Here’s a specific example how one person can make an organization and run a pressure campaign.
In the wake of the Milo riots, Scott Adams, of Dilbert and lately Trumpist fame, announced that he would stop contributing financially and in other ways to his the University of California, Berkeley, his alma mater. And he did. And that was the end of it. Because despite being a guy who thinks a lot about persuasion, and has spent a lot of writing time lately on the subject of persuasion, Adams missed out on a golden opportunity to persuade the University of California, Berkeley.
I think this is understandable: Adams’s experience of using persuasion comes from four fields: cartooning, writing, public speaking, and hypnotism (he’s a trained hypnotist). For Adams, persuasion and communication are things that he does to reach an audience, which for him in every case but public speaking is one person. And it’s done by one person: him. So that’s what persuasion looks like in his head. It’s a solo activity. But acting as an individual isn’t how you maximize persuasive power against Institutions.
Scott Adams is a rich and successful guy who went to the University of California, Berkeley. Does he know other rich and successful guys who went to the University of California, Berkeley? I bet he does. Are there any of them who disagree with Berkeley’s decision to enable violent radicals pushing students and the town around? I bet there are. Does Berkeley have a convenient alumni directory in hardcopy or accessible via web browser? Yeah.
Here’s how Scott Adams maximizes his power in this hypothetical: he makes a list of people he knows personally from Berkeley, people who donate money and time to the university, who he knows are unhappy about the Milo Riot. Then he calls them on the phone. They talk for a while, he makes it clear he’s putting together donors who want to do something to make the university act on this issue, gets their commitment, then goes to the next person on his list. He holds a meeting for his group of well-off UC Berkeley donors, ideally of a variety of ages (so their networks consist of different graduating cohorts). They discuss what they’re doing, what their demands will be, and then they go off and do another round or two of phone calls in their own personal networks. Another meeting or two, formalize demands, make sure everyone signs on. Literally make a written pledge, and have people sign it.
While they’re doing this, they keep a tally of how much money their members are worth and how much they have donated.
Then Scott Adams writes a letter to the President of University of California, Berkeley. “Hi,” he says, “this is Scott Adams — you know, the Dilbert guy. I’m writing to let you know that I’ve put together a signed petition from X number of donors, with a combined net worth of Y million dollars. In the past five years, our average donations were N dollars per year; last year’s total was Z dollars. For that money, we got to see you let a riot on campus that caused over a hundred thousand dollars in damages — of our money, as donors and taxpayers — and left innocent people unconscious in the street. We’re not going to stand for that. You’re used to meeting radicals’ demands? Well, you can meet ours. Unless our demands are met, we are prepared to start cancelling pledged donations, and send out press releases detailing exactly why we’re doing it.”
A few possible demands:
Statement from Berkeley, enforced by policy, committing to free speech.
Statement from Berkeley, enforced by policy, banning masks at protest on pain of arrest.
Statement from Berkeley, enforced by policy, that destruction of university property is grounds for expulsion.
Statement from Berkeley, enforced by policy, that all members of Berkeley’s violent communist cult By Any Means Necessary (BAMN) and associated groups (do research beforehand; name specific groups and individuals) are trespassed from campus, meaning they will be arrested if they set foot on it.
If the University President waffles, Adams’s group contacts the university trustees and informs them of what’s happening; they will put secondary pressure on the President (Adams’s group may choose to add the President’s resignation to stuff they want). He and his people also keep working phones, adding more and more people to the petition, so the number of people and potential financial harm to the university grows. If they still don’t agree, Adams’s group alerts the press, and bring in a deadline: if we do not receive a firm commitment by this date, we will cancel a hundred thousand dollars in pledges. i.e., “We can do at least as much damage to you as the radicals did. Would you like us to do more?”
A few rounds of this should cause some concession on the university’s part. Up the dollar values each time. Adams’s group would have decided in advance what a victory would look like.
That’s a pressure campaign. That’s what a post-politics world looks like. If you don’t want to live in one, I agree — but too bad; that’s what we’re getting.
So let’s go build it.
The above text is from the excellent article How to Organize for Power, by David Z Hines.
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