Pro BLOOM, Anti DOOM – How the Future of Tech is Female & Generative !
We are the leaders we’ve been waiting for!
With another civil war (re)started over two weeks ago now, the big deep feelings of big deep feelers and heart lead leaders like myself are beyond words. My guess is, you can relate.
From my Ukrainian and Russian relatives fighting each other to my Israeli family fighting our Palestinian cousins, it’s ever more clear to me that new leadership around the world isn’t only a good idea, it is required!
Dynamic and longstanding issues such as those in the Middle East clearly have not and will not be solved with warfare.
Looking closer to home here in the ‘United’ States, we have had our own civil war brewing with school shootings, dance club masacres and parade snipers.
We just don’t call it a full blown civil war because that would be, dare I say, unpatriotic. But we all live on the planet together, even if divided. And in this entry I hope to inspire you, dear reader, to change just 1% to help in an effort to unite our humanity because….
We are not ok. We are not ok as a human collective. We are not ok as a planet.
I will save the gloom and doom of climate change for another article but in short, we are on an express lane to the end if we do not change our ways, our leadership and how we organize ourselves. PERIDOT.(spelled like this on purpose!)
And I have not come to write poetically about tech today. Although you have bit at my click bait so I promise to deliver a tech solution. It just isn’t as poetic as usual.
Today’s writing is a direct CALL TO ACTION to change our ways, as women, theys, thems and the mens, too. It’s a love letter of sorts, yes. But it is more Big Mama love than gentle therapist call and response. Cool? Cool!
I did not come to play today …or ever if I am honest!
We don’t have time to pontificate on the ….’ what if we try this instead’? ‘Or how about that?’ Any leading with the same old tools of modern militarism that has largely put aside collaboration, conversation and construction actions with a ‘Might Makes Right’ , Machiavellian approach will only sweep the dust of human remains under the rug of neo -colonialism.
In short, the Patriarchal ways of organizing and solving for complex issues like xenophobism, sexism, racism, and really any -ism with the low hanging fruit of barbaric war, assault and overall colonial tactics to divide & conquer need a system restore; a full on iOS update or maybe even a fully new device all together.
In honor of the late & great Ceta Walters,
her legacy sons and iconic,
online presence,
Clark & Stone
We are all so deeply connected in our shared humanity and not just in a woo woo way, ok!? We are intrinsically woven together in a very technical way, and not only in a surface level consideration via social media and the world wide web but also through our
shared economics…in online marketplaces, our shared, global trade routes… on Shopify, our shared use of resources….run from our smartphones.
And then there are the very physical, real connections to our shared need for clean water, fresh air and the ability to simply live! To build walls, refine borders and separate ourselves from the ‘other’ is no longer going to ‘work’.
We are now more globally connected than ever through technology and may I suggest, empathy. We will not be able to aptly evolve business , technology or humanity if we do not recognize this interconnectedness; if we want to live and even more, if we want to thrive! It will not matter how much money you make, who you share a bed with each night or who wins what election if we do not lean into our shared empathy.
How can empathy-lead technology break down walls, reach across the aisle & build bridges?
Over the past many years of lives lost to Covid, economic recessions, cost of living increases, and humanity getting a solid x-ray of our condition, we as a species have been forever changed.
The social uprising we are experiencing in this very moment of Israeli & Palestine conflict bends the same broken heart chords as deeply felt after the murders of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery & Breonna Taylor stateside in the spring 2020. It feels terribly similar to the killings of a young Black man named Anderson Arboleda in Puerto Tejada, Colombia in June ‘20, and later that summer in South Africa, demonstrators came together following the police killing of 16-year-old Nathaniel Julies, a boy of mixed heritage with Down syndrome.
The social uprising that continues to respond to overt overuses of power, pointing to inhuman, apartheid regimes, woke up the world wide web by using live streaming social media apps to show all that is happening in real time to help us globally understand that it is very unlikely that we will be ‘getting back to normal’ anytime soon.
Messy civic grief that spilled out to impact public discourse on race & racism on social media was powerful and remains a very potent force of use of technology.
Certainly graphic images & live streaming of death by murder of war and innocent lives lost 1 at a time or by the multitude can’t be the solution but it can allow us to see, feel and maybe even empathize that which is happening on every continent of the world and even in our own backyards with a variation of impact; even if we think it will not ‘bother’ us.
But let me be clear, I am not advocating that we livestream the revolution globally until our empathy is dragged out of what life is left in our devastated, mourning souls.
What I am calling for is a rebuild and reboot of systems lead first by women so we can realign community through a Matriarchy model and eventually come back into balance integrating a healed patriarchy into an evolved form of governance we’ve not yet seen.
But first, the power of the women.
