I could subtitle this post "The evolution of activism," or, "The Activism of Evolution;" but I couldn't decide which, any-more than the other posts, so I didn't bother. Ostensibly, masses of people parading on every populous street are less likely to fall into chaos and mischief and less containable by authorities than a mob loitering below the balcony of a tyrant, but they can become disturbing nonetheless. I am less interested in the activism "the usual suspects" are famous for, and more interested in practical social change. Here, I wish to describe the nuts and bolts of it.
There are various kinds of groups in the world and they differ in functionality. Large groups tend to become dysfunctional because they get too trapped in discussion. Smaller groups become swamped in the mass of humanity. The success which can be found in the middle might be groups of groups, commonly described as "focus-groups," in meetings, but here I wish to describe a specific kind of methodology.
Groups of three are good for constraining discussion and ensuring a deciding vote. Likewise, groups of nine may divide into threes, and in the larger sense retain the advantage of the deciding vote. Such groups are generally able to choose leadership with little debate, in comparison to larger groups. If larger groups assemble to achieve larger aims, they may become more functional if assembled from these basic groupings, sometimes dynamically. Democracy has defensible uses, but my experience is that consensus has a limited carrying capacity which swallows activity in discussion beyond a certain size of group.
What follows will be a relatively terse description of various roles and activities within an organizing structure, which may very well resemble game-roles in various MMORGs, but which is intended to deconstruct the sometimes criminal behaviours which may be found in what might seem to be innocent behaviours within game-play, social-action or much of obvious corruption in other parts of civilization.
Roles of People on the Dispenser
People and places...
Patrol - This is the notion of walking or riding, observing the people within a community, and facilitating people's interaction with resources within a community. It is important to distinguish between observing people and spying on them, which is malicious and frequently unwarranted. To patrol a community is of most value when one observes the needs of individuals and their potential to participate in the community. Peace is a result of connecting people with opportunities and resources, because they become unlikely to become motivated to disturb the peace.
Guardian - Similar to patrol, but in a stationary place. Typically the proprietor or door-person of an enterprise, and hopefully aware of the opportunities of neighbouring places. If such a guardian is congenial enough to discover more about their neighbours than merely their faces and "the cut of their jib," the benefits of this service can multiply.
Hangouts - A coffee-shop or bar, or a neighbourhood square, is a too-frequently neglected social resource. Franchising has never failed to betray the benefits so many of us long for in the memory of favourite places. There is much said about greetings in such places leading to advantage-taking, but many occupations and lifestyles depend on such greetings and partings within their social economies. Bulletin-boards can become a targeted community-resource in such places. So can proprietors and patrons, if such venues protect their independence and cultural uniqueness.
Shelter - Shared housing is so common that much can be made of its relation to lifestyle. Subversion of the dialogue resulting from online listings too-often damages the intention to create a healthy relationship. Sustaining a relationship with the community resources described above may cultivate a healthy alternative to bulk responses to advertisements.
Car - A vehicle is a luxury for some more than others, and can become a community resource if agreements are made around its use and maintenance within a community. It's not always easy becoming a "car-angel", but it is obvious that age, infirmity and poverty do not eliminate the need of one when cargo or a difficult trip are contemplated.
Jobs - The reasons for a choice of occupation are numerous, while people often choose to know each other on the basis of convenience or an anticipation of lifestyle, as much as for pursuit of professional visibility. Again, there is much said about advantage-taking related to networking, but people can choose to avoid screwing each other over. It isn't worth saying more than that in reference to an individual role in this post.
Guilds - I mention this in an informal grass-roots sense. Patrols, guardians and proprietors, as with larger occupational bodies, may choose to form guilds in order to share information about resources and opportunities. Trades organizations tend to focus on skills development, accreditation and fairness in relations with administration of work; but the notion of a guild refers more to a free choice of membership, based on an affinity to the intentions of it. It is important here to avoid any protectionistic practices which prevent a person's inclusion in a community, and any subversiveness or vengefulness which may result. Such behaviour causes problems rather than preventing them.
Activities People Share
If people have become able to agree to "be someone" within an activistic community, Then they may share and nurture the care of activities which may realisticly contribute to any intentions they share.
Messaging - Within activism, this is the larger sense of building a sharing of awareness and belief around people, resources and opportunities. I distinguish this from a discussion of issues because issues divide people, and I see more damage than benefit from clothing any person, people or organization in a carpet of issues and dissent. Of course it is my own experience of personal attacks which leads me to point to the distinction, but I am aware that this has become an intractable problem for a large number of people and it may take some time to repair the damage such personal attacks have caused for all of them.
