Founder Letter: Be the Future Now | Mutual Aid and Kindness in Times of Upheaval

Dear Rosies,

Have you wondered why some people turn cruel and fearful in times of scarcity- and others rest into a deeper knowing and values? Why some become utterly selfish and others open up to a new level of caring?

Anxiety and fear activate the most primal parts of the brain— perceived scarcity, whether real or manipulated, can lead to a hardening of the heart, a belief that resources must be hoarded, and even a willingness to harm others to secure personal safety. Fear also breeds suspicion, making people easier to manipulate, easier to turn against one another, and more willing to accept authoritarian control if it promises security.

Cultures of cruelty thrive on this fear, amplifying narratives that paint others as threats, rather than kin. Systems of power often deliberately reinforce division, manufacturing scarcity to create dependence on controlling forces. The more people are afraid, the more they turn away from community and into self-preservation at all costs.

History has repeatedly shown that those who endure are not the most ruthless, but those who form networks of reciprocity and care. 

Anthropologists studying ancient civilizations note that communities survived crises not because of their weapons but because of their ability to share resources, distribute burdens, and maintain social trust. Well-supported people are more likely to survive but also to innovate, to heal, and to uplift others. 

In times like these, we need to recommit to each other that, no matter what, we will first and foremost uphold our humanity. That we will create networks of mutual aid and collective care, not only for providing needed material support, but as a way to resist a system that seeks to isolate and control. 

The first and most powerful actions in the direction of a more inviting world, like most things, begin within. We stay  compassionate in the face of fear, we cultivate inner steadiness.

• Ground in Reality: Often, the scarcity we fear is not immediate but projected. Take inventory of what is actually present. There is often more than we think.

• Recognize the Fear Response: Understand that fear is natural, but acting from fear alone is a choice. Notice when your mind shifts toward suspicion, resentment, or self-protection at the expense of others.

• Practice Emotional Regulation: Breathwork, meditation, and grounding exercises help keep the nervous system from being hijacked by fear-based impulses.

• Reaffirm Shared Humanity: When fear rises, make eye contact, listen, and connect. Look for the human behind the perceived threat.

• Reclaim the Narrative: Refuse to internalize messages of division. Seek stories of resilience, cooperation, and abundance rather than those that reinforce lack and competition.

• Continual Kindness as a Habit: Even small, daily acts of generosity retrain the brain toward connection rather than fear. Offering rather than withholding builds internal resilience.

Also, if we are prone to a fear response or an othering reaponse, we might have a look at our own parental frames—especially those rooted in authoritarian models of parenting, like the doctrine of 'tough love'—shape how we relate to power at a societal level. A child raised in an environment where love is conditional, where punishment is mistaken for discipline, and where vulnerability is seen as weakness, often internalizes these dynamics. Without conscious healing, these early imprints get projected onto leadership and governance. We begin to believe that control and domination are necessary for order, that suffering builds character, that kindness is naive. 

This is how the logic of authoritarianism seeps into the body politic: when people have been taught to fear tenderness, they seek 'strongmen' to rule over them. To break this cycle, we must do the inner work of reparenting ourselves—learning to hold ourselves and others with compassion rather than control, embracing care over coercion, and understanding that true strength is not about domination but about the capacity to nurture and protect.

Kindness in times of cruelty disrupts the logic of domination by creating alternate systems of value, ones based on generosity rather than extraction. When we choose to care for one another despite a culture that encourages competition and indifference, while defaming empathy, we become architects of a new world. 

We have to be kinder and more clear than usual now, and create the conditions where more people can withstand the storm together. It’s the loaves and fishes thing: there is always enough when we are sharing.

The people who uphold power through fear and disregard the humanity of others, will never in the long run be amplified. We are here to love and respect each other. 

The world we want to see begins in us.

With love,

Christine