T

HE

P

ROTOCOL

,

OR

THE

PRIMORDIAL

POLITICAL

SOUP

...

...

AND

WHY

DO

WE

NEED

IT

.

I

NSPIRATION

1. W

E

ALL

ARE

WOMEN

.

Being an average mid-aged guy, if you happen to fall in love with one of the Mothers (or Aunts at the
least) of Polish Feminism, you certainly adapt – or perish. Being called 'sister' in the most unexpected
moments was just a tinniest piece of this whole learning situation.

For my thinking about social and existential issues, this was a breakthrough experience, for sure. I
started to learn, how different is the other gender's world – supposedly the one-and-only we shared
in our daily living or the most intimate moments (and I do not mean sex). To cut it short, the outcome
of that is that I ceased all usual attempts to “understand women” in favor of talking to them,
negotiating and mediating with them, whenever it is needed. I know we shall never understand each
other through the gender looking glass. Being free from such pointless struggle, I can then focus on
efficient ways to achieve cohabitation, cooperation and even certain degree of sympathy with such
different human beings. It may sound dry, but there is quite a reason behind it, which I found in
“Sotto Sopra 96” - the publication of Libreria delle Donne in Milan. Quite incidentally, it was the only
Sotto Sopra translated into Polish and even more incidentally ;) it was Natalia, who co-translated it.

To my male mind, the bottom line of this publication is:

–

We are different genders and that is the difference which cannot (for the majority of us) be
transgressed.

–

Currently, we live on a post-patriarchal socio-political environment, which was invented by
men, for men and as such has no meaning nor value for women.

–

The whole equality/parity/rights business goes the wrong way, as it is focused on the position
of women in post-patriarchal environment, which, above all, is not the place women want to
be in!

–

Women need their own world, because their priorities are theirs, they see the universe their
own way and they think/feel/live their own vision.

–

However, as we need each other – to keep ourselves transgressing our own closed circles –
the only way is to communicate, through 'politica prima' we all practice: discussion,
negotiation and mediation. To let our separate world interact in a safe and constructive way
(exactly as I consulted this part with Natalia).

(The whole document is by all means worth reading here:

http://www.libreriadelledonne.it/news/articoli/sottosopra96.htm

)

And then came an inspiration: wow, that basically applies to all humans, not just men/women
relationship. The same (almost) level of not-understand-ability we have in most of social and political
discussions! So, perhaps we could use same tools to attain better relationship between various
intentional communities, various political movements and even two sides of the political
confrontation. That would be a FUN!

But, to achieve that, we need some kind of safe, neutral, supportive environment. Some
'demilitarised zone', specifically designed to encourage entities to peaceful interactions, not to
violent confrontation. But this seems to be a hard part.

I

NSPIRATION

2. W

E

ALL

ARE

SYSTEMS

Working in the world of Internet, especially in it's earlier days, when most of the backbone was still
visible, not just to hackers, but to the average user, you could not avoid seeing systems everywhere.
The miracle of the Great Inter-Network in statu nascendi, making, through the magic of TCP/IP

Petros At Freelab

5.01.2013

p. 1/3

T

HE

P

ROTOCOL

,

OR

THE

PRIMORDIAL

POLITICAL

SOUP

...

protocols, all various and incompatible local networks, systems, standards working together, talking
leisurely and without apparent struggle, as if they come from the same compiler – that was
SOMETHING. And quite inspiring, when I turned on a TV and could see people unable (or unwilling or
both) to communicate clearly and to get the common ground for cooperation – or for a proper fight,
at least!

And – what a coincidence – we are systems as well. As living creatures, we are autonomous systems.
Our communities are systems. And the whole communication is described by rules of cybernetics – as
it is for the internet. Everything would be right, if we only find a proper protocol...

I

NSPIRATION

3. T

HE

FICTION

,

THAT

LIGHTS

THE

WAY

.

I am a life-long SF&F reader and fan. Since my early days in communist (locally known as real-soc – for
“real socialism”, as opposite to “utopian” one) Poland, through all the cultural changes I lived
through, speculative fiction appeared to be an overwhelming, crowdsourced think-tank of social and
political trends, options and alternative scenarios. Sometimes, and not just in the Soviet block, it was
the only environment safe for certain discussions.

And I do not mean the trivial 'crowdsourcing' from business handbooks, where they say something
like “toss a handful of random morons into the bucket, stir well and get a median (or a mean) from
their guesses – you will be right in a ball park”.

