Neighbourly Manifesto: mixing to get towards equivalence

neighbourliness is best thought of as a ratchet. “Once you meet someone, you can’t unmeet them.” Conversation is easier once you know your neighbour’s name.

Perhaps it is not difference, but distance that breeds tribalism and hostility. As proximity increases, so does understanding. I am reminded of Abraham Lincoln's quote, “I don't like that man. I must get to know him better.” Facts don't change our minds. Friendship does.

Once again, I am coming back to the mutual relationship between words and thought. In order to create the possibility of relationships and systems based on human needs, a consciousness shift may be absolutely necessary, and changing our language may just be the path, even if I don’t quite yet see exactly how it could go there. As we learn to speak ... See more

is anything worthwhile doing for the sake of culture, then it is touching on subject matters and situations which link people, and not those that divide people. There are too many things in the world which divide people, such as religion, politics, history, and nationalism. If culture is capable of anything, then it is finding that which unites us ... See more

We are living in a world in which nothing is made to man’s measure; there exists a monstrous discrepancy between man’s body, man’s mind and the things which at present time constitute the elements of human existence; everything is in disequilibrium […] This disequilibrium is essentially a matter of quantity. Quantity is changed into quality, as Heg... See more

We all live one-of-a-kind lives with a unique set of experiences, and therefore the way we interact with the world is always somewhat different. That doesn’t mean there isn’t a vast amount of overlap, and I think it is exactly this dichotomy that makes life so wonderful. When we expose more of the web (the connections, associations, and representat

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I think there's this idealized version of modern interactions where, especially in the context of startups, where there's this idea that you'll make something, you'll drop it or release it, and then you'll distribute it to thousands and millions of people. And I think what's actual, and the thing that's much more effortful, but much more human too,... See more

Whether we are marketers or consumers, each of us has a fundamental relationship with others that colours all our perspectives, decisions, values and actions. As marketers, when we see others as separate from ourselves, they become depersonalised and generalised. They cease being individuals and turn into numbers, demographics and statistics. When

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