Emergent Strategy: Nonlinear and Iterative

One of the first things I noticed about “Emergent Strategy” is how much I like the style of the book. It is somewhat quirky in the style, organized lists of quotes, and dictionary definitions of the titles of the chapters. I found this made the book more interesting and hold my attention with the quick changes of pace. In the chapter, “nonlinear and iterative,” Brown discusses that emotional growth is nonlinear, meaning, it does not happen in a straightforward process. This is the same for the organization of social movements, and Brown chooses to discuss Black Lives Matter and Occupy. She discusses a “time traveling emotion,” that is, an emotion that you once experienced in a particular moment that suddenly comes rushing back. Brown also dedicates a section to her experience at an Occupy movement in New York City and the feelings she felt when she was there. She notes that she was touched by the amount of “normal looking white people” there in support of the movement. Brown discusses the motion and emotions of the movement and how it has changed. She ends the chapter with a quote that stuck out to me: “we are all learning what it means to be somebodies who shape the future, to operate at the scale of transformation.” I appreciated this quote in the context of that class, because, in a sense, it perfectly describes all of us.