I'll be plain about that from the outset. I am carving out a space in the data sphere for something special to take place. It is a tent of meeting, a humans-only zone, an occupation.
And if it's successful, this little squat will provide safe haven for thought and new opportunities for connection. That's what media is for, anyway: connection. It's what I need, anyway. Some connection.
I've been at this a while, an itinerant media philosopher, hanging up his hat in various safe houses and writing, speaking, or engaging there with a cohort of other squatters until whatever it is we're doing is identified and stamped out or commercialized. Or until a skillful troll comes along and pits us against our own need for inclusivity. Or until too many of us decide we have to go make some dough and move on.
TNI is different. It's a more fertile soil than I've experienced before. It's very female in here. It's very young. It's very smart. And unlike most of the other super smart platforms for radical thought out there, TNI doesn't end up choking on its own political correctness. People here espouse ideas from all ends of the political spectrum and opposing sides of the intellectual discourse - sometimes at the very same time - rendering such primitive distinctions obsolete. This mixing and matching is not adultery but adulthood.
There is something happening here. This is a scene without the scene-sters, an e without the -lite. Imagine liking something without the nagging obligation to click a "like" button, or to tweet it out. The fact that we're here, and reading, and writing, is enough.
What do I plan to write about? Anything and everything, but all tied to the basic proposition that human beings connecting intelligently and intimately is a good thing. Obstacles to this - from markets that require distance in order to sell more things to more people, to moral codes that depend on shame and disconnection in order to perpetuate unjust power structures - will be exposed and deconstructed. Beauty will be celebrated, along with the ability to perceive it. Connections will be drawn, mistakes will be made, and all will be forgiven.
I will write in all states of mind, and all states of excitement. I will make audio files. I may even take pictures. I do want to get inside you, and I refuse to pretend otherwise.
If you have read this far, you are in this thing, too. Cool.
Any time, Or anywhere,
Just look over your shoulder
Guess who'll be standing there.
--The Monkees
