The intention of this post is to summarize the main elements of the last 153 posts, (July 8, 2014), that will bring about social, political, and economic stability, peace, and a socially sustainable future for democratic nations.
- Every person of every race, culture, ethnicity, nationality and gender has three innate values (quality of life, growth, and equality) that they strive to fulfill; these values have sustained our species for approximately 250,000 years.
- Every individual interprets these values in a personal hierarchy of needs.
- Humans are born with the “right of self-determination” that they are willing to die for in order to preserve that right. This “right of self-determination” underlies the “self-evident unalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”
- The right of self-determination and the related self-evident rights provide the founding intention for establishing all forms of democracy.
- The right of self-determination, the related self-evident rights, and working to fulfill each person’s hierarchy of needs provide the motive power for social and political change. The collective choices and actions made by millions of citizens for the improvement of their personal quality of life, to grow into his or her innate potential, and to do so equally as anyone else could or would, result in the “progress” of their respective culture or nation.
What we observe throughout the history of “civilized” nations is the incessant nature of the three core values, and the insatiable hierarchies of needs of millions of individuals. If we were to make a time-lapsed movie of human activity over the course of a century in only one of thousands of possible locations, we would see a flurry of activity similar to a time-lapsed movie of an anthill being built. When the nature of the three core values in each person becomes harnessed with that of millions of other individuals, human societies can overcome almost any physical problem.
The greatest problem of all human social nature is to combine the energies of millions of citizens to overcome the social problems that they have created! The combined energies of thousands and millions of individuals derived from their collective efforts to fulfill their individual hierarchy of needs are the original cause of social and political change. By applying the three core values that have sustained our species, we can use the combined energies and intelligence of citizens to invent and build socially sustainable societies.
- As people are social in nature, when two or two-billion people live in close proximity with each other, an agreed upon form of democracy is needed that allows for greatest latitude in the exercise of each individual’s right of self-determination with the condition that exercising that right not remove, damage, or otherwise hindering the exercise of the right of self-determination by anyone else, individually or collectively.
- What we see, however, are a multitude of democratic nations that are clearly becoming more and more unsustainable with each passing decade. What we also see is that no democratic government has ever been invented that has the capability to adapt to the social changes of the public. For organizations, unsustainability and failure to adapt to social change are directly related.
Those same 153 posts have also revealed the major elements that will be needed in the design or re-design of a democracy to give it the operational potential of becoming socially sustainable into the centuries and millennia ahead:
> Training programs for local community “Social Sustainability Design Teams.” These teams would be trained to use the “Schematic for Validating Social Sustainability". These teams would generate sustaining human wisdom submitted to the Library of Sustaining Human Wisdom and validate existing local, state, and national policies as to whether or not they support social sustainability.
> An Internet system that connects the Library of Sustaining Human Wisdom with thousands of teams, and enables them to collaborate with each other on the validation of social, political, and economic issues and topics they are working on.
> The Library of Sustaining Human Wisdom would also develop unbiased educational materials for contemporarily significant social, political, and economic issues and topics, in terms of their relationship to the development of social, political, and economic sustainability.
> An ongoing public opinion/preference survey process with the objectives of assessing public perception of public issues; and, their opinions and preferences concerning social, political, and economic issues, with the ability for them to provide their knowledge about the topic.
> A public website where these materials are available; which provides a “signature secure” Internet connection for citizens in their respective jurisdictions to choose which option(s) they prefer to resolve public issues, particularly where there are inherent conflicts between solutions.
The suggestions made in the last 153 posts provide a means to “mentor” social and political change so that change contributes to the sustainability of societies and collectively to our global civilization. Because change is unstoppable, it is time to imagine change in positive and constructive terms that bring about positive results.
Historically, “change” has been viewed as something that was malicious, uncontrollable, and destructive, much like riding an unbroken horse. Because we are afraid of change, the view that change must be halted leaves the rider sitting on a horse that does not bring the rider to any destination. These suggestions provide a means to harness social and political change through the guidance of the three core values of social sustainability so that change becomes tamed, harnessed, and able to bring our societies into a desirable and sustainable future.
In the past, social, political, and financial-economic interests have manipulated the forces for change for their own selfish interests to gain authority, control, and power over those who do not have access to the same dimensions of power. Those selfish ends are all unsustainable as all of human history clearly demonstrates.
