On reflecting the goodness of humanity: an invitation

Like almost everything that comes out of Absurd Intelligence this post is a collaborative effort – ideas from many of our heads, synthesised in one, and written up for this newsletter.  

Holding up the best of who we can be as humans for society to see, is a central part of our strategy as an organisation. That’s perhaps why our absurd antennae are tuned for it, noticing when others discuss doing the same, or just do it. It’s also a good way to lay out the underpinning ethos of the conference we want to invite you to – the invite’s at the end.

So two examples over the past few weeks particularly caught our eye.

An answer to fascism

Last month Roger Hallam, the imprisoned co-founder of Extinction Rebellion, Insulate Britain and Just Stop Oil, published a blog post on ‘how to reply to fascists’. The piece followed a BBC Newsnight interview with Alice Weidel, leader of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party. When the presenter raised concerns about the likely harmful consequences of Weidel’s proposed policy to expel refugees from Germany back to Afghanistan, Weidel simply replied: “Why not?” 

Roger’s blog calls for having an answer to the fascist’s disregard for their fellow human beings (the BBC did not have an answer). He argues we need to be ready to present a contending world view which includes ‘declaring what it really means to be human’. I understood Roger’s piece as a call to make and talk about plans that reflect people’s goodness back to them, which offer people something to believe in about ourselves: faith in the goodness of humanity. You can read Roger’s piece in full here.

89% is a majority: a reminder

Around a week later on Earth Day, the Guardian helped launch the 89% Project to highlight the fact that the overwhelming majority of the world’s population want climate action. It turns out the dominant narratives about Net Zero don’t match the polling. The report not only demonstrated that most of us are on the same side when it comes to acting on the climate crisis; the authors also explained that people make very different decisions when they are made aware of that simple fact. Knowing that other people want the same good things, makes it easier for us to act.

We need to be able to remember who each other are in these most disorientating of times. In the face of fascism, the 89% Project offers a glimpse of what journalism could do, instead of simply regurgitating gossip. Of course there are no simple answers for how to rescue and rebuild our failing public information institutions. Yet there is a possibility for a mainstream media that seeks to find the facts about who we really are, and that acknowledges the role this kind of reporting plays in the decisions people make.

Absurd not artificial

The endeavour to reflect our goodness as a species back at society is kind of the opposite of artificial intelligence – which scrapes the worst of the internet along with the rest and offers it up as in some way parallel to human intelligence. For that reason, among others, we called ourselves Absurd Intelligence. 

The alternative processes we are working to set in motion – laid out in our strategy – all have this simple endeavour at their heart. We want to support efforts to gather the best of our nature, to be offered back to society in our media, arts, and culture through our community building and political decision making processes. It is what citizens’ assemblies do so well for politics and what we in Absurd Intelligence are attempting to do for culture and community through our collaboration with the Hard Art collective on the Fête of Britain.

It can be hard work. We are watching live how vulnerable our media is, to being thoroughly played by those with fascist plans for world government and continued calamitous extraction. Our news sources struggle to hold onto the facts and the truth in the face of this manipulative onslaught; but we know that truth resides most reliably in face-to-face interactions with each other. These moments of real life encounter are crucial and they will be one of the most important anchor points in the times ahead. Because, again, these face-to-face interactions help us to remember who each other are. When we look each other in the eye and listen, we can find ways to disagree respectfully.

That’s why facilitating public encounters that reflect people’s everyday goodness back at them are a major part of our Absurd Intelligence strategy. We want to work with anyone who’s ready to collaborate and is interested in this distinctly un-anti strategy, to offer an alternative to fascism. 

An invitation to work together

To that effect, this September we’re organising a conference on the fate of Britain. It will not be one of those f**king conferences. It will be the most uplifting, focused and impactful gathering we’ve ever run, and we’ve done some cracking gatherings.

We hope The Fate of Britain Conference will be a starting point for everyone who is ready to collaborate on the work: to take the fate of this country back into the good hands of its many and varied people. We’ll be sending out a save the date for the conference very soon, and registration details will follow not long after. 

If you think you might want to be part of this work and you would like to come to the conference email me, Nuala [at] absurdintelligence [dot] com.