Comments on: Why Self-Organized Networks Will Destroy Hierarchies — A Credo by Kevin Carson

By: denis postle

denis postle — Fri, 27 Jul 2012 15:52:20 +0000

Great to discover another enthusiast for James C. Scott’s work!
My experience of being a participant for the last 16 years in the UK’s Independent Practitioners Network, IPN, a fullon non-hierarchical civic accountability network (around 150 therapists) has been very instructive.
Learnings needed to sustain such a network appear to include: considerable face to face contact, significant emotional competence, significant capacity for self-direction, communally developed and agreed ‘principles and procedures’, trust based on significant levels of mutual personal disclosure and not least, network-wide recognition and interruption of micro-fascism including our own.

What Kevin says about non-hierarchical groups being more flexibility and adroit the top down orgnaisation was strongly supported by IPN’s part in the successful campaign in the last few years to interrupt the quite openly toxic attempts by the government to regulate counseling and psychotherapy in the UK. Our ability to contribute lived orientation and support and to rapidly marshal and guarantee resources, actions and meetings of a broad coalition helped persistently wrong-foot the state agency, to the extent to which the incoming coalition government withdrew support from them.
A detailed case study of this campaign and other items of interest to P2P enthusiasts feature in my forthcoming book from PCCS Books Therapy Futures – Obstacles and Opportunities – Introducing the psyCommons

By: Poor Richard

Poor Richard — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 06:43:41 +0000

Rather than fall, the state will be hollowed out until it is pure facade. But don’t underestimate the ability of some corporate hierarchies to persist even in the face of massive civil disobedience. The bigger ones can feed on the smaller ones for quite some time and continue to hold sway over the spineless half (or more) of the population.

By: David von Geyer

David von Geyer — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 12:13:00 +0000

There’s always an exception, in this case if a person with skills and experience acquired in a particular industry advances up the hierarchy, they may know a lot about the problems faced by those interfacing with real situations. That said, if you look at most unaccountable organisations, let’s take the FA for example, it was run at one time by Adam Crozier who worked for Saatchis. He may know lots about advertising, PR and spin, but I really don’t know what he knows about football, I wouldn’t put him in the upper quartile. It’s not surprising when you look at the proponents that recent Tory policies have proved unpopular with the public and the organisations that were targeted for “radical reform”.
The Tories regard Andrew Lansley as a leading thinker. Like many of his colleagues he has the classic out-of-touch toff background of posh school followed by PPE/similar at posh Uni. What next, some real-life experience? Far from it, straight into politics as a lackey while he kissed enough arse to qualify for a safe seat and then years in his comfy cocoon peering down from the ivory tower with a macro view of everything, but no idea of what reality is.
The obvious solution is to make decisions that reflect the reality of society and to do that we need to use the Internet to let everybody Vote For Yourself. At the next election, the plan is to stand 650 independent candidates to form a transitional government that would oversee the introduction of the Internet systems. The public would debate and then vote for policies that would have a real effect on rebalancing society, the economy, foreign policy etc. The organs of state would then administer these policies and the legislature would evolve into a very different entity.
A consensus supported by millions of people would carry far more weight than the ideologically driven policies, without mandate, currently being rammed down the throats of the public.
Do it here and every country will do something similar at the first opportunity.

By: Kevin Carson

Kevin Carson — Sun, 17 Apr 2011 03:48:30 +0000

Thanks, Michel.