The Floating Agora
The Gathering Places Are Us, We Are The Gathering Places
At this moment many of the world’s cities have grown quiet. Silence has displaced sirens and people have taken refuge indoors as the world struggles with a virus.
I think of this image of the Pope in prayer alone in a large space - St. Peter’s square.
This is a place and space which has hosted hundreds of thousands of people.
The phrase “town square” inspires images of old medieval public spaces filled with crowds and words like “throng” used to describe the scale. I think of historic spaces packed with people from all walks of life - strangers sharing a common space.
I think of the “Agora”.
“The literal meaning of the word is "gathering place" or "assembly". The “Agora” is the gathering place for the exchange of goods and services, ideas … and crowds.
https://www.ancient.eu/agora/
The word 'Agora' (pronounced 'ah-go-RAH’) is Greek for 'open place of assembly’ and, early in the history of Greece, designated the area in the city where free-born citizens could gather to hear civic announcements, muster for military campaigns or discuss politics. Later the Agora defined the open-air, often tented marketplace of a city (as it still does in Greek) where merchants had their shops and where craftsmen made and sold their wares. The original Agora of Athens was located below the Acropolis near the building which today is known as The Thesion and open-air markets are still held in that same location in the modern day.
The Agora was the beating heart of a city, its square was its mind, its people were the cells of a living breathing entity. People gathered here to live and give life to a city.
We think of every “world capital” electrified and energetic with its own “agora”.
(“Admiralty” by artist Lv Shanchuan, from “Agora”, a series of 7 paintings)
At least we did until recently.
For the moment, large pockets of the world are suffering from a new kind of agoraphobia, in the name of self-preservation and care and love for family and friends, propelled by self-interest of the political and social power-brokers and powers that be.
It began in China and as the virus spread, a retreat indoors soon followed everywhere.
Lives and livelihoods for millions have been threatened, some have already been cut off short never to resume, while the survivors face an uncertain path towards recovery.
Despite this, the sheer gravitational force of human nature at first defied the threat.
The impulse to gather and create temporary crowds is powerful, particularly in those who feel invulnerable but that may change in the near-term for many reasons. A recent study of a “spring break” event was a bewildering reminder about our social impulses.
The study presented an image of how thousands gathered to form a brief Agora.
These images give me a constant reminder that we must have our gathering places.
We will gather in crowds but not in the same way all the time in one physical space.
The venue for crowds to gather, a “square” - an “Agora” - has already begun to change.
It won’t just be for self-preservation and to blunt the spread of disease, it may be a way for us to stay in place and be in motion at the same time and assemble in far away places - whether or not we are prohibited to fly - simultaneously and constantly.
We have had marketplaces since the beginning of crowds.
We have had crowds the moment more than one family lived in one place.
We have to keep talking to each other, it’s who and what we are.
And it’s happening. The gathering continues. People still speak with one another, reach out to each other, and now they sing together and clap hands in unison. Thousands, perhaps millions, of voices make themselves heard in new gathering places, in the sky itself and in figurative clouds.
We may remain grounded in one place but we all gather in Floating Agorae.
Security firm Cloudflare’s review of historical and recent Internet usage reflects both adaptation and evolution. Their “hashtag” of “#MadeForThis” is an apt phrase.
And in the end, after this crisis has passed, we are reminded we are not solitary creatures. We need company. The Internet was “built for this”, it was built for us because of what makes us work as humans.
People were made for each other.
All kinds of miraculous gathering places have been assembled to find medical equipment and treatments, to share information and help. It’s inspiring.
One form of the floating agorae are those designed to simply comfort each other.
Gathering places are being “hosted” throughout the world and this will grow.
Part of truth seeking and speaking includes sharing the good things in life.
It makes sense that comforting each other in a distributed network age could help.
I know Eric Barker gets it and understands the force driving the floating agora:
“A network can spread a virus — but it can also spread happiness, help, gratitude and optimism.”
And the merchants of these gathering places will continue to trade with each other.
Therefore the very tools designed during a more prosperous time and sentiment will be redirected to soften the pains of social distancing. This will continue.
Research firm Thinknum has observed increased hiring as the Floating Agora grows.
Slack has exploded in usage.
High level strategic language aside the recent results for Slack confirmed this shift.
We will look back with mixed memories, impressions and lessons, as was the case in centuries past. Interesting research of records in the aftermath of the Black Plague in Europe - a reminder that our present confusion and seeking to find meaning has happened before, with eerie familiarity:
the urban poor were its victims. Plague could thus be re-seen as a set of particularizing risks. Those who could avoid risk struggled with the limits of their moral, legal and religious obligations to those who could not avoid risk.
People want to work together to help each other as they embrace these obligations. There are thousands of examples, great and small, about people who are able and/or capable setting out to help others who have succumbed to the virus and its impact.
None of this note is meant to ignore or discount the private horrors unfolding around us these last few months but to remind myself that we’re going to find new ways to gather together. We will continue and I think our better selves will help us remain humane as well as all too human.
There will be music in the square again.
A sensitive and insightful treatment of the compelling topic of this year. Thank you, my friend.