Today I was fortunate enough to attend a really lovely event organised by the Advaya Initiative. Amongst other things happening was a talk by Alex Evans which I really enjoyed. He talked about what he calls the Myth Gap, and how we need a new set of stories in order to effect change. I love this idea. Stories yield tremendous power.
He also talked about how the majority of stories around climate change campaigns fall into the enemy narrative. While this is fun (they’re the Empire, we’re the feisty rebels!), it’s too easy to say ‘put all the fault on the big nasty corporations’. Moreover, it is polarising. Climate change has become the most reliable indicator of where someone identifies on the left-right spectrum; it’s become a symbolic leftie problem. But its a problem that is too huge and affects too damn much to be solved by the progressives rising up. Everyone needs to work together.
Quick plug: the book The Myth Gap is available here.
Super interesting stuff eh? I’ve been wanting to do some storytelling workshops but want to even more so after this. (This is a short, fun, free course to check out if you’re interested).
There was also a talk and workshop I went to on craftivism. All about gentle, quiet and introspective activism that is about other people speaking to you rather than talking at people. This was the standout message from that:
“In a gentle way, you can shake the world.” - Gandhi
Other things that happened today:
That’s all from me for now.
P
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