What is consensus?

[Steve Kinney]

On 12/10/2017 01:06 PM, g2s wrote:
> 
> -------- Original message --------
> From: Georgi Guninski <guninski at guninski.com>
> Date: 12/10/17 8:02 AM (GMT-08:00)
> To: cypherpunks at lists.cpunks.org
> Subject: Re: What is consensus?
> 
> On Sun, Dec 10, 2017 at 07:42:02AM -0800, g2s wrote:
>> Consensus is defined as agreement. Voting is one process to
> (hopefully) reach it.
>> https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/consensus
> 
> 
> lol
> "If voting could change things, it would have been outlawed." -- anon
> 
> Just check what fucks were elected by voting all over the world.
> 
> I was NOT making an argument that voting works to change anything
> systematic in media driven indoctrinated societies. I was simply
> defining the word... further consensus Agreement doesn't always work
> either, but if the "block" is honored it slows down the process and has
> potential for correcting mistakes that may be harder to repair after the
> fact.

Re "What is consensus?" Mirmir replied "Ask any Quaker."

That's me, and I am now required (dammit) to give a straight answer
because I'm a Friend in good standing, a "made guy" so to speak.

The quote from Georgi above seems to be part of the original thread so
at least there's a context to answer the question in.

Consensus means agreement.  And that means a messy, organic, all too
human hairball at work.  The Quakers are often accused of governing
themselves by consensus, and have been so accused for something
approaching 400 years.  Here's how we do it, more or less.

Disclaimer:

The following is not the "rules of RSOF engagement," so much as my own
observation of Friends' process, developed from 20+ years of full
participation, including lots of committee work for my monthly and
yearly Meetings.  I do push the Gospel of Truth in the manner of
Friends, promoting the religious practice that makes Friends "a peculiar
people" - which, back in the day, meant a "distinct" group.

In practical application among Friends, consensus arises from local
communities, small enough that everyone is at most at one remove in
acquaintance from one another.  Friends participate, first and foremost,
in an agreement among themselves to work together in compliance with a
specified process for decision making.

When geographically dispersed Friends participate in regionally
sponsored projects (and we do, non-stop), representatives selected by
participating Meetings form committees; these committees execute the
same consensus procedure to arrive at their recommendations to the
regional body as a whole.  No decision on matters of faith and practice
or Meeting business becomes "binding" without advice and approval from
Meeting as a whole.

Quakers don't do "consensus" as that word is understood in a secular
context.  We make decisions based on "a sense of the Meeting," and we
call the process for that discernment.  Any Friend who has had Quakerism
101 understands that we are discerning the will of God, most properly so
in silence broken only by vocal ministry as so led; having found that,
the next step is to seek "way forward" toward compliance with our orders
from the head office.

Friends do present a peculiar position on God, this time in the modern
sense of the word peculiar.  Weighty Friends (made gals and guise who
may speak rarely but do command attention, for reasons) have long
agreed:  Nobody can define or describe God.  But whatever that word
stands for, we know it when we see it in motion, and accept that once
set on a path by that force, one must do /something/ regardless of
personal preferences or interests.

"Friends don't vote," but we do discriminate:  Membership in our Society
is accomplished by a consensus between oneself and the local Meeting's
membership at large - there's a formal process for that, and new or
transferred members are recorded or "minuted" as such by the clerk of
their Meeting.  Roles such as Clerk of Meeting, Trustees, etc. will
nearly always be filled by members of Meeting, as will committees that
engage in pastoral counseling where confidentiality issues may arise.
All other committees are wide open for any member or attender to sit in
on.

Friends normally meet weekly for meeting for worship, and monthly for
"meeting for worship with a concern for business," which is open to all.
   Committees report to the latter meeting on a monthly basis, but
otherwise work where and as expedient.

It can take Friends half of forever to get anything outside of
established routine done, but what we do sticks.  Conversely, when a
situation requires it Friends form and operate voluntary organizations
in near real-time.  Friends' Service Committees have crossed active
battlefields in caravans carrying relief supplies to besieged civilians,
literally using their religious authority and single-minded commitment
as their only shield and weapon.

Friends enjoy a certain notoriety for tolerance, but not the usual kind
where someone is "tolerated" for the sake of appearance or process
compliance:  Every "sinner" is welcome, and as living proof one could
point to several committed atheists who rate as 'weighty' Friends in the
community.

Disclaimer II:  The above is presented as a resource for anarchists and
other loose ends looking to mine historical and (in effect) covert
examples of social organization for background, and any components that
can be usefully recycled.  No warranty of fitness for use for any
purpose is expressed or implied.

Especially beware, the real life Religious Society of Friends lives up
to the bare bones description above "on a good day".  In addition to
routine errors routinely corrected, on occasion a Meeting or responsible
Committee may go off-track and require correction from the floor, so to
speak.  I am not supposed to know that a Meeting may occasionally "lose
its minutes" covering periods of time when scandalous events were afoot,
and neither are you.

We get a lot of lookey-loos, typically people who see the RSOF as an
elite family-friendly social club for liberal academics and
professionals.  Some of them even settle in and convert, to the full
extent they are so led.

BTW, Quakers are "Friends of Jesus" [John 15:14-16] first and foremost,
and friends of each other by virtue of that relationship.

Thus ends St. Erroneous' Epistle to the Cypherpunks.

I leave you with this prophesy:  Many things shall come to pass, yea
verily shall many things come to pass.

:o)






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