Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Peer Pressure to Transform the World



  Despite being a Pulitzer Prize winner, Author Tina Rosenberg didn't get the accolades she should have for her excellent book 'Join The Club'.
We tend to think of Peer Pressure as negative. Well, Ms Rosenberg pulled out some fine stories on how it was used to make a positive difference.

A not-so famous but amazing example is about 11 Serbian young people called Otpor, (yes, like Outpour!) who toppled the hated war criminal Milosevic. Not by fiery speeches but by making rebellion 'cool' with street theater and humor. That group of 11 grew to over 70,000 and history was made. What's even more interesting was how this group taught the Tahir Square uprising in Egypt to do the same thing!

Movements are built around similar principles. Cut smoking? Dignity for people? Cut tuberculosis? Its all here. If you want to add big value, this book has some exciting possibilities to build on.