Not long ago, I used the word ‘agora’ as a synonym of space to talk to others in one of my many rants about speaking to difference. But, to my surprise, my English friend was not familiar with the word nor the concept of agora. And it makes sense that for me, growing up in a Mediterranean country, ancient Greece is part of the history we are taught at schools like Britain will include some Viking history in their curriculum too.
This post is not aimed at claiming historical accuracy about Ancient Greece’s Agora, but to reconnect with - and probably romanticise - the concept of it. This is an opinion piece, please be welcome to disagree.
The Concept of Agora
Ancient Greece’s Agora, the predecessor of Roman’s ‘Forum’, was a space in the city designed for public gathering. The Agora of Ancient Athens, located right by the Acropolis, was the meeting place to exchange ideas and trade, a place to practice both performing arts and philosophy, a place of commoning. Sound familiar? The most resonating physical place I can recall would be a small community summer festival, a place to gather, share ideas, art and be together with people you have not met yet but are likely to interact with by the end of the festival. Many of us reconnect with that in the summer, and it’s our saving grace to reconnect with our values and gather seeds of inspiration to plant and grow over the winter.
But is there any space like that in our daily lives? Ah yeah, of course, social media, right? You can buy, sell, tell your ideas, inhale those of others and see what everyone is doing.
What is happening with the public debate?
Our main agora in the last decade or so has been Twitter, which represents a fundamental flaw: the space of public debate belongs to just one person today. Isn’t that a lot of power for just one person? Can the space of public debate be privatised? Of course before Elon Musk acquired Twitter, bots and fake news already existed…But the algorithmic strategies for consumption feeding us what we each want to see and delivering everything we can be enticed on purchasing and believing, makes each of us very vulnerable to the private interests with an illusive veil of personalised support.
Is social media our global AGORA?
Social media per se is not the problem. In its beginning it was a very promising space that democratised debate, topics of conversations and unheard voices. We could all chat there, it reconnected people and connected people with common interests across the globe. It was an escape from marginalisation for those without the capacity or resources to meet like-minded individuals, it was a forum for trans people and it became the stage for great global mobilisations like the Arab Spring, 15M, #metoo, #BLM and #StopFundingHate and Extinction Rebellion to mention a few. There are many examples of a flourishing of many movements and revolts that gestated in social media platforms, before private economic interests turned it into a business field degrading any form of authenticity and fostering mistrust between equals.
I don’t think the problem is social media or technology per se but the business model. In the end, the power of social media is for sale, the power to influence and manipulate is for sale. Social media is now selling that the key to success is that you alone can make it if you deserve it and that the measure of everything is money. And those who own this world have an interest in the masses believing that, because if we think in terms of collectivity, collective organisation in the past has proven to have more power.
In social media we are no longer equals. It is not an equal ground to talk and understand one another. While they were a democratised space, now they seem to resemble more that episode of Black Mirror titled ‘Nosedive’ than the (romanticised) concept of agora.
It made sense that feminist movements excluded men just like it made sense that trans movement excluded cis people, it was a form of empowerment. But has excluding people gone past unity and empowerment to reinforce sides? Does reinforcing pre-existing identities of us and them have led to more polarisation and less compassion to understand the difference that makes the whole of the communities, societies and the world we live in together?
In an agora, we must include people from diverse ages, diverse ethnicities, diverse genders as well as people from diverse social strata. Because worldviews that now appear dated should not be excluded just like a shorter lived life should not be disregarded. Because we live together and we need men too to engage in rethinking the world and social dynamics that feminism(s) offers.
The problem is the forum itself, the structures determining the ground and how we access it. I don’t think it is the people but the inhumane way of relating. The space must be accessible and without judgement and cancellation. It has to be a space for individual and collective reflection, a place to reconsider opinions, change attitudes, revise decisions, to understand and feel different views through the personal experience of others. The ability for social consensus is very much broken outside very segregated groups and the skill to respectfully disagree and listen seems to be a very weak muscle even is spaces of comfort.
An Agora for sale under neoliberalism
Does the rise of Milei in Argentina and Trump with Musk in the US represent a new age of neoliberalism? None of it seems new, it just seems an extreme of what we already knew. A world without governments but only corporations that rule, a world without collectivity but only individuals aspiring to rise above their direct environment. In political and social terms, it’s the organisation of hatred to segregate society. Hate the immigrants, hate the poor, hate women, hate men… Basically hatred between equals. Generating groups, sides, something like a civil war. That’s one of the strategies that neoliberalism has always had, to fight each other amongst the masses so the elites can win, divide and conquer, where the ultimate goal is the absolute domination of oligarchies and the big capital.
This system favours the private corporations and economic interests above all else where everything is purchasable in substitution for welfare benefits, once fought for as a product of a consensus of decent living. Now welfare is for sale, healthcare is for sale, education is for sale, shelter is for sale while rest, time off, sick leave or paternity and maternity leave become a choice in the encouragement for entrepreneurship.
