Quick-Into the sewer...Bring the laptop!

June 26, 2005 11:53 AM

The Civic Action Network : Firefox meets Le Resistance ! Introduced at this year's DemocracyFest 2005, CAN's idea of "Civic Action Teams" ( not too different from corporate "teams" ) - was made into a 50's era camp movie short. [Watch it:
Quicktime, Windows Media Viewer appr. 10-11 MB]. The real goal : weaning liberals from their fractious ways and convincing them that small group teamwork can be effective, fun, and difficult to infiltrate. "We admired the organizational strength of the right-wing and noted much of it was built on small, church-based structures.". Download their "Small Groups, Big Victories" as a pdf ( 1.8 MB).
posted by troutfishing (7 comments total)

I can vouch for how very difficult it is to infiltrate the Big Red Repug Machine. Tried to get deep into a cell of Cheney-ites for months, feeling my way gingerly, building trust, learning teh doublethink, don't you know.

Blew my cover at a regional rightwing strategy meeting, when I asked who the keynote speaker, Vanna White, was.
posted by fold_and_mutilate at 1:11 PM on June 26, 2005

Did that prove you didn't watch enough TV ?
posted by troutfishing at 3:56 PM on June 26, 2005

heh.. yeah the small hierarchic cell model is what allowed Christianity to triumph over the Roman Empire, it works well. Resources can quickly be shifted where needed, etc.. this goes back to a previous FPP a few days ago about the rise of the network to replace the marketplace as the new uber-form of human organization.
posted by stbalbach at 5:01 PM on June 26, 2005

All I'm thinking is "This seems economicaly inefficent" and "exploit inefficency = profit!"

to bad, so cynical.
posted by delmoi at 5:33 PM on June 26, 2005

the videos must be popular....downloads are ssslllloowww. any torrents out there?
posted by jdb at 6:28 PM on June 26, 2005

stbalbach - that may be the optimal size while humans are still human. Jesus led a small cell, I hear.

Delmoi - how 'bout : a profusion of experiments, hence faster evolution.
posted by troutfishing at 8:05 PM on June 26, 2005

There are many good books by different religious leaders on how to establish cell groups. I don't see why it wouldn't work politically as well. Big difference between the cell groups needed and the ones the Repugs employ: non-hierarchial versus hierarchical. How would we handle consensus action for the grass roots instead of marching orders from Rove?
posted by nofundy at 7:22 AM on June 27, 2005