Social Structures – josuterdotcom

Mennonite Action (MA) Response

We are enjoying the Christmas here while in Bethlehem on the West Bank, Christians are being slaughtered – with our tax dollars. We bury our heads in the sand. “I didn’t know”. Is it a sin if we don’t know? Or a sin to not want to find out? If sin can be described as a break in a relationship, then not talking with others may be in the same category.

Mennonite Action should not become an institution. They will just ask for money and allow the rest of us to feel OK because we donated. Praying and singing may give comfort to some, but it will not be enough. We must push people to make decisions. We must not only be God’s love but also God’s power.

The pillars of power described by MA can be misused by authoritarian governments. This model implies that we can just kick out the support structures and it will collapse. But we can’t do that. Why? I know people in all these support structure organizations – unions, media, police, etc. We can’t take away their jobs. We should not destroy the current structures without creating – and actually starting alternative forms of mutual support. Anabaptists and Amish should be good at that. Will they take the lead?

Neither will it be enough to form mutual aid societies for our own group. We must push other groups to do the same. With the right tools, they too have the ability to talk, think, and solve problems. It may require a place where people can meet in private and form some opinion before putting it on the table. (“. . . where two or three are gathered. . . “). It must also be a place that encourages seeing with new eyes and making new moves. It must be a place that turns real faith into real action.

Political demonstrations do not seem to be working fast enough. Vincent Bevins describes this in “If We Burn.” It may be that people we call “activists” are not the right people to find a solution, even if they seem indispensable for getting the process started. We must push others both inside and outside the church. Push local groups to use their own money to engage outsiders.

What other things could Mennonite Action do? A few suggestions:

1. Start Anti-War Games. These can be as varied as we can imagine. (see Greenland below)

2. Find alternative modes of moving useful information, especially when the mainstream media has failed. Push to create additional high-tech and low-tech communication sources that cannot be shut down by a power outage or censorship.

3. Ask Questions, Force choices – even small ones. Making choices can be empowering for some people who are never asked to make choices for something outside their own world.

4. Use of hypothetical situations (“what if . . . “) can help clarify our thinking and avoid nit picking. But then turn it into something real, some action and follow-up.

5. Go to nearest Synagogue and engage their members in finding a better way out for Israel. Rejected? Close off their parking lot. If they refuse to engage, then put signs “we support Genocide” in their lawn or on their cars. Force a choice. Push them to believe that their God is a living God who can change The Story. They do not have to be slaves to an Old Story. The world has changed. The Story of their God can change too. If God exists anywhere, it is in the relationship and interaction between two human beings.

6. Find a few AIPAC lobbyists in Congress and, one by one, help them find a new job. Focus many on a few for 1-2 weeks. If not successful move on or change tactics.

7. Create Ten-Two groups in which ten people support (food, rent, insurance) two in their group and free them up to do anything the group wants, including starting other Ten-two groups. Once started, the group is accountable only to themselves. Some will fail but others move forward, going beyond mutual aid to finding some purpose for the group.

8. Use Other Types of Power:

– [ #1-3 are Guns, Money, Information (Mass Media). These will not disappear. ]

– #4-10 include Division of Labor; Competition; Processes that include Privacy, Incentive, and Efficiency; Feedback Mechanisms constructed from the outside; Bottlenecks – both physical and social interaction bottlenecks; Focusing on a Few; Change the Target Learner.

9. We can make communities more secure and stable despite a downturn in the economy if we can push people to talk and solve problems with each other, then do this with other communities. We must think and plan ahead, not simply react to an authoritarian gang.

What type of society do we want to emerge? If we can create real change, there will be real support for MA both in both money and volunteers.

Transformation Steps –

Start quick, local debates both inside our church and in the larger community. Allow some privacy by creating randomly picked teams. If no one engages, then pick, name, and announce individuals for each team. If still no engagement, challenge them in public. Turn over the tables in the temple that allow people to hide. If still no engagement, move on to someone else. This is what Mennonite Action – and the rest of us – should be doing.

Our government may be realizing that taking Venezuela will be harder than previously thought. So now the Trump administration is setting their sights on Greenland. Bullies pick on a weaker states. Find a few people in Greenland (or Venezuela) who are willing to listen. If nobody answers, then put up a prize and have a competition among small groups. Keep it off the front page. Help them find extra, alternative channels of communication to their mainstream media. Then push them to think about what they themselves – personally – will do when US troops show up in their country. Only then is it time to broadcast potential future actions to everyone, including current government leaders. This is a type of anti-war game. It can continue to remain non-violent, even if the other side does not. It must push people and government officials to make decisions. Sticking our heads in the sand will not get us there.

