When I was coming up as a young activist and organizer I had to live my way into the myriad conflicts within the movement. I remember noticing a deep misunderstanding of what it meant to diversify the space. An earlier generation of white progressives were making effort to bring people of color to the table they were setting. But it took time and often pain for them to understand that when you bring new people to the table you are going to have a different conversation.

This is the whole point of bringing new people to the table: To change the conversation.

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Extinction Rebellion calls itself the fastest-growing climate and ecology direct action movement in history. It emerged 18 months ago. When it consisted of just 10 people in Britain. It has swelled to millions of followers across 72 countries.

The movement relies solely on crowdfunding and donations. And it has been conceived as a self-organizing, non-hierarchical holacracy. There is no single leader or group steering its strategy, tactics and goals.

This is important. And it is very exciting. I have devoted the last fifteen years of my life to figuring out how to apply network theory to the work of social transformation. I don’t know of anything more important than dealing with the fact that we are in the midst of the sixth great extinction. And that we are the cause of it.

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A few weeks ago I drafted an intimate, vulnerable, update to the members of the Better Men Project. Then it got sent to my entire listserv.

It was a mistake that left me feeling exposed. But I was moved and encouraged by your response. I’m still looking for the words to talk about what I have learned on this often painful path from toxic masculinity towards conscious masculinity. But I commit to finding a way to share. There is something liberating about truth and our stories.

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I have always thought that Puerto Rico is a miner’s canary. A harbinger of what is to come. What has happened in Puerto Rico is a pattern that repeats itself all over the world. If everything is fractal, then Puerto Rico just showed us the way.

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Last October I had the privilege of speaking at Inter(x) HubWeek about the difference between Toxic Masculinity and Conscious Masculinity. You can watch the full talk below. Next week, on Monday July 8 at 8:30PM East the Better Men Project will be hosting a call to relinquish patriarchy.

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