I mean that thousands of the most brilliant minds – erudite and committed – were not only chewing
through problems, alone and in groups. The ideas, solutions and analysae were played between
authors and fans, were mutating and blooming into the ecosystems of their own. And out of them,
emerged crop of the crop – works that merged collective thinking, the zeitgeist and individual genius
of the autor. Martian Chronicles, Solaris, Fahrenheit 451, Aristoi, Little Brother, For the Win, Canticle
for Leibovitz – just to name a random few (and

http://www.amazon.com/All-Time-Top-Science-Fiction-

Novels/lm/1KBYJ9G4NE7Z2

for a few more).

Among them I found a narration (

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snow_Crash

and later

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Diamond_Age

) depicting the world that could accommodate

various communities, phyles or tribes, letting them thrive on their own, or interact safely. An then
again, mostly on the economical side, popped out the word 'protocol'. And the very same purpose:
not just live and let live. Live and cooperate, while keeping your own integrity/identity and not
harming other's one.

T

HE

MYSTERIOUS

CASE

OF

THE

N

UN

M

OTH

Since 2008 we may observe the process of the decomposition of two main paradigms that hold
“western civilization” together. The republican democracy, chiefly expressed in political tradition of
the USA or the EU and the financial capitalism, that alienated ownership from entrepreneurship and
local communities and that made corporations global, sovereign entities not even able to care about
anything but themselves.

I am not the one to say, what is the killer factor. However, it is clearly visible, that it goes like in a
monoculture pine forest – the Nun Moth sweeps the forest clean, leaving behind nothing but dead
stumps, drying groundcover and the understorey dazzled with unexpected opportunity window.
Scarcely, until-now-marginalised oaks, ashes, cedars and other species are starting to realize that –
temporarily at least – there is enough room, air and sun for everyone to try one's chance again.

Now, in the interesting times, we need all treasures from the humanity's meme pool – all 'alternative'
social models, economy paradigms and political concepts – to be dusted, taken out to the light and
given a chance. We ain't need no new stinkin' monoculture; we need a balanced, interdependent,
dynamic ecosystem of communities, floating freely in a safe meta-environment, that can be viewed as
“the Protocol” or (my favourite) “the nourishing primordial political soup”.

Petros At Freelab

5.01.2013

p. 2/3

T

HE

P

ROTOCOL

,

OR

THE

PRIMORDIAL

POLITICAL

SOUP

...

C

OOKING

THE

NAIL

SOUP

.

The ultimate goal for the new meta-environment is to let every community live and thrive, while not
the predatory way. Ideally, the Protocol should let communities split and merge freely (individual
migration included), being formed from scratch, dissolve. There should be some constraints imposed
on community modus operandi – quite similar to those implied by the current discussion about
Commons. No shared, non-manufactured resources should be possessed, only used (revocably, in
case of abuse). There should be some agreed minimal rules – human rights being a good, while
overdone, example of them – to be observed in the person<->community relationship. There is also a
need for inter-community rules, setting up the boundary conditions in bilateral interactions, but also
procedures to maintain the Protocol itself – keeping it resilient; stable, but adaptive. Acting like a
forcefield shield in Herbert's Dune – unobtrusive, until somebody wants to stab or shoot you – then
kicking into action.

By all means it sounds fantastic, isn't it. However, interesting times need interesting solutions, so to
speak, and we have already many pieces of the system laying in front of us. Commons-based
economy. Consensus-driven, participatory democracy. Free and open technology. The wealth of P2P
concepts. We even have the Primer, education tool for the new era (

http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Nell

) –

what do we need is enough political will to put all pieces together, start testing the concept in some
safe playground and see how it evolves.

T

HE

A

NARCHO

-

POSITIVIST

APPROACH

.

FreeLab, at its own scale, struggles to help the new reality to emerge. We are now focused on setting
up basic knowledge for people to build intentional communities. We also try to instill some common
values in this process: cooperativity, consensus-driven decision making, resilient and sustainable
structures. Appropriate technologies and a lot of space for personal beliefs within the community.

We are working mostly with rural communities, of the eco-homesteaders kind. This group is quite
constructive, as they tend to run their lives on their own land, and their own way. At the same time
they are rather open for new ideas, provided they are practical – like FreeLab's newest project of
setting up local hemp association. At the same time, the group as a whole, distrust every institution
and entity from beyond direct environment. FreeLab intention is, after we have some visible success
in our hemp project, to start proposing new DIT (“Do It Together”) initiatives, including more and
more cooperative approach. We hope to establish a de facto standard of social organization, which
will be open for future translocal interactions. It's going to be quite an adventure...

Petros At Freelab

5.01.2013

p. 3/3