"Find the others"

Last month I shared the new-to-me Lost Prophets podcast. I’ve made it halfway through the back catalogue to the episode titled “A Pause to Reflect” which if you aren’t convinced yet could be a great starting point. It encapsulates the concept of the show and also drops some excellent lessons they have learned along the way.

Basically, the show examines thinkers from the mid-20th century who grappled with the second order problems of modernity: technocracy, hyper-individualism, and more. These themes echo through the generations, from the Counter Culture to Reactionary Modernism to Techno-Utopianism to Techlash down to our present age of Enshittification. As they say in the show:

if you want something new, read something old

Excellent advice. I already mentioned the Ivan Illich ep in my previous post, but the eps about Gary Snyder and Jane Jacobs are some of my faves so far. If the big names can’t convince you, just take a listen to this “pause to reflect” episode, which delivers idea after idea. Including:

… are we in search of kind of a new version? Maybe it’s a secular version of a liberation theology, sort of an open source liberation theology here … spirituality is the source of theology, not the other way around, and that the spirituality we’re really looking for and that used to be the standard form is communal, not individual. … some sort of a communal spirituality would be a wonderful thing to recover

[emphasis mine]

Their reference to Timothy Leary’s phrase “Find the Others” had me thinking about my own search for community and finding things like DWebYVR and Z-Space and various online communities I am part of. Goodbot (where I serve on the board) is another example. Anyone that has attended ATmosphereConf knows the energy I am talking about. There are lots of people out there trying to make things just a little bit better, and connecting with them is a source of hope and energy.

That is the praxis. But Lost Prophets is part of the theory: a deep, interdisciplinary discussion of the kinds of ideas that communities are built on. Saying the show is ”just theory” is not fair, since they do an excellent job covering the lives of the “prophets” and what they did. Host Elias Crim says “I feel I kind of understand the concept of sainthood a little better” and host Pete Davis replies “in your own moral development, abstract virtues are not very inspiring. No. Be cool like Dorothy Day is very inspiring.” This podcast project is full of worthy examples. Full of “Others.”

Have a listen and get some inspiration. But don’t settle for mere consumption and a parasocial relationship with the hosts. Get your “Others” to listen and then discuss it with them. Discuss it with me!

👉 https://www.lostprophets.org/

(and yes, I know it’s Substack, the “Robert Moses highway” of the open web, but we all can’t be Buddhas)