First I should say thankyou to Rufus and everybody who is responsible for coming up with this forum. The idea of a nascent “Second Renaissance” is a very good way of summing up the basic idea, and anyone paying attention to what is happening in the world ought to be able to see the need for it. I’ve always hated the format and environment of both Facebook and Reddit, and other sorts of forums are few and far between, and none of them come close to the sort of content being discussed here. This setup is like one of the old school forums, but technically improved.
Over the past week or so I have been following various relevant subreddits and FB groups, looking for opportune moments to plug the idea of 2R and send people in the direction of some directly relevant content here. These are subreddits/groups whose subject matter is collapse, degrowth, deep adaptation, and consciousness, and also more general places like “deep thinking”.
I got a few interested replies here and there. But I have been checking the registered number of users, and there’s been no sign of a major influx. A bit of ticking upwards, but not even enough for me to be sure that was a result of my posts. A grand total of 2 people actually told me they registered here.
I am troubled by the lack of interest. The subreddit r/collapse has got 520,000 subscribers. Tens of thousands of people must have seen those posts. The need is desperate. The crisis around us is accelerating all the time, and getting harder and harder to deny.
What, exactly, is the problem? Is at that people feel it is too hard to understand, and that they have nothing to contribute? That it is too far over their heads? Do they think we’re all just dreamers and that nothing will ever come of it? One person claimed it was a front for the status quo – that we’re not really trying to change the world at all but just fool people into thinking that’s the goal when actually we’re secretly working for the capitalists.
I realise I am an outsider to this community, but the forum makes clear that anybody is welcome provided they are interested in the subject matter. For me it was a no-brainer to join up and see what interesting discussion could be had. So I don’t think the problem is that it is in any way cliquey or unwelcoming. I guess what troubles me is that we have created a generation of people who can’t cope with anything much more intellectually demanding than TikTok. For them, posting on Reddit already involves more reading than they are used to, though judging by the quality of most of the posts not very much thinking goes on. But even that doesn’t explain the lack of interest among people on Facebook, who are generally older and more deep thinking.
Why do you think my efforts to drum up interest in this forum have proved so ineffective? What can we do to get more people involved?