Now a good life seems like an individual achievement, a choice to pursue one’s needs and wants, only accessible to those who truly want it. It is an individual pursuit and reward that must be earned, the illusion of meritocracy no longer applies only to economic wealth, professional success and status but also to happiness, self-actualisation and healing even when all data available points towards social inequality as an unequivocal indicator for mental illness. We are complicit in spreading ideas of meritocratic mental peace like an equally attainable estate that anyone can achieve, turning mental health into individual and often capitalisable matters as opposed to an issue of social justice.
This worldview sees individuals as consumers and entrepreneurs, where collectivity, syndicalism and civil rights die before the capitalisation of every aspect of human life, exploiting ourselves and our resources. You can now dehydrate the lands of others in South America to have avocado on toast for more than an hourly minimum wage in Europe, pay someone to rent their womb and lodge your embryo in it or pollute the rivers and skies of southeastern countries in Asia to consume the new trendy shape of jeans. We exploit locals every time we rent an airbnb; we exploit drivers every time we order takeaway; we exploit workers with caring responsibilities and health issues every time we jump in the waggon of self-employment because we have no one in our care, we are healthy and far from retiring age; and we exploit the planet every time we choose to fly and drive as an individual (but very much prevailing) lifestyle instead of fighting for affordable railway fares collectively. Again, I don’t think the problem is the people but the business and economic model that enables and encourages this.
Under the sweet illusion of choice, people do it because they want to, right? Of course, who am I to fight individual choice? It’s simply that we’re fighting for resources in a narrative that paints the world in scarcity, a pursuit for never ending ideas of happiness, enlightenment, self-actualisation or healing (all which seem to be interchangeable lately) but readily available for us so we can grasp them just enough to want more. And we are selling ourselves by parts, we sell our time, our bodies, our homes for a little more credit, a little bit closer to being in that dream of a good life a bit longer than an instagram story. If we get a taste of it every once in a while, we want it full time. We can’t go back to misery once a bit of luxury has been tasted, right? It is a new age of neoliberalism, one where we are all complicit so we stop trying to be ethical because claiming that will earn us more cancellation than rewards and because it seems much harder than simply being part of the whole shebang we are trying to detox from.
The entrepreneurial culture we are being told to embody is aimed at turning all social interaction, exchange of knowledge or the healing of organised gatherings into entrepreneurial ventures. Does every space of togetherness have to be for profit? Do we have to make a profit from everything we do?
This is why this Listening Circle, this little agora, is (pretty much) free. Your donation goes towards thanking the space that has been lent to us for free, the result of a relationship of trust we have built with the people of La Ruca, one more independent business that makes Bristol my chosen home. Doing it for free is a form of rebellion in itself, a declaration of the pursuit for meaning, authenticity and community but more than anything, it is the most sincere form of civil service we are honoured to give away for free.
Why?
I don't think I began to understand the role and importance of the ancient greek concept and praxis of the 'agora' until 2011 when the Spanish government ceded before EU pressures to welfare cuts to pay off bank debt. Coming from a socialist government that had brought so much progress to Spain since its first legislature when it removed the troops from Iraq and ended Spanish participation in a war that mobilised the whole country against it for years. Zapatero's socialist government made Spain the third country in the world to legalise same sex marriage (2005) and his government also introduced the gender equality act (2007) . Many still think he should have resigned in 2011 before putting the country through a decision they did not vote for.
It brought outrage across the demography of Spain, people were struggling, unemployment was rising and people felt forsaken and betrayed by a government that had felt so close to the values of the left. The outrage united people, thousand if not millions took it to the streets. Not in the classic demonstration, no. People occupied squares in 30 cities of the country, they helped each other for food and resources and most importantly, organised assemblies. It was a movement that transcended borders and capital cities across the globe witnessed it. In the streets, I was introduced to assemblies accessible to all, from the people and for the people to discuss problems and visions for a new world. New parties emerged and the assembly culture outlived the square camping known as 15M which ended after nearly two weeks with police violence in Spain.
I witnessed the power of people, the distinction between civilians and the political class and with it the different interests and agendas. I witnessed a new idea of democracy emerge from the streets and I witnessed people from all walks of life come together and organise themselves for ideas in common.
Seeing ideas and people from social movements rise to political spheres and institutions engaged me in politics for life. I had seen change and it had come from the people, from assemblies, unity coming from difference. But how can the conditions of an agora be replicated again without such urgency? I refuse to be pessimistic, I do not know if I will witness such a historical movement as that which emerged from 15M but I have faith that a new wave will come. I trust that every new generation will reject what we have left for them and will try new solutions and unite, and we’ll join and use that momentum even if we know they won’t change the world overnight. We know that because we didn’t either and nobody before us, but each movement adds layers of resistance, of union, of solidarity and of idealism. We are the results of ideas put into practice as much as the result of an overly capitalised world.
So let’s practice in person deep listening, imprint in us the memory of being expanded by equals, let’s sit with disagreement, let’s try understanding differences.
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