Convincing Explanation

Reading Tore Gjelsvik's highly instructive account of the infrastructure and operations of social resistance--Norwegian Resistance 1940-1945--I am struck by the one factor of our weakness and its explanation. They had exceptionally committed individuals whose sole focus was in supplying food, transportation, and money to those on the front line of resistance in communications, intelligence, organizing, and training.

The people who kept up social morale and unity by helping develop widespread understanding of the situation thus had economic support to carry on their work. Everything else in the resistance depended on it, and because this was understood by top resistance leaders like the attorney Jens Christian Hauge, financiers and lawyers were tasked with raising revenue.

Presently, we are hampered by a dearth of resources in part because that realization has not yet dawned on those who mostly do not view our situation as one of resistance, but rather reform. To surmount this obstacle, we need committed advocates who will raise revenues while we raise consciousness.

Accepting Full Responsibility

It was not hard to appreciate that an active line was a very dangerous step, and it was easy to find arguments for failing to do anything...In my view we had experience enough after three years of occupation to know that each action by the Germans and NS began with caution and then gradually developed on harder lines if they experienced no opposition. We had never achieved anything at all by compliance and by indulging in the hope and belief that the worst could not happen.

---Tor Skjonsberg, in Norwegian Resistance 1940-1945 by Tore Gjelsvik

Benign Forced Feeding

There is no way really to describe the extent of his dedication, his energy, the incredible depth and texture of his research and the quality of his understanding. They're prodigious. But what impresses me most about Paul de Armond is his immense generosity of mind, his collegiality, his commitment to enlightening -- you could call it benign forced feeding -- all of us who are trying in one way or another to understand, with him, what is happening to our country.

---Jane Kramer, The New Yorker (May 19, 2001)

Services

Since receiving the Defender of Democracy award in September 2000, Jay Taber has endeavored to put the lessons learned from his extensive community organizing experience to good use through curricular development, publishing, and online mentoring. A key contributor to the composition of the Activism and Social Change program at New College of California, author of five books, and editor of the online journal Skookum, Jay's work has been nationally recognized for making the essentials of applied research accessible to a wide audience.

More recently, as his writing has attracted an international following through his association with the Center for World Indigenous Studies, Jay has shifted focus to accommodate the geopolitical perspectives required in helping younger activists, writers, and scholars comprehend the challenges ahead. Toward that end, in July 2006 he designed a proposal in conjunction with the Public Good Project for a national learning center to provide hands-on guidance in investigative research, analysis and communication.

Jay is currently available for guest instructing, motivational speaking, as well as private one-on-one tutoring or consultation. Anyone considering hiring Jay is encouraged to review materials on his site prior to inquiring about services and fees. Those who wish to contribute to his travel and communication expenses for his unpaid speaking and mentoring engagements may use the make a donation button on either the Continuity or Skookum weblogs.

(You can listen to Jay speak about the Fourth World and the Fourth Estate here. He can be reached at tbarj@yahoo.com)

Keeping Hope Alive

The imminent departure of an associate who's pursuing her interest in permaculture, reminds me of the value of a symbiotic perspective of social networks, including ours. Watching her and other younger activists pursue their dreams in furthering humanity is reinvigorating for some of us old-timers engaged in subverting criminality in order for the young as well as old to have hope for a better future.