Building Institutional Opposition and Activist Super Organisms - Pursuance Project Preview
Bad News Brown
Ever since Barrett Brown was released from prison, rearrested for speaking to journalists, re-incarcerated, and eventually re-released from prison, Brown has redoubled his efforts and dedicated himself to the realization of his visionary collaborative framework known as the Pursuance Project. The Pursuance Project aims at creating a never before seen platform that, once operational, will transform our understanding of crowd sourced collaboration across numerous domains. Barrett Brown has assembled a diverse group of like-minded individuals across professions and expertise to participate in the creation of the platform that is scheduled to launch at the end of 2017.
In recent weeks, the official Pursuance Project website was launched while on September 15th, Brown revealed more details in a YouTube AMA concerning the purpose, functionality and aspirations of the upcoming platform.
Why We Need the Pursuance Project
"The reason we're putting our energies and thoughts into this project is because - The world is broken."
"The United States government is broken."
"The Institutions surrounding the US government, including the press, are broken."
"And cannot be repaired from within. They must be reformed and or replaced as appropriate from without."
Pursuance Project
The official website lays out the founding principles of the the organization as:
Impactful, agile, secure civic collaboration.
The pursuance system is the world's first comprehensive framework for process democracy. That is, it allows individuals with no prior relationship to self-organize into robust, agile entities governed via a "proceduralism of agreement." These entities, called pursuances, in turn engage and collaborate among themselves to whatever extent they choose, leading ultimately to a vast and formidable ecosystem of opposition to institutionalized injustice.
For those interested in participating in the pursuance project, Brown specified all participants must agree on 3 basic tenants:
Be Anti-Police State
Be Anti-Surveillance State
Be Anti-Drug War (must be pro legalization)
Default Pursuance Structure
- Open Sourced
- End-to-End Encryption
- Provides Task Management (First of it's kind).
A key component of the platform is its flexibility. Participants will be able to join larger groups or initiate their own research projects. Hierarchies will be determined by the initiators and can appear in different forms whether the pursuance is a micro-managed top-down approach or a more democratic effort. Individuals are under no obligation to continue a pursuance and can leave the group at anytime for any reason.
If a particular issue being investigated is deemed to be too sensitive, the group leadership can delegate tasks separately or can limit certain aspects to the inner core researchers to maintain discretion. In short, the pursuances are completely customizable.
A striking difference between the project in other activism orientated groups, such as Anonymous, is that these groups often suffer from a lack of focus, cohesion and direction. The Pursuance Project aims to streamline collective energy and skill towards specific issues which has the potential to be much more effective.
For a more comprehensive overview visit the website or click on the links below.
Related Posts:
Pursuance Project Barrett Brown Releases New Research Platform by @fortified
Barrett Brown's Pursuance Project by @v4vapid
Barrett Brown AMA on YouTube
Infiltration
One of the most pressing concerns that emerged in the AMA was the issue of government or corporate infiltration and how it could be defended against. Brown emphasized that in the beginning stage the pursuances will be initiated by the core members that Brown has surrounded himself with which includes journalists, professors, whistleblowers and activists. New members will be added to pursuances depending on what they bring to the table in terms of skills, expertise, reputation and enthusiasm.
Individuals who create disturbances will be let go from a pursuance by the leadership or kept on the periphery. If these individuals continue they will find themselves isolated as no one will want to work with them or share information.
Aspirations
Brown hopes that over the course of the next five years that there will be at least 10,000 active members and multiple pursuance projects. He envisions that separate pursuances can lend support and share resources with one another as certain expertise will have been developed. He also hopes that a number of NGOs will be integrated into the system at various levels which could benefit from support from the pursuances.
Not all members need to be professionals with special expertise, members can contribute in a number of different areas including design. People who have visual graphic / design skills who want to help create ‘visual propaganda’ for the project will be necessary while others may assist in research (even simple tasks for non-technical types) or others may design pursuance tactics and strategies and make submissions.
