Hij is links, ging werken in het financiële hart van Londen en kwam eruit met een nieuwe vorm van actievoeren: impact antropologie. Brett Scott, Zuid-Afrikaan van geboorte, vraagt zich hardop af waarom de Occupisten aan de zijlijn blijven staan. Verander van binnenuit. En als dat niet lukt, dan begrijp je in ieder geval je vijand beter.
I believe my experiences form a prototype for a different approach, a philosophy of financial activism called “impact anthropology”. It involves submerging oneself – to greater or lesser degrees – in a sector perceived to be deeply alien, for the explicit purpose of internalising the rules and inner codes of the system you wish to impact. Gaining access allows one to obtain internal knowledge, and that leads to legitimacy within the system. This leads to an ability to create an impact. By internalising the rules of a system, you can make it yours and play with it, integrating yourself into the DNA in order to promote mutations. That is a great route to creative disruption and “positive deviance”. The reward might be the ability to create a better financial system. The cost might be the loss of secure beliefs, and a secure identity.