The Importance of Organization

I have talked some on organization alittle before on this blog. But I want to reiterate how important being organized is.
Maybe I should define what I mean by being organized. To be organized is to do the following:

1. Keeping your word. When you say you will do something, do it. This will give you a good reputation and inherently further your goals.
2. Hard work. Cliche as it is, hard work will get things done. And in the world of activism where it feels like not much gets done, this is a crucial attribute.
3. Coordination. Stay in contact with people and coordinate your efforts. Avoid duplicate tasks and work out a system by which everyone can be working toward a goal, and know what they need to do to make sure the whole group gets it done.
4. Community. Help, protect, care for, and love each other. No other facet of being organized will motivate people more than being a part of a strong caring community. It will also provide an unparalleled sense of security that is very hard to find in life.
5. Courage. Acknowledge and accept your fears, but do not let them interfere with your activities. Change takes the courage to fight (ever non-violently) despite the seemingly insurmountable odds. Of course, courage must be partnered with understanding and vision to prevent brave but pointless acts.
6. Understanding. To be organized, we need to understand the cause and effect relationships or our actions, and how our actions will impact different audiences. Understanding other people, and how they think is also crucial. Also, a general understanding of the world is important. Overall, the more knowledge and problem solving skills you can fit into your brain, the better. It is much better to build a sturdy net to catch fish than to try to catch them with your hands.
7. Mass numbers. To truly be organized, you need lots of people working toward a common goal. They do not necessarily have to all be coordinated, but it helps.
8. Planning. Use all of your understanding to plan a campaign to actually reach the goal. Make contingency plans and make sure everyone knows what the plan is.
9. Love. By far the most important. This one encompasses everything we seek to change in the world. It can remake our entire world if we have the courage to embrace it. Love everyone, and only denounce actions. Forgive and give whenever there is the chance.


If we look at corporations, who have a massive amount of power in our society, we see that they are very very well organized. However, they concentrate on only: understanding, hard work, coordination, planning and keeping your word. Because they have mastered these 5 skills, the relatively few people under any given corporations employ have managed to affect the other 6.5 billion people and often not in a good way. However, their lack of concern about mass numbers, community, courage, and love leaves them vulnerable. An organization that embraced the vision of organization I have laid out here would easily out-power them and be able to wield the fiery-sword of influence to truly slay the injustice that wreaks havoc in the hearts of so many.

There is a strength to this outline that may not be obvious at first. It will bring people in by the droves. Having an effective and loving group actively seeking change, one that fulfills its members deep need to care for each other will be an earth-shaking movement that will fundamentally remake civilization. I have tried to outline my view on organizing, that couples the "professionalism" of corporate America with the love, courage and community that I have found to be amazingly effective at motivating and improving people.

I hope to see a movement that embraces all 9 factors, because, I believe, if I do see it, then we will be able to heal the world.

Random Musings and Organizations Rant

Have you ever noticed how often politicians and other pundits will frame things as "war on" something. Like "war on terror" "war on poverty" "war on the middle class"... even that crazy "war on christmas" that was in the news a few years back. I wish we could frame struggling to do something in other terms than war.

I must say I miss new Daily Shows and Colbert Reports. I wish the media companies would concede that they make money off of internet showings of their tv shows, and give the writers their fair share of the ad revenue. It is the writers that create this media, so I see no reason why they should not get the benefits of their hard work.

I have been thinking more about Republics and Democracies. It is interesting how a Republic will willingly and overtly recognize the power of the people they govern, yet ignore what polls say is the overall belief of the society. They tend to listen to people who make the effort to contact and pressure them (like lobbyists). This power to influence is an inherent human power, and can be exercised by anyone... but it is possible to amplify this power. Organization is the primary method to achieve this. If you have a bunch of people working to push an opinion on any other group, their collective ability to do so is far greater than the sum of their uncoordinated individual abilities.
This means that the policy decisions of a representative in a Republic will always be slanted toward those who have the organizational abilities to amplify their power. This is true now, as it was back in the Roman Republic. Only now, we have large corporations that can mobilize tens of thousands of people... the people under employment in that organization. There is one hitch, however, the decision-making of the organization is what directs the amplified power toward a specific goal. So, if there are a bunch of people working for an organization, who have no ability to affect the general direction of the organization, they have no ability to direct where their power is being aimed.
I think this is why corporations have become so powerful, they are very large organizations with no accountability to those who compose the organization. They invest the power of all those people in a group of stock holders, a governing board, and/or CEO. These small groups are able to wield the power of the thousands working in the organization. However, they cannot wield it just as they please, they MUST, by law, wield it to make money. This means that the leaders in our most powerful organizations are bound, by the government, to make decisions that will only increase profits.
Such a weird system, if you ask me. But this is why lobbying has become such a problem. The government requires the most powerful organizations in our society to lobby it to increase their markets and profits, and for not to lobby it for any other purpose... no matter what the people in those organizations wish. The only solution to this, that I can see, would be to change corporate law to return the corporation back to what it was before the late 1800s... when corporations were only allowed to exist for the public good, as opposed to the profit of stockholders.

I think this is an important connection... and it also makes me wish that there was a large national organization that was supposed to act in the public good. Cause while the government is supposed to fulfill this role, it clearly doesnt, and it needs to be pressured to fulfill its role.
So we need to create a large organization to act for the public good.