One step forward

#50501 Has made a small difference

But now it is time to play in the big leagues. In the world of civil protest, there are three stages: protest, revolt, revolution. Today was the day for protest: it was the early adopter stage of civil raising of voices. It showed results because the democratically elected representatives realized that there were some small areas where they could be of use: they could hold the Senate for as long as they held the floor. This was greeted from Murray's desk:

these are small things, such as the second federal bench to deny Trump’s unilateral dismantling of the constitutional right of birthplace citizenship, are small things.

And that is the problem we want a humongous thing, which is Trump out of office and the levers cleaned so that an election is fair. Because after all you know what Russia does with elections. The former leader of the USSR has often been attributed with the same: “I don’t care who cast the votes so long as I get to count them.”

Back means that protest is far from the goal. But let me introduce you to the concept that is at the core of the technocratic revolution: the concept of scale. First, there is the innovator, then there is the early adopter, then there is the early majority, and then there is the crest when adoption is by the majority. The innovative phase has long since passed, that time when the sinews of the movement are found in places such as this one: a few people reading a few lines thought out with purpose. The innovators know that they are not going to do anything but they search out the reasons why they want to innovate. In this case, it was that the executive orders were quite literally illegal. No one else was saying this, but from an innovator’s standpoint, the test is in the logic and nothing else.

But one of the core pieces is for a group of people to organize something that the invaders wanted, and this was found in https://www.reddit.com/r/50501. In an instant, the innovator phase was ended and the early adopter had begun. The early adopter is different from the innovator. Innovators do not care whether there is anyone else because logic is supreme. The early adopter feels the logic, and may well be targeted by outside forces: the person who does not have their grant, the person who is LBGTQ, the person who may be deported. They understand that there is a need for something but they also know that if there are no people it will not matter.

This early adopter phase begins with the realization that there must be other people and it ends with the demonstration that the early adopters are sufficient to raise themselves out of the darkness of alone, and into the light of a visible group. And this was this moment: the national organization got a permit to demonstrate at the US Capitol, and other groups met on the steps of their state capital. Of course, I was there and took pictures, but then Boston had a very long history of revolting early and often. It was enough to get some notice. It means we have arrived. Including in the enemy’s camp, and others who do not follow every movement.

The next step is to convince the early majority that there is a point in what the early adopters have found. This is the step from protest to rebellion. This step means that the outside world has to notice the rebels, and not just ignore them as part of the froth. It means that the news organizations must turn their camera eye lens and actually look at the people and what they have done.

I will again quote Rules for Radicals: (https://archive.org/details/RulesForRadicals/) one of the cardinal rules is to keep on pushing with actions that we like and the opponent does not like.

This is the next step: not hundreds of people but thousands.