Reprimand - A community member or representative may observe someone doing or saying something damaging to the community and provide a short, polite explanation why the behavior is unwelcome. This serves as an alternative to responses I have observed which are considerably more abusive.
Intervention - Messaging on a larger scale, as above, which responds to unwelcome activity of a body of people disturbing harmony within a community. What is to be avoided is to establish viral-behavior which reflects on itself and mutates into something which may escalate into something more damaging.
Vocal Mass - This approaches and may transcend the typical behaviors of activist parades and gatherings. The innovation which has appeared recently is preparation which allows such parades to appear and disappear in a seemingly spontaneous manner. Care needs to be taken with these. I have experienced many such parades which made false claims regarding my life and personality, which can only be interpreted as criminal. A person has no defense against such games when the source of origin cannot be identified.
Street Theatre - Similar to Vocal Masses, or combined with them. Skits may model welcome behavior or mock unwelcome behavior. The same care needs to be taken with this, for the same reasons.
Some People's Dysfuncional Communication Problems
Sucker-punch - Any breakdown in communication, whether deliberate or the result of a flaw in a chain of communication, which results in someone engaging in a futile endeavor. I have witnessed sucker-punches designed into the methods of a personal attack, owing to a deliberate sabotage of communication and authority structure. It is a merciless and heartless style of personal attack which no-one should allow themselves to participate in.
Power Trip - Too often this is less a personal intention to be malicious, and more an expression of policy. A person might be more inclined to respond to obvious basic-needs if they were not subordinate to a misguided policy. I often joke about the "Non-confrontational Communication" Prevention Method which front-line workers often use to avoid providing service they are supposedly employed to provide.
Idiot Wind - This is a vicious social behavior intended to mock an individual with suggestions to interpret their personality with respect to specific personality traits. It is a gossip behavior which becomes maddening if it is pervasive.
Personal Attacks - I am highlighting this because there are many organized-stalking conspiracies currently in existence which gain an intractable momentum by becoming juxtaposed in a balance which is dangerous to dismantle without tracing and considering sources and balances of influence. Such attacks may include any or all of the above psychological attack methods.
Combing - In response to any kind of organized-stalking behavior, it is practical for concerned activists to pursue a practice of direct confrontation of participants in personal-attack behavior. A snippet of poetry: 'Assert a mind to be-kind a mind, to find a mind to be-kind of minds in the minding of minds.'
Carpets - Masses of people, following a leader or leaders in a practice of messaging or other activity. They need to be considered carefully in terms of mass and influence. Influence is largely a measure of the simplicity of a message and its appeal to human nature. However, a behavior in a mass of people can lead others to become defensive and deflate the influence of a message. People naturally become defensive when a group becomes militarized into an army of a message, or alternately, an army of spies. It is never helpful to drive people into fear.
Ladders - A design or failure of design related to sucker-punches and a power-trip which sucker-punches can become. One friend told another friend who told another friend. The appearance of Haley's Comet became a non-performance of Bill Haley and the Comets. Ladders deflate the confidence of everyone who participates when a failure of communication leaves everyone without recourse. Designing communications into ladders is either incompetent or malicious. A remedy is to 'flip' the orientation of a ladder to discover the source and dissolve it, under observation from outside.
Progressive Organization
Causes - Groups organize in the intention to cause a change in something. Too much of activism and non-profit sector behavior allows itself to be trapped in mimicking the design of corporations, striving for perpetuity and expansion. These aims are neither sustainable nor desirable in any effective social organization. Orientation towards solutions presupposes a desire for the obsolescence of a society having solved the problem which it formed in order to solve.
Courses of causes - Some kinds of social change are the product of projects which progress in stages. My experience is that if all of the steps were anticipated at the beginning of an project, nearly all of them will change in a process which leads to completion. Completion of a cause becomes cause of a cause, and completion of a course of causes becomes cause to sever of a cause.
Divorces and Severances - Having mentioned it already, all of my approaches towards organizing contain a notion that an individual may choose to divorce of a cause or a group at any time, and vice-versa, and that completion of a cause intends severance of the participants. There is no need for the sentimentality which divorce and severance may incite, because it is a reflection of the end of a process rather than having a bearing on friendship. We each follow many paths through life, and we need to be able to conjoin and disperse freely. It allows us to re-form freely in response to the many causes of humanity.
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