Post #1552247

Here’s an irony: there is, within easy biking/public transit distance of me, a space that superficially seems to fulfill a lot of my criteria for an autonomous, convivial, noncommercial counterinstitution. This space fosters (a kind of) community. It supports the free exchange of knowledge (of a sort). It even hosts a weekly, no-cost dinner that, so far as I know, is open to all comers, and that has been running for years. You think, well, we need spaces like this, right? Both strategically and simply socially? But every time I’ve been in there, there’s been such an overwhelming tang of boyzone that I’m immediately repulsed. This space is actively repulsive to me. It’s a vivid demonstration that you get that one thing wrong, and no good can come of the project, whatever else you get right. I may raise the topic on a forthcoming Lifepod episode.