Introduction

This is as good a place as any to begin to understand the organization of, and theories behind, this website. You may also want to check out our Unsorted Thoughts page, for notions and musings which have yet to find their proper place.

The Basics

Before we elucidate the specific directions of our analysis, we must explain our basic goals and methodology.

Without a doubt, acquired knowledge - when used in the service of wisdom - creates a moral responsibility, an absolute, categorical necessity to be acted upon. That is why admission of new, revealing knowledge about social realities is so threatening to most individuals and cultures. We are speaking specifically here of knowledge that exposes the myths underlying the social order as no longer symbolically representative of the actual process and forces shaping the culture.

That is also why genuine (or feigned) ignorance has been characterized in a popular saying as "bliss". It's therefore no wonder that so many people desire to shut themselves off from incoming information - lest after it is consciously or subconsciouly internalized, it will have become knowledge that demands a radical restructuring of a person's internalized world view, and consequently demands doing one's duty to - in the words of Doris Lessing - that which must be done.

Surely, we ought to become wise before we act. Therefore we believe that we cannot create a better future, a fairer planet for all, while remaining burdened and restrained by commonly accepted half-truths that are a misbegotten legacy of our past. We say "half-truths" not because they indeed represent reality to some extent, but because hitherto, the prevailing cultural dogma prevented most people from acting in any other way except to "confirm" with their every-day actions the "half-lies" portion - thus making a mockery of the veritable part. Here's a partial list of these conceptual mistakes that appear - prima fasciae - to be so self-evident:

• Assertions that some groups, and/or types, of people are less than human apriori, or can be "proven scientifically" to be inferior in some way to "true" humans (of whom, not incidentally, the asserter is one)
• Conversely, assertions that some groups, and/or types, of people are so special that ordinary mores and morals need not apply to them. Such self-selected and self-defined "good" people, de facto Übermenschen, cannot ever - by definition - do anything wrong.
• Assertions that human aggressiveness inevitably results in actual acts psychological or physical violence, usually escalating to wars for survival between groups of people
• Assertions that women are less capable than men at just about everything
• Convictions that limitless material wealth (as opposed to sufficiency with slight surplus) is the key conduit to spiritual and psychological joy and happiness, as in "The more you buy and own, the happier you'll be" and "He who has the most toys when he dies, wins"

Some Axioms

There are several fundamental axioms that underpin the analysis that informs the structure and content of this website. Each item in the list below can be explored more fully by clicking on it. For discussion of the underlying "deep" theory behind the Analysis and Case for Action, click here.

The future of Humanity on this Fair Planet is not predetermined. It's up to all of us to evolve it together The World is too full of injustice and ugliness - but it doesn't have to be that way Existing institutions are mostly incapable of helping us to become a Fair Planet Gradual - rather than revolutionary - paths have the greatest chance of succeeding in effecting a lasting transformation of the World Cultural development and dynamics are not the same as biological evolution. Yet there's much we stil need to learn from Nature The prevailing social paradigms must be gradually replaced with more Life-affirming and Life-enhancing visions and myths Our new myths must be based on multivalent, "all shades of gray" - rather than bivalent "either/or" - thinking Sustained, pervasive, non-violent opposition to current centers of Power is imperative and absolutely necessary

The future is ours!

Most of us tacitly assume that, somehow, the future has been predetermined to a great degree by superhuman, unfathomable, immanent forces. With all due apologies to adherents of "traditional religions, nothing could be farther from truth. Indeed, this website is premised on the conviction that not only are the problems of the Planet eminently tractable, but that with appropriate analyses of the fundamental causes of humanity's miseries, we can find effective points of leverage to actuate Life-enhancing changes. First, and foremost, though, paraphrasing the inspiring words of Gandhi, more of us must "be the change that we want to see in the world."

Injustice and Ugliness

A truthful assessment of the state of the World has to acknowledge how far short we have come of our professed spritual and material ideals. That is not to say that no progress has been made at all. Indeed, it is quite remarkable how far our common humanity has developed, given its self-imposed obstacles. But now we have come to perhaps a unique point in any sentient species history: for the first time the scale of the problems we have created for ourselves is truly global, and consequently we are running out of places to hide from the consequences of our past and present thoughts and actions.

Existing institutions can't and/or won't help us

Existing dominant institutions: the Nation-state, major religious denominations, mainstream economic arrangements - are deeply flawed in their constitution, and thoroughly compromised by their past and present actions. Indeed each seems to have become a cruel caricature of itself, all-the-while insisting that the twisted, tragi-comic current version of is a true likeness of its idealized self. These institutions defend themselves tenatiously against changes from within and/or without. This they do primarily by creating - for public consumption - chimeras of impending undesirable futures that would have to be faced without them.

