The end of protest : a new playbook for revolution / Micah White.

By:

White, Micah, 1982- [author.]

Material type: Text

TextPublication details: Toronto : Alfred A. Knopf Canada, [2016]Description: 317 pages : illustrations ; 22 cmISBN:

9780345810045
034581004X

Subject(s):

DDC classification:

303.48 WHI

Summary: "From the co-creator of the Occupy Wall Street movement, a refreshing manifesto that inaugurates the future of social activism and the end of protest as you know it. Intellectually ambitious and spiritually compelling, The End of Protest will be the most talked-about non-fiction book in 2016. Activism is broken. In recent years we have witnessed the largest protests in human history. And yet these mass mobilizations no longer change society. Now protest is at a crossroads: innovation or irrelevance. Drawing on his unique experience as a founder of Occupy Wall Street, in his first book, The End of Protest, Micah White explores the theory, tactics and principles of social change. Sweeping from contemporary uprisings to pre-modern paradigm shifts such as the conversion of Constantine that ushered in the Christianization of Western Civilization, The End of Protest is a far-reaching inquiry into the miraculous power of collective epiphanies. Despite the challenges facing humanity, White finds reason for optimism: the end of protest is the start of a new era of change. Occupy Wall Street was a constructive failure that exposed the limits of activism at the same time as it revealed a practical way forward. On the horizon are increasingly sophisticated global movements that will emerge in a bid to win power, govern cities and reorient the way we live. The End of Protest is an exhilarating vision of an all-encompassing revolution."-- Provided by publisher.

Holdings
Item type	Current library	Call number	Copy number	Status	Date due	Barcode
Standard Loan	LSAD Library Main Collection	303.48 WHI (Browse shelf(Opens below))	1	Available		39002100588244

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Is protest broken? Micah White, co-creator of Occupy Wall Street, thinks so. Disruptive tactics have failed to halt the rise of Donald Trump. Movements ranging from Black Lives Matter to environmentalism are leaving activists frustrated. Meanwhile, recent years have witnessed the largest protests in human history. Yet these mass mobilizations no longer change society. Now activism is at a crossroads: innovation or irrelevance.

In The End of Protest Micah White heralds the future of activism. Drawing on his unique experience with Occupy Wall Street, a contagious protest that spread to eighty-two countries, White articulates a unified theory of revolution and eight principles of tactical innovation that are destined to catalyze the next generation of social movements.

Despite global challenges--catastrophic climate change, economic collapse and the decline of democracy--White finds reason for optimism: the end of protest inaugurates a new era of social change. On the horizon are increasingly sophisticated movements that will emerge in a bid to challenge elections, govern cities and reorient the way we live. Activists will reshape society by forming a global political party capable of winning elections worldwide.

In this provocative playbook, White offers three bold, revolutionary scenarios for harnessing the creativity of people from across the political spectrum. He also shows how social movements are created and how they spread, how materialism limits contemporary activism, and why we must re-conceive protest in timelines of centuries, not days.

Rigorous, original and compelling, The End of Protest is an exhilarating vision of an all-encompassing revolution of revolution.

Includes bibliographical references (pages [265]-276) and index.

"From the co-creator of the Occupy Wall Street movement, a refreshing manifesto that inaugurates the future of social activism and the end of protest as you know it. Intellectually ambitious and spiritually compelling, The End of Protest will be the most talked-about non-fiction book in 2016. Activism is broken. In recent years we have witnessed the largest protests in human history. And yet these mass mobilizations no longer change society. Now protest is at a crossroads: innovation or irrelevance. Drawing on his unique experience as a founder of Occupy Wall Street, in his first book, The End of Protest, Micah White explores the theory, tactics and principles of social change. Sweeping from contemporary uprisings to pre-modern paradigm shifts such as the conversion of Constantine that ushered in the Christianization of Western Civilization, The End of Protest is a far-reaching inquiry into the miraculous power of collective epiphanies. Despite the challenges facing humanity, White finds reason for optimism: the end of protest is the start of a new era of change. Occupy Wall Street was a constructive failure that exposed the limits of activism at the same time as it revealed a practical way forward. On the horizon are increasingly sophisticated global movements that will emerge in a bid to win power, govern cities and reorient the way we live. The End of Protest is an exhilarating vision of an all-encompassing revolution."-- Provided by publisher.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

