losing by winning
Jan 25, 2019
There's this view of the world that sees everything as a movement. A case in point is this post from Harold Jarche, and in particular the image by Greg Satell saying "you need more than an idea" and "forge a sense of shared purpose". And yes, I suppose that is one way to change the world. But it's not the only way, nor even the most desirable way, because it moves you from the realm of ideas to the realm of politics (where ideas go to die). The person (or people) who invented fire didn't need to forge a sense of shared purpose. The person who wrote Frankenstein did so anonymously. Wittgenstein never actually finished his 'big book'. Banksy worked alone. These to me are the far more interesting and important ways the world can be changed. The important things I work toward in my own life - open access to learning, distributed communities, personal empowerment - are to me far more important as ideas than as 'movements'. The minute we have to lobby for an idea, the integrity of the idea is lost.
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