For more hilarity in your weekend, take a little stroll through OWS's website at occupywallstreet.org. Here are some gems that I read today. (You can't make this stuff up.)
OWS uses a "non-binding consensus based collective descision making tool known as 'people's assembly.'"
Here are some tips from the site's "quick guide in group dynamics in people's assemblies." They describe a number of recommended gestures, among them are "applause/agreement - upraised open hands moving from side to side" and "disagreement - arms folded in cross above the head" and "difficulty hearing - hand cupped to ear."
They also have a section of "Oral Expressions (capital letters theirs) recommended for moderators and speakers." They recommend "Positve Speech and avoiding Negative Speech which would close the door to constructive debate."
Here are the examples they give of Positive Speech: "'Don't touch that dog or it will bite you' could be rephrased as 'Be careful with that dog because it could bite you and neither of us would like that" or "'If we don't reach a consensus here all efforts will go to waste' could be rephrased as "'It's important we reach a consensus in this point or we could end up losing strength as a group and nobody wants that to happen.'"
One final gem: "We use Inclusive Speech which makes no gender distinctions." (They call each other "it"?????)
Seriously. You have to check out their site. It goes on and on like this. Endless guidelines and recommendations.
It's funny because it's true, and I have seen it live and in person. The day before my appendix surgery I was at work and we received word a student group was going to stage a sit-in at the chancellor’s office (today we would say they "Occupied the office"). I got assigned to be with the Chancellor all afternoon.
ReplyDeleteSo the group came and sat in the hall outside her office demanding to speak with her and present her with a list of grievances. The Chancellor was a big liberal but also a realist. Walker cut 250 mil from UW aid as part of his budget/collective bargaining legislation. The Chancellor recognized this was the same amount a democratic governor had cut previously and the Chancellor saw an opportunity to free UW Madison from the UW system. The students saw this as tacit approval of the "Walker agenda" and protested.
So, the Chancellor (with me in tow) pops out of her office and sits on a bench to speak with the protesters. Despite their stated demand to speak with the Chancellor they were totally unprepared to, you know, ACTUALLY speak with her. What came next was 30 minutes of voting, motions, snap claps, hand waiving, etc on the rules of how to set up the debate/discussion with the Chancellor.
Despite the ruptured appendix, this "democracy in action" was the most painful thing experienced that day. These people would take an hour of voting to decide if breathing oxygen was acceptable. It was unreal. So they "talked" to (more like at) the Chancellor who presented her side with reasoned arguments coupled by facts. But the great unwashed would not hear of it. She left and they stayed right up till we came in enforce to arrest them.