Revolutions are built on trust.
People seek safety in small numbers.
I have a friend whose job is to match study abroad students with host families for their academic year. I have another friend whose job is to design and build cohorts for new soldiers entering bootcamp training. I am never surprised by how similarly these two jobs function. Both are in the business of assessing and reading people quickly to build small economies of trust. Both are proactively preparing to navigate difficulties and disruptions while simultaneously hoping for peace and tranquility. Both understand the bedrock of trust and success is connection, belonging and care.
People can build worlds in small numbers.
As the world “comes back” to long office commutes, normalized disconnection and surviving late stage capitalism this memory feels far away but we witnessed a brief resurgence of this during lockdown five years ago. Families self-organized pandemic bubbles. In a collective moment we understood we could not fundamentally survive this alone and we needed each other. It required tuning into one another and asking “Can I trust you?” and “Can we go through this hard thing together?” In a system that valorized dysfunctional hyper-independence this shift was world-changing because families make neighborhoods, neighborhoods make villages and villages power the world.
People can destroy worlds in small numbers too.
“Houthi PC small chat” reminded me of these trust principles. When I worked in national security, Yemen was in my portfolio so at first I laughed at this fuck up and then I got (and remain) very concerned and alarmed. They are working in small numbers too and this works both ways. Soldiers make squad sections, sections build platoons, platoons create battalions. But the other side is not returning to office. They are staying lockstep in their vision and disrupting all institutions of trust in the process. There is no choice but to return back to the basics for surviving and (re)building together.
Five years ago, our world changed.
There is no better time than now to look around and ask:
Who do you trust?
Can we start a revolution together?
Recall
Last week's edition was on how trust is consistency built over time. How have you shown up for your sources of hope this week?
Read
My friend Michelle Howell recently did an in-depth interview with me for her newsletter The Antidote about my background, my work and how I organize my life. While Dope Newsletter is my personal newsletter, I actually don’t share about my life much so I appreciate this aperture into my world. If you’re a new reader/don’t-actually-know me, the read is a good briefer.
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.