[FUPQ-12] Make Eye Contact
Day 3,728, 05:07
•
Published in USA 
•
by
•
by Pfenix Quinn
The Free University of Phoenix Quinn is a service of the Socialist Freedom Party, a group that believes in making noise and having fun, in jumping up and down and dancing, and in reading a good book next to a hot fire on a cold winters night, cup o' hot chocolate nearby.
This is Lecture Number 12 of a 20-part (!) series on Combating Tyranny. It's derived from Timothy Snyder's boss bestseller ON TYRANNY, adapted to our New World context by the Williams character, an old fart with introverted tendencies but who is still willing to make eye contact from time to time.
Para traducir este lío es más dificil que cagar en un frasquito, pero podéis encontrar traducciones valientes al español de estas conferencias en VANGUARDIA SOCIALISTA.
Make Eye Contact.
Making eye contact and engaging in small talk is not just a polite thing to do. It is part of being a responsible citizen and neighbor.
To stay in touch with one's surroundings, break down social barriers, and build up a good understanding of whom one should and should not trust requires attention to these small everyday personal skills.
If we find ourselves, perhaps against our will, entering into a culture of denunciation, knowing the psychological landscape of your daily life is a must-have survival skill.
The memoirs of survivors of tyrannical regimes tend to all share a similar tender moment. People who live under fear of repression and terror remember how their neighbors treated them.
A smile, a handshake, a word of greeting -- banal gestures in a normal situation -- took on great significance. When friends, colleagues, and acquaintances look away or cross the street to avoid contact, fear grows.
In a tribe, collective, nation or pretend-society online grouplet that espouses a code of freedom, solidarity, democracy and some kind of commitment to emancipatory practice, it might be difficult to detect who feels threatened. But if we strive to affirm everyone, we can be sure that people will feel better.
In the most dangerous of times, those who escape, survive and successfully resist generally know people whom they can trust. Having old friends and good friends is the politics of last resort.
And making new ones is the first step towards change.
===========
At the end of this lecture series, some super-duper certificates will be issued by the Free University's Libertarian-Socialist PQ-Scholars Certification Board based on responses provided in the comment sections. Participation counts. Indicate attendance by leaving a comment or endorsing the article. Higher honors will be awarded according to the degree of critical thinking, mindfulness and humor exhibited by responders.
Examples of questions you might want to investigate in response to this lecture:
There is a lot of material available on how difficult it can be to build trust in a cyber-environment, on how intentions can easily be mis-read in e-mail, in internet chats and so forth, and on how nuance and humor is easily "lost in translation" when communications are not live in-person-to-person. So...
* What are the New World e-equivalents of saying good morning, nodding hello, shaking hands and smiling?
* How can we make eye contact in the New World?
Facebook
Twitter
Discord
Comments
Examples of questions you might want to investigate in response to this lecture:
There is a lot of material available on how difficult it can be to build trust in a cyber-environment, on how intentions can easily be mis-read in e-mail, in internet chats and so forth, and on how nuance and humor is easily "lost in translation" when communications are not live in-person-to-person. So...
* What are the New World e-equivalents of saying good morning, nodding hello, shaking hands and smiling?
* How can we make eye contact in the New World?
o7
Good morning some of my friends and me we say daily in the magazine from NO CARRIER (and you see there nice pictures of cats and other animals).
erepublik.com/en/main/newspaper/friday-13th-news-266464/1
People from all over the world despite difference alliances do make contact there. 😺
Some others just shouting in the friends feed "good morning" or "good night". When you comment there you can make new friends with the other ones that comment. ☺
I made many friends this way and it does change the eWorld (and made me stay alive). 🍀
o/
Asking people for help is another way to build lasting bonds.
V!!
o/
Niemand has a good point NO CARRIER's newspaper is one example of people crossing many boundaries to interact. It is an example of that hello, nod, smiling to others in the eWorld.
Making eye contact in a world where there is mainly just text interaction is a bit hard, because it is not easy to truly read the other person. You have only words without body language to indicate what is facade, lip service, genuine, etc. One can move another person with words but that's another topic.
As Jimmy says asking for help or provide asked of help is certainly a way to build bridges.
I am sorry to see this one has been lost in the flurry of media, much of it trolling, because this is a time when many will feel vulnerable. I had a very wise group of teens suggest to me yesterday that, while it is good and often necessary, to speak up for the vulnerable every time you see them being attacked, it is also good, if we are in a place of privilege and safety, to give them a place on our soapbox for them to speak for themselves. I am thinking about how to implement that in my own media.