The Homing Crisis — Part 2. A sense of Place.

The following is a continuation of part 1. Which in the age of short attention spans was becoming far too long.

Linear thinking dominates our world
a masculine form, the arrow, moving ever forward.
Progress, to be measured in increments.
Time as Cronos, split into segments.
Everything must have a metric.
A life measured by quantity.

Another mode, dismissed, ignored.
Cyclical thinking, a feminine form.
The circle, the wheel rotating, constantly changing.
Change and continuity, resistance and flow.
Time as Kairos, the right moment for a happening.
Serendipity. A life assessed by it’s quality.

Combine the two and a wave flows through history.

We stretch out, increasing our connectivity.
Inwards we turn, scared to loose our identity.
Our global consciousness, pushing further through each time,
as the universe seeks to know itself.
There are other factors at play of course,
such as the limits of global resource.
But these problems are not beyond our technical ingenuity,
modern scarcity’s more often the product of society.

(This reflection, is provoked by my own consciousness stretching. As out so within. In the space of a year, I stretched from one to three. No longer single, now a family. One root in Egypt planted deep, another spread throughout Europe. No longer two singles, but a whole and what’s more parents. Stretching so far to accommodate the new, it’s only now I ask where is Home. Pulled by the desire to be together, and sometimes to be alone. When your roots span nations, it’s hard to know where you belong.)

Breath out, Breath in. Repeat the cycle again.

Each of us is interconnected, our lungs include the plants and trees. Our lives invisibly entangled. The boundaries of us don’t stop at our skin. Infinite loops of interacting ecosystems, from microbiome, to Human, to Culture, to World.

Zoom out, Zoom in.
That’s us, that’s you.
Part of the same.
One.

Each boundary an arbitary position,
where we choose to draw a line.
But each place we lack a word
is a place where we are blind.
For evidence see cultures
where a color is not defined.

One of these squares is not the same green, your ability to spot it is affected by culture.

We consume, but we also produce — our shit is nutrient for microbes and in turn plants. A cycle that sustains itself. Ouroborus, the snake that eats it’s tail. But we interrupted these flows, the ultimate wrong. We prevent nutrients from flowing to where they belong, and instead we produce toxins. The German word for poison is “gift”, it shares the same root with English. We need to pay attention to what we are giving. Something given where not required is toxic to our system.

Take a moment to listen.
There in the silence, signaling.
Zoom in.

I need!
Here take!
Give, Take, Give, Take.
The flows of resource oscillate.
A song between entities.
Each with it’s own interdependencies.
Each need has a frequency.

Sometimes the offer is not made so free, at least not on the surface. But this is through our own lens of death, of fear and loss aversion. We frame it as a war, but it’s co-adaptation. Sometimes competition, others co-operation. Survival of the fittest is survival of the best adapted. Not just raw in tooth and claw, abundance is a tool often used. The more fruit given by a bush or a tree, the greater the chance of it spreading it’s seeds.

There are many modes of interaction, beyond that of slave and master. When we communicate needs clearly, we can get our needs met faster. There is a toxic idea within us, that we need reward to create. But our urge to make is as natural as the need to defecate. When we block these flows with money, we cause ourselves pain.

Breath in, breath out
Eat, Shit
Drink, Piss
Consume, Produce
Don’t block the flows.

Zoom out.

Soaring above these interacting frequencies of need.
We still require a meta-narrative of why we should be.
It’s our destiny I believe, to be the distributors of seeds.
Gardeners of space, populating worlds,
enabling the universe to play as it manifests and grows.
Creators, maintainers, destroyers. Each has a role.

Death creates space.
It’s death that ensures change.
If we fuck it up this time,
it’ll reset and play again.

Even if we manage to destroy every last speck of life. The universe will arise again, there is an infinity of time. I don’t say this to suggest we should just give up and die. Merely we should not let our fear of failure or even death, put limits on our lives.

A couple of times now, I’ve met with the Universe.
I bathed in its love, to it’s love I will return.
My ego will be stripped, my identity will burn.
I’ll at last be part of all, I’ll be truly Home.
Until such a time comes when the droplet leaves the sea,
and I come to form upon this earth as a new identity.

Fear manifests as control. The more attention you give it, the more it grows. The structures that you create to prevent your darkest dreams, will become the hidden enclaves in which it breeds. Our collective conscious is in fears grip, we must do all we can to escape it. Love behaves differently, it’s ways are not the same. Manifests as chaos, comes by serendipity — as you play it joins your game. Control is the line, the fear, the drive, the masculine. Freedom the flow, the love, the cycle, the feminine. The two must be balanced to create a state of harmony. Life should be a song, not a state of monotony.

Every Human needs a space to grow,
to be nurtured and cared for.
It’s this I call Home.

Our fundamental human needs extend beyond the physical, to the emotional and intellectual. If they are not served, they exert dominance over our behavior. Who we are changes according to the dominant forces at play in the “Human Ecosystems Triquestra.”

Technically this shape is known as a Triquetra, but the typo implies the 3 ecosystems playing together to create music — so I’m keeping it!

