[OccupyComms] English Summary of book on horizontality which need translations.

[marknbarrett at googlemail.com]

Thank you for sharing this Rami - hopefully some translations will be forthcoming :) 
Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone

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From: Rami Brahem <rami.brahem at gmail.com>
Date: Mon, 07 Oct 2013 14:56:17 
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Subject: English Summary of book on horizontality which need translations.

English Summary of the book « Horizontal Hope » which present 
horizontality & what's linked to it, caracteristics & an alternative 
based on all that is presented.

The book is actually already accessible in french at the adress : 
http://horizontality.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/lEspoir-Horizontal-v0.9-Rami-Brahem.pdf

It was recommended to me to make a brief summary in english of the book 
« horizontal hope » which is already accessible from yersterday 4am in 
french langage.

This summary was write also as a call for anyone who'd like to diffuse & 
help to get it translated in english.

First of all, sorry about my english, some terms are quite complicated 
to translate & i do not have the capacities to translate them correctly.


  Summary :

« Horizontal hope » explains at start that we entered in a new era. The 
communication is a lever that change the way we organize, but 
unfortunatly it generaly brings the people to thinks a simple direct 
democracy on the internet while it's all our vision of democracy that 
seems to need to change.

It explains why we decided to work in pyramidal forms, because of the 
need of centralizing the informations to be able to take decisions for a 
large amount of people, but that in a little group, it's not the best 
way to organize & ask if today, as we can all share the information, the 
pyramidal system still have a sense. The prelude speaks about collective 
intelligence & different forms of leaderships & introduce the plan of 
the book.

Then, i present the current system, as to make a good proposal it seems 
important to share the problematics that pushed to make that proposal.


    _So begins the part 1 about the problematics_

As a summary, the first part explains that the current capitalist system 
naturally concentrate the money in less & less hands as Marx & lot of 
people explained. The crisis isn't an economic crisis in the sense that 
the world is getting richer thought time, it's a crisis of repartition 
of money. But even more, it is a crisis of democracy as the finance 
tooked control over the politics & blocks us from regulating the 
economy. (Keynes against Friedmann)

As the croissance of our countries don't benefit to the populations 
(we're getting more poor while the country is getting richer), it create 
a negative economic circle which is really bad for economy.

Lot of references are given, mainly stilglitz as economist who explained 
all of that.

Then we enter in more specifics stuffs as how the capital is organized 
(think tanks, interpenetration of oligopols, finance & politic...). Then 
i present the medias (mainly by presenting chomsky), neocolonialism (& 
FMI, mondial bank,..), geopolitic with Alba & Brics, the current state 
of Africa, Arab springs, islam, sionism, ...

After it speaks about the « theories of complot » explaining that it is 
dangerous to resume the world on jews or maconnists & also wrong, if not 
racist. There is a lot of « complot », not one, & i explain how the 
system really works (mainly based of several important books with Geuens 
as main reference & his extraordinary book). I take the benefit of that 
part to speak more about Bilderberg & « occult societies » while 
explaining who/what/why & warnings behind simplistic visions when 
speaking on these elements.

Then it enter into the main point : the rules of the game.

I explain about constitutions, how we're organied, the problems there, 
how a constitution works basically in a democratic system & how we're 
not even respecting that, & why everyone should know a share all of this.


    _Then begins the Part 2 about all the fundamentals on horizontality._


As a start it begins to explain about what is synergy, the parameters of 
synergy &  precise collective intelligence concept & derivates. It 
speaks about attention & the different types of « listening » as Otto 
Scharmer developped them & the differencies between debates & 
constructive discussions (having a common intention behing a key)

Then it enter into History of « horizontality » with the original tribes 
even on the prehistoric era, the african palabre & their assemblies, the 
fact that consent of all is the decision process that is the most speard 
among humanity though time all over the world & several exemples.

It present deliberative democracy which seems to be the closest thing 
that is close to an « horizontality system » which as ever proposed to 
humanity. & From our best intellectuals of 70's & 80's & main critics 
about it.

 From there, it jump into making a clear the difference between the idea 
of consensus & the idea of consent (which have several different names), 
& aswell all the debates among the greecs on the specific point of how 
to take decisions all togethers & all that went after that (condorcet, 
schulze, etc).

After explaining more clearly the difference, it jumps to sociocracy & 
collaborative management forms & present first concret method of 
decisions making process with the consent of all. It takes the 
caracteristics of these « collaborative management » methods & compared 
them to « original collective intelligence » & U theory.

Then we enter into the open-source world & discover how close all of 
this is, & what are the links. After seeing how it works, we enter in ne 
form of social movements as Indignados & Occupy.

After explaining them & presenting main critics that were sent to us, it 
begins to speak more about assemblies.

Then we enter into concret assemblies of ancestral african palabre & 
then comparing them with indignados assemblies.

It speaks a bit about world cafe, open forums, participative workshops 
aswell... Then on collaborative tools.


    _Part 3 : horizontal ideal_

After this workaround horiontality emerged clear common caracteristics. 
Going back to the « essentials », i try to propose a definition for 
horizontalism & to define 5 caracteristics :

- The seek of the consent of all

- The seek of best holoptism

- An Evolutive system

- Living Architecture

- Decentralization.

Indeed, everything explained more in detail. Then we enter more 
concretly on how these caracteristics wouuld be applyed for a national 
or world system.

For that, it was needed to create a new way of define organisations, not 
simply with groups, but more with mathematic ensemblies, as each 
ensembly can have specific rules, people can be in several ensemblies, etc.

After presenting all of this & some systemic mecanisms that are 
important, we enter more deeply about on it works, how to define, etc.

