Shift Happens+wiki

help edit space_dashboard

If you're looking for the list of resources, see +resources.

 

(My name, personal big shift experience at 20, expansion to now seeing myself / all of us as are part of a very large movement.)

Shift happens in two senses:

1) Everything always changing. Everyone/thing participating in the ongoing evolution of the universe.

2) Many of us consciously working/playing toward a world that works for all, without forcing anyone.

Your name, and something about yourself:
A turning point in your life
Something you do/have done that you're really passionate about, that means a lot to you
An experience you've had of being truly alive


To introduce the scale of this movement, i've picked two threads of mine in it to focus on initially:

What do a feminist and a wiki geek have in common?

1. Inclusion

"Feminism is the radical concept that women are people."
    --Cheris Kramarae & Paula Treichler

Wiki:
WelcomeNewcomers - When someone new shows up, leave them a welcoming message.
http://usemod.com/cgi-bin/mb.pl?WelcomeNewcomer
AssumeGoodFaith - If a good Wikizen reads something they disagree with, they don't delete it, they add their point of view. Even if they see as an attack, they edit it to remove the attack energy but retain the purpose if they can see one, maybe even clarifying the issue of concern.
http://usemod.com/cgi-bin/mb.pl?AssumeGoodFaith


2. Empowerment

Feminism is in part about everyone being able to be whoever they are

Wiki culture has a strong preference toward letting anyone edit


3. Changing the culture

Feminism is not about women participating in "mainstream" society in all the same ways that men steroeotypically do - soldiers, be strong don't cry. Feminism is pro-peace, and in favor of us being more human with each other (Psychology of Women class).

Similarly, the inclusivity that wikis are about is not about allowing everyone to become a "mainstream" broadcaster (that would be more like blogging). Wikis are about changing the nature of people's participation - e.g. part of wiki culture is being okay with other people editing what you write.

I put "mainstream" in quotes, because things have already shifted so much:
The ideal/rhetoric of democracy is fairly well-established (though the reality of course lags).
Showing emotion is much more acceptable today than it was a few decades ago.

We are becoming part of the mainstream:

Cultural Creatives: 25% in the U.S. as of 2000

 

There's more than one way to live (Quinn). For us to survive and thrive goes beyond tolerance of other ways, to an active embrace of creativity/diversity as part of at least some of our cultures.

 

Process Arts — there are many particular processes — on scales from individual/interpersonal, to group, to community/neighborhood/organization, to region, to global, covering communication/law/economics/politics/etc. — that manifest the new culture. In addition to these, there is process consciousness in general.

 

Is there any simple definition of the larger movement? No, because there is more than one way to live, and because there is ongoing interaction between the movement and power-over culture. For a list of some things that collectively give some sense of it, see http://ourpla.net/cgi/pikie?AssumptionsOfPowerWithCulture

 

Thinking Systemically — examples:

 

Marshall's story of school changing, parents voting in new school board dismissing principal. (No such thing as a closed system.)

 

or stopping a mega-store, they build in the next town

 

Donella Meadows' Twelve Leverage Points

 

Corporate Personhood(?), triple bottom line(3)

 

Walter Wink's Myth of Redemptive Violence —> find the wounded relationships and heal them (2)

 

Given all this, what is a particular change you would like to see, what is a systemic way of addressing that? Once clear on that, what is the next step — who is going to do what? (This can be a way to shift into my NVC intro.)