The question is, what happens when we as human beings confront a world that is radically unhuman, impersonal, and even indifferent to the human? What happens to the concept of politics once one confronts the possibility that the world only reveals its hiddenness, in spite of the attempts to render it as a world-for-us, either via theology (sovereign God, sovereign king) or via science (the organismic analogy of the state)? In the face of politics, this unresponsiveness of the world is a condition for which, arguably, we do not yet have a language. - Eugene Thacker, In the Dust of This Planet: Horror of Philosophy Vol. 1
Nicolas Moufarrege, No. 7, 1975. Thread on needlepoint canvas via
Living in Lagos, it feels like we are largely insulated from the cries of “Pandemic” happening elsewhere in the world. There’s still traffic, schools are still open, only a few people have face masks on and there is a lot of contact between individuals, whether at church, parties or just out on the road. It makes it surreal to see life going on relatively as normal then looking at a screen and seeing that everywhere else it looks like the world is coming apart at the seams.
Maybe this is the calm before the inevitable and proverbial storm? (EDIT: As I type this on a Wednesday, I get news of the Nigerian government restricting travel and advising on various social distancing protocols - my daughter’s school sent a message in the evening saying that they will be closing).
Right now, it is natural to give in to anxiety, cynicism, nihilism or paranoia, but, as apocalyptic as these times may seem, I am not alone in believing that this could also be an opportunity for reflection, communion, mindfulness and reassessment.
The older etymology of the word “Apocalypse” is after all:
late 14c., "revelation, disclosure," from Church Latin apocalypsis "revelation," from Greek apokalyptein "uncover, disclose, reveal," from apo "off, away from" (see apo- ) + kalyptein "to cover, conceal," from PIE root *kel- (1) "to cover, conceal, save." The Christian end-of-the-world story is part of the revelation in John of Patmos' book "Apokalypsis" (a title rendered into English as pocalipsis c. 1050, "Apocalypse" c. 1230, and "Revelations" by Wyclif c. 1380). Its general sense in Middle English was "insight, vision; hallucination." The meaning "a cataclysmic event" is modern (not in OED 2nd ed., 1989);
It will do us good to retrieve this ancient meaning of the word to remind us that any form of change, requiring first a letting go of old things, is also pregnant with the potential for new things to be born, no matter how difficult a labour it may be.
It has been clear for a while, even if not immediately apparent, that our global systems have gotten more fragile and interconnected the more efficient they have become. So much of the planet, human and non-human alike, is caught in this web, and the pandemic is simply exposing this entangled fragility. We must create more resilient or antifragile alternatives that are better fit for these times and ensure that they are omni-considerate in scope. The more of Gaia that is empowered and taken care of, the less vulnerable we will be to shocks like this. Who knows what new global upheaval may await us a few months from now or what opportunities for regeneration and healing are around the corner?
We are now, and one could argue that we have always been, in times where we must discover, rediscover and create modes of organising, sharing, caring, communing, learning and playing. And, after COVID-19 recedes into the background of our cultural attention maintain the best of those practices.
The future may remain unpredictable, but we definitely know it is always coming, and that it will always have surprises in store. In this infinite game of keeping our planetary organism thriving - with us as its caretakers in entanglement with our fellow inhabitants on Gaia - we have to become better as players, enable more of us to participate and be aware that as we play, we come together not just with other humans, but with the entire planet as well.
Participating solely in finite games is, almost by definition, proving to be untenable for our continued future. The costs are becoming too high to maintain such narrow and short-term perspectives. There are more things than winners and losers; profits and losses; us and them in this indescribably precious cosmic moment we call existence.
Because infinite players prepare themselves to be surprised by the future, they play in complete openness. It is not an openness as in candour, but an openness as in vulnerability. It is not a matter of exposing one's unchanging identity, the true self that has always been, but a way of exposing one's ceaseless growth, the dynamic self that has yet to be. ― James P. Carse, Finite and Infinite Games: A Vision of Life as Play and Possibility
Commonplace Book
I am experimenting with including a very short section every now and then that showcases rough drafts of things I am working on (playing with) either alone or with others. I started maintaining a Roam notebook for Newtype, which is a tool that allows for networked notebooks and thoughts and generates diagrams that look like this -
If this is something you think you would be interested in, then please let me know and I can make it a more regular feature.
Mass
Rough sketch of Mass rhizome network and observation framework by me.
Mass is a protocol for building, running and maintaining learning environments and communities. It is a fractal framework - any given Mass is made up of multiple Masses. It is a garden. Mass is a form of maintenance practice and with it I am hoping to address issues of openness (see the second essay I linked in the Library section for more on that), rural futures and potentially developing something that Newtype can have as a core focus that encapsulates some of the wisdom ecologies we are interested in (particularly learning as it relates to being, and shelter).
