Element Descriptor
The smugosphere is the place in which things get done, because they make you feel good. whether or not they’re going to achieve your group’s stated objectives. Not understanding the smugger sphere, means you’ll continue to live in it and waste your time and energy in it.
Level descriptors
| Novice | Practitioner | Expert | Ninja |
|---|---|---|---|
| you can explain the basic parameters often a smugosphere and why they happen and the negative consequences to fellow activists and interested parties. | you can explain using examples from your audience’s lives in a compassionate way, how the smugosphere works, and why we need to stop writing it and deal with what about theories and straw man arguments. | you have a detailed understanding of the mechanisms that support endorse and enforce in smugosphere. Not just around your favourite issue in your country, but in other countries too. And you have some experience of trying to undermine smugospheres, whether successfully or not is another question. | You can explain the smugosphere to diverse audiences, including people who feel rightly that they’re being critiqued and have them grudgingly admit that you may just about have a point. |
Element Overview Essay
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It’s the old joke goes one goldfish is swimming along and meets another and says, how’s the water and the other goldfish says what water when you’re in it, you can’t see it. When you’re partly outside it or you’ve been in it and you come out or when you listen to the critiques of people who aren’t in it. You can then see it. It’s like come smoke you. You can’t see clean air but you can smell And taste and feel smoke.
And when you believe in all the right things, peace, love and understanding, and what is so funny about them, then it’s easy to ascribe only good motives to yourself and everyone else, and to dismiss those who criticise you as bitter, sour, neoliberal, whatever, it becomes hermetically sealed
The consequences. If you can’t see yourself as others see you, then you’re more likely to dismiss them, not engage with them. I’m not saying they’re right, but they need to be engaged with. And you’re unlikely to correct your own errors, because the whole point of this mega sphere is that there are no success or failure metrics.
So the fixes; become obsessed with the ways that social movements fail, and social movement organisations go into a death spiral. You’ve a lot, you there’s always stuff to learn from other groups, whether it’s from groups trying to combat on your issue, or a different issue doesn’t really matter.
Okay, so a bit of cognitive humility is in order.
Development Resources
Assessment Resources
