Networks, Autonomy, and Carnival

Here are a few really interesting excerpts I found from the book, "We Are Everywhere: The Irresistible Rise of Global Anti-Capitalism."

This book was created as an anonymous, collaborative effort by a collective group of accredited authors and activists publishing under the name "Notes From Nowhere." These three sections, entitled: "Networks," "Autonomy," and "Carnival" discuss crucial aspects, elements and tactics for developing a successful social movement/collective community/swarm/carnival/etc. After reading through all the articles, I have extracted quotes that I feel are important to understand when thinking about resistance and emergence of social movements. Some quotes also portray how concepts encompassed in sacred geometry can be used to understand social patterns and group dynamics.

All of the full documents can be downloaded in .pdf form from this website (go to "Stories"): http://www.weareeverywhere.org/

"Networks: The Ecology of the Movements"

• "Mechanistic perceptions have been central to our patriarchal, Western scientific world view. But this formulation of reality involves an enormous blind spot, one which science has only relatively recently started to uncover. As a result, they have failed to recognized complex interdependent systems...Mechanistic thinking develops a world view which is unable to see the interconnection and interdependence of life, unable to see the world for what it is--a huge complex, dynamic system where everything is connected to everything...Scientists are now discovering what indigenous knowledge has long taught--everything is connected" (66-67).

• "The process of simple local units generating complicated global or group behavior, a process not directed by a conscious entity,but rather emerging through the interrelationships of the system's parts, is known in scientific circles as emergence...Emergence may seem to "just happen," but it's actually the result of clear sets of mathematical principles and processes that govern a highly connected network. Through these, we can learn how to organize creative actions and build sustainable movements in our local communities...Spontaneity is a vital tool of resistance, but it occurs only under certain conditions. The most successful movements are those that are able to adapt to situations rapidly and spontaneously...because of a stunning amount of preparation, interconnection, and flow of communication that is already in place" (68).

• "Ingredients of successful mass action...organize workshops, trainings, and coordinating meetings; form[ing] affinity groups which meet each other and form clusters; set up independent media centers and pirate radio stations, ready to compile information from multiple street reporters and feed it back to the streets; [and] develop beautiful and enticing printed propaganda...we need to continue to develop ways of working that learn from our victories, which build on the past and yet are always reaching into the unmapped and unknown future. Sustainability comes to those who can adapt and change the quickest..." (68-69).

• "Emergence teaches us that not to know everything is a strength and that local knowledge is sovereign. The magic is in the densely interconnected systems made up of small simple elements. As soon as our groups become too big,communication tends to break down and hierarchies develop" (71).

"Autonomy: Creating Spaces for Freedom"

• "A dynamic geometry of social struggle is emerging, fractal-like, where local autonomy is repeated and magnified within networks that overflow geographical, cultural and political borders" (111).

• "True autonomy means new and variable tactics, learning patience in order to flow around and above obstacles, learning to retreat, disperse, and then regroup to swarm and surround. It requires us to educate and communicate..."(113).

"Carnival: Resistance is the Secret of Joy"

• "Carnival and revolution have identical goals: to turn the world upside down with joyous abandon and to celebrate our indestructible lust for life, a lust that capitalism tries so hard to destroy with its monotonous merry go round of work and consumerism...carnival refuses the constant mediation and representations of capitalism. It opens up an alternative social space of freedom where people can begin to really live again. This also means turning what we consider to be political on its head...Carnival's mockery,chaos, and transgression have always threatened the sobriety and seriousness of the state" (175,177).

• "Carnival denies the existence of experts, or rather, insists that everyone is one--that each person possess something unique and essential, and success depends on freeing that in us all" (178).

• "Fear is dispelled most effectively, not by anger or determination, but by laughter...Carnival teaches us not to wait, but to live out the future we desire now" (180,182).