[hackerspaces] Hackerspace and hackerspace

[Matt Joyce]

As I grow older, I find that while I have access to more resources to
pursue my desires, I also find that I have less time to do so.  I very
regretably am joining the ranks of hackerspace members who show less and
less at the space.

So be it.  I have seen people come and go from our hackerspace for the past
decade.  I am glad to see new faces.  I am saddened to see the loss of old.

More to the point, I live in an area of Brooklyn that my Great grand
parents helped begin.  I have watched that area be changed in near totality
in the past few years after having survived somewhat unchanged for a very
long time.  It is both exciting, and truly sad.  My home is basically
gone.  The people I knew, priced out.  The food I enjoyed, long since
replaced by lesser options.  Hell my only soccer bar is now gone.  It
ranges from depressing, to annoying and back to soul crushing at times.  No
one likes to see parts of what have defined them wiped away by the sands of
time.

We all at some point must face the simple fact that cultures are fleeting.
They are always changing.  Adapting, or being abolished in favor of the
new.  Not always does the new carry with it any great excess of benefit or
betterment.  Sometimes we watch in horror as those around us choose to
adopt hatred, or moral superiority as a part of how they define
themselves.  This is as natural as the rain.

Change is inevitable.  We can fight it, but change always wins in the end.
Be a part of whatever is new.  Be a part of the change, to carry forward
the best parts of your past culture into the new.  Help guide whatever
comes next away from the pitfalls of yesteryear.  You may fail in that, but
the effort will leave you sated in the knowledge that you tried your
damnedest.  And above all, accept that those who come next, those who have
the time, have every right and every great opportunity to make the mistakes
you did, and maybe some whole new ones.  It's their adventure too.

Hacking is changing.  Has changed.  And it will continue to do so.

Protecting a culture strikes me as the wrong thing to be attempting to do.
Protecting a community acknowledges that there must be a transition of
cultural primacy as generations hand off from one to the next.  There is
risk in that, but it is a progression that is necessary for survival beyond
the first generation.

Now take all that flowery BS language and try distilling it to hey... let
the new kids be themselves.

-Matt



On Sat, Mar 10, 2018 at 10:25 AM, Sébastien Gendre <seb at k-7.ch> wrote:

> Matt Joyce <matt at nycresistor.com> writes:
> > Not to espouse some sort of support of social darwinianism, that would
> > be off base and somewhat ridiculous in this context, but in a way the
> > future of the hackerspace movement will not be defined in this
> > discussion or on this list. It will be defined by the spaces that
> > survive and flourish, if they survive at all. And, so as time marches
> > on the relentless shifting sands of time will change what hackerspaces
> > are from region to region, and generation to generation as well. And
> > that's a necessary state change to accept and plan for accordingly.
>
> But as the hacker ethic and the values are in minority in our society,
> place
> that call themselves Hackerspace without following them have more
> chances to find members.
>
> So the risk is that the hacker ethic and the values of the movement
> disappears in hackerspaces.
>
> Regards
> ————
> Sébastien G.
>
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> Discuss at lists.hackerspaces.org
> http://lists.hackerspaces.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
>
>
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