In Star Trek, the purpose of travelling into space was to “explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilisations…” But we no longer need to imagine leaving our planet to discover different ways of living - or to experience clashes between cultures. Even in a single country, an enormous diversity of interpretations of life, the universe, and everything collide with such force that it's become hard to understand how we'll ever find a way to live together.
We share the same planet, but we live in different worlds.
Each of our worlds has a different conception of what matters, and so learning to live on the same planet requires conversations, disagreements, and an authentic respect for other ways of being. Yet we are abandoning even the attempt to understand our many different worlds. Rather, we are being told it is absolutely necessary that we all live in the world of the 'New Normal', where what matters has been decided for us. Through vast technocratic power, tremendous harm is being unleashed in the crusade to enforce what we are told is absolutely necessary.
This is a story about what happens when we reject the New Normal and choose stranger worlds instead. It is a path of disagreements and arguments in a valiant attempt to foster mutual respect between all the different beings of our planet. It is a story that begins by looking at the principles that have influenced us in the past, in order to discover how they can inspire our futures. If we are to discover how to live together, we will need principles for understanding how to seek life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness without blocking these same possibilities for the strangers in our midst whose worlds we may not even understand.
Come with me to explore stranger worlds, and discover how we might live peacefully together within them.
Chris.
How to Live a Good Life in 3-minutes
Each week, Stranger Worlds explores a different principle for life, taken from science fiction and fantasy, folk proverbs from across the world, the great philosophers, and even song lyrics. Each is no more than 750 words, which is a 3-minute read.
The purpose of this endeavour is ethical reflection - a chance to think about how we want to live, and perhaps also an opportunity to discover how to make a good life for yourself. I am inviting the interesting folks who gather here to shape a new kind of political thought, one that might help us build a future together.
Become a Stranger Traveller
Why support such a peculiar project with your money…?
If you are the kind of person who has committed to supporting a specific political party (or equivalently, to opposing one), Stranger Worlds is probably not for you. But many of us feel adrift at the moment - no politician speaks for us, and the problems of the world feel insurmountable. Through building a respectful community of discussion, I hope we can assemble an alternative vision to destructive partisanship without falling prey to the imperial technocracy of the New Normal.
To foster good conversations, only paid subscribers will be able to post comments. And to encourage paid subscriptions, I’m offering lifetime discounts on subscriptions that are greater the sooner you decide to become a Stranger Traveller:
For the first three months, new paid subscribers get 80% off for life
For each of the next three months, a 70% lifetime discount, then 60%, then 50%
In the second year, the lifetime discount falls from 40% to 25% in 5% increments
In the third year, the lifetime discount falls from 20% to 5% in 5% increments
After the third year, there will be no more lifetime discounts. If you care about finding a way for our many different worlds to live together in peace, please consider supporting Stranger Worlds by becoming a paid subscriber!
Chris, Wishing you success with this new venue for communicating your thoughts. Bob