Let’s be clear, building up and supporting a Matriarchy does not mean men get less. In fact, I suggest things get better for everyone!
In order for me to properly access my leadership powers right now, I’m currently on a social media break because of the effect that each individual ‘news’ reporter with their own broadcasting device – a smartphone- can be massively powerful and it hurts my deeply empathetic self and leaves me feeling powerless. I actually set a 5 minute timer to post this entry on the few channels we still play on as a protective measure.
Please, dear reader, do protect your heart so you can show up tomorrow.
The current version of tech does not aim to protect its main contributors, you & me, in any way!
That super tool of a smartphone paired with mainstream media utilizing the social media space to also broadcast the networks’ more biased narratives is equally powerful and possibly more dangerous. So then, how can we use #techforgood to power Community with a capital C given the firehose of doom scrolling more than easily found by opening any current social media app?
Before you cancel my idealistic and Big Mama heavy proposal, I need you to stay with me for a few more hot minutes and know that I do, in fact, recognize this will probably not happen overnight. AND we as a powerful collective of live streaming, super humans with super tech tools do need to stop giving our tacit consent by bending over for war, dehumanizing and extractive forces!
When we say things like ‘this is just how humans are’ or ‘war is just what we do’ pulls our collective power away- much like doom scrolling does. Please notice, I am not saying victims of warfare tactics are bending over. I am saying those of us surviving the carnage of war and going on our day to day activities without doing a damn thing are saying, ‘ok by me! Keep on the killings!’
Agreed, this is how humans act under this type of global, male dominated leadership. I am here eagerly writing to express how we can build better ways.
Bell Hooks writes exactly that the patriarchy doesn’t only wound women. It harms men by not allowing them to live their full lives as well because of the constraints of such a top down system; a flawed system that most certainly makes very little room for any gray area of any kind.
The human condition to categorize runs deep and typically has us building systems around putting people in boxes and then asking ourselves to check which box we are contained within. With this mentality, we are either: ‘with us or against us’, ‘black or white’, ‘gay or straight’, ‘a man or a woman.’ The gradients of life are screaming for us to recognize the spectrum of our shared existence. This is so very real and boxes checking will be burned in the livestreaming of the revolution if we do not collaborate, elevate & inspire each other to live together.
A big shift towards an equitable spectrum of life will continue to see a pendulum swing far away from top down models. But I will argue, it can get better with women at the helm. Looking at powerful movements where women moved mountains with our collective the day women of Reykjavík went on strike was pivotal in passing key legislation for Iceland.
Please pardon the box checking gender studies I am about to cite but I am working within this Patriarchy to propose a Matriarchy. Thank you for your understanding.
When leadership styles are noted amongst men & women, many psychological studies indicate that two countries with women leaders, would never go to war.
Also notable in the boxing of gender is that ‘women who are said to behave in a more feminine, collaborative, empathetic manner might be less likely to be elected or appointed to lead their country.’
And I’m here to say f*ck that shit! We can be fierce AF, hold the line, build great business, compelling tech AND not throw fists over it…or drop missiles.
Of this, I am convinced. Just look at what the Oprah of Venture Capital is doing!
What the actual Tech!?
What can we do when we feel all these feelings? See all these truths? When we realize we are being lied to. We are told that technology takes our jobs. We are sold a bill of goods that tech is and will continue to reduce our wages and increase inequality, threatens our health, ruins the environment, degrades our society and corrupts our children. Well sure. This version of Web 2 built around colonialism and tested with the military first sure does a lot of this. And also…
All civilization has been built on technology, even pre patriarchy used tech!
** Remember technology is a tool that ‘advances’ culture. And new technologies will build new civilizations, particularly for the better of those that can evolve out of the industrial war complex.
Technology is the glory of human ambition and achievement, the bleeding heart of progress, even when it is waged against us instead of including us in its build. Technology can be the realization of our potential. Can we shift our potential to be fully humanist and not just bottom line, land grabbing, wall building, war mongering centered? Yes, yes we can!
We are told to be angry, bitter and resentful about technology. But I am here, once again, to disrupt the native and bring the good news! I’ve got my Rose-colored glasses on and I am raising the technology flag for everyone! We must be techno-optimists .
Bloom scroll instead of doom scroll!
So what if our shared technology, our common tools to distribute information, to move money, to check in on friends & family, to open more resources towards equity – a term I’ve coined called #Tequity – what if all of this technology also centered our human condition and not just the bottom line? Well, it would have to be built with everyone in mind and with many more voices in leadership and step away from military minded, colonial expansion.
Please stay with me here:
Divisive war values bottom line politics. War values land grabs, the accumulation of wealth & power over the human condition.
