Forum Post: I want to help, but I need your help to get started

Our numbers are growing, emotions are high, violence has begun, and nothing we wish to change has been accomplished.

I know, it's taken thousands of years for things to get this bad, so a few months (or years) before something really changes is not too long to wait.

I can help those who don't want to wait, but I need your help to begin.

I'll cite two cases from U.S. history to support my contention that great things can happen (relatively) quickly: 1. the U.S. effort to 'win' World War II (I know, it's terrible to use this as an example of something good, but please bear with me, as it supports my argument). 2. The race to land a man on the moon and return him safely.

Both were enormous undertakings that began from disarray, confusion, and lack of knowledge about what it would really take to accomplish the goals (sound familiar?).

What were the examples' critical success factors (i.e., the things that most contributed to their achievement), which happen to be missing from the Occupy Movement/Revolution?

First, a clearly articulated objective (note the use of the singular article, "a").

Second, and in my opinion, the most important feature: they both were conducted by an enormous group of people located throughout the country willing to work with each other, which included sometimes subordinating their own limited perspectives to the greater cause, in order to accomplish something of practical value.

Here's where I and you come into the picture.

My user name, "IwasMrAnderson" refers to the protagonist of the movie, "The Matrix" (my apologies to those who aren't familiar with it). Through a series of events over the past 8 years, I've been able to "free my mind" and escape the completely self-referential world. This is neither a boast nor something I particularly enjoy, because I feel very alone in the world. The fact is that most people (including those in OWS) are still trapped in their own private Matrix.

Unlike Neo, however, I possess no superhuman powers that would allow me to single-handedly conquer the Smiths of the world. At this point, I'm more like Morpheus, but, instead of looking for "the One", I'm searching for "the Many".

"The Many" will be able to transcend the rules of our Matrix, which is our current socio-economic-political-legal structure. They will employ the skills they possess and discover skills already within their grasps but are unknown to them.

Moving away from the Matrix metaphors, what am I really getting at?

1. My current skill set is limited, but I'm confident in my abilities to see the big picture, efficiently organize the efforts of others, and to think exceptionally clearly and objectively. I'd like to use these skills to help our Movement/Revolution accomplish one, important,real-world, practical, and useful objective, before the end of 2012.

2. I've foolishly allowed my information technology skills to become both outdated and unfamiliar (i.e., I used to be facile in systems analysis (including relational database design) and programming). However, I believe IT use is crucial to our self-organization.

For example, if we were able to build SECURE databases of members' skills, we could begin to get a handle on how to best deploy our abilities to non-redundantly accomplish individual tasks.

So, this post is already too long, but, if you've read this far and are interested in joining me (or, if you've already got an effort underway and would allow me to join you), please get in touch with me as soon as possible.

Thanks for your time, interest, and willingness to collaborate.