A Reply to Ms Skye

Ms Skye wrote on the Evolver Social Movement Facebook wall:

"The Evolver Social Movement is also a business. First of all, they're literally a business, registered as a corporation. Two-thirds of the donations they take from you are used to pay their "staff," a group of about half a dozen white, uppe...r-middle class bohemian friends who live New York. I think there is one token woman among them. Daniel Pinchbeck, best-selling author and creator of the group, is among the paid ststaff. All of this information used to available on his Internet magazine, Reality Sandwich, but I can no longer find it. (Maybe I just can't find it.) Their ridiculous slogan is "Join the Evolution." Gee, where do I sign up?"

"Daniel Pinchbeck comes from an upper-middle class bohemian family, raised by a mother who dated Jack Kerouac. (Didn't everybody?) He is best known for writing prose and getting hippie chicks to sleep with him."

"On Reality Sandwich he describes, "How I made the long journey from louche literati to shamanic apprentice to social movement orchestrator: an ongoing saga." Life is good for Daniel Pinchbeck."

My response:

Ms Skye,

RealitySandwich brings together much great content for free...only asking that you take a bite!

http://www.realitysandwich.com

We're trying to build scaffolding for an emerging planetary culture that can be based on collaboration, and aren't afraid to ask for help in do-goodery....things like hosting a web server, or paying someone to coordinate 50 spore events around the globe every month, typically costs some green dollars.

Most of the people workin on RS and Evolver.net and Evolver Social Movement are not raking in cash, I'm sure of that. They're just trying to pay rent and eat.

We feel that social networking sites aren't collaborative enough, and news sites aren't covering stuff that we find interesting and important to evolving / surviving. We're working to build something different.

I'm an organizer in Long Beach, CA who's been doing Evolver spores for the past 15 months for the educational value they serve to the community, and for the synchronistic fun of collaborating. Each spore is autonomous and has a lot of room to play with each theme. We've seen real projects come about that have impacted our community in great ways, and great parties and concerts giving a platform for creative expression to emerge.

So while it's true that Pinchbeck and a couple other white men are guilty of being influenced by the "bohemian" era, primarily in their boldness and wit, they also seem to have a good idea or two to offer the globe.

http://vimeo.com/14030117

Tony D