The Leaderless Revolution : How ordinary people will take power and change politics in the twenty-first century

alpha-01 : Guide to the Leaderless Revolu...

Preface: Guide to the Leaderless Revolution Turning and turning in the widening gyre The falcon cannot hear the falconer; Things fall apart; the center cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere The ceremony of innocence is drowned; The best lack all conviction, while the worst Are full of passionate intensity.[157] Things do not seem to be going as planned. The system is broken. Meant to bring order, it foments instead disorder. We need something new. The end of the Cold War was supposed to presage the triumph of democracy and with it, stability. Globalization was supposed to launch everyone upon an eternally rising wave of prosperity. Some called it ... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.)

Introduction : The Sheer Cliff Face

INTRODUCTION: THE SHEER CLIFF FACE Some stories from the young twenty-first century: When the H1N1 “swine flu” virus struck Mexico in early 2009, it took only hours and days to spread to every continent in the world except unpopulated Antarctica. Authorities struggled to contain the spread of the disease. Desperate to prevent the import of infection, some governments resorted to aiming remote thermometers at arriving air passengers to measure their body temperature. The World Health Organization, responsible for global coordination of the fight against disease, admitted some months after the first outbreak that it had been unable to keep up with the vast flow of data from national health bodies. The virus, it later... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.)

Chapter 1 : The Wave and the Suicide Bombe...

1. The Wave and the Suicide Bomber When American troops entered Iraq in 2003, they were briefed to expect a conventional army consisting, as such armies do, of tanks, artillery and infantry. Saddam Hussein’s army had once contained more Main Battle Tanks, a primary unit of the conventional army, than all the armies of Western Europe put together.[162] The lead elements of the American and British armies, then, were surprised to find that most of the opposition they faced comprised not tanks and howitzers, but men in pickup trucks, bearing rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) and machine guns. These bands would attempt to ambush the advancing allied columns, launch the RPGs, then flee. They were not often successful. Indeed, ... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.)

Chapter 2 : The Pact

2. The Pact When a child is born in Britain, as in most other developed countries, its parents must register his or her birth. It is not made clear why this is necessary, but it is legally obligatory. At the local council website, it is politely explained that a new parent is required to register a birth; it is not stated—anywhere—why. You are, however, told that you will receive—free of charge!—a short birth certificate. Failure to register a birth is a criminal offense, and can incur a hefty penalty. It is an ornate and archaic ritual. The harried parent must put aside diapers and bottles in order to attend the local register office, which can be many miles distant. When the appointment takes place, t... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.)

Chapter 3 : Anarchy = Chaos

3. Anarchy = Chaos When the trouble first ignited in March 2004, I was in Geneva, at a conference designed—ironically, it turned out—to promote reconciliation between Kosovo’s Albanians and Serbs. An adviser to Kosovo’s prime minister, a friend, drew me aside: “Three Albanian children have been killed,” she whispered conspiratorially, “by a Serb.” With deliberate portent, she added, “There will be trouble.” Curiously, she seemed excited by the news. It was as if she was relieved that, at last, something was happening. Next day, back in Pristina, Kosovo’s capital where I then lived, it was clear that her premonition was correct.[63] Tension was palpable in that ... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.)

Chapter 4 : The Importance of Meeting Peop...

4. The Importance of Meeting People During the Spanish Civil War, more than thirty thousand people from over fifty nations volunteered to fight the Nationalist armies of General Franco. Many gave up jobs and left families in order to fight the emerging global threat of fascism, and to defend a nascent socialist, even anarchist republic. They joined Republican forces that were in many cases undertrained and equipped with antique and inadequate weapons. In Homage to Catalonia, George Orwell vividly describes the miserable conditions of the front-line troops, dug into feces-strewn trenches with neither the clothing nor arms properly to fight the Franco’s armies, which by contrast received substantial international support f... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.)

Chapter 5 : The Man in the White Coat

5. The Man in the White Coat The experiments conducted in the early 1960s by the Yale psychologist Stanley Milgram are a well-known demonstration of how authority can incite people to undertake heinous acts. Conducted soon after the 1961 trial of the Nazi Adolf Eichmann, Milgram’s experiment showed how otherwise normal individuals could be instructed to commit horrific acts including torture and murder, if commanded to do so by a person of sufficient, even if feigned, authority. But the experiment also illustrates a problem that pervades the current international system and the current practice of diplomacy. That problem has a name—amorality: the profoundly negative moral consequences of officials, in this case dip... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.)