Ultimately, new pursuances will build on the best practices that have been developed in the ecosystem up until that point.Colla
Institutional Opposition
This project has vast potential to be bring revolutionary change as citizens can create collaborative organizations that can wield great power.
I have already subscribe to the website to be part of this incredibly forward thinking movement. Join us!
Imho, this is one of the most exciting projects under development that could challenge the status quo.
There's also great potential to develop parallel frameworks, such as @rebelskums' DinsFire, that could effectively harness the power of the blockchain.
Donations
If you want to make a Donation to the Pursuance Project, please visit the website and make a Bitcoin donation.
Follow the latest developments on Twitter
https://twitter.com/PursuanceProj
https://twitter.com/BarrettBrown_
Wow im not surprised youtube has already removed his video. Does he have a steemit and d tube?
I remember watching some of his videos nefore his arrest. Always smoking and ranting. Good stuff i was not sure of his end goal at the time. This....this very exciting and exactly what i want to be apart of. Ill be researching this further and joining in. We very well may be first targeted if this police state gets any worse, but screw them we must stand up for what is right.
I think it still there, but you have to get redirected to YouTube, it's not playing here for some reason.
It's a very good AMA, very straight forward and to the point. Worth watching.
I think that before his arrest Brown was a good journalist... but this initiative will make him a legend. I'm really excited about this project and how it could effect change. We need to take a stand against corruption and the police state.
Exactly i could not agree more. Besides just marches in the street we need the focused leadership of a decentralized system that will bring in the change.
I see a bright future for us both!!
Taking whistleblowers in the team could be a problem. The government could charge them with sedition. I assume they are taking necessary legal steps to ensure something like that doesn't happen. What's your take on this?
The Whistleblowers I was referring to are Brown (exposing Stratfor and HB Gary) himself and John Kiriakou (CIA-waterboarding), both of whom have already served time for their alleged crimes.
Technically, Brown is not a whistleblower but he did alert the public to black ops that no one knew were being conducted.
If there were charges of sedition for any member i don't see how that would effect the research, maybe they would lose a researcher but the organization itself would be decentralized i imagine so it would just carry on regardless.
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Excellent... We need something like this- I signed up for the newsletter (I guess- I gave them my email) and am off to view the vid... Thanks, my friend!
You're welcome, I think focusing on specific pursuances will be much more effective than loose collectives. I hope this takes off in a big way and I think people have been waiting for this kind of thing. I know I have.
If I can help in any way... Just say the word!
Awesome. I knew him but I knew nothing about this project.
This project could be a game changer, definitely will be keeping a close eye on this.
has anyone heard from @rebelskum in the last month?
Ryan has been M.I.A. for a while now. I checked his Twitter and the most recent activity was a wikileaks retweet on Aug. 25th.
https://twitter.com/PizzagateWiki
I hope everything is alright. I know a few others have been worried and wondering about him.
I miss his fantastic contributions here.
he might be keys down on another project.
I hope he is OK. Din's Fire was shaping up to be a great thing
I spoke with @ausbitbank and he assured me he's fine, just going through some personal issues atm. Hope he returns to form soon :)
It's very inspiring to see Barrett Brown hit the ground running after his tyrannical incarceration. The Pursuance Project seems a revolutionary platform and I will follow by the Twitter links provided to stay abreast of it's progression. I look forward to a replacement of corrupted institutions, ending the war on drugs, the end of the surveillance state and of course the end of the police state. Thanks for writing this piece. Well done.
