I’ve been having a conversation on Substack about social movements and how change actually happens. And I realized that what I’ve been doing instinctively has a solid foundation in academic theory. So lately, I’ve been getting up to speed on the frameworks that have been underpinning the work I’ve been doing all along.
As I turn it over, looking at it from many angles… the more I look at it, the more it feels like something that’s simple on the surface but actually explains the depths of what’s going wrong in the world.
Or maybe more importantly… what might still be fixable.
Here’s the way I’ve come to see it (thanks Jess from Friday’s Economics): There are really only three layers we’re dealing with.
Culture. Networks. Systems. Or, to say it a little differently:
- Culture (memetics) is environmental. You beat a drum.
- Networks are relational. You build a tribe.
- Systems are structural. You start a movement.
And the key thing (something that is often missed) is that all three have to line up. Not eventually. But, together. Because what I see happen, over and over again, is people jumping straight to systems. It makes sense, right? Systems feel real. Tangible. Measurable. Change the policy. Build the app. Redesign the process. Launch the platform. That feels like progress. But if the cultural layer (the memetic layer, the inspirational layer) is off… people don’t actually want the thing you built. So, they ignore it. Or worse, they game it.
And if the network layer is weak… even a good idea just kind of dies quietly. It never gets enough reinforcement to spread. It never feels real to enough people. So, you end up with these ghost systems that kind of work… but don’t thrive. No roots.
That’s why Jess’s idea of “strategic reweaving” made sense to me. Because it’s not about building from scratch. It’s about working with what’s already there; the threads that already exist and aligning them. Pulling them back into coherence. Because each layer does something different:
- Culture (memetics) defines what feels worth wanting
- Networks determine what becomes contagious
- Systems decide if it endures
And you need all three. You can’t just preach new values and expect people to change. Not really. Not in a lasting way. People need to see those values embodied (lived out) by actual people, in close proximity. And you can’t just have tight communities doing good work without structures that reinforce it; without something that makes it repeatable, visible, remembered. And you definitely can’t build systems and hope meaning shows up later. Society tried that. But it didn’t work well.
So now we’ve got a directional vacuum. Culture isn’t being shaped intentionally… it’s just being filled by whatever spreads fastest. Not what’s healthiest. Not what’s meaningful. Just… what wins the attention game.
And that’s a serious problem.
Because if you want to build something that lasts, something regenerative, the right move isn’t just “build the platform”; it’s more layered than that. You seed the memetics – you decide what counts as value, what counts as status, what’s worth honoring. Then you densify the network. You bring people into real proximity; trusted, visible relationships where those values are actually lived out. And then you encode it into systems. Things that make it stick. And maybe the simplest way to say it is this:
- Culture (memetics) tells us what to want
- Networks show us why it matters
- Systems give it structure and longevity
Get those three pulling in the same direction… and something big happens. Things start to feel inevitable. That’s when an idea stops feeling like an idea… and starts feeling like reality.
And if I bring it all the way down to what we’re actually trying to do at KommunityKoin:
- Culture (memetics): make contribution feel meaningful and honorable again
- Networks: make it visible among people who actually know each other
- Systems: make it remembered, reinforced, and repeatable
That’s the work. That’s the reweaving that we’re doing.
So, join us in making the world a better place. You’ll be glad that you did.
Cheers, friends