Status Updates From Another Now: Dispatches fro...

OK, I like that we are acknowledging racism, sexism, etc are indeed still a problem in the Other Now, not fixed by economic system change!
But I deeply dislike that “[sex] can only be good and thus truly consensual, if I do it because I can’t help myself” in the mouth of a woman. “It isn’t sexy to have to ask” is an argument I more often hear from men. Let’s see where this Socratic dialogue goes 😬

I figured out what’s bothering me: the way some “democratic” solutions ignore existing irrational prejudices. Like, if co-workers vote on each others’ bonuses, we KNOW the self-promoting white man is gonna get more than the woman or the person who can’t make eye contact, yeah? And if local communities decide immigration policy, you’re gonna get more “sorry we’re full!”. At least on the <15 year timescale presented!

OK, I 100% DO NOT buy the national bank accounts and “dividend” being pioneered in the US! Considering how weirdly resistant many Americans have been to a proper national health care system even though basically every other country has one, we’d likely be LAST!

“Experience with male-dominated power networks had led Iris to the conclusion that human nature hates a hierarchy vacuum…She had witnessed too many comrades commandeer democratic institutions…’Given the choice between a formal oppressive hierarchy and an informal one,’ she said, ‘I think I probably prefer formalized oppression to hidden coercion presented as collegiality in action.’”

“Back in the 1980s, Iris had railed at public meetings against Thatcher’s famous claim ‘There Is No Alternative’, referred to as TINA, and in favor of TATIANA…the opposing doctrine That Astonishingly There Is AN Alternative. After almost two months of messaging with Kosti, Costas sent Iris the triumphant message: ‘TINA was a lie. TATIANA lives. I have the proof. See you next week.’

“All babies are born naked. Soon afterwards, however, some are dressed in expensive clothes and put on a path to a privileged life while the majority wear rags and must perform miracles to scape from a life of exhaustion, exploitation, servitude and fear…Not so in the Other Now.”

IDK, man. I feel like building any technology on the basis of "But of course everyone would choose not to use it!" is a super risky course of action!