Had a visitor last weekend. An old online friend, S, whom I’ve been privileged to meet before in the real world.<\/p>\n
S knows a lot about many things including, unfortunately, cancer. One of the topics of our wide-ranging discussion was my local friend, J, who’s undergoing chemo for a pancreatic tumor. S had plenty to say and I asked him to put some of it in writing when he could spare some time from his travels (he’s a busy guy and was on a business trip when he stopped by my place).<\/p>\n
S drove away. But quicker than I’d ever imagine, back came an email with facts, links, and extensive personal observations. Then as rapidly as Amazon could get them here, along came two books on natural cancer treatment from S for me to take to J — a woman he has never met and almost certainly will never have any contact with.<\/p>\n
When I marveled that he would do that for a stranger, S said, “You know her. You told me about her plight. Any friend of yours is someone I\u2019m glad to help if I can. <\/p>\n
“I\u2019m growing convinced that phyles, or something like them, is the way forward. It\u2019s how we will begin to shake off the state by simply ignoring it and allowing it to strangle itself. If you introduce me to someone, they are a friend of mine. My home, my resources, my knowledge is available to them. This is how we can harness the distributed many against the mighty, and mighty violent, few.”<\/p>\n
How wonderful — not only the gift for J, but the thought. I’m not sure I could match S’s open-hearted nobility. But he’s right about our power to grow around and apart from the state.<\/p>\n
I’ve called it community, but that evokes images of neighbors nearby. Phyles is a word I haven’t heard in a couple of years. But I like it as a descriptor for what we need to do — what we are<\/i> doing, with the aid of this amazing tool, the ‘Net.<\/p>\n
Phyles. Virtual tribes defined not by location or genetics or national identity, but by common interests and links of one member to another.<\/p>\n
Neal Stephenson in The Diamond Age<\/i><\/a> updated an ancient Greek term<\/a>. Doug Casey has talked about the power of phyles<\/a>. So has John Robb of Global Guerrillas<\/a>.<\/p>\n