The expression "All The Animals Are Friends" is my shorthand for a lot of ideas for community. At the heart of it is a gathering of "nice animals" that come to live together and support each other. It's the childlike expression of joy that is inspired by books like Winnie the Pooh and The Wind in the Willows, and before those an obscure book called And Then a Harvest Feast by George Dennison that I read when I was 5 or 6.
The Animals are similar to how I describe The Tribe of people I'd like to belong to:
[...] positive-minded, self-empowered, curious, conscientious, competent, generous, and kind people who enjoy sharing knowledge and work experiences.
The place where the Animals gather is called The Meadow.
The Meadow is a place where where All the Animals are Friends, cooperating with each other to empower and elevate each other toward shared prosperity.
The reason why I want All The Animals to Be Friends, however, isn't just for simpleminded joy. The reason is a lot darkerI think it's fair to say that many of these ideas emerged from my experiences growing up as a quiet, third-culture kid with undiagnosed autistic traits growing up as a minority or outsider in every social/cultural context I was part of, repressing gender dysphoria the entire time.
Despite this, I was lucky to have a handful of ambitious and honest friends who took the time to listen to me with respect and interest so I could get these ideas out and experience what it was like to be in a functioning group of talented people. But I don't want to have that be part of the story I'm telling here with The Animals...they deserve to be their own legend for others to look to!.
The Animals want to live free of the fear for being different.
It is in the best interest of everyone to build a sanctuary for those who want to be heard, be seen, and understand each other.
The Animals are survivors of dark times and past oppression visited upon them by others over a long period of time. Rather than give-in to hatred, though, they have decided to build a community that is founded on positive values, strong enough to support themselves with pride, and also be a sanctuary for others. What is good for the animals is good for everyone,they believe. A community founded on such principles should also be strong so it can stand-up to the darkness.
Good governance and developing their culture of sustained excellence is the path forward, they believe, as is transparency and explicitness.
The physical manifestation of these earnest beliefs is called The Colony:
The Colony is a place designed so a culture of sharing knowledge and experience create an abundance of creative energy, driving collaboration and commerce in a shared environment that is architected to facilitate those who want to shop and work together.
Background
I really like the idea of The Power of Friendship and Friendship is Magic (though I've never actually seen any My Little Pony). I like stories that feature a group of friends doing something together, be they Schoolkids solving Mysteries or being part of a Scooby Gang. Some of my favorite movies feature teams: Buckaroo Banzai in the 25th Dimension and The Fugitive feature teams that resonate with me. Comparatively, the teams in Mystery Men, The Magnificent Seven and Sneakers don't resonate as much; I enjoy the movies but it's more about the individuals within the team context rather than the team itself as a dynamic whole.
The model of I have of myself is that of having a duality between a very emotional squishy core and a battle-ready exosuit bristling with sensors. This duality is expressed in my MBTI Personality Type.
RAW NOTES - part of a conversation I had about the absurdist vision in my head that I hold dear:
I can't remember the context of what I was trying to recall, but I went through an extreme existentialist angst phase around 2010 through 2014.
I can't even remember what it was, which is interesting in itself, but I remember stumbling upon Absurdism or some specific flavor of it, in which every opportunity became one to tweak the rules at least for my own enjoyment even though life was but a fiction in my head.
The fiction I apply now is that "all the animals are friends and want to get along and create things together", because this amuses me. Stoicism is great for plotting a course through the difficulties, but the absurdist vision in my head is what makes it worthwhile.
In the context of a boring project that no one wants to do, with a minimum bar of deliverables and a group of people who aren't quite getting along, it would be amusing to me that they had a good time or were able to add to my absurdist fantasy of sharing things together and having a spot of fun that is tagential to the project purpose because WTF does it matter in the cosmic sense?
March 17, 2023 while talking to Mroo
An important distinction might be that I think animals (my internal version) are cute and idealized friends who help each other, but people are complex worlds that one has to learn to navigate and learn the terrain by foot to truly start to understand them.
Is there a mapping between that concept and people as worlds?
In the way a fairy tale with a happy ending maps to reality, yes. The Sri mission is to engineer the capability to reform reality to the ideals in the fairy tale as much as possible.
At best, that probably means the “people as worlds” version is like the “live action” version of the original adorable cartoon. “All the animals are friends” is the recurring theme of each episode. It’s not that they are already friends, but that friendship is what helps them solve their problems and conflicts. This is something that they all have to work on together!
(This is all new canon and is super exciting!!!)
Media critics would likely point out that “All the Animals Are Friends” S1 is a knock-off of the original “Winnie the Pooh” books remixed with more contemporary themes.
AtAAF S2, when they all go into space to find other colonies, introduced themes of community building and cultural expression?
Addendum: I forgot AtAAF is Richard Scarry’s BUSY BUSY WORLD. I saw a helicopter at the airfield sitting by a hanger looking very satisfied and I had the same “animal!!!” response.
I tend to ascribe anthro reactions to a lot of things I think as the larger cute-seeking algorithm that runs parallel to the friendship one.