I believe in bottom-up empowerment. Rather than finding people to represent a theoretical "The People", I believe in empowering individuals and the holey communities of which we are a part. I find it too difficult to understand the personalities, values, and dynamics in my close friends and family to believe I speak for anyone. I find it hard enough to speak for myself. Living in Boaty McBoatface land, I don't put much faith in votes as being that meaningful.
I grew up in Westville, in Kwa-Zulu Natal, South Africa. I grew up during the last gasps of a dying Apartheid Regime, and the first cries of a newborn Democracy. I spent my first few years at mixed-gender schools, and my teenage years at a single-sex High School. I was an assistant teacher at a school in Chichester (UK), then went to University in Cape Town. I stayed in a single-sex residence (Smuts Hall), but shared meals with our sister residence (Fuller Hall). I then worked at three different companies. In South Africa, Bermuda and the United Kingdom... where I have also lived. All of these experiences mean there isn't a single other person I know who has gone on the same path. All my Communities are Holey. My friends and family scattered.
I had friends that were at Westville Boys' High with me, then I met up with at University. They were two years behind me at school because of the gap. I had friends that I was at University with, and then worked with, and then didn't. Even within companies, I had a friend that started basically the same job as me on the same day, and gradually our paths split.
I believe what makes being Conscious so powerful is its constraints. We forget things. We see differently. We make mistakes because there is so much we all know, that we don't individually know. One large pot full of tiny micro-experiments.
There is no "The People". There are just a bunch of people pretending to be more confident than they really are, stumbling beautifully in their own version of the dark. Hopefully learning from the sounds and bumps as they picture what it is they can never see.
I grew up in Westville, in Kwa-Zulu Natal, South Africa. I grew up during the last gasps of a dying Apartheid Regime, and the first cries of a newborn Democracy. I spent my first few years at mixed-gender schools, and my teenage years at a single-sex High School. I was an assistant teacher at a school in Chichester (UK), then went to University in Cape Town. I stayed in a single-sex residence (Smuts Hall), but shared meals with our sister residence (Fuller Hall). I then worked at three different companies. In South Africa, Bermuda and the United Kingdom... where I have also lived. All of these experiences mean there isn't a single other person I know who has gone on the same path. All my Communities are Holey. My friends and family scattered.
I had friends that were at Westville Boys' High with me, then I met up with at University. They were two years behind me at school because of the gap. I had friends that I was at University with, and then worked with, and then didn't. Even within companies, I had a friend that started basically the same job as me on the same day, and gradually our paths split.
I believe what makes being Conscious so powerful is its constraints. We forget things. We see differently. We make mistakes because there is so much we all know, that we don't individually know. One large pot full of tiny micro-experiments.
There is no "The People". There are just a bunch of people pretending to be more confident than they really are, stumbling beautifully in their own version of the dark. Hopefully learning from the sounds and bumps as they picture what it is they can never see.
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