...we talk about what our groups might accomplish together, not just as isolated individuals. The curriculum takes its time getting to this stage, letting people get to know each other and find ways to help each other. This creates a firsthand experience of solidarity. From there, groups talk about how to “change the rules” and make a better world.I am just amazed at all the creative ideas that are generated by people when they come together in a spirit of cooperation, sharing, and respect for every participant. People are coming together in affinity groups, collectives, work groups, etc. Clearly, such groups generate good ideas in such a way that illustrates the principle that "the whole is greater than the sum of the parts".
I only know what I have just read perusing the Resilience Circles website, but they look like they are making a promising effort at building a basic social unit upon which a healthy society can be constructed.
I have become aware of how different these activist groups function from that of more conventional groups. I recently went to a large housing association meeting where everything was tightly controlled by the moderator and a parliamentary procedure expert. Very little of substance was discussed and some people were rather arbitrarily cut off while others were given wide latitude to discuss what they wanted. It was clear that the decision to include and exclude were based on indications of social status exhibited by the participants.
Then I recalled many other such meetings in the past including some that appeared on the surface to be for progressive causes. Such organizations mirror the way larger, more influential institutions of our society function which is to create the appearance of democratic procedures, but manipulating them in such a way as to exclude people who do not conform to the values of a power structure created by the ruling class.
This experience made me more conscious of how corrupted egalitarian values have become living in a capitalist society. This form of social organization has bestowed huge benefits in terms of wealth and power upon a small group of people who have accumulated so much while the rest of us have been placed in debt servitude to them. This corruption has permeated nearly all layers of our society to the point where it often feels perfectly normal to treat people in a highly differential way.
