Authored by: Admin on Wednesday, October 17 2007 @ 11:52 PM CDT

I'm all for direct democracy. It's a pretty important concept for small and larger groups.

Chuck

[ Reply to This | # ]

Authored by: fendersen on Thursday, October 18 2007 @ 01:56 AM CDT

From an anthropological perspective, a cultural institution is nothing but a set of social behaviors reproduced over time, and the driving mechanism, at least from a Boasian point of view, is habit, custom and tradition, not planning, organizing and implementing. In fact, rational decision-making on a cultural level need not even be invoked. With tradition, circumstances alone should be sufficient to provoke a spontaneous response. Institutions need not be hierarchical nor authoritative. This habitual behavior is something we see ourselves on a daily basis, but are uncomfortable when it is pointed out because our culture is oriented around traditions of rational social engineering relegated to so-called experts. We live in a culture with oppressive institutions which everyone agrees need fixed (or abolished), but few would take on the responsibility to change their own behavior

[ Reply to This | # ]

Authored by: Admin on Thursday, October 18 2007 @ 11:04 AM CDT

Those are really pretty words, but they aren't much help when it comes to running a small group or organization. If you want to run actual anarchist groups and not just talk about revolution in your insurrectionary journal, you have to engage in methods like consensus and direct democracy.

Whoever thought that the anti-organizationalists would have turned this old anti-organizationalist into a pro-organization anarchist. I guess when your critiques don't translate into practice those of us who are into practical results change our minds.

Chuck0

[ Reply to This | # ]