The title of her post at Naked Capitalism says it all. But the rest of the post is well worth reading, too. Yves shares her own experience with this process.
What I would add is this is not new. It is the way the countercultural movement was organized in the Sixties, and it is derived from ancient tribal cultures worldwide.
It is also how all the organizations in which I have participated since then have been organized. It's cumbersome at first, but it works by building consensus, mutual appreciation and trust, clarity, and coordination. It is based on interpersonal group dynamics and increasing adaptability rate by freeing exploring options.
Those who participate in this movement are going to learn a lot that will stand them in good stead for the rest of their lives. It sure changed my life. I got involved in this after coming out of the military, which is about the most top-down, hierarchical, and authoritarian organization in existence. What a contrast.
It is also how things work in the blogosphere through the interactivity of comments. It's one reason I am here. It works.
Update:
Bruce Krasting at Zero Hedge, I go to Zuccotti Park
With pictures.
Link seems broken -- here's a better one
ReplyDeleteThanks, Hugo. Fixed.
ReplyDeleteNot very convincing examples:
ReplyDelete"One that OWS has invoked is the open source model" - and where is Linux now vs Microsoft?
"The second is Japanese nemawashi" - and where is the Japanese economy at and how are Japanese corporations faring now on the world stage now?
I usually like reading Yves Smith's articles but unfortunately she is way off the mark with this one.
"and where is Linux now vs Microsoft?"
ReplyDeleteWell, it's on most of the servers running the internet (along with other Free/Open Source Software operating systems such as FreeBSD), it's on most of the smartphones sold today, it's on home routers (pretty much all of them), TVs, fridges... On desktop computers Microsoft's legacy advantage is keeping them afloat, but desktops are not where the big growth is.
"and where is the Japanese economy at and how are Japanese corporations faring now on the world stage now?"
Because of course it's the corporations that matter. Japanese unemployment is 4.3% (not a typo; four point three); where is US unemployment at again?
"It is also how things work in the blogosphere through the interactivity of comments."
ReplyDeletei wish. things can work that way in the blogosphere only insofar as the people involved want them to work that way. (certainly, it seems to me to be mostly true of the econoblogosphere). however, imo there is a big problem in the progressive political blogoshere where there is a lot of narrative control, not all of it entirely honest. there's the obvious stuff, such as when a decision is made to push a particular narrative (even in the face of inconvenient facts, or prior posts -- i remember one particular incident when apparently the decision had been made to "blame" the republicans for our deficit "problem" and paul rosenberg at open left did a 180 deg turn from prior posts and had some pretty silly responses to tom hickey calling him out on the deficit nonsense).
worse, i think, is the practice of disappearing an inconvenient comment or commenter without leaving a trace. this, imo, is far worse because there's no way to know what actually happened or what was actually written unless one is watching in real time. far far too many "progressive" political bloggers engage in this type of narrative and brand control.
anyway... the reason i bring this up is that one of the things i find so inspiring about the occupy everywhere movement is what they are attempting to put into practice (as yves and tom describe). more than anything this is what makes me want to be part of it.... and i hope that many of the mmt-aware will participate to the extent that they are able.
@Selise
ReplyDeleteI agree about the 'Narrative Pollution' that goes on in the blogsphere. Personally, I think that some bloggers are serving the same purpose as Fox News & other mainstream propagandists.