Seetal Solanki of Ma-tt-er graciously helped me out with a diagram of the current Mass structural framework.
Check out my Roam notebook for some of the worldbuilding related to Mass which I am developing on there at the moment, in-between handwritten notes and diagrams.
I am planning to host a live chat next weekend and using that as an opportunity to build a spontaneous Mass with readers and some friends. If you are interested in participating or just hanging out, I will be circulating more information, the time and a link to the digital gathering next week.
The Vocab
Play and Playgrounds
Play is not what we think it is. To play is to accept a thing as itself and explore the possibility space created by its constraints. This leads to insight. - Newtype Sutra III
When we play, we participate in an open interaction with a given system or playground. Play in this sense, exists because of the boundaries established by the playground. Without constraints, it ceases to be generative and becomes random activity. One plays an instrument by engaging (knowingly or unknowingly, but always willingly) with the physics of sound and the material of the instrument they are using, what human beings find harmonious and melodic, their own skill and experiences. The interaction of all these things creates the music that they play into being. It is within those constraints that creativity happens. One does not play football by doing whatever they want to on the pitch, they play with(in) the rules.
We can also say that the universe is constantly at play. Electrons dancing together around nuclei, flitting in and out of wave and particle states, creating elements as varied as carbon and gold from the laws of atomic interaction; movement in water giving birth to riptides and even tsunamis out of wave dynamics, gravity and other laws of physics; coral reefs playing with the hidden relationships between numbers to create shapes once thought to be mathematically impossible (and their cross-species human compatriots discovering the same through crochet) .
This form of play is not only creative, it is essential to life. If it wasn’t for play, all we would have was non-generative order and degenerative entropy.
It means that acting as a player becomes almost a sacred practice, something that not only generates new things, but also has the deep potential to create a very particular emotion.
A potent, rare and precious emotion with the potential to completely upset your life. An emotion powerful enough to make a man abandon his wife and children, forfeit career and reputation, lay down his possessions and follow his heart without questioning. That sweet, sweet fusion of wonder and fear, irresistible attraction and soul-numbing dread known as awe. Awe is the Grail of artistic achievement. No other human emotion possesses such raw transformative power, and none is more difficult to evoke. - Brian Moriarty, The Secret of Psalm 46 (2002)
To be a player is to be a medium for the presentation and transmission of awe; and to be a good player is to be aware of the playgrounds that enable us to do so.
The playgrounds of language, despair, joy, work, love, playing an instrument, community, games, differences, materials...all of these and more have enabled us to create so much and inspire so many.
To be good players, maybe even great ones, we must practice openness, attentiveness and humility; freeing the chains of the ego and our expectations of the future; allowing ourselves to be changed by the constraints and hardships imposed by the problems and systems we encounter instead of trying to impose our unfettered wills on them.
This is play as care, not mastery.
Play as love, not dominance.
Context
Play is about the process of interacting within a space of possibilities (a playground). Nature itself unfolds via an ongoing process of play.
To engage in play as a player is to be open to the possibilities of any given playground. This interaction is best facilitated by a process of listening, attention and openness. If one is a participant / factor within a playground, but is not intentionally engaging with it in this way, then they are just an element of the playground and not a player. For example, a politician that is doing their job but not engaging intentionally with or aware of the wider playground is not a player.
Playgrounds are usually the product of other interactions and always exist within a wider context of play. Being able to switch between scales is an important tool so one can situate themselves correctly.
Notes
Play works best in groups, so players are encouraged to find and interact with each other in openness, attention and listening. Curiosity and respect are a fundamental to this process.
Play is a road to awe.
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Library Recommendations
The Most Feared Song in Jazz (A great primer on what engaging with constraints can create - awe, inspiration, and lots of fun)
Unenclosable Carriers and the Future of Communication (Arthur Brock and the Holochain / Metacurrency team have been inspiring me over the last five or so years and if you are at all interested in modes of governance and new ways of organising, you should check them out!)
Venkatesh Rao on “The Birth of Magic” (riffing on what comes after Francis Fukuyama’s End of history)
Inside - Outside by Bonnitta Roy (super short; really insightful)
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Newtype is based in Lagos, Nigeria but is available to work in wisdom ecologies all over the world. If any of this resonates with you, I am available for talks, workshops, consulting and organisational strategy.
The Newtype Vocab is work produced by Yegwa Ukpo under a CC-BY-SA license. So please use it however you like without asking permission: just give credit, and use the same license for derivative works.
Love this Yegwa thank you! Time to be a player