DAY 15, DIGGING DEEPER DAY, book 4, building

Friday morning. DIGGING DEEPER. ‘Have you ever wondered why nature has such a replenishing effect on us?’ Dana (ecology) asked Skye (care), while sipping her coffee at the bar on the seventh floor. ‘It’s green?’ Dana laughed. ‘We tested that assumption in an experiment, not representative but illuminating. Three people worked on their own in rooms with blue ceilings, green walls and earthy floors. The other three people got workspaces outdoors.’ ‘The air is better outdoors?’ Skye asked. ‘Not just that. It’s the composition of colours, shades of green, with dots of all sorts of blossoms, shades of blue in the sky and shades of earth colours. It’s also the daylight, the changing daylight. You could say daylight is alive because it’s constantly in motion, or rather the planet is. But you know what I mean.’ ‘And now you’re going to add birds and insects?’ ‘Yes. We are living beings, and outdoors we’re in a space that is alive, whereas indoors everything is dead, well most things are. That’s why we can feel caged in the houses we invented, that’s why being too much indoors makes us sick. It’s not in our nature to be surrounded by dead, static things.’ Skye frowned. ‘The natural world is our natural habitat.’ ‘That’s my thinking.’ ‘Hm. My thinking is that you’re probably right, but I have no idea how to translate that for our hospitals.’ Dana grinned. ‘By finding a way to turn Can’t into Can.’ Skye chuckled, shaking her head. ‘I still love that slogan, but it’s coming up a bit too often for my taste.’ // At eight, the daylong Q & As opened in London and at Jellybridge. ‘This is quite a remarkable,’ said one Jellybridge neighbour to another. ‘With this project, there’s always someone to answer questions. On the Hub around the clock, and once a week from morning till midnight here at Jellybridge House and, I hear, in London, too. Remarkable!’ // Two hours later, Alice welcomed the media to the fourth press conference in the project’s town museum at the Compound in London and said: ‘I won’t pretend that we aren’t a little suspicious about the offers we received from various countries to build our town there. And, yes, we wonder whether those offers are politically motivated rather than indicating an actual interest in our project. But be that as it may, presently our focus is on negotiating with the British government about the Jellybridge Estate, and we won’t consider any other site before the first of April. Yes, you in the white shirt.’ ‘How does the UK government feel about the offers by other countries?’ Alice shrugged. ‘I’m not a confidant of the British government.’ ‘Is there progress in the negotiations with the government?’ ‘I guess that different MPs will give you different answers on that question.’ ‘How far are you with your preparations for the start of construction?’ ‘On schedule.’ ‘Will you allow journalists on the building site to document the work independently?’ Alice grimaced. ‘To be honest, I don’t like the idea of giving up a sleeping spot for someone who doesn’t work at the site, even though I’d appreciate independent observers. Maybe we could use a rotation system. And some of you only stay for a few days at a time.’ ‘I wouldn’t mind volunteering as a worker,’ one journalist called from the back of the room. Alice smiled at her. ‘Well, that would be a ticket for a sleeping spot.’ ‘Your campaigns’ focus today is Digging Deeper. What do you expect to find?’ ‘Everything that’s below the surface: deeper layers, networks, tunnels, roots, animals, fungi, bacteria, life, connections, interactions. But DIGGING DEEPER isn’t only about finding what we might have forgotten or overlooked. It’s also about extending what we know. We tend to simplify and generalise. When we dig deeper, we find additional questions, additional perspectives, additional ingredients. We get more of a bigger picture.’ ‘What do you need the bigger picture for? People like it simple.’ ‘Only in the bigger picture can we see that and how everything is connected. And that’s crucial for rethinking our world. One of the mistakes we and our ancestors did was to sever natural connections: between people, between groups of people, between professions, between people and nature, within nature and many more. Our world, our societies can only recover if we find the lost connections and reconnect.’ ‘Who wants that?’ ‘For me it’s a question of whether we stay on a dysfunctional, crawling junk train that poisons air, water and soil wherever it goes, or whether we wake up, discover how ingenious, strong and amazing we can be, clear away the rubble, rethink our world, and attempt to shape our world together.’ ’Do you think you’ll win this? Get Jellybridge?’ ‘Tonight, I dreamed I was at the site, laying bricks. So, I feel quite positive, right now.’ ‘How much dirt are you hiding?’ Alice raised her eyebrows. ‘Depending on your definition of dirt, there is more or less of it. I’m not prepared to open up about all my mistakes and regrets. But I can tell you this: The town project is not about me. The town project is about exploring. My past is not spotless. My present is dedicated to the project. My future will see me stumble. It happens. It’s how we learn. And I will keep learning.’ // Later, at the buffet in the courtyard, Alice was surrounded by a group of media people when a journalist addressed her. ‘You said: challenge me, test me.’ ‘Yes?’ ‘How would you deal with the likes of Johnson, Farage, the right, Brexiteers?’ Alice twitched the corner of her mouth. ‘How much time do you have?’ Some of the other journalists chuckled, but the questioner replied earnestly: ‘As long as it takes.’ A smile flickered across Alice’s face, and she returned: ‘I wish I had that much time. All I can offer right now are some thought snippets, the random kind. And I’ll start with a key: Change always starts in the mind, and it starts in our own minds — with self-reflection. And that’s what I miss in many people regardless which side they are on. In left-leaning people, I often sense a degree of out-of-touch condescension and self-righteousness that isn’t helpful, to put it mildly. I also know of no politician who asks root questions. Most of what I hear are reiterations of ideas which have already failed us instead of efforts to find the roots of this or that critical issue. If I were a politician that’s where I’d begin. I’d ask: What is it that makes our planet sick? What is it that makes our cities sick? What is it that makes our people sick? If a politician was bold enough to ask these questions, then they’d quickly come to the conclusion that all human-made systems need a thorough rethink because our systems make us and our planet sick. And this includes politicians who believe that they should decide the course of hundreds and thousands of communities, that they should decide which industries a country should have, that they should be in the position to be complicit in the destruction of our ecosystems and in the corruptions of developers and corporations. If there were a politician who was serious about people and planet, they’d have to concede that we, and generations before us, got a lot wrong, and that the best course of action is to rethink pretty much everything — and that together, and without reiterating old ideas. Such a politician would need the openness of an explorer who wants to see nature restored and communities thrive, and who is curious and courageous enough to say: Yes: let’s build a world where everyone sees just how ridiculous Farage and his kind are, and where no one is tempted to give those people a second thought because we have come together, and together we have shaped a world that works for nature and with that for us. The Farages of this world only get votes because people are pissed off, ripped off, traumatised, exploited, misunderstood and ridiculed, and they find a little purchase in uniting against some imaginary enemies and against those who treat them like idiots. If I were a politician, I’d ask: how can I empower these people so that they are no longer frustrated, so that nature becomes accessible to everyone, so that they heal and gain a new sense of community, of belonging to a broader, wider world? The political system, as we know it, doesn’t deliver, has rarely ever delivered, brought us to this point, and colludes with an economic system that doesn’t deliver and that destroys the basis of all life: our planet. These are root problems. But luckily these problems are manmade. And that means we can change these systems. As for immigration, that big right-wing scaremonger topic, that’s another issue where it’s time to dig a lot deeper. Presently, you have one side who state: all immigrants are great, and the other side who states: all immigrants are bad. Both positions are simplifications. If I’d want to reach millions of frustrated voters, or rather if I cared about people, I’d need much more than good versus bad rhetorics, much more than self-righteous, highflying do-gooders versus ridiculous populist clowns. I’d have to dig deeper, sideways, and I’d have to extend on what I know, believe and think. How? For starters, I’d need to define what a human is. Sounds simple? Then tell me this: How many people do you know who say: I am a human being and the person across the road is my fellow human? The understanding that we are of one species, that we are fellows is essential. What keeps us from seeing that, from sensing that, from knowing that? How can we get there? Next we’d need a wide-ranging discussion about community, and