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#nva

2 posts2 participants0 posts today

De-Escalation Training: youtube.com/watch?v=_Pgmn9QRr4

'Cause people get upset, and peace takes work.

(The video is kind of geared toward specific #uspol actions and mentions US rights, but many ideas and resources are more universal like identifying different types of agitators at an event.)

Training content really starts about the 9-minute mark. See also the pdf at moveon.org/rallyprep if you're going to a rally

Nonviolent action (#nva) for today: protest.

Yes, it's often the thing (sometimes the *only* thing) that everyone thinks of, but nonviolent protest works. Get out there with some other people and make some noise. Be clear on what you want.

Also, stay safe and secure, and report on what happened--but in ways that don't non-consensually reveal other people's identities who were there. (e.g., blur faces, only take pics of signs, etc.)

Protests work.

Today's nonviolent action is learning. More specifically, learning about how systems work.

My own thinking was permanently shifted when I read Peter Senge's "The Fifth Discipline," years ago, even though it's _a lot_ of book. However, I'm in the middle of @bethsawin 's book "Multisolving" right now and it strikes me as a far more approachable way of seeing how large, complex systems behave, and finding the leverage points for making positive change.

islandpress.org/books/multisol

Island Press · Multisolving

Krass: #Bundeswehr weiß nicht, wo die Reservisten sind.

Übrigens: Bundeswehr hält zwei bis drei Wochen stand. Dann müssen die Reservisten verheizt werden.

Die Aufgabe der #NVA war es damals, einen Tag Widerstand zu leisten. Dann wäre sie auch breit gewesen.

Der Unterschied zwischen 3 Wochen und 1 Tag ist dann auch nicht so groß.

Ich bin jedenfalls froh, dass der Westen nach der Wende nichts mehr von NVA-Soldat*innen wissen wollte. Wäre es nach der #DDR gegangen, wäre ich während meines Studiums zum Reserve-Offizier ausgebildet worden. Gut, dass das die Wende dazwischenkam.

tagesschau.de/multimedia/video

tagesschau.deVerteidigungsfähigkeit: Wo sind eigentlich unsere Reservisten?Verteidigungsfähigkeit: Wo sind eigentlich unsere Reservisten?

Today's nonviolent action is to differentiate your thinking a little. Be clear about the differences between:

- There's nothing that can be done
- I don't know what to do
- I don't know IF there's something to do
- I know what to do but don't want to

It's too easy to lump these all together and do nothing. If separated, next steps are easier to identify: pick a new focus; ask others working on it; learn or plan; and find another source of motivation (or take a brief rest).

Today's nonviolent action (#nva) is to be encouraging. If you've got the mental/emotional bandwidth for it, and someone else expresses frustration or despair or fatalism or nihilism, your job in that moment is to just talk about why it matters. Describe how you think this action or that one will lead to something else that makes a real difference. Plot a course first to a small actionable step to be taken, and how that snowballs in the right direction.

1/2?

Some folks standing out in front of the post office today 'demonstrating' in support of federal workers (holding up thank-you signs to the postal workers and talking to passersby). We gave 'em a thumbs up. When I let them know I'd called my senators to urge them to stop the carnage, they gave me a thumbs up. It was a very thumbs-uppy exchange.

Oh, and talked to a neighbor about sharing information on increasing solar capacity in the neighborhood.