Everything I know about humanity I learned from cordyceps, part 1
For those of you who read my last newsletter from a several months ago, you will remember that I quit – not farming or educating, but I am not playing a certain type of business game. I declared that I have opted for Kindness, and I will not be stopped! And it is the case. I don’t care what I am told I must do as a business in second wave – and even last stage – capitalist Sea Pirates of America’s (S.P.A. for short) economy. That newsletter was the most responses I have gotten from the Squatchiverse. It was the first time I received “thank you’s” and also “unsubscribe”. That showed me that it was truthful. It reaffirmed Kindness as the dangerous and embracing entity that it is.
Thank you all for that. Those moments in my business are greater than the best monetary year or biggest sell. While the cash must flow to operate, it is the people, you, that I am ultimately interested in the most during this short second of carbon sentience. Thanks for coming along. Thanks for sharing in the experience, and hopefully, something I help create or proliferate from the fungal world can bring just a tiny amount of potency to your day to day.
It is also my hope with this new platform (moving my newsletter to Substack) to communicate regularly as was my goal, no matter how sidelined, all along. This current newsletter system is cumbersome and uninspired for writing, but what should I expect out of computer that is increasingly being driven by the ai that it unwittingly helped create. That said, it’s a digital dungeon compared to the feel of Muji 0.3 point pen and a fresh moleskin medium wt journal, but I should be grateful, huh...
Switching communication to Substack and why/if it matters
It is my hope that switching to Substack will provide a greater opportunity for that engagement in the digital world. It’s social aspects without the clout. Substack has become a place for creators to connect with their people in a way that removes the toxic comparison culture initiated, driven, and maintained by almost every other social media platform.
It has also become clear that other newsletter platforms are corporate shills that engage in runaway capitalism that keeps its users stuck. In the increasing corporate dystopia that we are all encountering daily and from various angles, Mailchimp – the mailing service that I (currently using) and many other small business users use – has decided that their “free” plan was too good for us plebes. I say “free” because we are given access to this service as a third-party extension due to our subscription to a website provider, in my case it is Squarespace. So, you pay for a website and get tools from a company that is being paid by the website provider for those tools. Makes sense.
Mailchimp, however, believes that you no longer can have the access you once had without paying a premium price for the same services. They have essentially cut their services in half for those of us who are still in the income tier of “hope we make it after all” and not trying to gain more expenses that will “decrease tax liability”. If you want to get into all the details around yet another tech company to loathe, read this from David Gaughran because this series is not about Mailchimp.
It’s about anarchy in the midst of the late-stage capitalism society that we are currently contending with, who knows, maybe you’re less contention and more coddling with or being coddled by. Whatever the case, and whoever you are, you are here with all of us playing your role. I hope it is a good one. I hope it is one that allows you to be your truest form of self and your sense of agency.
The most affirming part of realizing your agency, your anarchy, your community’s binding strength – is biology after all. It is so basic that I am confused that anyone who studies and/or practices biology as a science could believe that governance by a nation state is practical, sensical, let alone Good. Hubris creates this nation state concept as we are the only animals that practice it in this way – evolution be damned? Popular evolutionary theory suggests that whales saw the possibilities and went back into ocean!
Now, here we are a group of land walkers, generally terrible in the water, worse in the air, and not all that wonderful on land much of the time. Physical acumen aside, we have the capacity for love and hatred to the highest degrees. We can discern, problem solve and over-think and make assumptions. We are intelligent idiots full of hubris on what we think we know. We “want” to be present but can’t get out of the past projections onto our futures. And yet, we are glorious in all of this. It is this humanity that makes it worth our consciousness.
Through this series, we will explore agency and all its freedom and messiness. I will discuss how I operate as a business and as an individual. I will have others along for the ride to share their thoughts, practices and art. There will be, I am sure, digressions, side bars, and very tired rabbits. I hope this series and others to come will offer a moment of honesty and genuine connection to something, whether you agree or disagree. I know I need more telling of the truth. Fear to speak on certain topics has held me back over the years. Now, let’s begin to unravel and this “learning” we spent years obtaining and find the anarchic biology hidden within. And maybe learn a few things from cordyceps along the way.
In Kindness,
Sam
