minds that’s causing them to rage. You need to identify the demons, before you can exorcise.

Before you do this, it’s good to start with you.

Recognise your pain, and identify the root.
Explore the sources of ideas, recognise bias, seek truth.

For others to communicate their pain, you must first share your own.
The barriers must be removed, in order to become one.

There’s much more to say, but I’ve already gone on too long. So if you wish to go deeper still, click here for part 2 and read on.