From: zed@magna.com.au (Zed) Newsgroups: alt.religion.scientology Subject: Re: Getting a group to accomplish a common goal (software; applicable to other Date: Thu, 04 Sep 1997 08:23:03 GMT Organization: University of Wollongong, NSW, Australia. Lines: 78 Message-ID: <5ulqnh$c18$1@wyrm.its.uow.edu.au> Reply-To: zed@magna.com.au NNTP-Posting-Host: ppp02.connectivity.net.au X-Newsreader: Forte Free Agent 1.0.82 -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- > On Tue, 02 Sep 1997 12:07:49 +0200, > Jens Tingleff wrote: > > :The page http://locke.ccil.org/~esr/writings/cathedral-paper-10.html > :inspired me to think "I've seen that in action before" - thinking about the > :anti-Co$ activities. The rest of the paper is very interesting for those of > :us who dabble in programming, but this page talks about harnessing the > :power of a diverse bunch of people, in a way which I find applicable to > :what we're trying to do. > > > Zed posted something about this last year, too - citizens' activism, > and why the Net is so good for this. Does anyone have it to hand, o > remember the book he was quoting from? > The book was called "When Corporations Rule the World". Here's the quote again: "When citizen volunteers organize to oppose powerful institutions that command billions of dollars and access to the most privileged inner sanctums of political power, it seems a highly uneven contest. The institutions of transnational capital are highly visible, their power is concentrated in an identifiable corporate core, and they command enormous amounts of money. Yet their ability to command the life energies of people diminishes quickly if their money flows are restricted. Citizen activists are learning to turn these characteristics into vulnerabilities. "The power of civil society rests with its enormous capacity to rapidly and flexibly network diverse and dispersed individuals and organisations that are motivated by voluntary commitments. Effective citizen networks have many leaders - each able to function independantly of the others. The diversity and independance of their members allow them to examine problems from many different perspectives and bring diverse abilities to bear. Their use of the same electronic communications technologies - phone, fax, and computer - that corporations have used to extend their global reach allows them to move quickly and flexibly in joint actions at local, national and global levels. "The lack of a defined structure can make the actions of citizen networks incoherent and difficult to sustain, but it also gives them the ability to surround, infiltrate, and immobilize the most powerful institutions. These same characteristics make them virtually impervious to attacks by the more centralized, money-dependant global institutions of business and finance. Any one node in the network can be immobilized and isolated - key actors have even been assassinated - - - - but a functioning network is able to adjust almost instantaneously. It is much like a hologram that can be reconstructed from any of its parts. Indeed, attacks on citizen networks expose the ill will of the perpetrators, offend moral sensibilities, increase the network's visibility, attract new recruits, and strengthen resolve." Zed Xenu Remailer for a.r.s.:http://www.magna.com.au/~zed/remailer.html "I try to use only the strongest evidence in my criticism. Part of that must include pointing out where other evidence is lacking." - Rogue Agent -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.3ia Charset: cp850 iQEVAwUBNA8KfCsxIzhyTOOxAQF4PQf+OamMIKCZuE/qIPAU3CmHjL55UQ0nGeZG OJAkPNgCBBTyH2YSLjpKWDsnKAkpfv7a59IgS8CrLg7UxpiD6/YIDvyJyFVU792S 4a0EyRUUmRE3XZ0Gj2SS2dm/llhqnEBeV9s8UUiK2SqQbAopEEGKUAWPyywyACJ6 tvQr/qIdCfunLdLOzgpnFRgmQOds9bgIHBykFxY3UDdeTdftZ723JfyrWkVskNDj +hy+3PtcBAO9bh0bxLLzt8Ce4GiFwr2hWNV/i4VDED6DkyMHeTN0uhstvZVzUPea kuywmh1tpitnSTU41eJ0iBbPwFrnL2BXaPlzpjQMpHPGQ9UldLHoPw== =be7C -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----