Precis som med alla rimliga drömmar så gjordes det en big deal av det hela.
Jag har mer av ett motto. Och det ser ut så här: det ska inte behöva vara nödvändigt att be om tillstånd för att vara awesome.
Och precis som med alla rimliga motton så orsakar detta ett big deal närhelst jag för det på tal.
Ungefär här brukar jag citera dagens tes. Inte idag. I stället ska jag citera en passus ur den lite längre delen av manifestet, där en av författarna berättar om sin arbetstid i Japan. Bara för att det säger det bättre. Here goes:
One day, I met with a researcher in a coffee shop. Language was a problem, but he spoke more English than I did Japanese. I had just been to the bookstore and was lugging a stack of books on highly advanced computer-science topics. It was all Greek to me, but I figured something might rub off. Suddenly the guy asks me, "Who gives you permission to read those books?"
I was stunned. Bowled over. Did his puzzlement reflect some sort of cultural difference? I didn't think so. It struck me that this fellow was just being more honest and direct than an American might be. He was articulating what many people in today's world seem to assume: that official authorization is required to learn new things. I thought about this deeply, and I'm thinking about it still.
Who gives us permission to explore our world? The question implies that the world in fact belongs to someone else. Who gives us permission to communicate what we've experienced, what we believe, what we've discovered of that world for ourselves? The question betokens a history of voice suppressed, of whole cultures that have come to believe only power is sanctioned to speak. Because the ability to speak does involve power. It entails ownership and the control conferred by ownership. As the saying has it: "Money talks, bullshit walks."
Right then and there, in that chance encounter in some random Tokyo coffee shop, I gave myself blanket permission: to be curious, to learn, to speak, to write. But it's a long road from permission to practice, and there's plenty of negative reinforcement in between. Freedom of expression may be called out loftily in the U.S. Constitution, but even after two centuries of democracy, it's still a far cry from second nature.
Vem ger oss tillstånd att utforska världen? Vem ger oss tillstånd att lära oss saker, experimentera och upptäcka vad som råkar fungera?
Varför utgår vi från att det finns en Någon som måste ge oss Officiellt Tillstånd för att göra det? Och varför är denne Någon alltid någon annan?
Det finns ingen Någon. Världen ligger en hyperlänk bort. Och tusentals år av hierarkiskt bullshit håller på att slipas bort av detta enda faktum.
Det är onekligen på tiden.
Dagens andra mottoutlevare: Erik, Christer, Marie och Qer.
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