Posted on 07/19/2009 8:48:51 PM PDT by oneolcop
Monday, July 13, 2009 How to Stage a Revolution A new mathematical model reveals the tactics that a small number of interlopers can use to seize power.
How is it possible for a small number of newcomers to displace a well-established group of leaders?
That's not just a question for military organizations wanting to overthrow governments; it's a question for political parties controlling national debates, new products displacing well-established market leaders, and flocking birds following leaders to new food sources.
Social scientists have studied the nature of effective leadership for centuries with limited success. Physicists, on the other hand, are new to the party, which gives them a chance to nab some low-hanging fruit. Today, Hai-Tao Zhang at the University of Cambridge, in the U.K., and a few buddies say that they have grabbed a particularly juicy piece by revealing a key strategy of effective leadership.
One way to model leadership (or flocking, as ornithologists call it) is to create a computer-based swarm of individuals who follow the average movement of those around them. When you introduce a small number of leaders who all move in a certain direction--to the right, say--the swarm tends to follow the leaders.
How, then, can a smaller number of left-moving leaders take control of the swarm? At first glance, it looks as if they can't. But Hai-Tao Zhang and buddies prove otherwise. They identify two new qualities of leadership that determine the result. The first is the ability to distribute a leader's influence to as many followers within a given time. The second is the ability to be sufficiently persuasive to change and hold the allegiance of followers who they can influence.
When these factors come into play, the balance of power depends on the distribution of leaders. What Hai-Tao Zhang and pals show is that it is possible for power seekers to spread their influence to as many followers as possible in a given time and to accumulate enough power to govern these followers. This allows the power seekers to defeat the dominating leaders solely by optimizing their distribution pattern, even when they are fewer in number than their opposition.
So the key to seizing power, or at least gaining a significant foothold, is the effective distribution of a small number of leaders within a larger group. "A better distribution pattern has larger influential region and greater clustering factor, which can equip the leaders with the capability of influencing more followers in a given period and strengthening the persuasion power on the followers as well," says the team.
That's an interesting idea that may explain the effectiveness of Internet-based grassroots campaigns, both political and commercial, which we have seen in recent years. The take-home point here is that it's not just what you're saying that's important: it's how you distribute your message.
This kind of thinking could have a profound effect on everything from grassroots movements to guerrilla marketing to the way that big companies are run.
And of course, there may be an interest in the next iteration of this idea in which established leaders ask how they can maintain a status quo given the infiltration of a small number of power-seeking interlopers
I have no need for power. I just want people to follow the constitution, dammit.
I think we’ve seen some elements of this with same sex marriage. We’re on the verge of nationwide same sex marriage, due to pressures by a small group, in the right places. These behind the scenes agitators have controlled the MSM and entertainment presentations of homosexuality in a very positive way. They have changed attitudes of critical masses of people. We have seen a social revolution about homosexuality.
Some of this happened with the hippies in the late ‘60s. The vast majority of young people were not into the whole drugs and counter culture and anti-war protesting. Yet due to key pressure and allies in the MSM and liberal elites, their ideas became prominent. And now former hippie types are at all levels of business, government, and education.
What’s Jim Thompson think about this?
: )
THE PARETO PRINCIPLE: Mathemetics alone give a major clue to the potential effects of small percentages regarding the potential of a radical group having an inordinate influence on ‘CHANGE’. It is HAPPENING IN THE US TODAY. The Pareto Principle came to life in the 1880s in Italian mathematical circles, and has wide applications today...4% can influence 64%.and then, even more. An excellent way to understand the Pareto Principle is to read Charles Hugh Smiths’ piece on how only 4% of the subprime real estate markets brought the entire mortgage mess down and toxified multi-billion dollar bags of tranches of credit derivatives. The explanation can be adapted directly for application to a dedicated 4%, in time, converting whole political systems it is applied to. Political scientists and radical, revolutionary movements themselves have a powerful tool to apply here. Just because something is ‘small’, does not mean it is safe and not-fatal to ignore. Here is the link for the Pareto Principle as applied to subprime mortgages with a full explanation of the mathematics involved....THE APPLICATION OF THE PARETO PRINCIPLE TO THE POTENTIAL EFFECTS OF RADICAL POLITICAL ACTION ARE MADE QUITE CLEAR BY THIS EXPLANATION, and the Pareto Principle is probably employed by radical movements worldwide:
http://www.oftwominds.com/blogaug07/pareto-housing2.html
An idea as first articulated (no offense Jim) rarely ends up looking the same when all is said and done.
I sincerely hope that the internet is not the death of us all. It's too easy to sit at a keyboard and ventilate when action is really what's required.
The Democrats, though made up of many factions, are well distributed throughout society and seem to hold to the same message with far more tenacity than the Right.
The left actually has no leaders. Only con artists.
AMEN
All the more reason that it is so important for the grassroots to get busy and get smart.
If we can't get enough people to wake up to this looming disaster, the US will be kaput, freedom will be a distant memory, and the whole world will sink into a very dark existence for a long time.
“The Democrats, though made up of many factions, are well distributed throughout society and seem to hold to the same message with far more tenacity than the Right.”
There was a small cadre who knew what they were doing and were manipulating but the greatest blow to Western Civ was inherent in our own ideals: generosity, fairness, openess. In the 60’s EVERYBODY laughed at the ideals of civility, courtesy, decorum. It happened on TV and in the movies. The gentle humor and caring wisdom of Andy Griffith and Father Knows Best were displaced by shows demeaning to family and tradition. And nobody said anything because that was censorship. Canada Free Press had an article a year ago from the muzzies saying exactly that: we will use their own laws to gain supremacy (very loose quote).
Well, that is a problem isn’t it?
Most of us are guilty here. We laughed at the cheap jokes and paid for the ticket too.
We need to get back control of the language. For instance I hear about “giving” “free healthcare”. That should always be corrected. First it is not “GIVING’ that is being discussed but “FORCING” because nobody ever gives you something and says if you refuse it you have to give them money and take it anyway. Second it is not FREE. Instead of FREE it is “TAXPAYER FUNDED”. Giving free healthcare has a different sound entirely than the words which speak the truth of what is being discussed, which is forcing taxpayer funded healthcare. Another one that must not ever be let go is when politicians say that their plan will “ALLOW” people to do this or that. They have no right to ALLOW us the things they claim they can allow.
So far, the Internet facilitates the truth getting out. Let’s hope it stays that way and that people don’t get too dumbed-down and distracted with crap-entertainment to use the Internet for good.
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