Preface (p. 1)
A wild wish
951 Occupations, eighty-two countries
Political miracle
Normalcy returns
Edward Snowden on Occupy
Police counter-tactics
Outdated rituals
Protest is broken
Let's fix activism
Introduction: You Are Needed (p. 5)
The protest to end all protests
A tool for social transformation
For those who fear revolution
You are needed
Dissent is productive
Part 1 Today
1 The Birth of Occupy (p. 9)
Setting the stage
Largest protests in history
Mohamed Bouazizi
Arab Spring
Tahrir Square
Acampadas in Spain
Carnivalesque Rebellion
Student occupations
#OCCUPYWALLSTREET
Tactical briefing
Bring tent
The first tweet
Anonymous
Zuccotti
Beautiful event
Two flukes
2 A Constructive Failure (p. 24)
Innovative tactics
Unquestioned assumptions
False theory of change
Failure is a springboard
3 The Lost Moment (p. 29)
Winter is coming
Mood shifting
Death, disease, drugs
Paramilitary raid
Zuccotti is lost
Coordinated evictions
Occupiers plea with the president
The end
4 The End of Protest (p. 34)
The end is a new beginning
Nearly perfect movement
Police repression
Governments ignore protests
Colour revolutions
Democracy negated
Occupy tested all our hypotheses
Reinventing activism
Paradigm shift
No more marches
Stop repeating tactics
The future of social change
Metanoia
5 I Am An Activist (p. 44)
My early protests
Pledge of allegiance
Underground newspaper
Atheist club
Drug testing
Snake march
Electronic civil disobedience
Commitment to experimentation
6 The Point of Protest (p. 52)
Social technique of collective liberation
Rudolf Eucken on aktivismus
Why activism?
Productive role of protest
The history of democracy is the history of revolution
The four human wishes
What is revolution?
Obey just laws; disobey unjust laws
What is protest?
Collective ritual
The spectrum of protest
Collective behaviour paradigm
A conscious strategy
Breaking the script of protest
Vectors of transmission
Willing historical moment
7 A Unified Theory of Revolution (p. 69)
Parable of the three pigeons
The axes of revolution
A unified theory is not an eternal theory
Two layers of reality
Kairos and chronos
The four theories
Voluntarism
On direct action, violence and performance
Structuralism
Revolutions are not made
The impact of food prices
Fooled by randomness
The upside
Subjectivism
Change your mind; change the world
Emotional contagion
Theurgism
Divine intervention
We need mystery
Ascension of an activist
Part 2 Yesterday
8 The Recent Past of Protest (p. 107)
Wake up!
The Dialogue of Ipuwer
Protest is war by other means
Tactical arms race
People's Party
Syriza, Podemos and the Five Star Movement
Debt
Inventing a new tactic
Occupy
Horizontalism and leaderlessness
Global Morch
February 15, 2003
Human Shield
Inside the International Solidarity Movement in Palestine
9 The Distant Past of Protest (p. 142)
An eternal force
Ghost Dance
The prophecy of Wovoko
Wounded Knee massacre
Riot
Nika Revolt unites Blue and Green
Epiphany
Conversion of Constantine
Chi Rho and the cross in the sky
Ambush
Arminius and the greatest protest in history
Part 3 Tomorrow
10 Mental Environmentalism (p. 167)
Brainwashed at the laundromat
Commercial propaganda
Our double-bind
Advertising captures the Internet
Naming calls into being
Spirit and creativity
Post-environmentalism
The catastrophe has already happened
Universal struggle
The differend
Silent Spring
A fable for tomorrow
Eco-fascism
11 The Future of Protest (p. 183)
A breakthrough in warfare
Sargon of Akkad
Real-time tactical innovation
Speed
Fast future
Time niches
Ultrafast extreme events
Temporal arbitrage
Slow future
Three-generation perspective
Deep time
Slow memes, complex behaviours
12 Three Scenarios for the Next Revolutionary Moment (p. 192)
Always a surprise
Rural revolt
Cascadia
Digital populism
Nehalem
Sovereignty and self-governance
World Party
Matriarchy
Mundialization
Winning elections worldwide
Unity, Liberty, Mutual Aid
Protest bot
Automating social movement creation
Super-intelligent machines
Computer-assisted revolution
13 We Innovate, We Win (p. 207)
How the weak win wars
Detachment
Try, fail, try again
Odds of revolution
Overcoming fear
Risk of ruin
Moral and ethical dilemmas
Justice
Legitimacy
Civil war
Magical thinking
Political and social revolution
Decisive accidents
Heroism, not coercion
Meme war
Clicktivism
Metrics are lying
14 Eight Principles of Revolution (p. 220)
Twenty-eight days
Innovate
Spirit
Death blow
Constraint
Wobble
Transposition
Edge
Conclusion
15 Political Miracle (p. 241)
Activism at a crossroads
Spiritual insurrection
Reorientation
Our power
Lesson of Kronstadt
Rebirth of history
99%
Authority
Social mobilization
Conquer the world
Beware of front groups
Dark side of protest
Open vs. closed movements
Sybil attack
St. Paul's advice
CIA on campus
State secrets
Purpose of front groups
Signs you've been recruited
Follow your heart
16 Prophecy of Protest (p. 254)
Glad tidings
Good times
Humanity is evolving
Come as you are
Multi-generational struggle
Necessity of rebirth
Revolution through revelation
Global sovereignty
Spiritual revolution, political revolution, social revolution
Final word to the ones to come
Acknowledgements (p. 263)
Reading List (p. 265)
Image Credits (p. 277)
Endnotes (p. 278)
Index (p. 292)