We are the product of the nutrients we’re fed.
Our growth restricted by the pot-culture in which we’re bred.
Intellectually undernourished or intoxicated,
nutritionally starved and emotionally amputated.

Bonsai Humans.

We look at other clipped in different ways with a sense of fear or judgement rarely turning the lens on ourselves. We criticize the burka, but don’t question the suit. We even get disturbed when someone has a different way to poop.

In truth we all have a lot of growing to do.
There is great potential in each of us.
We just need space, shelter and nutrients.

Exclusive Belonging is our Dominant Social Norm. With us or against us. You’re in or you’re out. Do the hockey cokey and shake it call about. Whether Nation State, or Social and Religious groups. These Norms are constantly in a state of flux. Collectives of individuals fight to make their own Norms the groups, so the identity of the collective fits their own. This form of Belonging is born of insecurity, outward shows of strength belay the scared and fragile creatures within.

We are small, so we seek to wear the clothes of the giants called community.

Exclusive Belonging is something we sometimes choose, but not often. Most of us do not choose our gender, our skin color, race, place of birth, or religion. By luck of birth these features are assigned. Then those with power get to define what these features mean. These constraints are generally decided by those who have accumulated power in different forms. This accumulation is sometimes transferred at key life events, the biggest of those being the previous generations death. So the cycle continues, those with little time left, getting to dictate the identities of those who will inhabit the world they create. By the time the next generation comes to occupy any significant roles they have usually been either broken or specially selected by the filters of the system.

People select people like them, who see the world as they do, they want a stable retirement, not a revolution. With this in mind, that we still live in a world ruled by rich corrupt old men should come as no surprise. No need for some global conspiracy — people are biased towards “people just like me”. But our survival requires diversity. Every monoculture dies eventually, falling victim to it’s black swan weakness.

Slowing the rate of death, doesn’t help this process. Neither does ubiquitous surveillance. The ability of the status quo to maintain itself is enhanced, as it’s ability to filter by values becomes increasingly advanced. You may never know why you didn’t get the job. It wasn’t just your CV telling them that you didn’t belong. Control combined with loss aversion, makes for a dangerous combination, working against our conscious evolution.

We tried to shift too fast towards Inclusive Belonging — where all are welcome. The paradox of such a state is that if we welcome all, then we welcome groups who would exclude. They try to gain power in order to dictate how everyone should be, resulting in a return to a state of Exclusivity. As liberals and progressives pushed for greater inclusion, they met with this reality. We ignored it, the price may be our liberty. Look at Egypt, the Arab Spring — strived for freedom, got fundamentalists, then returned to the mean.

To find a workable solution, we must seek some form of transitionary state. We must think about Inclusive and Exclusive identities, and balance the forces at play.

The ultimate state of Inclusive Belonging, requires many stages of growth. Religion and spiritual and philosophic traditions offer many different roads. But the insecure stand at the junction and fight over who’s path is right. Those strong of heart have the courage to walk their path alone, meet at the top to admire the view. For us all to reach this peak will take many lifetimes.

The path is not the goal, use the structures that help. Let go of what you can’t use.

I believe the goal should be Peace
through mutually maintained stability.
Spaces where we can each grow our humanity.
Not just one way, but in all it’s diversity.
For our death surely lies in homogeneity.

One’s Utopia, is another’s Dystopia
We don’t need Utopian visions,
but dreams of Polytopia.

A Polytopian system still requires a common social foundation, as presently at least we share a common global boundary. Therefore we need a foundation of common rights and responsibilities, and recognition of our common resource.

We need a common moral code, good and evil are subjective. I propose a common foundational understanding of Harm and Benefit.

Harm is that which prevents another being’s needs being met.
Benefit is that which helps another being meet it’s needs.

When there is a conflict of needs, then it is in the interests of the system that priority be given to the one who benefits (or will benefit) others the most.

(It should be noted that these conflicts, are the points where potentially systemic violence could take place. The point at which the system may be gamed. Conflicts of need are inevitable at least in the short term. We’re in a global Triage situation. Right now resource is assigned not based on social contribution, but inherited rights of value extraction. We grow money, not humanity. Whether you starve should not be defined by the place of your birth, or your monetary worth.)

Natural and manmade creations also have needs and are of use where they serve the system.

Every structure and law can die or change if it doesn’t meet the goal — the satisfaction of the needs of all.

Upon this common foundation, communities are then formed around shared needs and their provision. Each community is free to set it’s own boundary conditions. Members of communities are free to travel between spaces, but are obliged to obey the behavioral principles of the visited places.

Upon entering adolescence, travel between spaces is compulsory. Return to the community is voluntary. Considerations need to be given, to inter-community travel and transition.

It needs to be recognised that even such a simple moral code is not without those who would object to common rights of humanity. There are still those on the planet who dehumanise others, and would not grant them equal rights of of resource or autonomy. Furthermore existing power structures will likely continue to fight anything that would change their status within the system, even as it collapses around them. It’s these ideas, not those who hold them that are our common enemy.

Envisioning an alternative state is complex, let alone conceiving strategic means to get there. However such constructs are useful frameworks for discussion and further exploration. We need to move from giving our attention to emergent dystopias, to playfully exploring alternative visions for the future.

