[Noisebridge-discuss] Do hackerspaces need "community therapists"?

[Naomi Most]

Hello out there.

It’s said that admitting you need help is the first step in the healing process.

I find it very hard to admit when I need help.  It’s not even so much that I am resisting the idea of needing help.  It’s that it doesn’t even occur to me that I am not capable, 99% of the time.  Whatever it is about my upbringing, enculturation, and particular cognitive wiring, the concept that “I cannot fix this by myself” seems to be written at the very bottom of my list of Things to Consider When Trying to Fix This.

In many ways this attitude serves me well.  It’s a hackerly attitude, if I do say so myself.  I approach problems as inherently solvable by /someone/ and thus “why not me?”

A space like Noisebridge that runs primarily on doocracy arises directly from the grouping of individuals who believe strongly in their own ability to create and fix reality to their exacting specifications.

But what happens when there are problems happening that absolutely require outside help to solve?  I, for one, will readily admit than in my zeal to “fix” Noisebridge’s social situation this past year, I have done some damage that I didn’t understand I was causing.

Most people go to therapists not because they can’t find a friend to chat with, but because finding a friend to chat with that can be trusted to remain impartial about what’s happening while also caring greatly about your well-being — AND being able to advise you on your personal growth — is typically a tall order.

Humans are inherently tribal, and more likely to believe notions brought to them by people already in their tribe.   As a community grows, multiple tribes form.   Criticizing this emergence as if it were preventable or correctable would be like criticizing the moon for creating tides.

As certain as the Drama Triangle describes the repeated stories and role-playing of individuals in relationships, so too does the anthropological record describe the inexorable splitting and reforming of tribal identities in response to changing life conditions — and as a consequence, the development of more complex social technologies (such as religions and nation-states) to respond to the emergent problems of a multiplicity of tribes.

Noisebridge has reached a level of complexity where it needs outside help right now.  Quite possibly — based on the on-list and off-list responses to my first post (“Sunlight may disinfect”), ALL hackerspaces around the world need outside help right now.

So now, I want to know: if there were such a thing as a “Community Therapist” to provide the necessary impartial-yet-caring perspective on the ongoing health of a community… what would that entity be?

Sincerely,
Naomi