Word of the day: mendacity

Until today, I had no idea who Chris Hedges is.  My bad.  You can find his bio here but you should really watch this interview with him in Times Square. He is talking about the similarities between the Occupy movement and the people's movements that brought down totalitarian governments in Eastern Europe.  Hedges was a war correspondant for 20 years overseas so he brings a lot of experience to the table.

Mendacity: unthruthfulness; the act or process of lying.

Hedges makes lots of insightful comments about this movement but it's his remarks about the consensus decision-making process that I think most people don't understand.  In our working lives (and in our school experiences) we are told what to do by a 'superior' and we do it, or else.  This is how governments and corporations exert control over massive numbers of people.

In the case of the Occupy movement, the decisions are taken by consensus, where everyone is informed, the terms of engagement are completely transparent, people have the power to amend, support or block motions, and the discussion can't be shut down at will by the chair (or any other party).  It's slow, it can be very frustrating but it is also rock solid when the group finally reaches consensus.

Hedges says that he has written about why the corporations that control the global economy need to be taken out, but never thought about how.  When ordinary people reach a consensus about what to do - whether withdraw their money from mainline banks and put it into credit unions, or something else - that solidarity will be real.

Here's a great video of the people's mic in action.  Blogger won't let me format the link so here's the address to put in your search bar: vimeo.com/30513599