Excerpt provided by Syndetics

You are needed You may long for the protest to end all protests, a final revolution that eradicates injustice and transforms society. You dream of a better world in which protest is no longer necessary. You wish to make protest effective so that the ideals you hold become manifest. For you the end of protest is a consummation of activism, the completion of your work and objective of your struggle. You understand that the end of protest is in itself revolution. This book will offer you tools for hastening social transformation. Recognizing that protest is one tool among many for creating social change, grab what works and discard the rest. And if you are threatened by revolution, fearing or disdaining movements like Occupy, and you've come to this book from a desire to end protest--to foreclose dissent--know that this book is for you, too. Uprisings always need people who convert to the cause from positions of power: police who switch sides, insiders who become whistleblowers, and politicians who heed the people's demands. You may oppose us today but you will join us tomorrow. Our movement is even stronger when it includes the converted, who understand the errors of the old world because they embodied them. You may be skeptical of those who take to the streets, considering them reckless. They seem to have nothing to lose, and you have worked so hard to achieve your position, wealth and prestige. You may not sympathize with their anger. You may believe that good society ought to have few disruptions. True, many aspects of upheaval are unpleasant. Revolutions are sometimes violent and always have unintended consequences. "In a society such as ours," writes Herbert Marcuse, a leading twentieth-century social theorist and philosopher, "in which pacification has been achieved up to a certain point, it appears crazy at first to want revolution. For we have whatever we want." He continues with a prescription: "[T]he aim here is to transform the will itself, so that people no longer want what they now want."3 You desire the end of protest, but the fulfilment of your desire would be disastrous for you. The lack of protest is perilous for society. Protest is a symptom of the need for social change, and the people in the streets are harbingers of greater democracy. The absence of effective protest is a warning sign of impending civil strife. Whether you support or suppress protesters, history shows that dissent is necessary for social growth and collective renewal. Revolution grants us the social freedom essential for humans to break old habits and reach their true collective potential. Excerpted from The End of Protest: A New Playbook for Revolution by Micah White All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.

Author notes provided by Syndetics

MICAH WHITE is the award-winning activist who co-created Occupy Wall Street, a global social movement, while an editor of Adbusters magazine. His essays and interviews on the future of protest have been published in publications including The New York Times , The Guardian Weekly and Folha de São Paulo . Widely recognized as a pioneer of social movement creation, Micah White has been profiled by The New Yorker , and Esquire has named him one of the most influential young thinkers alive today. He directs Boutique Activist Consultancy--a think tank specializing in impossible campaigns--and is a frequent guest lecturer. Micah lives with his wife and son in Nehalem, a rural town on the coast of Oregon. His website is www.micahmwhite.com