After the global organisation is more clear, we enter into the mecanisms 
of the decisions that would really seek consent of all at a large scale. 
The mecanisms being differents that the methods : all the methods enter 
into these mecanisms but there is a lot of different methods.

These mecanisms help to imagine several ways to take a decision at a 
large scale, even without using internet at all (depending the time you 
have to take a decision).

It takes the exemple of writing a constituion for a state & how to do it...

Then the subject goes to visions on property (Marx against proudhon), 
differences between property & possession, & variables into the property 
concept with several exemples & the need to define at least these 
variables (natural ressources, the fact that your right stops when the 
right of the other begins & the problem of unlimited private property, etc).

After that, it explain the mecanisms of politic individualisms & the 
problem of Marx saying we're naturally exploiting the others as soon as 
we can, without trying to understand the mecanisms that makes the humans 
being individualists or not.
We're in a system where we cannot control the benefits of the community 
& it push us to politic indidividualism. The book ask if, in a system 
where we control the gains of the collectivity, wouldn't we naturally 
enter into a « gift economy » ?

Then i conclude the Part 3 after some stuff.


    Part 4 present all the concrete methods.

This part is more for people that have no idea about how to organize 
horizontaly, methods are just proposal & i keep saying that anyway, 
nothing is marked into stone & that the group decide himself how to 
organize anyway & especially in an evolutive system. It's more for 
people that have no idea, to have a start to begin with & then improve 
these methods.

Especially, explaning methods is even harder cause each group is 
different, each organization is different, & the methods have to adapt 
to the organisation & the people & certainly not the opposite...

But it present how to work & act horizontaly, as individuals, as groups, 
& as organisation.

It also present a proposal for taking a decision in assembly which is 
inspired by indignados & occupy methods + African Palabre methods.

Then it speak about the constitution of an horizontal system that could 
regroup all assemblies & compagneros all over the world.


      Then we enter into the Part 5 : strategies.

It's a little part compared to the others, which remind the basics of 
good strategies & also the tools of horizontalists.

Then it « conclude » explaining that this book gives an alternative that 
is clear & complete for the world, & aswell the how to making it real in 
our struggles & that everything else is in your hands (improving it, 
diffusing it, etc).

Then there is a text in slam (street poetry).


Summary done ! I also tryed to translate the table of content of the book

*Table of Content*

A new era : Describe why horizontality is emerging now in the world & 
differences between a leadership that is imposed & the one that we 
consent on.

_Part 1 : « Etat des lieux » : Describe the current system & his 
problematics_

The capital : Capitalist system concentrate the money, & we're not 
regulating it anymore (Keynes/Friedman)

The Medias : The current media system

Neocolonialism : How North currently exploit South

Geopolitic : the 3 major blocks in the world (ALBA, BRICS, 
« Imperialists ») & the state of Africa

Arab Spring ? The differences between Tunisia/Egypt & Syria/Lybia & what 
really happened in Tunisia

Islamism & muslims : to understand how islam is used as a neocolonialist 
tool

Sionism & jews : Summary of the story of Israel & Palestine

The theory of complot : about « complotists theories », there is no one 
complot, there is a lot of them. How the wolrd really works thought 
international think-tanks as Bilderbergs & how we deform reality & how 
it deserves us.

Rules of the game : how the decisions are taken & where the problem 
really belongs

The constitutions : how they work, whar are the current problems in most 
of constitutions

Conclusions

_Part 2 : Horizontality : theoric fundamentals_

About synergy : Collective intelligence, attention, U theory. The « me » 
& the « us ». Differencies between debates & constructive discussions

Revisited History : Horizontality though history, African Palabre, 
deliberative democracy, consent & consensus.

Sociocracy & collaborative managements : how they work, main caracteristics

Open source world : The model & it's caracteristics

New forms of social movements : how they work & caracteristics

Assemblies

African Palabre assembly

Open popular assemblies

World Cafe & Open Forums

Participative workshops

Other case of assemblies

Caracteristics in common.

Collaborative tools


_Part 3 : The horizontal ideal_

The « Essentials »

A definition

The 5 caracteristics of horiontality

The theory of organisational ensemblies

Space + time = evolution

The horizontal ensembly

Groups & commissions

Living organisation

Defining an ensembly

About reason to be

About general functionnement

About new ways to etablish common strategic visions

Interactions between ensemblies

About decisions making process

The mecanisms of takins a decision with the consent of all (different 
from the methods!)

About complex decisions : the parameters, how to decide with a lot of 
people while respecting the caracteristics

Complex systems : pyramidal system & horizontal system togethers

Private property, repartition of money & individualism

Differencies between property & possessions

The variables in the propriety concept

About the fruits of work

« A different vision of the problem » : speaks about the reasons of 
politic individualism & how to naturally eradicate it

Conclusions


_Part 4 : The methods to work horizontaly_

Individually

As a group

Identifing the moment & the turn of speak

Roles to have a reunion

Managing a reunion

Decision making process

Execution

The governance meeting

One word about redacting documents togethers

About Assemblies

Adaptating of the purpose of the assembly & amount of people

Process of getting consent in mass-assemblies

About visual signs

Recommanded process

Particular cases of decisions

The organisation

Constitution & reglementations

Basic method for general gunctionnement of horizontal system

Consent of all -- holoptism -- evolutive -- decentralized -living 
architecture.

_Part 5: Strategies_

About struggles in our « democracies »

Basic principles of strategies

Weaknesses o pyramidal system & strenght of horiontal system

Exemples of strategies for national movements

_Recapitulative & next_

Contact, ressources, links..

Slam-clusion


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