War Profiteering During the protests against the war in Iraq, activists attacked large conglomerate companies like Bechtel, Halliburton, Chevron-Texaco, and Lockheed Martin and accused them of being war profiteers. This led to “making their operations a public question.”
“ Every line we succeed in publishing today—no matter how uncertain the future to which we entrust it— is a victory wrenched from the powers of darkness. ” – Walter Benjamin A German Jewish philosopher, cultural critic and essayist.
Change something problematic Build something better
“The way you win people over to your side is try to present the information from some perspective they’re familiar with.” – Baldemar Velasquez An American labor union activist
Summary | 02/20/17 1. There’s no such thing as a golden age 2. Solnit’s 3 goals: count the overlooked victories, assess the world, encourage people to use their voice 3. Disrupt the status quo 4. Always remember the victories, it fuels hope, which fuels action 5. Victims don’t want to be treated like victims 6. Depression is all-consuming 7. Activist signage works because of its simplicity 8. The state uses violence, activists use imagination 9. Power is guaranteed to no one
Summary | 02/27/17 1. Every movement creates a toolbox for future social change 2. Life is more complex than just cause & effect 3. Our voice is our legacy 4. The Angel of Alternate History gives us grounds to act 5. Earth will never be heaven 6. Crisis brings out the best in us 7. Activism is a two-sided coin 8. You can win people over by finding common ground
Walk away from power and find freedom
The Third Wave “While the third wave has begun serious new political thinking about global alternatives, it is basically anti-doctrinal, in contrast to both the first and second waves.”
“To be anti-doctrinal is to open yourself up to new and unexpected alliances , to new networks of power.”
An ideology against ideologies Anti-doctrination is concerned with preventing authority from rising. “In fact our strategies must be more like water itself, undermining everything that is fixed, hard and rigid with fluidity, constant movement and evolution.”
“Resisting a ‘party line’ has kept the movement together.”
“We are trying to build a politics of process , where the only certainty is doing what feels right at the right time and in the right place” – John Jordan An American vintner, philanthropist, technology entrepreneur
“We really have to free the notion of liberation and revolution from the idea of permanently setting up some other kind of society. ” – Alphonso Lingus An American philosopher, writer and translator
What if we thought of revolution as a means to give each participant the opportunity to reinvent the world.
“Think locally, act globally.”
Bioregionalism “an attempt to live within the potential meanings, communities, limitations, and long-term prospects of a region, to live on local terms, eat local foods, to know exactly where you were and how to take care of it. It was about belonging to a place not as a birthright but as an act of conscious engagement.”
Human Scale “The local can mean human scale, a scale on which people can be heard, make a difference, understand the dynamics of power and hold it accountable—a democratizing impulse.”
“Some plants die from the center and grow outward; the official United States seems like the rotten center of a flourishing world, for elsewhere, particularly around the edges, and even in the margins of this country, beautiful insurrections are flowering.”
“What looks perfectly ordinary after the fact would often have seemed like a miracle before it. ” – Chris Bright, author
Summary | 03/19/17 1. Anti-doctrination is concerned with preventing authority from rising. 2. Walk away from power and find freedom. 3. Build a politics of process 4. Use revolution to reinvent the world 5. “Think locally, act globally.” 6. Even if the center of something is rotting, that doesn’t mean one should give up on the edges. 7. Don’t take current freedoms and victories for granted.
Liminal Thinking Introduction, Part 1 (Principles 1-3) – Dave Gray
“Once you see the boundaries of your environment, they are no longer the boundaries of your environment. ” – Marshall McLuhan
Liminal Thinking A way of thinking that allows you to “create new doorways to possibilities, doorways that are invisible to others.” The art of creating change by understanding, shaping, and reframing beliefs.
“The idea behind liminal thinking is that there are thresholds, doors of opportunity, around you, all the time.”
Define: Liminal Comes from the Latin root limen which means “threshold”
Liminal People In life, people can take on liminal roles. Coach = part of the team and not part of the team. Consultant = part of the company and not part of the company. Teacher = part of the class and not part of the class.
“Boundaries give life structure, which makes us comfortable.” Boundaries should also, however, be challenged and moved and there, at those boundaries, is where change happens.
Part 1
Beliefs are Models
We are all blind. Because we cannot separate our experiences from reality.
Beliefs are Created
The obvious is not obvious. “Beliefs are not reality. They are not facts. They are constructions. You construct your beliefs, even though for most people this is an unconscious process.”
“Beliefs are constructed hierarchically, using theories and judgments, which are based on selected facts and personal, subjective experiences.”
“Beliefs are constructed hierarchically, using theories and judgments, which are based on selected facts and personal, subjective experiences.”
“...But we actually constructed this reality. Your “obvious” is one of many versions, and other people have different ones.”
Liminal space
Beliefs Create a Shared World
A belief is a story A belief is a story in your head, a cause-and-effect chain, like a recipe or rule for action.
Learning Loop A continuous feedback cycle of needs, thinking, and action. It’s the way we learn how to act, to give us the best chance to get what we want out of any situation.
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