I always thought about building a bridge coalition... basically alt right and al left, and right right and left left.. (Reminds me of the contra code UP UP DOWN DOWN LEFT RIGHT LEFT RIGHT B A SELECT START) lol anyhow, both sides agree the gov is bad, and we need to restart a system.... so we need to stop letting big brother divide us into smaller and smaller sub groups so we waste our time fighting each other instead of getting any meaningful change. If we all get together and focus on a few key issues we could make the gov dissolve and form a coalition. As we are a giant country in the USA we can dissolve the main gov, and then let smaller states decide the non key issues like abortion and drug legalization... some states can go all conservative and some all liberal, and the fed gov can go back to doing what it was meant to do.... protect the country from foreign attacks and thats it... basically just stick to the basic constitution. It sucks any time the people start progressing into big groups we get easily divided. I really think those assholes in the deep state have done so many psychological studies and have so many energy and hormonal weapons and of course they use saboteurs to literally break apart any great movement.... lets stop falling for the bullshit and lets start progressing! I love this post and have resteemed it and support it. Thank you!
THIS
Personally, I am opposed to any unity with the Left, but as long as they are willing to limit their XXXXery to their own communities, more power to them
I agree with your semi agreement with me... but you shouldn't use a blanket statement "I am opposed to ANY unity with the left". It is incredibly broad and subconciously builds a shield where you MIGHT not realize that your defensives are doing you a disfavor by objecting to someone without listening... I was extremely conservative in college, I went to Columbia College Chicago, during 9/11. Columbia is EXTREMELY liberal. I was on a debate squad and went from getting booed to finding common ground and winning debates and changing peoples minds. If you are willing to be more open, and can find common ground most people let their guard down and we can actually discuss topics without being so emotionally attached to our own views.... it is best to be open to evolving than just blatantly being opposed because of stereotypes.... not all on the left are pervs and not all on the right are bible thumpers Most people just care about life. liberty and happiness... We will never be able to convince everyone to agree on every topic.... if we keep being divided on simple issues we will never resolve the super issues. Unity on the main points which we all agree upon can easily change our reality. Especially with robots coming online and taking over all the jobs over the next two decades.. Mcdonalds is testing robots, Tesla and Google are building self driving cars... even my wife who is a medical technologist at a pathology lab is downsizing because a robotic machine does the job of ten people...
Sure my examples except the Med-Technologist just require high school diplomas... so we can say that the people are at fault for not striving for a better education... but remember the jobs replaced impact a lot of things down the line... we will all be losing jobs in the future or feeling the impact.... if we dont find unity now we will def wish we did when riots happen because people or starving... or the country is bankrupted because of social welfare having to take care of so many....
Unity is a must on the main issues then we can focus on the side topics like drugs, abortions and whatever else they use to divide us....
Much love and respect.
I'll disagree with this, It is an assumption about other people's motivations that is not borne out in reality. The War on Drugs is supported by about half the country...liberty is not forefront in their minds.
check out projection bias...a lot of folks that understand the necessity of liberty assume that everyone is like that.
The Left....The French Revolution, Vietnam and Nicaragua are solid examples in which the Left unifies with opposition to a government, only to execute and jail all the non-Leftists after the government falls.
Like I said, I'm willing to leave Leftists alone as long as they leave me alone...but I'm not willing to turn my back on them
Thank you for bringing this to our attention @v4vapid what an excellent and genuinely exciting idea! Very interested in the possibilities this opens up and for the shift in power that it signals. Just off to watch the video and carry out some further research. The walls of control are being taken down, what an exciting time to be alive!
My oh my V. What a great project. It's the first I've heard of it and my initial reaction was 'Oh shit' the PTB are going to throw everything they can at this to shut it down. This is the kind of thing that will eventually affect the change we so desperately crave and need however I fear for the instigators of it as they must now have a target on their backs.
Thanks for bringing this to the community buddy.
Another cracking piece of work as always.
My pleasure, this is a really important project. I hope that they find early success and that new projects/pursuances arise organically. Crowd sourcing is already happening and people want to effect change, so think it stands a good chance at succeeding :)
Let's hope so it's sorely needed.
Great article. I watched the internet party interview with him and was impressed by his fore vision. Upvoted and esteemed bud. <3