This is a living example of Martin Luther King’s Sixth Step Toward Non-Violent Social Change: Reconcile
Keep all actions and negotiations peaceful and constructive. Agree to disagree with some people and with some groups as you work to improve society. Show all involved the benefits of changing, not what they will give up by changing.

AND the chickens will have better living conditions.

Physical space has a marked effect on creative output. Building 20, on the MIT campus, was apparently one of the most outstanding “incubators” for new ideas ever. Because it had a confusing layout and was designed to be a temporary structure, one which housed a variety of different programs and projects, all sorts of people who wouldn’t usually interact were running into each other all the time (as well as altering the space to fit their needs).

I am retyping this post after seeing it vanish from my computer screen, so let’s see if I remember the other two lessons that I was trying to impart… . Ah yes.

Dissent creates spark(le)s. Brainstorming is not all that successful–a single individual can come up with a list of ideas much more speedily than a group of people can, and better ones too–except when participants have to defend and grapple with each others’ ideas. Apparently the very process of encountering a “bad” idea, considering the perspective of its originator, attempting to assess whether or not it really is “bad” and how, and then trying to improve or replace it, jogs the brain into forming different connections, wider leaps, more surprising shifts of perspective…and more actually good ideas.

And finally:

Proximity matters. The most successful published scientific research comes from participants who are no more than ten meters away from each other; distance of even 1 kilometer means a decreased likelihood of truly groundbreaking work.

Now what, I wonder, does any of this imply about our project for a Rule of Life?

In the first place, think it suggests that the communal aspect of most “regular” religious life in the past, which we have often considered simply a matter of necessity and (more cynically) co-surveillance, might in some way be a more important factor than we had bargained for. Or not. Maybe that’s just a bad idea I’m sneaking in there to spark your creativity.

Another, possibly dubious idea: that our rule framework should consider not only arrangements of time but also physical space… .

I know others here disagree but it confirms my suspicion that (a) it’s going to happen and (b) the best approach is to fight for strict regulatory control, rather than full moratoria…

Nathan Runkle (Mercy for Animals founder) in one weekend… not  bad!

We could do this in Ithaca if we ever got our acts (and fundraising) together…

I am excited by this movement. It is messy and it does not follow prescribed rules but it is passionate and creative. It has a handle on what it means to decide things together, to teach, to learn, to know what democracy is supposed to mean. It flies in the face of the argument that a take-over of our lives by corporations is “inevitable.”

So I am continually surprised to be in conversations with people I am usually in conversations with – people who more or less see the world as I do – and watch them wince and say “They have to stay non-violent.” There is usually nothing more to their comments. They don’t express support or outrage at what is prompting these protests or sympathy in any other way. They just want the protests to stay non-violent.

Well, so would I. It would be great if change could happen without anyone on the protesters side breaking any rules or expressing rage. What are the chances?

Big corporations, banks, hidden power brokers have been wrecking havoc with the economy, the environment, the air, the water, the food supply for a long time now. What they have been and are doing is violent, sometimes quite directly so, but they have not been held to standards of decency. With the Occupy movements, people who have suffered from these practices have begun to find a voice, a path to action, and each other.

(And, by the way, it is useful to remember that the more power the Occupy movement gains, the more there will be efforts to discredit it. In the 60s we knew that in every rally a significant percentage of participants were outside agitators. This morning I saw a report that film showed “a protester” in Oakland throwing something at police. No one knows who that person was.)

Where should Greenblade be on all this? I hope that in some way each of us will take some kind of action. We do not need to camp. In fact, all the Occupy movements are going to have to come inside very soon now and they have to survive the winter. As individuals we can support in so many ways.

1. If you have your money in a big bank, move it to a local bank or credit union. Saturday, November 5th is the big day for that but any day will work.
2. Andrew has suggested that we host a benefit dinner for Healthy Food for All to help a family have access to clean, local produce.
3. I am going to D.C. for the Tar Sands Rally on Sunday.
4. Elizabeth will have any number of ideas for opposing hydrofracking.

There are myriad other ways to help change our economy. These ways will make a difference and they are non-violent. Lots of people are out there doing it. Let’s get involved!

How can we remember to breathe AND remember to act? There doesn’t seem to be a formula. It would be so easy to suggest yin and yang or the strokes of a pendulum, to do one set of things in order to relax from the other set. But this particular time of year is full of a sense of gathering and slowing down, and that’s a sign that things must happen in their own course.

No, we don’t have a quarter year to wind down and to stop. The work before us is too urgent, too left-undone and fragmentary and half-drafted. Mirroring the seasons can’t exactly be the answer. But standing still, to see what roots the sap is falling into, just might lead there.