Notices by neil 🍄 (neil@social.coop), page 58

I'm impressed by latest newsletter from Good Energy (UK energy provider). A lot of talk about decentralisation of energy.

"We're enslaved to a centralised system that has a bias towards big. Big countries. Big governments. Big industries."

"we continue to lead the dramatic shift towards decentralised energy. Our role will evolve, moving from power supply to help customers [...] sell - or give - surplus energy to others."

Good stuff.

@bhaugen That sounds very interesting, I'd be interested to learn more about P2P economic networks and explore how they could work from an indieweb viewpoint.

@bhaugen I think they can certainly play well together. A big plus I've seen of indieweb is the willingness to 'bridge' to other communities and protocols. As evidenced by Bridgy and Bridgy Fed as mentioned for example.

@strypey @bhaugen @KevinMarks @cwebber Not an expert but I don't think it's *necessarily* (although very common) about being self-hosted, it's about owning your identity and your data. e.g. https://micro.blog provides hosted services that adhere to indieweb protocols (and principles).

In some ways its closer to Hubzilla than Mastodon, IMO.

The reason I mention that (and hope I'm correct in saying so) is that I think it's vital that indieweb does not expect everyone will self-host.

@jenn Rockin it, in 5 years this is gonna be a trend like ripped jeans, you will be able to buy t-shirts with the washing instructions already on the outside.

@dazinism Ha, good shout! You know what, maybe it is. It could perhaps do with a more curated syllabus and a better system of mentoring. But then, maybe it works well enough as it is.

@bhaugen I think prefiguration is a very worthwhile approach. Enacting change through doing things the way you would like them to be seems like the most honest approach. For if nothing else (and I'm sure there is a lot of else) having working examples and alternatives in place to point to when a collapse does come.

I'm not well-schooled enough in the topic of reform vs revolution to know where that fits on the spectrum (or if it's outside of it altogether).

Any radical, international, distributed/federated free online universities exist?

If not, why not?

I'd much rather you set up a blog category with an RSS feed and I control my subscription to your updates, than you set up an email newsletter, ask for my email, and you control my subscription.

@policeinchains What's the alternative?

I'm a fan of libertarian municipalism. The construction of isolated pockets of revolutionary efforts at city/town/village level that eventually join up. But isn't a municipal-level revolution just as prone to being snuffed out as a country level revolution? Maybe more so? Or maybe it's less so, as it flies under the radar a bit more.

Also isn't municipal revolution actually really just reform? It's very unlikely that a city will 'collapse' under capitalism and transform into socialism.

Also from the Russian revolution it seems one of the ways it went wrong was lack of contemporary revolutions that were expected in other countries.

Obviously a descent into authoritarianism is where it went most grievously wrong. But seems posited that the shift towards national communism came somewhat from being isolated and turning inwards.

Hard to imagine revolutions bubbling out around countries now though, any rumblings get quickly quashed from outside. (Burkina Faso, Chile, etc etc)

@tao I hear that

Seems like a good deal of discontent of those struggling at the bottom of society is being successfully diverted with much misdirection towards 'the other' - it's immigrants causing economic strife. It's China causing climate change. The system would be working fine for you, if these outsiders weren't corrupting it. Outside of that, working class networks and organising was pretty well dismantled by Thatcher et al. Plus, there's not industrial revolution levels of destitution.

From what I'm reading of the Russian revolution, it seems like there was a lot of discord across society, like a box of fireworks just waiting for a spark. I imagine that's the case in most revolutions. For me in the UK, it doesn't feel like that is the case. The middle classes probably have a vague feeling of malaise, but anything really bad, it's mostly happening somewhere else in the world. They're generally OK in their bubble. Even climate change is 'somewhere else'. No need to revolt.

Any book/article recommendations that give a potted history of revolutions through history - similarities, causes, failings, etc?

If you believe in meritocracy, at least consider that code is not the only thing of merit.

@jonesbp Now that's a great way to spend a morning.