Summarizing this book, The Persuaders by Anand Giridharadas...
... stories from aligned changemakers with an uncommon take on how to bring others to their cause...
Reminds me of books like The Unwinding in using a handful of parables, some from the famous and some from the less known, to knit a theme quilt…
Some of the squares in that quilt:
Seeking to work with those who are “the other side” by introducing ideas that re-arrange their worldview, not by “convincing” them otherwise… like Loretta Ross, and her work with rapists.
Or alicia garza, who also focuses on the zone of agreement… not for the sake of “can’t we all just get along” but for winning, together. … and of tolerance for flaws, of embracing others’ depth in parallel with how we know our own complexity… no purity testers here…
A focus on growth (itself inherently problematic, and also essential for power)… like Faiz Shakir, who has illuminated working conditions and the power of workers organizing…
Shifting attention to the systemic (ironically these are individuals full of agency, helping us understand the limits of individual agency)…
The subtle savvy — and intense awareness — that goes into what seems sometimes like “just tweeting” or its ilk, like AOC integrating inside- and outside-change… … we live amid the master’s tools, so how can we use them without believing they are The Answer?
Surprising juxtapositions (like Trump voters backing the Amazon Labor Union) or shared terrain that Anat Shenker-Osorio helps us see…
The deepest of dialogues, where there’s a method to finding threads we share across our quilts…
Like organizer George Goehl, who shares the satisfying click of hard work done well…
And a summary of how to turn this into a playbook for nothing short of saving democracy. Worth a read.
P.S. I am reflecting on how to persuade the powerful that the world we want requires us to sacrifice power. Not just money (in donations) but the power to choose where our resources go. So much, in my view of my own life and that of our society, turns on that.