Collaborative peace values heart count over head count, humanity over profit and connectivity over individualism.
These policies may sound unrealistic if you’re trying to run a business that actually makes money, but consider brilliant business women Sonia Passi & Chani Nicholas and their respective ventures together FreeFrom ( a social impact org) & Chani brand, an astrology-focused tech and media company, is showing how taking care of your employees while simultaneously giving funds to a social impact organization can also grow your bottom line.
And to these points, there are many other tech based businesses doing the same dang thing.
We can and need to evolve what our values are as a human species and tech can still be a part of the conversation. And given the current ruling class of most all countries is primarily based on the Industrial War Complex, with men leading the way and also building the technology that is first tested within each countries militia, we have to begin to move forward with gusto on two very important items:
1. Support, encourage and push more humanist, female forward leaders to the front ASAP!
I previously thought we simply needed more Women in leadership roles. I was wrong and this is not enough because as we have seen, simply putting pink on the Patriarchy does not work .
We need new leaders in women, theys, thems and men to embody a upgraded way of leadership that is collaborative, utilizes NVC and a more collaborative, woman forward model than the current male-dominating, Patrichal structures that rule the world.
Solving complex issues of decades of systematic oppression will not be solved with missiles. We must push our women leaders forward and those kind gents, theys and thems who stand for humanity. We cannot vote with our pocket books ever again!
Consider all those who voted for Trump the first time – many of you have mentioned this in a very confessional way to me – my Jewish family, my BPIOC fam, and even my Women collectives have shared this to me, in confidence but moreover in shame. They say they voted this way because of money.
We cannot vote with bottom lines in mind any more.
We can certainly vote with our pocket books when shopping, when contributing to political campaigns and when supporting important, charitable giving circles. But not in voting, not in building new leadership!
2.We must actively be part of the building of technology to be generative instead of extractive.
The very tools we were sold in the late 1980’s on into the 1990’s and into this millennium have been purported to give us all the worlds’ information at our fingertips, to deliver us products at the snap of a finger.
But as it turns out, our access is only to a small portion of all the info that can be shared. Seriously I am building spreadsheets of grant monies for HUB’s, resources for sexual health & wellness, and political activations – If you haven’t already, please dig deep into the LBI Digital podcast Money, Sex & Politics.
Instead, what we have now in Web 2.0 is our own information pulled from us in what is ultimately a very extractive, colonized informed model of top down modalities. We must inform the build of tech by both our use of it and where we plug into building it better as Women, BIPOC and diversifying the tech landscape to be inclusive, generative and not the divide and conquer model it has been built up to be. This is what Web 3 will look like, truly collaborative and based in generative, humanizing technology builds.
CALL TO ACTION : pick AN issue, any issue and ACTIVATE!
- Notice the power of collective action and do not give into doom scrolling. Put your phone down, take a walk and see how much power you just regained.
- Now if that inspired you, take that power to the streets. Volunteer at a shelter, read a new book or article you would never consider, or study your local form of government structure to see how you can activate within it.
- And if that inspired you, host a conversation in your home, on your stoop or at your local coffee house about civic engagement. The power of community is real and will inspire everyone involved.
- For the overachievers in the crowd, scroll down to see how you can activate your newly inspired and reclaimed power within LBI Digital.
TL:DR
As a world, we desperately need new models of leadership. And it’s clear that technology is never going to leave us as a human species so we are smart to embrace it and get involved in its build, usage and implementation.
When we use #Techforgood and build it with women leaders, we will see a more equitable world, or as I love to say we are building #Tequity.
The old masculine models of leadership through top down structures that the patriarchy requires are broken and killing us all, slowly and swiftly.
We can do better! You can do better! I can do better !
Here is how we are doing 1% better with LBI Digital & how can you participate in women forward tech that leads to world peace:
1. Join us for free What the Tech convo
RSVP here for Thursday Oct 26 at 430 PM PST
2. Listen to the LBI podcast: Money, Sex & Politics latest episode and share with your people!
3. Be first in line for the next cohort on the Backstage Pass Fall 2023!
4. Scroll down to comment on this post and share those comments with your people!
Other Women Lead / Human Forward Tech resources you can join & tell your friends:
MONEY: Maggie Love’s She Fi
SEX: Bryony Cole’s Sex Tech School
POLITICS: Kristina Wilfore + Lucina Di Meco #ShePresisted
WILD CARD: Genevieve Thiers’s Entertainmint.com
Body Support via Somatic Healing online: The Class & Sah D’Simone
Let’s GLOW UP the internet in Web 3.0 shall we? See you October 26 at 430pm PST to talk Tech for Good. Our next topic is how to actively Bloom Scroll and find us always Backstage!
with big love and sincerely af,
Rose
