Part 2

A fractal is something that is shaped the same way on the outside and on the inside. When you look at it from far away, it has a shape. And when you look at it really close, it's made up of millions of pieces that have that same shape. There are some fractals in nature. Many plants like ferns, succulents, pine cones, and even some broccoli have a spiral shape that is a fractal. Lots of things made by water, like snowflakes and rivers, have a fractal shape. Trees can be fractals too. Their shape follows the same rules from trunk to root, branch to stem, and even the veins in leaves.

When I thought about NeoLiberation, I thought about Fractals. I thought about fractals because whether it was the hospital or the classroom, the group home or the community, the rules were the same. The rules that say "you cannot be here unless you act a certain way, are shaped a certain way, look a certain way".

If you lived in a state hospital, they said you were institutionalized, because you lived in an institution. Abolishing state hospitals was called "deinstitutionalization". What really happened was that many people were moved from large institutions to smaller ones. This was called "transinstitutionalization". Many of the rules were the same in these smaller homes. You still weren't in charge of your life. It was like a fractal.

Many people talked about "inclusion" as a way to make sure disabled people were together with non disabled people in the community. It was supposed to be a movement to change society so that disabled people wouldn't be kept out anymore. Instead, what often happened, was society stayed the same, and instead an "inclusion program" became one where they would work to change the disabled person so that they would "fit in". The rules stayed the same. Inclusion became like a fractal.

But remember how I said there were things in nature that were fractals? Those were beautiful things. Why are the fractals in this story so ugly?

It's because the fractal isn't the institution or neoliberalism. The fractal is us. Social relations follow fractal rules. Activist scholar Adrienne Maree Brown has also used fractals to describe social movements—“what we practice at the small scale sets the patterns for the whole system” (2017, 41).

There's something else about fractals you need to know.

The rules can be changed.

And when the rule of a fractal changes, it changes the whole shape. Inside and out. Big and small.

So neoliberalism is a rule set that makes us build ugly, violent, deadly fractals.

What rules make us build beautiful, gentle, life giving fractals?

Huey P. Newton (2019) teaches us three key things —that “everything is in a constant state of change” (193), that we must act as if our action have direct consequences on other people and the world, and that to do this you must always be thinking about how your actions change the world and that the world is always changing. To act in Solidarity with others is working together to help each other even when they are not like you, or even when they cannot help you in return. It is understanding that you have to respect someone in order to help them.

Fractals can also be people working as collective agents of change. Justice is created in collective action because it is impossible to do justice if you decide what it is for other people. Each action either keeps or changes the fractal rules. We are always at step zero in a new world and must act with the understanding that each moment is a practice of worldbuilding.

I will finish this summary by telling three stories about how disabled community can show us how to build new worlds by making new fractal rules.

Story A: Ames and Oli live on opposite sides of the country. Separated by thousands of miles, they are connected digitally and spiritually by shared experiences.

Ames: Hey

Oli: Hey!

Ames: Tag yourself, I’m executive dysfunction.

Oli: lol mood

Ames: yeah. But I really need to eat.

--incoming video call from Oli--

Ames: “Ha. Why did you call me?”

Oli: “Because we both need to eat. Let’s make lunch together.”

Ames and Oli are both neurodivergent and struggle with executive function—those cognitive processes that help you get from goal to action. Though their connection is “only” digital, this networked connection is no less real. Together, they can yoke their movements, “borrowing praxis” (Asasumasu 2015) and giving each other mutual care. By feeding themselves, they feed each other.

Story B: Every day, we check the board. We look for the names, the hospitals, the room numbers. We build the phone scripts. This one needs access to their AAC. That one needs the staff to follow the correct plan of care. That one over there needs dozens of angry phone calls to badger an admin into releasing a patient back to their community, instead of the home. The system, #BreakoutBot,6 looks up the admin phone numbers. The text messages go out. Like dandelion seeds. Thousands of angry, tired, loving crips dial in. “We are not disposable. Let my people go.

Story C: They got tired of the Zoom rooms long ago. Everyone said no, no you have to stay connected. Though they missed each other’s company dearly, they missed the absence of migraines more. It’s not that video calls aren’t “good enough” compared to other conversations…It’s just that…maybe the talking was never actually the point.

Instead, they exchange envelopes. No, not letters. They gave up words long ago. Exhausting things, words. Instead, they send crushed flowers, an interesting stone, papers etched with the skin of damp twigs…What does it mean when you send a flower and they send a stone? Well it’s not just the flower, and it’s not just the stone. The flower was purple, with white and blue too. The stone has sparkles, flint quartz, and lapis lazuli. The twigs were from the creek, where other stones were found. Maybe next week, they’ll exchange things that are round. For one it was a reminder that the earth makes beauty. For another a testament that the earth holds memory. The meanings are co-constructed, the practice collaborative. This, too, is conversation.

I will end this abruptly, because that is a very autistic thing to do. The point is this. We make the rules. We can edit all the fractals. Together.

https://catalystjournal.org/index.php/catalyst/article/view/33181/28261

#Fractals #ColiberationLab #TechJustice #DisabilityJustice #CripTechnoscience #Inclusion #Institutionalization #Neoliberalism #NeoLiberation #CollectiveAction