LIFE IN THE ELECTRIC COMMUNE
svann:
"it's a great microcosm of an elite mind that simultaneously contradicts itself and embraces differences without the typical flamage that 'abusenet' too eagerly engenders. On one level it's naive, on another its a pipeline to the subconscious goldmine which no 'university' class can ever hope to approximate. not yet anyway. There is a hint of the future society in leri."*** Leri is comprised at any given time of approximately 200 or so members, scattered here and there throughout the various nodes in our community. The list itself usually supports no more than 85-100 people. The other hundred or so maintain contact through a whole host of routes: the IRC channel #leri, our sister lists, private email, occasional gatherings called fleshmeets, telephone calls, and other assorted means. Many people who do not actively participate in the list still consider themselves Leri -- a sort of Leri alumnus. The rest of us are regulars, participating in the daily electronic rituals of reading through vast amounts of Lerimail, spending enormous amounts of time on IRC, and visiting each other all over the country.
Erica:
"it's this community i'm part of that's spread all over the place, with a bunch of people who are cool. what do we do? we talk, we live, we share knowledge and experience, we fight, we make up, we party, we get in each others' ways, we gossip, we laugh, we travel far & wide to see each other, we learn and we love."ghost:
"To post or not to post may be trivial to me in certain circumstances, but not to someone else. I think that is part of what Leri is about. Sharing yourself, thoughts, ideas, emotions with others. Synergistically cohesive thought-spaces, fractically immanent imbricative peersonalities."Scruff:
"I find it incredibly powerful. Every new thought that enters my brain changes me, however subtly, just by being thunk. Leri presents a huge diversity of thoughts. I find it a great way to start each day."Erica:
"it provides a forum for discussion where people may spew whatever is on their minds, and know that almost always they are going to say something that will piss someone off, thus creating a ‘thread.’"antares:
"it's a mirror, it's a book, it's a place to be creative. it's something to do, someplace to go, there are people living and dead in here. it's a big cauldron of components and i think the stew is tasty most days."Scotto:
"For me, I began to wonder at this point about why I had been focusing so much energy over the past few years thinking about Leri as though it was detached from me, outside of me, something that I encountered and experienced viscerally, rather than something that I am, or, something that I do continually. I came down to the fact that this makes me in some way feel personally responsible for the notions contained within Leri; and as Gerold and others have hashed out in a different thread, personal responsibility often seems like quite a cross. Nevertheless, it's begun to grow on me, this notion of constant intimate awareness of myself as part of the process of Leri, rather than viewing Leri as a place I 'go to' to visit."ghost:
"Well, everyone on Leri has a personality (goddess! what an understatement, to say the least). But i think that everyone also realizes that they are among a peer group here. Now, part of my personality, at least (and i guess i do tend to generalize about others based on myself) is that i do not accept anyone as being better than myself. Equality i can tolerate :) and indeed see it among Lerifolk. I see people genuinely ready to seriously consider what others are saying, asking for advice, etc. That doesn't happen unless you consider others as equals. So peersonalities on Leri."Wonderdog:
"If cat herding is the metaphor for reaching consensus amongst a group of iconoclasts then leri herding is with Cheshire Cats..."Annie:
"It's well-nigh impossible to get away with b.s. in leri. A person who tries to do so gets to see just how quickly they get called on it by leri. There's very little patience in leri for social games; people tend to at least try to be genuine with one another, which is a great atmosphere for metaprogramming, at least as far as I'm concerned."Scotto:
"Something I'm concerned about is the disparity/dichotomy/small.chasm that exists between whatever collective idealized version of Leri seems to exist in some of our heads, and the version of Leri that plays itself out in the flesh. Naturally we can never 'become' an 'ideal', but all the same, danger sneaks into Leri along side all the other memes that swim around here, and I don't mean stereotypical MiB type danger. Every moment of interaction with Leri can be considered doing the work of Leri. Each moment requires clarity and commitment for Leri to be meaningful on the level of the group. When a given member of Leri betrays the collective set of mores that Leri has evolved, what are the appropriate responses? censures?"Wonderdog:
"I view Leri as a temporary autonomous zone or memetic flashpoint or something (or, perhaps, just a source of incredible jargon ;-), so in terms of 'mission', yes, I think mission accomplished. I do find that I do not now, nor have I ever, desired to have leri be the sole or even primary focus of my life. However I've also never met so many fascinating, stimulating, like-minded people anywhere on this planet (and its been awhile since I've been elsewhere, due to my own laziness and problems with my visa) so personally I still think it serves a tremendous purpose - a focal point for the olde, a corrupting/recruiting station for the new, and just a very interesting way to pass the time as we wait for Sol to go supernova."Nozzle:
"I have had an on-again/off-again relationship with this entity that calls itself leri. I say relationship because, like any other interaction between humans, it has its ups and downs. Sometimes I get wildly enthusiastic about the current threads. Sometimes, I delete 75% of it without even looking at it because I know that I'm not interested. Some people I've gotten more involved with over time, and I consider to be among my closest friends. Some others (not very many), I find it just easier to ignore. All in all, in leri, or in the flesh, this is a group of people with whom I feel comfortable discussing whatever comes to mind (be it poetic, philosophical, or mundane). There aren't that many people that you can do that with, and it's rare to find them all in one spot. Maybe leri will work for you, and maybe it won't, but getting involved is like adopting a pet (or being adopted); even if you leave, you're still remembered/remembering."Scotto:
"I am in orbit; I am a fractal node; I am a participant in the process of me and of you as we intersect in this space. There's something about the information contained in our intersections, something beautiful and inspiring about the words we exchange and the manner in which we do so, and in the way we make the words flesh when we meet, and in our melodrama. The attractor that is Leri contains certain ideas and rejects others. Some people will always feel at home here; some people will never be accepted here. There is a process at work, part of our self-organization, that somehow discerns for us where our porous membranes are that separate us from Them, and keep us together as Us."Scruff:
"There's a shared sense of openness to new or different people and ideas and things. I suppose that's spiritual in some sense - Thou shalt not dismiss what thou doesn't know."Mark Nuttall:
"You see, I can't tell you what Leri is, because no two people see the same Leri. She's all things to all people, whether that be art, poetry, metaphysics, what kyra had for breakfast this morning, deep stuff, silly stuff, family stuff. Leri's perhaps a family of crazies, some of whom are so bonkers they're very nearly sane. Real, live, sane people, very crazy. Anything goes, because there's only one real topic and that's the experience that is Leri or, what being here does to the inhabitants. After a bit, old versions of reality-so-called start melting, and new, bright, shiny happy ones start winking at you... And yes, we've many who seem old acquaintances with Pain, the real nasty stuff, and sometimes we work it out together, this being a community and all. If you want help, advice, support, jokes or just A Really Strange Trip then Leri may be the place for you. Broadcasting live lectures from the Internet's _most_ bizarre educational establishment comes Leri, the correspondence course..."