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solarpunk prompts @alxd@writing.exchangeSomeone has recently defined my flavor of #solarpunk as "a package of measures to deal with crises" and I've been thinking about it ever since.
As much as I don't think it describes everything I stand for, I think it's a good summary.
We need to start imagining not a distant, perfect utopia, but a way of getting ourselves out of the problems we have now. Most of these are caused by lack of imagination, cultural templates for working together etc.
@alxd "We need to start imagining not a distant, perfect utopia, but a way of getting ourselves out of the problems we have now. Most of these are caused by lack of imagination, cultural templates for working together etc." hear hear.
@alxd Solarpunk as a Theory of Change
@alxd Have you gotten to play Daybreak yet? One of the things I love about it is how it's made up of a huge stack of possible actions—so many things that can help! You can't do everything, but everything you do can help.
@metagrrrl I have played it extensively and I hate how incredibly racist it is.
The Global South is cast as the faction that cannot stop multiplying, cannot do anything and needs handouts to win. It takes all of their agency.
Playing solo, we were never able to win using the Majority World.
Then there are cards saying that trains are more energy-expensive / polluting than cars.
The mechanical effects of venture capital and grassroot movements are identical.
This is what I fight ;)
@metagrrrl I work with a lot of Global South organizations and I hate how the Western media / orgs don't believe that they're worth any attention - unless backed by the Western funds.
At https://alxd.org/ministry-for-the-future-review.html I have a much bigger writeup on the problem, exemplified by Kim Stanley Robinson's book.
It was working with Alex Weir from the CD3WD project that led me to understand that the NGO's and the Aid Agencies, are just another aspect of the colonialist process.
The soft power approach.
The NGO's refused to fund Alex's work as it would lead to the indigenous locals not needing the NGO's.
Another example is Engineering4Change, where all of the solutions that they talk about have to be sourced from outside the local area, not created locally.
@BillySmith @metagrrrl in this context I really vouch for the Global Innovation Gathering, which specifically helps local orgs get grants and contacts, bypassing a lot of colonialist processes. It is far from perfect, it needs to use absurdly sanitized language, but it helps on the ground.
@alxd Oof. I have not played with only Majority World as I haven't spend much time with it solo. I do like how the Global South was cast as the faction that actually knows how to do collective action and mutual aid much better than the others, which felt like it might be an accurate way of modeling the negative drag of consumerism/capitalism.
@metagrrrl doesn't look as good when you're playing with a Kenyan, Indian or a Colombian who know a lot more about what is happening outside of the West ;)
This faction is designed as the hardest, specifically to need handouts or lose.
Why bundle India, Africa, South America, Middle East? Those are completely different ecosystems, economies, cultures.
@alxd Yeah it makes me wonder if that's a side effect of 4 factions being a norm because few play groups have more than 4.
It'd be nice to have some game mods that plug in Africa, South America, & Middle East as playable, plus some replacement cards.
Seems like part of the game's goal is to influence U.S. players way of thinking about climate—it's not just one giant problem but a whole bunch of interrelated ones. Sure does teach that tech solutions that don't save communities aren't solutions!
@metagrrrl it does that, but Im sad that at the same time it places all the power in their hands, making them expect nothing from the Global South.
Have you read my https://lenses.alxd.org/ ? It was a story from Sierra Leone that I couldn't get anyone to believe in which got me into Solarpunk. I needed a language to share news like this.
@alxd Love it! What a great gathering up of powerful seeds. Now to get them planted...
Do you know Yes! Magazine? https://www.yesmagazine.org They'd be a very good place for a short version of that essay. I love learning from the voices they share and the art they incorporate into the magazine is inspiring.
Also, have you seen this mural from San Francisco, California, by Mona Caron? https://monacaron.com/narrative-murals/market-street-railway-mural The future vision (at the right side) is full of cool details.
@metagrrrl Ill have to look at the mural!
How short of a version do you think they would be interested in?
@alxd I haven't written for them, so I can't speak from that experience. But I know they published solarpunk and, iirc, Afro-futurism and uplifting sci-fi related pieces within the last few years. Searching for those and looking at suggested articles beside them should give you a good sense of what they've been doing.
They're just making a switch away from the print magazine, so that might allow slightly longer pieces.