Twinkling

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

>Yoshie Furuhashi wrote:
>
>>  Aren't consensus, twinkling, etc. part of a subculture of white
>>  American youths on the Left, rather than "an anarchist process"?  I
>>  doubt that anarchists twinkled during the Spanish Civil War.
>
>Nope, this isn't the case, despite the best efforts of left vanguardists
>to smear these practices with this charge.
>
>If anything, twinkling was introduced by older activists who have been
>involved in the peace and anti-nuclear movements. Twinkling is usually
>found wherever somebody is doing the spokescouncil technique of running
>meetings. The story is that twinkling is based on American Sign Language
>and was developed to get a sense of people's opinions without having to
>deal with audible interruptions such as hand clapping.
>
>Consensus was certainly not something developed by white American
>youths, as it is a process used by many cultures for thousands of years.
>I first was sold on consensus, not in some activist meeting, but in a
>graduate level class on the history of West Africa. Of course, being an
>activist for many years, I've been through my share of meetings that use
>consensus. I would say that the primary problem with consensus is that
>it isn't implemented very well. When consensus works, it works very
>well. When it goes bad, you'll often find some clique manipulating the
>process.
>
>No, I don't think anarchists twinkled during the Spanish Revolution. I
>heard they had some long meetings too.
>
><< Chuck0 >>

The history of West Africa may have been big on "consensus" of some 
kind.  Japanologists say the same about the history of Japan as well 
-- ever heard of _nemawashi_?  I doubt, though, that such "consensus" 
had much to do with democracy, opposition to "hierarchy," or anything 
like that.

As for twinkling, the main problem is that it makes you look dorky. 
Perhaps dorkiness is supposed to counteract the tendency to emergence 
of charismatic leadership.  :->
-- 
Yoshie

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