easy town books
rethinking – well, everything
The easy town story is like the initial seed for all easy town ideas and projects. And like a universe it is constantly expanding.
The overall story is simple: a town experiment is planned in several stages, the town is built, the town gets into trouble, and some of the main characters mess things up.
Despite some troubles and some detours, the story always returns to the town ideas, and never really stops to ask questions, and to rethink, well, everything.
The easy town story is told in twelve main books and covers a period of 7 years. The first two books are published and book 3, as well as the first part of book 4 will be published this winter.
The most detailed information about the books can be found on their website: www.easy-town-books.com
This page is still under construction but more content will follow, in particular about the different kinds of story-types I use: explorative stories, make it happen stories, and illustrative stories.
‘I want us to question everything we believe we know.’
‘You think we are wrong about everything?’
‘I doubt that. I just like to be thorough.’
© Charlie Alice Raya, book 3/1, shaping, arrivals & shaping
Stories – some stories are essential in exposing malfunctioning systems, practices, approaches and so-called progress. Other stories are essential in exploring ideas and visions for alternatives.
© Charlie Alice Raya, book 3/1, shaping, arrivals & shaping
This was just a last trick, something to make Alice understand that the world wasn’t ready for the simple solutions. The world didn’t do simple. It had its pride.
book 3/3, shaping, where do we go from here & decisions
At its core the Easy Town experiment is about being curious, about trying out visions, about exploring and playing around with ideas, testing the limits of the possible, daring to try out the unconventional, questioning the inevitable, allowing for complexity.
book 1, beginning
easy town books
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‘The first Easy Town will always be the mother of all Easy Towns. And it will be in memory of your friend Easy, and in defiance of the treatment he received as a neurological patient. Easy Town will lead the way to do better for all the Easy’s and their relatives on this planet. The mother of all Easy Towns will provide the basis to revolutionise hospitals, to nourish scientific research, to find a sustainable business mix and optimal business sizes, to build simulations that can help every place on this planet, to bridge demographic and class divides, to become part of the ecosystem and not its destructor, and so much more. And on top of that, Easy Town will be one of the most beautiful and thoughtful places on this planet. A place where a human can be whatever they want to be, and where a broken soul can find healing. A place where we’ll never stop to explore what is good for us, where we’ll unlearn everything that makes us sick, where we’ll untangle what needs untangling, tear down whichever barrier needs tearing down, and where we’ll always be open to take yet another step towards freedom. In the mother of Easy Towns, we’ll learn to be free and healthy and to enjoy life. In the town of music, we’ll feel the rhythm of the universe and learn to dance.’
book 2/2, travelling, Romania
‘True power — if you think about God — true power is in creation, not in destruction, oppression or tyranny. A true and powerful leader will create not destroy.’
book 3/1, shaping, arrivals & shaping
‘The world is too fragile to question everything. Right now the world needs certainty and strong leadership, not the tinkering of idealists.’
The idealist stung. Tom had never used it on her and she retorted: ‘How am I an idealist? How is building an experiment idealistic? It’s the bloody opposite! It’s how you find out whether or not an idea works. And that small scale so that not too many people are affected.’
book 3/3, where do we go from here & decisions
‘Stupidity is very common in clever people. And that’s a good thing — if they know about it. Keeps them from becoming really stupid.’
book 3, shaping
‘With every narrative, we can ask: What is this narrative’s record? Does this narrative serve us? Is there a more beneficial narrative?’
The end of all wars, planet one, the root of wars
‘It’s time we made a solid case in favour of mistakes. They are too valuable to be dismissed or disregarded.’
notes for book 4/3, building
The watcher is a reminder that humans will only progress if and when they strive to understand what it is they are doing, and when they ask themselves why they are doing it.
book 2/2, travelling, Otaon
I called Devery earlier. Great listener, a huge bag of experience, and a sober mind (contrary to my present me mind). He managed to get me out of that self-pity pit. Said it’s always better to create something extraordinary than to waste your life in a safe bubble.
book 2/2, travelling, Berlin
Navarro was right about that too, a lot of the human mess can be traced back to humans who have answers. Answers keep people from asking questions, from exploring. Answers bring about divides. Answers make people judge and patronise others. The only thing answers are good for is to serve as a bridge between one question and the next. Though, sometimes an answer has to serve for a while, in which case it becomes something like a waiting room. But if someone insists on an answer being infinite, then the waiting room turns into a prison.
book 3/3, shaping, where do we go from here & decisions
