Twinkling

[Nathan Newman]

In any organizing meeting, clapping or twinkling is coercive and a way to
overwhelm minority opinions by continually overwhelming contrary opinions.
The flip side of twinkling is the "consensus decisionmaking" that gives
minorities few formal voting opportunities, since things are "talked
through" until a "consensus" emerges.  Twinkling is part of the coercion to
force minorities to give in without formal voting, in some ways less rude
than clapping but visually stronger-- it's much like the patriotic
flagwaving we see in mainstream media which makes alternative opinions even
more uncomfortable.

I thought Cooper's piece was a pile of crap -- why spend the first part of
precious space about PA on trashing domestic folks rather than highlighting
the positive -- but the general view of process being more serious in such
places than in our "process-obsessed" groups strikes me as true.  I find the
process of many student and "anarchist" groups to be incredibly elitist and
anti-democratic, with endless meetings and insider-manipulated processes,
where power goes to those with the most free time and the fewest day care
responsibilities.

Nathan Newman
nathan at newman.org

----- Original Message -----
From: <P.J.Wells at open.ac.uk>
To: <lbo-talk at lists.panix.com>
Sent: Saturday, February 09, 2002 8:18 AM
Subject: Twinkling

One of the problems of conventional (Western?) methods of showing approval
of a speaker's remarks is that the speaker is prevented from continuing.

In situations where time is important -- such as in activitists' organising
meetings -- twinkling seems an ingenious, and effective substitute.

Julian