MWG (“There’s a Man With a Gun over there. . .”by josuter October 2025

These lyrics to a 1967 song by Buffalo Springfield were written during the Vietnam era, just before the violent Democratic Convention and Kent State shootings. Fear was in the air. The gun was a symbol of power. The gun is near the top of the list of inventions that changed the course of history. Guns can exert force at a distance, overtaking factors of strength and speed as survival mechanisms.

In the halls of leadership guns have a constant effect on the course of history. The guard with a sidearm prevents unwanted people from entering the office of the leader. This is not all bad since it keeps order, but in keeping order, it also keeps out people who have different ideas and unwanted information. Leaders are not stupid people, yet over time they become ignorant about what they should know. They receive skewed information on the basis of the selection of people in the room. This is a weak link in democracy and it favors the good salesman or lobbyist with a bag full of money.

Guns not only protect the integrity of money and contracts but have been an essential tool of empire building. Guns, money, and information form the top 3 powers of government. Other types of power involve more time and organization. In the short run, guns and money will always attempt to control information too, but this is tricky. Democracy will not work without good sources of information. Yet it is obvious that if guns control social structure, who’s in and who’s out, then guns can control ideas and the flow of information.

Metaphors

Information comes thru all our senses, but spoken and written languages are basic tools for storing, moving, and manipulating ideas and information. Metaphors especially are a powerful tool of communication and provide tools for thinking and conveying ideas. Metaphors and mental models can help or hinder solutions. They must reflect reality accurately. A “head of state” is not like the “head” of a human or animal and does not function in the same way. The better, more accurate metaphor is “Guys with Guns”, since this more accurately reflects the source of power.

Religion and Political Power

Powerful stories too must touch reality at some points to be effective. They cannot be totally fiction. Gaza has gone awry because of a Story that does not apply. The age-old conflict between Politics and Religion continues today. All religions have an internal logic, even if one does not agree with the premise. Their own internal logic might be used to find a way out of this conundrum by searching for inconsistencies. Is our God only the God of our small group, or the God of all? Is our God a living God? If the answer is ‘yes’ to both of these questions, then the Story can change to find solutions to real problems.

Even the definition of a word can have a powerful effect on our behavior. Are the people on the other side “the enemy”? or are they “the younger sibling?” Taking this latter position puts us in the role of the older, more responsible sibling, and our behavior is allowed to change. The words “War” and “Peace” are associated with the Nation-State rather than the “skirmish” of smaller groups. Conflicts may always be with us if we choose that path. We have a choice. In any case, peace is a byproduct of better communication.

The Emperor’s New Clothes (ENC) and the Dynamics of Fear

The story of the Emperor’s New Clothes is not a story about ignorance but about fear. It may be the fear of saying something stupid, or fear of being left out. It might be fear of looking weak, especially at top levels of power. In the story of ENC everyone at some level knew the emperor had no clothes, but it was fear that paralyzed them and kept them from saying anything. This story repeats over and over again today. It keeps us from responding or asking questions. We can begin to address this fear by creating structures that provide some cover for people who may want to raise appropriate questions and comments.

Social Structures Change Information

As with the gun, an intentional and temporary structural change of social groups can change the flow of useful information. A different Structure and Process (SP) can bring different Questions to the table. This is true for groups of all size. As an example, a Select Security Council (SCC) in the United Nations might engage a small number of nations with special veto power as part of their specific SCC, whether it be agriculture, water, education, healthcare, etc. This would make the UN more effective and responsive.

Systems and Feedback – We Create our own Filters

Systems need feedback as a source of useful information, both from inside and outside. Good feedback is required to make a system function properly. If democracy is to be more than simply a way to divide the spoils, it must have a larger purpose and a way to solve practical problems. Democracy needs better feedback at many levels.

Sensors in a system can be quite small and dedicated to the measuring one thing such as temperature, or measuring the concentration of some element. This information is directed back to a control panel designed to control larger machinery that will correct the balance and direction of the system. Social feedback in groups is more complex since body language and tone of voice must be considered alongside ideas and information. Sensors in society might be small groups that are structured to find and filter information in a way that will give useful information to decision makers and to other people.

