Intention, affiliation and perception are hugely determined in the preconscious, with just a small portion open to aware consideration and choice. Possibly the most challenging and powerful field for the activist, in making the living economy, is capability in responding - in intention, in affiliation - to what arises ‘in-here’, in an ocean of other ‘in-heres’, out-there.
This pattern's status is 👍👍👍👍👍 Pivotal
This is the home pattern of the ¿1 Faculty of care work.
Core landscape - §3 Aesthetic
--- # Conditions Making the living economy requires activist capability to be developed across four zones of reach, from the most ‘in-here’ to the most ‘out-there’; the most momentarily labile to the most evolutionarily intractable; the most immediately present to an actor, to the most personally inaccessible to present actors. We begin with the most ‘in-here’.
# The challenge In any human action, intention, affiliation and perception are hugely determined in the preconscious, with just a small portion open to aware consideration and choice. Yet each action matters, because ‘what fires-together, wires-together’, laying down the tendency for the *next* action.
Much of our action - whether this is mundane work and life, street culture and purchasing behaviour, or whatever - is produced through ‘getting our buttons pushed’ by one agency or institution or another (including ‘emotional institutions’ such as tribal identity).
For an activist, skilfulness in this sphere is foundational. Skilfully choosing, rather than simply having her own buttons pushed, and skilfully enabling skilful choosing in others (as distinct from simply pushing their buttons), are at the heart of liberation politics.
What’s pivotal is a well developed capacity for dispassion and equanimity - as opposed to passion and charisma - in the face of ‘the worldly winds’ of social pressure, belonging and mundane or casual expectation.
Possibly the most challenging and powerful field for the activist, in making the living economy, is capability in responding - in intention, in affiliation - to what arises ‘in-here’, in an ocean of other ‘in-heres’, out-there.
# Affiliating and resonating patterns Because `Making intentions & affiliations` is the home pattern of a faculty, there are quite a few of these.
All four zones of reach are simultaneously and continuously present in practice, and all actions have ripples in all zones. Thus, `Making intentions & affiliations` has three cousins - the root patterns of the other three zones - which constitute continuously present conditions for activist practice in the ¿1 zone, In-here. These are `¿200 Making the living economy` , `¿300 Making labour power` and `¿400 Making possibility over the horizon`.
Deeper within these other zones of reach, `Making intentions & affiliations` connects particularly strongly with `¿201 Commoning wild nature`, `¿202 Provisioning through domestic commons`, `¿303 The dance of knowing & capability` and `¿404 Stewarding commons of commons`.
In the aesthetic landscape, `Making intentions and affiliations` has an intimate connection with `¿208 Living well with prosthesis & symbiosis` in the School of subsistence work, and with `¿406 Blessed unrest, cursed unrest` and `¿40A Living in pluriverse` in the School of stewarding work.
Four patterns that are constitutive of action in the aesthetic landscape correspond to the four *brahmaviharas* in Buddhist dhamma: the Limitless landscapes of the heart-mind or traditionally, the four ‘divine places in which the heart-mind may abide’. `Making intentions and affiliations` is one of these (traditionally named as *upekkha*, equanimity), and the other three related *brahmavihara* patterns are `Mobilising unconditional positive regard` (traditionally, *mettā*, open-hearted befriending), `Standing alongside the most awful` (*karunā*, compassionate action) and `Joyfully recognising just that thing which it is` (*muditā*, resonant joy).
# GraphViz plugin
> We await a specialised graph plugin for pattern languages, which distinguishes parent patterns (Conditions), peer patterns (Affiliating & resonating patterns) and child patterns (Detail patterns).
--- # Backstory There is a library of conceptualisations, stories, genres and skills behind this pattern. See Backstory - Making intentions & affiliations. Summary: xxx To be added xxx
# The intention - Under impulses to infantile dependence, bigotry, absoluteness and disdain . . cultivate capacity for mutuality, solidarity and pluriverse. - Under confusion and conflict between the brahmaviharas, and their near enemies . . steadily maintain the graceful, skilful and wise placing of intention within this field. - In the face of continually arising *sankhara*, *papanca* and Selfing-Othering, and the presence of far enemies of the *brahmaviharas* . . cultivate capacity for aware and skilful intention in Deep Time, tending towards the end of harm and of restlessness.
There are practices for mobilising all these relations of skilful production of structures of feeling. See the detail patterns below.
# Schema
--- Care work - practice in the ¿1 In-here zone - is complex, challenging and foundational. It can be deepened in its material, cultural and aesthetic aspects through these following patterns, which are themselves rich and complex. They are the home patterns of particular Schools within the Faculty of care work.
# Detail patterns Material core: - ¿101 Living gracefully within the doughnut To be added xxx - ¿102 Cultivating skill with impulses To be added xxx - ¿103 Providing for the grandchildren’s grandchildren To be added xxx
Cultural core: - ¿104 Enjoying & curating commons To be added xxx - ¿105 Value(ing), contributions & livelihood To be added xxx
Aesthetic core: - ¿106 Reparation & reconciliation To be added xxx - ¿107 Deep time, life-time & sufficiency To be added xxx - ¿108 Dance, struggle & equanimity To be added xxx
# Other strong influences These further patterns in other faculties and schools also are important in deepening the force and scope of the present pattern: - xxx