As the former editor of the American Journal of Public Health observed in a piece summing up AAâs first seventy-five years: âFrom what looks like anarchyâtraditions rather than rules, maximum local autonomy and independence, and absence of centralized or layered tiers of authorityâemerges consistency and stability.â Thatâs the power of community.
Related Quotes
If our organizations are inhuman, itâs because we designed them to be soâwhether consciously or not. Every institution is an assemblage of choices about how best to organize human beings in light of some particular goal. The premise of this book is that most of these choices can and must be revisited.
This shift from autocracy to democracy didnât occur spontaneously, nor was it led from the top. Instead, it was the work of a sprawling confederation of philosophers, protesters, and patriots who were inspired by the promise of self-government.
Wresting authority from central functions was a challenge, yet several plants made progressânone more than Olsztyn. The key, local managers realized, was to win permission for a targeted experiment and then use the results to gain further autonomy.
More generally, Timothy Snyderâs On Tyranny was a powerful reminder about how quickly authoritarianism can rise (as well as what can be done about it), and VĂĄclav Havelâs classic 1978 essay âThe Power of the Powerlessâ changed my thinking about the impact a single individual could have in dismantling a long-established system. I hope heâs right.
Interdependence and Decentralization: who we are and how we share
ââWhen Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast, almost everything lost its footing. Houses were detached from their foundations, trees and shrubbery were uprooted, sign posts and vehicles floated down the rivers that became of the streets. But amidst the whipping winds and surging water, the oak tree held its ground. How? Instead of digging its roots deep and solitary into the earth, the oak tree grows its roots wide and interlocks with other oak trees in the surrounding area. And you canât bring down a hundred oak trees bound beneath the soil! How do we survive the unnatural disasters of climate change, environmental injustice, over-policing, mass-imprisonment, militarization, economic inequality, corporate globalization, and displacement? We must connect in the underground, my people! In this way, we shall survive.ââNaima Penniman