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Making' that I presented with Mitch Resnick of MIT at the Fourth World Maker
Faire in New York, September 2013, I said 9 :
When you are a maker yourself - when you make something and put it into the world -
I think that this changes your relationship to the world, to your environment, the people
around you, and the stuff in the world.
“Often we're expected to be participating in the world, but essentially using stuff made
by other people, and consuming stuff - or being active fans of - things made by other
people.”
When you make things yourself, you break that expectation. You step into the world
more actively. I think it's about taking a step. It doesn't matter what you've made, whether
it's as good or effective or neat as something made by someone else or made by a company.
Just the fact is, you've made a thing and put it into the world. So you're making your mark,
and you've taken that active step. You're making a difference. It's fi ne if it's a tiny difference
or if it's only noticed by one person. It's the step you've made. It's a great step.
The psychotherapist Nossrat Peseschkian notes that the search for meaning in
life is always 'a path of small steps'. This leads, he says, to a common paradox, 'that
we must strive for something that we already carry within us' ( 1985 : xi) - but it is
only unlocked through a process of taking a small step, and developing confi dence
and stability, before taking the next.
The importance of small steps into a changed world is also a notion suggested by
the phrase 'the personal is political', popular in feminist movements since the late
1960s, and sometimes attributed to Carol Hanisch or Shulamith Firestone. 10 'The
personal is political' highlights the obvious but often overlooked fact that real
change begins in homes, and workplaces, in the terrain of everyday life; that slo-
gans or manifestos are empty if not backed up by efforts, however modest, to
change one's actual practices. The notion also reminds us that such personal
changes are not trivial, but are crucial, and are the bedrock of everything else. Better
to be the person who tries to make ethical changes in everyday life, even if those
choices only affect one or two people, than to be the one who broadcasts political
messages of fairness and equality to a large audience but who is not fair and ethical
in everyday life.
Therefore, 'small steps into a changed world are better than no steps': in terms
of 'X is better than Y' arguments, this one is so easily defended that it might seem
pointless. But small steps are easily derided by those who imagine that they are
concerned with bigger things. The surly critics that I noted in the introduction to this
chapter may dismiss the signifi cance of little actions, preferring to call instead for
vast changes to the social structure. But lots of little things can add up to something
very big indeed. When lots of people take the step into being active makers and
sharers, it alters the character of that group previously thought of as the 'masses' -
9 This quotation is from the notes I made in advance, rather than what was actually said. The video
of the talk can be seen at: http://fora.tv/2013/09/22/six_amazing_things_about_making
10 Discussion of the origins of the phrase can be found at http://womenshistory.about.com/od/
feminism/a/consciousness_raising.htm
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