Maff Potts, our guest on Ratio Talks this week, has much to teach us about a powerful civil society and the potential of a relational social policy. We will hear more from him as the series progresses.
But today’s conversation focuses on his moral agency, his constant pushing against business as usual.
Maff stumbled into the so called helping professions, rapidly becoming a leader of powerful organisations and an advisor to government.
But he came to understand that too often the professions didn’t help. They were missing something. For Maff, that something was being human.
Systems systematise. Many people using systems don’t fit. Many workers don’t fit. Maff didn’t fit.
After several frustrating years agitating for change from within Maff decided to move out. He left work, retreated to his garden shed, and tried to figure out what was going wrong, and how to put it right.
He concluded that the answer to our problems is each other. He started a movement, Camerados, dedicated to connection. The movement sets up public living rooms, spaces for strangers to meet. There are now 250 around the world.
In this episode Maff talks about the challenges of being the moral agent that made all this happen.
Ratio Talks is available on Substack, on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
Get in touch with us any time by sending an email to hello@ratio.org.uk.
Ratio Talks is produced with the help of sound designer Nik Paget-Tomlinson and creative director Richard De Angelis. The show’s theme song is by Luca Picardi.
Maff Potts on Being Human