Groups of people seem to develop a dynamic that is independent of the will of their members. How? Do they become systems is their own right? There is something quasi organic in the way they grow, die off, change, reproduce even.
Self organising groups that get tired and elect paid workers to lead them. Groups that try and remain democratic and equal and struggle with power relations. Groups that astonishingly do remain stable against the odds.
The first time I was puzzled by this was when a women's health group started to do free pregnancy testing (it was not easily available then). After a time most of us complained that organising this was taking up all our meeting time and we never got to discuss interesting topics any more. The group split into two, and the interesting one we said we wanted almost immediately folded.
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