Snippets from: "The Tyranny of Structurelessnes" - Jo Freeman https://www.jofreeman.com/joreen/tyranny.htm …
Show this thread
-
Only if we refused to relate or interact on any basis whatsoever could we approximate structurelessness -- **and that is not the nature of a human group.**
Show this thread
**the idea becomes a smokescreen for the strong or the lucky to establish unquestioned hegemony over others**. This hegemony can be so easily established because the idea of **"structurelessness" does not prevent the formation of informal structures, only formal ones**
-
-
^^**Thus structurelessness becomes a way of masking power, and within the women's movement is usually most strongly advocated by those who are the most powerful**^^
Show this thread -
Elites are not conspiracies. Very seldom does a small group of people get together and deliberately try to take over a larger group for its own ends. Elites are nothing more, and nothing less, than groups of friends who also happen to participate in the same political activities
Show this thread -
It is the coincidence of these two phenomena which creates elites in any group and makes them so difficult to break.
Show this thread -
In a Structured group, two or more such friendship networks usually compete with each other for formal power.
Show this thread -
**This is often the healthiest situation, as the other members are in a position to arbitrate between the two competitors for power** and thus to make demands on those to whom they give their temporary allegiance.
Show this thread -
Once the informal patterns are formed they act to maintain themselves, and **one of the most successful tactics of maintenance is to continuously recruit new people who "fit in."** One joins such an elite much the same way one pledges a sorority.
Show this thread -
If perceived as a potential addition, one is "rushed" by the members of the informal structure and eventually either dropped or initiated.
Show this thread -
All of these procedures take time. So if one works full time or has a similar major commitment, it is usually impossible to join simply because there are not enough hours left to go to all the meetings and cultivate the personal relationship necessary to have a voice.
Show this thread -
** ayc's personal thought: Being "busy" is a way of signaling harmlessness. Making up or looking for bullshit-job like work for yourself makes you less of a threat.
Show this thread -
When informal elites are combined with a myth of "structurelessness," there can be no attempt to put limits on the use of power. It becomes capricious
Show this thread -
The first is that the informal structure of decision-making will be much like a sorority -- one in which **people listen to others because they like them and not because they say significant things.**
Show this thread -
For those groups which cannot find a local project to which to devote themselves, the mere act of staying together becomes the reason for their staying together. When a group has no specific task, the people in it turn their energies to controlling others in the group.
Show this thread -
his is not done so much out of a malicious desire to manipulate others (though sometimes it is) as out of a lack of anything better to do with their talents. Able people with time on their hands and a need to justify their coming together put their efforts into personal control.
Show this thread
End of conversation
New conversation -
Loading seems to be taking a while.
Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.