Polytopia is a good place to start as it must recognise our differences, while seeking common ground. Rather than assuming the world would be better if everyone thought like us.

One of the healthiest thing we can do as a society
is to decouple our ideas from our identity.
Some ideas that are highly toxic to social cohesion,
but these ideas should be seen as separate from the Human.
This is a useful and necessary level of disconnection.

Religions and ideologies are idea composites. Some of these ideas may be beneficial for a functioning society or culture, others may be toxic. These ideas need to be assessed on the level of both individual and collective, and in the context of the time and space in which they exist.

We need to find ways for our cultures to continue, but also cross-breed, adapt and find new spaces to develop into. Our young are the points of cross fertilisation and growth of the new. We need to provide them with the space to grow new social structures, whilst at the same time allowing for the more static/regressive individuals to maintain their comfort.

There are some who need space to grow at their own pace.
Others need grow to fast and free.
The energy of change vs need for security.
But these forces don’t need to oppose each other.
With wisdom we can use them to grow together.

Our needs from life are different — the young need space to live and grow, the old need security and space to make peace with death. If humans could learn to cope with loss and death, we could avoid so much of this mess.

Identity can be a Home, or it can be a Prison. It’s not static and shifts as context changes. Your right to define it is what shifts the perceptual boundary between these states. Whether you built and decorated the walls, or live under another’s roof. Your rights and responsibilities, your sense of place. Whether it is a place of comfort, or continued oppression and distress.

Our world is filled with structures,
designed to protect us from each other.
In doing so we stop ourselves from working together.

What we need is shared, the higher truth is we’re One.
So let’s work together to ensure everyone has a Home.

In difference there is learning, and we have much to learn and teach. We need to think beyond our Binary modes, and embrace Spectrum Thinking.

It’s not about black and white or even shades of grey,
the sun shows it’s colours when viewed through the rain.

If you believe there is only one truth or “right”, you set the world in opposition, you come prepared to fight. I see this behavior far to often especially from men who’re otherwise wise. Dominant, aggressive, raging against each other, doesn’t create a space for healthy intellectual growth. The ideas they hold have much to offer, but they reduce the opportunities to learn due to their manner. The playground spats run deep, they may find more sophisticated ways of calling names. But it’s still “you’re an idiot”, “no you”. Little has changed.

We shape our ecosystems
and our ecosystems shape us.
Whether creations of humans or universe.
Material, Mental, Emotional structures
Scaffolds to grow, or constraining boxes.
To grow together is not beyond us

Our existing housing models, isolate us in concrete caves. Our existing social models separate us from our interdependent reality. Our abilities to contribute and participate are limited. Real social value is not encouraged or rewarded. Our Houses are not Homes, instead they are assets. No longer places to live but rungs on a ladder. The Housing Crisis is a critical factor, as in order to grow we need to find shelter. A space of our own, that no one else owns.

There is not one solution to the challenge of the Homing Crisis. We need to create spaces for the emergence of new ideas.

We need places to prototype Polytopia — Future Home Labs

Future Home Labs could help us to escape our conditioning. Spaces where we can live and experience the alternatives.

We need to move beyond these battles of monocultures, to create spaces where ideas breed. Where solutions are assessed on their social effectiveness through experiment — not based on binary beliefs. Spaces where we can explore the balance between Shared Space and Privacy. Look at how to balance the needs between Individual and Society. To explore at how we can live together sustainably.

Spaces that provide for our Fundamental Human Needs. That provide easily adaptable structures for our growth — Mentally, Physically and Emotionally. Meeting our individual needs. From architecture to rituals, we need places to explore what is possible.

In our past are myths of explorers and pioneers,
now it’s time to explore new realms — of ourselves and our ideas.

These spaces are needed in many challenged communities, from urban centres, and rural areas, to camps for refugees.

Those who feel they don’t belong are like birds and bees,
Cross pollinators of culture, or carriers of seeds
Yet each still requires a nest or hive to meet their needs
Each Culture is a plant, the world has many breeds

Whether from future, present or past
Each has something to learn and teach
As the world changes, we need to adapt fast
Yet not strive too quickly for the future
Or look too fondly at our traditions and history
Instead to take what works from each Culture
Create spaces in which to grow and nurture

A gardens of ideas for a new global society
An ecosystem that encourages and nurtures our humanity

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Note: This and part 1. are works in progress. An outline of what I wish to devote my time to — intellectual, physical, and emotional structures that help nurture humanity.

I’m connecting with different groups and individuals addressing different aspects of this space. I will write more about the topics addressed and more here. So if you like what I write — please subscribe.

Also I want to do an audio version of these pieces set to music — if you’d like to get involved please get in touch.

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Big thanks to:
Dougald Hine for encouraging me to write this piece
Kate Tempest for her poems that rattled around my head whilst writing inspiring the form and energy of my words.
Everyone who has contributed their thoughts opinions and ideas over the years — this is a synthesis of too many conversations and encounters to list, but if you see your mark here I recognise your contribution and am grateful for it. This is not my work alone, I’m merely a conduit.