These institutions introduce into the public discourse many false dichotomies (e.g. Capitalism v. Communism; Church v. Godlessness: Manliness v. Effeminacy, etc.). These misstatements of the issues we face serve to confuse and distract us from recognizing that it is instead the current dominant socio-economic-political institutions themselves that are actually the primary and continual source of our fundamental problems.. We need to realize and accept the fact that they are highly unlikely to come up with Live-enhancing solutions so desperately needed now. Indeed, too many Nation-states seem to have degenerated recently, almost to the point of having unwittingly become experiments in updated versions of classic fascism.

Evolution - with a purpose

A program of guided evolution, evolution with a purpose (not just haphazard development, as has been mostly the case up to now) - comprised of a series of almost imperceptible but tangible Life-enhancing improvements - will make a Fair Planet a reality. As the program is put into action, conditions will arise that will promote Life-enhancing changes in all aspects of our lives. These "baby step" changes will mutually reinforce and sustain each other as part Life's auto-poesis. Clearly, the great cultural challenge for our time is to craft sustainable socio-economic, cultural and political processes of transformation (flexible enough to be useful in all manner of socio-cultural conditions) and insinuate these processes into the daily routines of Humanity.

Learning from Nature

Natural entities and processes, constituting a vast holoarchy self-organized over a span of eons, are a source of a multitude of lessons for those attempting to intentionally build a better world. The lessons, however, are ever subtle, yet seldom literal. The paradigms of dynamic equilibrium maintenance, overlapping networks of information feedback loops, low-level energy states, and co-evolution can inform the Logos of our design for a more Life-enhancing Human community.

Life-enhancing visions and myths

Life wants to be and to become. Our cultural, social and economic lives must be Life-enhancing to a greater degree than they are now. The preciousness of all Life must become the source of a new morality and a code of ethics. We must carefully review our combined cultural heritage and begin to transmit to the coming generations only those parts of it that let Life reign even more resplendent. Consequently, we must boldly acknowledge and reject, once and for all, the single most destructive set of cultural adaptations we have made and embraced (mostly unwittingly) in our development - the cult of Materialism, Machismo, Militarism and the Middleman.

Multivalent thinking

A method of analysis and discourse that sees reality in shades of gray, and eschews "either/or" thinking, but instead embraces the apparent complexity and contradiction inherent in paradoxes of reality will be very useful in dealing with the inadequate conceptual paradigms. Understanding the cosmic interplay of parts and wholes, analog and digital manifestations of enegy and matter, Self and the Other - to name just a few co-conceptualizations - will guide our thinking along more subtle and productive paths.

Non-violent opposition to powers-that-be

In the immortal words of Frederick Douglass "Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom, and deprecate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground, they want rain without thunder and lightning." Those visions of the future that do not recognize this basic fact, are not likely to offer a principled, pragmatic action programme that will - among it's first steps - expose perhaps the sole overt obstacle to a Fair Planet: those few individuals and elite institutions currently in positions of power which act consistently to deny life to others. Let us also not forget any and all hoarders of obcene amounts of material wealth, while so many others suffer all their lives without basic human necessities.

Still, don't dispair, kind Visitor, here's the good news: it is we, through our mostly-unconscious embrace of legitimacy and inevitability of unbridled power and unlimited personal wealth, that continue to enable the existing unjust social and cultural structures to persist.

It is therefore within our power to change gradually the spiritual, intellectual, moral and ethical context of our existence, and thereby gradually disenfranchize the self-appointed "rulers", still so desperately clinging to their unearned privilege.

One of our avowed primary goals is to create a network of local groups committed to activism aimed at changing the context of political and economic power. We propose to call this movement (in English, that is) "Fair Planet Consensus"

To achieve these goals, we see the following key steps as being and becoming absolutely necessary:

• Faster growth of general awareness among the general public of the dynamics of current local and Planetary power relationships
  • Increased public ackowledgement - and discussion - of the growing gap between the democratic values we proudly espouse and the realities of wealth-based power-structure which corrupts the actual political process
  • Restoration of informed, pragmatic political discourse in our legislative bodies and mainstream press
• Putting into place socio-political processes which will result in deconcentration of economic capital and its influence through:
  
  • Changes of Production Patterns
  • Changes of Consumption Patterns
  • Changes of Ownership Patterns
  • Changes of Taxation Patterns
  • Changes of Saving and Lending Patterns
  • Changes of Investment Patterns
  
  
• Creation of a fuller range of viable choices for obtaining food, water, clothing, shelter and surplus exchangeable goods or services in an increasingly sustainable manner

Practical solutions we offer include:

• Conceptual framework for assembling sets of new, more useful economics metrics
• Business enterprise "Life-Enhancer" Certification program
• Consumer products labeling to clarify their "work content"

Each one of these proposed changes, by itself, is perhaps likely to be insignificant. But the synergy between them has the potential to begin to alter the power relationships landscape. Gradually, converging currents of sustainable, balanced, Life-Enhancing economic behaviors are likely to begin to transform the socio-political landscape. We will then begin to witness an unprecedented, creative transfer of control over life's circumstances away from power-crazed "masters" to individuals and local groups.