Chapter 6 : Why Chess Is an Inappropriate ...

6. Why Chess Is an Inappropriate Metaphor for International Relations, Why Jackson Pollack Paintings Are a Better but Still Inadequate Metaphor, and Why This Has Profound Political Consequences The chess game is a frequent metaphor for the business of international relations. Artfully shot photographs of kings and knights adorn many a book or scholarly article (particularly those about the theory of “IR”). The chess game appeals as analogy because it is complicated, it involves two clearly defined opponents and, above all, because although a very difficult game, it is ultimately comprehensible: There may be a very large number of permutations (according to Garry Kasparov, there are 10120 possible games), but there are a l... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.)

Chapter 7 : The Means Are the Ends

7. The Means Are the Ends In colonial India, the British forbade Indians from making their own salt, and charged steeply for it as a form of indirect taxation on the subject people, a tax that hit the poorest especially hard. In 1930, Mahatma Gandhi decided to attack this injustice directly, and organized a march to India’s coast, where salt could be made from seawater—for free—directly challenging the British monopoly of salt production. Gandhi’s “salt march” or “Salt Satyagraha” is rightly renowned as one of the most important acts of political protest in recent history. Gandhi chose to attack the salt tax, against the advice of some of his political colleagues, because it was ... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.)

Chapter 8 : Kill the King! Nine Principles...

8. Kill the King! Nine Principles for Action So much for all the theory, stories and ideas… what is to be done? Here is a short list of principles that may guide action, along with a few practical examples. The principles are by no means exclusive or comprehensive: mere pointers, not instructions. 1. Locate your convictions. This is perhaps the hardest step, and I have the least useful to say about it (apart from Gandhi’s and Claudette Colvin’s examples, cited earlier). This must be an individual discovery of what you care most about. And this is the most fundamental point: Do not let others tell you what to care about. This can only be a leaderless revolution, if it is to succeed. Make up your own mi... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.)

Chapter 9 : Kill the King!

9. Kill the King! Chess may be useless as a metaphor for international relations but it carries one very important lesson. The only point of the game is to take the opponent’s king. All other moves, and elegant plays with bishop or pawns, are but preliminary to this object. Do not be satisfied with process, but only with results. A campaign to end genocide, richly adorned with expensive video and glamourous celebrities, is worth nothing if it doesn’t save a single life. Don’t campaign for others to perform the action required to achieve change: Do it yourself. Sending a text message or signing an Internet petition is likely to achieve nothing, given that so little went into it. The measure of any political ac... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.)

Acknowledgements

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS More than a dozen people helped with the research for this book over the five years I spent preparing it. I would like particularly to thank Tait Foster, who gave me a great deal of excellent, prompt and accurate research help. There were many others who read the book, listened to its ideas and provided suggestions and helpful criticism. Many people, therefore, should share the credit for the book, and I thank them sincerely, while all errors of course remain my own. They include: Rob Akam, Ardian Arifaj, Stephanie Blair, Lyle Berman, Lili Birnbaum, John Brademas, Jake Camara, Royston Coppenger, David Cornwell, Neill Denny, Joy de Menil, Anna Dupont, Mark Earls, Susanna Emmet, Nick Fraser, Karl French, S... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.)

Notes

[1] “The Flash Crash: Autopsy,” Economist, Oct. 7, 2010. [2] Alex Evans of Chatham House originated this term. [3] “Food and Water Driving 21st-Century African Land Grab,” Observer, Mar. 7, 2010. [4] “Immeasurable loss,” Economist, Nov. 12, 2008. [5] As reported in Financial Times, Nov. 9, 2010. [6] State Department Assistant Secretary for Human Rights Mike Posner, reported in “Clinton Defends Human Rights Approach,” New York Times, Dec. 14, 2009. [7] Colum Lynch, “U.N. Takes Stock of Its Diminished Influence,” Sept. 13, 2010, turtlebay.foreignpolicy.com. [8] Parag Khanna, “Future Shock: Welcome to the New Middle Ages,” Financial Times... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.)

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The Leaderless Revolution : How ordinary people will take power and change politics in the twenty-first century

By Carne Ross

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Author : Carne Ross

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