easy town projects

Those with courage and imagination will always enjoy a good rethink. Those who are curious will always go on exploring. Those who value freedom will always find ways to (re)gain it.

intro

This page is still in an early stage.

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 projects include

project businesses
towns & cities with a purpose
coexisting with nature
stories & narratives as tools
rethinking
sex

On this page, you can get an overview of all project ideas, an indication of what I offer with regard to the various ideas and links for a more in depth exploration of the ideas.

We will continue to bring people and ideas together from around the world: not to plunder the planet, not to screw up people, not to dominate, not to exploit — but to rethink, to value, to create.

project businesses

intro

By now, there are ideas for over seventy businesses and additional business networks which all aim at empowering everyone involved and at restoring the planet.

offers

I am happy to introduce the following businesses and business models.

The Hub (a new internet)
dot. (an international clothing company and a new business model)
book stations
ripples publishing

I’m also happy to introduce several of the other business ideas and demonstrate how they are all interconnected and create balances instead of competing.

links

www.easy-town.vision (overview page)

www.hub-international.org

www.dot-international.net

www.book-stations.org

www.ripples-publishing.com

www.visionary-meddlers.com

‘The human is a creative creature. Take that away, and you take away an essential part of being human.’

‘I didn’t know what to expect at Tom’s, but within days I was hooked. Don’t ask me why or what exactly got me because I don’t know. I think it’s this combination of fighting and creating, or rather of fighting by creating alternatives that make sense, and that without any indoctrination or enemy chanting.’

‘A phone is not about or for the customer. It’s a sales assistant and data analyst for the market!’

‘So we only succeed on this planet because there are enough rogue people who enjoy exploiting their fellow humans? Is that what you’re saying? Cheers to all the bastards?’

Princess Raha knew that as a princess she had certain duties towards her country, but it made her angry that only because of politics, Otaon couldn’t or wouldn’t have an international team or an official connection to the town project. Princess Raha chuckled. There was one exception. dot. It amused Princess Raha that her extended royal family could not resist having access to the town project’s intriguing clothing company.
A week ago, Princess Raha visited one of the new dot.designers in Otaon to see whether this deal with the town project worked out for them. The designer laughed and said: ‘I have never felt more inspired. It’s because I know that my designs are now available across the planet. And with that my imagination expands, and I suddenly see them all, and I want to design for them, for the cashier in Johannesburg, for the indigenous healer in the Amazon, for the musician in Riga, for the teacher in Port Moresby. And I love the fact that my designs are tailored by skilled craftspeople also across the planet, not in sweatshops but in workshops set up by and for craftspeople. Sometimes I hear the story of a customer, how my designs inspire them, uplift them, and I want to weep because I am happily overwhelmed by what is possible if we change exploitative narratives and return to deal with each other human to human.’

towns & cities

intro

offers

talks about town ideas
taking a look at existing towns and adding my thoughts & ideas

links

www.towns-and-cities-international.org

‘There are several central points where our town deviates from other towns. Our town has a purpose, a focus, something to aim for. Our town will be built for the towners, for what they might need for their communal life. Our town attempts to restore nature and find a way to coexist with it. In our town health plays a central role. Our town leaves nothing to randomness instead we compose our town thoughtfully. Our town will interweave everything it has to offer: a welcoming town layout, great architecture, amazing gardens, incredible clinics, inspiring arts, ingenious crafts, progressive businesses, unearthing education, uplifting parties and more.’

‘A town with a focus brings together people from around the world who share an interest, a characteristic, a passion, and who want to further explore what they are interested in, and who want to share their findings with each other.

‘I cannot think of a single aspect of the town, its economy, its design or its people that might not be of interest to us. In fact, part of our initial work will be to identify everything that makes a town tick.
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.
In short, Easy Town is an attempt to interweave all aspects of human well-being into a consistent, living and breathing whole.’

‘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.’

coexisting with nature

x

‘For everyone who doesn’t know me, yet, I am Megan Rhys, head of the Agriculture Team. It seems to me that I am one of the few people who grew up on a farm, and who actually knows something about coexisting with nature. Did you enjoy fantasising about building a beautiful green world where everything is all right?’ Megan shook her head in anger. ‘I should have had this talk with you months ago. Nature isn’t something that cares about you or your wishes. It just is. And when nature decides to lash the land with gusts of winds that knock you to the ground, then you run, you hide, you stay out of nature’s way, out of nature’s forces. We humans have become so bleeding superior that we think nothing can harm us. We have lost every sense of how fragile we are, and that yes, bad things happen to us, not just to others. Building, creating with nature in mind also means to know who is the stronger. It means to listen to the wind, to the creaking of the trees. It means to grasp what is happening, and where to find cover. Because unlike our fantasies, we are terribly vulnerable, and nature doesn’t spare us. We have to take care of our safety ourselves.’

rethink

x

‘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.’

A rethinking example

‘Alice drummed her pen on the writing desk, recalling what Augustus, a tax expert from the Admin Team, told her earlier: ‘The trouble people have with paying taxes, apart from being frustrated with incompetent governments, is a pretty simple reflex. You could call it childish. But it’s also logical. A child gets a bar of chocolate, and it can’t wait to indulge in the sweet delight. But suddenly the tax officer says: “Not so fast. First you have to give us half of your chocolate.” In which case the child could wonder why it got the whole bar in the first place.’
Alice nodded to herself. No one likes to part with something they earned or gained. It goes against our instincts. So, could we find a tax system that doesn’t frustrate us?
Alice massaged her forehead. There was another thing. It was weird that countries used an economic system which created economic imbalances, with a few super rich people and hungry business giants on one side and a broken society on the other, and then ask for taxes so that a mediocre government can try to fix the damages caused by the business players they suck up to. And then, because there is never enough tax money, governments decide to privatise vital services, pushing for more imbalances, more unaccountability, more dehumanisation, and as a result they ask for more taxes because everything slips from their grip. No, this didn’t make sense. And it confirmed an earlier thought: They had to get their business models right, create balances. On that basis, it should be possible to create a tax system which didn’t frustrate and which didn’t pump money into damaging practices. What if—
A knock on the open door made Alice look up.

‘Stupidity is very common in clever people. And that’s a good thing — if they know about it. Keeps them from becoming really stupid.’

stories & narrative

x

‘With every narrative, we can ask: What is this narrative’s record? Does this narrative serve us? Is there a more beneficial narrative?’

sex

x

Jack cocked his head and countered playfully: ‘I agree. Sex is a private matter. But since this private matter has led to abuse and chronic unhappiness, we need to talk about it. Once sex is a happy undertaking again, devoid of abuse and dissatisfaction, it can all go back to being private.’

‘Everyone wants to be loved by everyone, with no intention or inclination of loving everyone back.’