Luck and liberation

Parties who benefit from harmful and abusive systems tend to follow the pattern of practice of selling oppressive systems to the public with liberation language.

Easy! Quick! Hands-free! Cashless! Democratizing!

It isn’t a total gaslight— if you squint your eyes and tilt your head to the side, one could see how sometimes an objectively problematic system does deliver a relief. But relief is not liberation, respite is from a problem that shouldn’t even be a problem in the first place or reprieve from pain that we’ve never should have had to endure. Participating in these non-solutions fuels a marketplace of bandaids. Too often, the absence of friction is only reserved for those who bought into the liberation gaslight or more accurately positioned to be one the lucky ones.

But none of us stay lucky forever.

Last week a massive power blackout hit Spain and Portugal. The only systems left standing were the ones intentionally designed to serve, protect and benefit all: public hospitals.

As friends impacted by the massive power blackout slowly reconnect with the world, I’m struck by the variation of their experiences. So many digital and technological systems sold to us as liberation quickly turned into chains. No one was spared friction but there were those who were stranded with no phones, cash or connection and then there were those who were rich in community. Real relief was not delivered via Apple Wallet but from people, community and collectivism.

There is a discourse battlefield unfolding on TikTok around the argument “Everyone wants to have a village but no one wants to be a villager.” When so many have opted into the liberation lie that falsely conflates freedom as convenience the gap is understandable. The definition of grace is unearned privilege and it is something we are all due but slow to deliver to one another. It takes moments of need to shake awake: we need each other. Survival cannot be a factor of luck.

But I fear numbness and normalized disconnection is settling into our culture from all of this collective trauma. We are in a reality where not only systems are continuously breaking all around us but also a climate where we are becoming desensitized and weathered to catastrophe.

Our survival and liberation rely on our willingness to be inconvenienced for one another.

That is kinda the whole point of community.

So I am letting myself be inconvenienced. I am skipping self-check out to opt for small talk. I do have a moment to hear about your petition for the thing. I am showing up for the thing on the other side of town. It is small but if there is one thing both technology and investments have taught me it is that small things add up. It is never too late to stack acts of grace in community's favor.

How might you let inconvenience set you free?

Recall

Reminder: Courage cannot be canceled.

Read

Hollywood’s big lie about disasters: In crises like Spain’s blackout, the natural reaction is generosity, not panic

Historical cases and scientific analysis show that the most common human reaction to disasters is to help others, a trait that defines our species and that authorities do not know how to channel

Ediciones EL PAÍS S.L.Javier Salas

Upcoming

My team at work is producing the next RxT forum with Paul Biggar, the founder of Technologists for Palestine.

RxT: Technologists in Movement Solidarity

Join us as we talk with Paul Biggar about how tech can be used to disrupt the status quo and support a movement for freedom and liberation.

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Sabrina Hersi Issa is a human rights technologist. She is committed to leveraging innovation as a tool to unlock opportunity and dignity for all. She does this through her work in technology, media and philanthropy. This is her personal newsletter.