that with potential communities. What makes a community? How could communities shape themselves, have in fact self-determination in all community relevant questions? Could we develop a national community codex which leaves room for individual community features? How can a community keep itself safe from destructive government projects? What kind of town planning creates natural communities? Can we rebuild trust between people and town planners? These questions would get us out of the rightwing propaganda but not particularly near to leftist conclusions. Why? Because we wouldn’t tell anyone what a good person does or doesn’t do. Instead we would initiate a process of exploring and becoming. It’s something I love about our town. We aim at bringing people together who have something in common, in our case an interest in neurology and everything related. And I guess it’s important that this something is neither a tradition, race, religion or class but an interest, something alive, something to explore together, ideally something we burn for. Why does this make such a difference compared to accumulations of random people in housing estates? Because community needs docking points. Community needs things that allow us to connect to each other. In a thriving community we choose to become part of it, we are empowered, we are alive, and we are safe. To tell people that immigrants are great is to forego the chance to find out how people in this or that community want to live, what they need, and how they could imagine to connect to outsiders so that community becomes possible, and outsiders eventually insiders. Immigration is something a community has to open up to on their own terms. And it’s important to acknowledge that people who speak in a language I don’t understand can be scary until I get used to it. It’s important to acknowledge that someone who has never left their village will be overwhelmed when they are suddenly confronted with twenty different ways of life. And it’s OK to be overwhelmed. It’s natural. We need to give people ways to discover their curiosity, to shed the chains of the narratives they were brought up with, to give them a way out of the bullshit that became normal in their social bubble. To call people stupid means to fail them, and you’d fail yourself for succumbing to a superiority complex. To tell them what the correct view is means to ridicule them. To take them on a road trip to discovering the worlds around us — and together, now that has potential. Everyone wants to be loved, respected and be part of a pack. The trouble with a rightwing, or any extremists, pack is that once you are in that pack, you’ll take every attack on the pack as a call to stand more firmly by your pack. As a politician you’d need to find a way of respect, love, and of opening the pack in a way that is workable, that is fun, that takes fears seriously and addresses them— and now I get the signal that I’m expected at the Business Expansion Team meeting. I’m sorry. It’s such an important issue, and I hope that in our town experiment we can learn how people can come together in different kinds of communities, maybe they’ll find each other. And while these communities would be something of a bubble, we’d also try to find ways to connect the bubbles. And with a bit of luck we’ll all find our bubbles, some bigger, others smaller, and occasionally we all party together. Anyway, I must run. I wish you all a good day, and thank you for listening.’ // Meanwhile across the UK, groups of people gathered at DIGGING DEEPER events and explored together what there was to know beyond what they already knew, and that with respect to longevity, personal powers, narratives, creator’s powers, connections, empowerment, and pressing pause to focus on what needs to be addressed most urgently for people and planet. // Just after four in the afternoon, Alice entered the office of the Mayor of London again. ‘It’s been too long,’ Alice said with a smile and shook hands with the mayor. The mayor looked rather stern and returned: ‘Count yourself lucky that I have a few other things to do. How are the preparations for your Spring Specials coming along?’ Alice narrowed her eyes. ‘Good. I heard we have all the permissions we need. Or don’t we any more?’ There was the hint of a smile on the mayor’s face when he returned: ‘I’m just curious. I’d guess you need more than my permissions for events like that.’ Alice chuckled. ‘True enough. I heard the teams are ready to go, and a lot of Londoners chip in with their own events.’ ‘Hm,’ the mayor returned with a half-smile which invited Alice to take notice of the other people in the room while the mayor himself went to his desk and sat down. There were six other suits, mixed in age, origin and gender, three standing, three sitting on armchairs, all near the mayor’s desk. One of the sitting suits stirred and, addressing the suit next to her, remarked: ‘This meeting will count as another affront in the eyes of those who oppose this town project.’ ‘You’re right, Mayor Largely. But whom do we serve?’ Another suit frowned. ‘What I hear in my constituency is growing support for the town idea. Maybe we could do a survey. Then no one can blame us for being cautious.’ ‘Whom do we serve?’ the earlier speaker repeated. ‘Officially the people,’ another suit remarked. ‘But when have we ever?’ ‘Maybe we should give it a try.’ ‘A try?’ ‘You never know, maybe the people aren’t quite as— as unsophisticated as we were taught.’ ‘Hm.’ ‘Hm.’ ‘Ms Adler,’ the Mayor of London now said: ‘Allow me to introduce the mayors of Bath, Bedford, Blackpool, Bournemouth, Brighton and Bristol.’ Alice chuckled. ‘Did I miss the meeting with the A’s mayors?’ The Mayor of London smiled a little. ‘Believe it or not, I asked my secretary the same question. Feel free to ask him how this happened — later. Ms Adler, we asked you here, today, because we are curious whether London, and other UK cities and towns, could benefit from your town project? For example, could you suggest any measures which would improve the quality of life in our cities and towns? Could a city of London’s proportions use the Hub’s town features to streamline its administration? Or are the town features exclusively for towns? Could London get business stations, and would you recommend them here? What do you say, Alice Adler?’ Alice raised her eyebrows. ‘Do you want to keep me away from my campaigns, or do you think I’m some sort of superhuman?’ Several suits chuckled and Alice added: ‘I’m happy to enter into a discourse about how our research might be useful for existing towns and cities, and I’m curious what we would discover in such conversations. But! But first I need a site for my town. What I can offer in the meantime is to ask Devery Beaumont, co-head of the Hub’s coordination team, to get in touch with you about the Hub. And I can ask Seth Meyer, head of business liaisons, to get in touch with you about prospective business stations. But that’s all I can do right now.’ The mayor smiled. ‘What about later, with or without a site, would you offer to do experiments we might be interested in, in our cities and towns?’ ‘We’ve been talking about setting up a team which processes requests from people outside of the project. But there would be a limit to how many experiments we would run simultaneously. At the moment, like I said, we have no free capacities.’ The Mayor of London smiled more openly and said: ’You’ve passed the test, Alice Adler. We wanted to see how far you’d go with your promises, and how honest you are about the extent of your capacities. Here’s an update for you: I don’t know, yet, what I can do for you, but I am your ally. And I’d appreciate a long talk about London when you have some time to spare.’ The other mayors nodded conspiratorially. Shortly afterwards Alice left the mayor’s office with a half-smile and shook her head. She had no idea what to make of this meeting. Well, Alice thought, trusting has never been my strong suit. The Mayor of London, the other mayors, are they really allies or is this just some kind of tactic to give me a sense of security so I’d get careless, overconfident and make mistakes? Alice sighed. I wish I could trust. No, I wish I knew how to be certain that this or that trust isn’t in vain. // In the evening, a journalist wrote a brief summary of a Digging Deeper event on drug abuse: This was a surprisingly sober event. No flashing, flashmobs or fanfares. Just the most sober discussions about drugs, I’ve ever witnessed. All seven campaigns chipped in, each with their own dig, you could say. Not always digging particularly deep — sideways and expanding was more often the case. LONGEVITY focused on health effects of consuming drugs from alcohol and nicotine to substances like ecstasy and mushrooms. YOUR POWERS highlighted which powers we win and which we lose when we use drugs. NARRATIVES questioned pretty much every narrative concerning drugs, including narratives which make us believe that substance abuse is something daring or something evil. TRUE POWERS chipped in with ideas of how drug lords could use their networks to build communities instead of keeping the drug trade going. CONNECTIONS offered insights into the kinds of bodywork and breathing techniques which can give a high without drugs. EMPOWERMENT invited experts to discuss how empowering children, teens and really everyone can fill the void which is often filled by drugs. PRESS PAUSE made a strong case for ‘sort the world’s problems first, party later.’

© Charlie Alice Raya, book 4, building, 2025