End of the Nation-State? Western hegemony can rightly be viewed as an Empire. The idea of a Nation-State in Europe was adopted in 1648 after an exhaustive 30-year war and ending with the Treaty of Westphalia. This system was relatively stable for hundreds of years. Now there is some question about whether the Nation-State is up to the task to carry mankind forward. Is there adequate feedback to people making important decision makers? Those who would de-construct the nation-state must show new pathways to address social issues. This will require a division of labor to handle the information on the many problems that will arise.

Forming a new political party will take too long to address current problems. New leaders may become corrupt by the time they come into office. A faster and more effective way to make change is the formation of feedback loops within a system that has gone awry. Feedback sensors within social groups can start with a handful of people who use a method to balance their own bias but keep the process moving. The other factor for large scale change is to use a division-of-labor to divide the most pressing issues among people by their month of birth. Those in January will have their own selected “special vote” on some issue that is different from those with a February birthday, etc. Statistically, the outcome will be nearly the same for both large and very large groups on one issue. Division of labor for information gathering can be done for many issues and will create better filters. Supranational bodies such as the European Union or the United Nations seem unable to solve critical problems alone. Maybe do not have the right structure – or they simply lack adequate feedback.

A Way Ahead: The Small Group Process (SGP) to Push and Pull from the Outside

Often the way out is not just putting the system in reverse. The way down the mountain may be to go up and over to another path.

Like learning to ride a bike or going to school, we were all pushed and pulled by someone else. We can push and pull other groups uphill toward a future that they can make secure and sustainable. We are not selling or recruiting but rather challenging the next group. The small group process (SGP) can be started from the outside starting with a small group and using a PRICE mechanism. (PRICE= Privacy of team meetings, Randomness in picking team players, Incentive, Competition, and Efficiency). PRICE can counteract the negative social dynamics described by the ENC story. The goal is to make the target group safe and sustainable, something that requires better communication at all levels.

BC=Better Communication (BC) requires work and others may try to sabotage our efforts. BC Games can be played with people we don’t really like or know. There must be a goal or discussion question (DQ), and a time limit. We know that guns and games can both change social interactions, but guns tend to be exclusive, whereas games are inclusive.

Do we want the Empire to “Collapse” with all the ensuing violence? No, but any pathways of change must show how to address perennial social problems. It will require a division of labor to find, filter, and move useful information on many issues and many levels. Rather than the historical Mon-archy or Olig-archy the new structure must have agency at all levels – a “Poly-archy”.

The Small Group Process can re-capture the integrity of democracy by creating information filters, starting with a handful of people. Their feedback does not start by going to a central government but rather pushing and pulling the next region, the next city, or the next neighborhood to build their own SGP and information filters. This can even be done internationally, Beyond the Border (BtB). The focus can be on any issue or it can be used to move the SGP to other locations. If the goal is to make the next region, city, or neighborhood secure and sustainable, then this SGP may need to include forming their own security if police are absent or dysfunctional.

Applications of Feedback Mechanisms

It is not enough to simply tell the truth. We must push truth and Useful information (UI), sometimes with evidence, to decision makers, then use similar methods for follow-up.

Nation-States and their leaders seem unable to extricate themselves from a nuclear weapons buildup. We must set a goal of zero nuclear weapons and start down that path. Groups of 3 non-nuclear nations can form “trio sensors” that act as feedback to decision makers (DM) within nuclear nations. The DM is someone who has their finger on the nuclear button or is close to those button-pushers. The DM’s (along with their Family, Friends, and Colleagues) must be reminded of this on a monthly basis via letter, email, or phone call. This monthly reminder can be made into a game and played at any level, between levels, and internationally.

If leaders are unwilling or unable to listen and act, then the feedback becomes more pointed and intense. The trio monitors one specific nuclear nation, and if there is imminent threat of nuclear war, or if nuclear weapons have already been used, then the non-nuclear trio will support the use highly accurate missiles to destroy the DM within the nuclear nation. This can be done even after nuclear weapons are detonated. This new structure may need to help re-direct a military industry that may or may not yet realize the dead-end of nuclear weapons build-up throughout the world.

A second use of using the SG Process is creating a robust system of support in an unstable economy. This cannot be started at the top but could be addressed with SG-type communication to improve local social dynamics in one location, then in a network. The goal here should be to make the target group able to sustain themselves in the event of a recession, depression, or economic collapse.

Governments cannot make everyone secure all the time. We must push other groups to become as self-sufficient as possible. Demonstrations are a politically acceptable way of pushing up against central powers. But we must push in all directions. If leaders don’t listen, SGP’s can be used to start a series of local debates. It will be important to engage young men and women who otherwise may go off to fight someone else’s battle. If we are to claw back democracy, we must create better information filters at all levels.