Turning ideas into action… what’s it take?
Chris Corrigan notices patterns and expands with his own insight, drawing on the Occupy Wall St. movement and conversations from its origins with Adbusters.
Some selects from Corrigan‘s post. Check out the full article to see what inspired these observations:
It is a complex world and small interventions can make a difference. Nothing is guaranteed, but there are a few characteristics of #OccupyWallStreet that are worth pointing out. If an idea like this is to propagate and spread it requires a few key things to take it beyond a brainstorming session:
An invitation. What is our one demand? The poster is not a manifesto, it is an invitation to co-create, to show up and deliberate together. While {there is} an idea, the process is important.
Connectivity. Adbusters has a massive network of people who are in constant communication with each other. Such a network makes it possible to share and propagate ideas, and ensures that the medium for transmitting the idea is already in place. If you have to build a network to get your ideas out, you are already behind the times.
Sponsorship. {Different Generations Collaborating Together} “I feel like this is the first time in the 20-plus year history of Adbusters that we really have a chance to pull something off, and it’s we. Let’s face it, most of the people, probably 90 per cent of the people camping out on Wall Street are young people, and even though I’m not sleeping there I still feel it’s we. It takes old people like me and theoreticians like Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri, who are writing for our next issue, and people like David Graeber, the anarchist, and Saul Newman, the guy who recently wrote a book about anarchism. It takes all kinds of people to launch a revolution, but the cutting edge is young people who put their asses on the line.”
A light plan with few expectations. A concrete strategic plan with a fail safe strategy is too rigid and brittle for this work. In order for self-organizing behavior to have a chance, you need to step back and let things unfold as they will. And if it fizzles, let it go. But if it works, throw everything you have at it to keep it going.
A shared purpose aligned with the times. There is a clear purpose at the core of this work and that is to address the economic and social inequalities that plague the world. The time for analysis is over. We know what the problem is. Even those who clamor for the movement to be clear know deep down that the protesters are right about something. You can sense it. There is a need and the movement is providing a focus for the despondency that many people feel. This is not a small issue that only a few people can relate to. The 99% is real, and invites each of us to find our own relationship to the core.
A view of possibility. “I know it sounds kind of grandiose, but it seems like on Nov. 3 and 4, when the G20 meet, it is possible to have millions of people marching around the world, all demanding one thing. And we believe that one thing could be the Robin Hood tax.”
This is not aimless. This is action that is undertaken with the idea that something is possible. A tax on financial transactions – slowing down fast money
Wether you’re behind the Occupy Wall St. movement or not, what I want to know is what is your One Demand? What is your Big Idea? How can we together keep moving what’s important forward into action?