These suggestions for a re-design of existing democracies provide the means to harness social change as the motive power that will keep a democratic government in step with its own citizens. The combined input of millions of citizens would provide the intelligence, stabilizing, trending, and thoughtful consideration to those who must make the decisions for the management of the public’s affairs. The much bandied fear of the fickle nature of the public is not much concern to us as is the well confirmed habit of public executives who are easily corrupted by moneyed interests for political and corporate purposes. The antidote for the fickle nature of the public is a cold splash of personal responsibility for the course of the public’s affairs.
- Every person of every race, culture, ethnicity, nationality and gender has three innate values (quality of life, growth, and equality) that they strive to fulfill; these values have sustained our species for approximately 250,000 years.
- Every individual interprets these values in a personal hierarchy of needs.
- Humans are born with the “right of self-determination” that they are willing to die for in order to preserve that right. This “right of self-determination” underlies the “self-evident unalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”
- The right of self-determination and the related self-evident rights provide the founding intention for establishing all forms of democracy.
- The right of self-determination, the related self-evident rights, and working to fulfill each person’s hierarchy of needs provide the motive power for social and political change. The collective choices and actions made by millions of citizens for the improvement of their personal quality of life, to grow into his or her innate potential, and to do so equally as anyone else could or would, result in the “progress” of their respective culture or nation.
What we observe throughout the history of “civilized” nations is the incessant nature of the three core values, and the insatiable hierarchies of needs of millions of individuals. If we were to make a time-lapsed movie of human activity over the course of a century in only one of thousands of possible locations, we would see a flurry of activity similar to a time-lapsed movie of an anthill being built. When the nature of the three core values in each person becomes harnessed with that of millions of other individuals, human societies can overcome almost any physical problem.
The greatest problem of all human social nature is to combine the energies of millions of citizens to overcome the social problems that they have created! The combined energies of thousands and millions of individuals derived from their collective efforts to fulfill their individual hierarchy of needs are the original cause of social and political change. By applying the three core values that have sustained our species, we can use the combined energies and intelligence of citizens to invent and build socially sustainable societies.
- As people are social in nature, when two or two-billion people live in close proximity with each other, an agreed upon form of democracy is needed that allows for greatest latitude in the exercise of each individual’s right of self-determination with the condition that exercising that right not remove, damage, or otherwise hindering the exercise of the right of self-determination by anyone else, individually or collectively.
- What we see, however, are a multitude of democratic nations that are clearly becoming more and more unsustainable with each passing decade. What we also see is that no democratic government has ever been invented that has the capability to adapt to the social changes of the public. For organizations, unsustainability and failure to adapt to social change are directly related.
Those same 153 posts have also revealed the major elements that will be needed in the design or re-design of a democracy to give it the operational potential of becoming socially sustainable into the centuries and millennia ahead:
- A common vision for a socially sustainable nation, one that by its daily operation supports its sustainability into the centuries ahead.
- A common intention to design and develop a socially sustainable society, government, and economy.
- An overarching national philosophy that expresses and supports the social sustainability of that nation into a far distant future through its daily application and has a beneficial effect on the world community.
- National and state/provincial missions to implement the designs for a socially sustainable society.
- Numerous objectives that fulfill the mission at local community, city/country, state/province, and national levels:
> Training programs for local community “Social Sustainability Design Teams.” These teams would be trained to use the “Schematic for Validating Social Sustainability". These teams would generate sustaining human wisdom submitted to the Library of Sustaining Human Wisdom and validate existing local, state, and national policies as to whether or not they support social sustainability.
> An Internet system that connects the Library of Sustaining Human Wisdom with thousands of teams, and enables them to collaborate with each other on the validation of social, political, and economic issues and topics they are working on.
> The Library of Sustaining Human Wisdom would also develop unbiased educational materials for contemporarily significant social, political, and economic issues and topics, in terms of their relationship to the development of social, political, and economic sustainability.
> An ongoing public opinion/preference survey process with the objectives of assessing public perception of public issues; and, their opinions and preferences concerning social, political, and economic issues, with the ability for them to provide their knowledge about the topic.
> A public website where these materials are available; which provides a “signature secure” Internet connection for citizens in their respective jurisdictions to choose which option(s) they prefer to resolve public issues, particularly where there are inherent conflicts between solutions.
The suggestions made in the last 153 posts provide a means to “mentor” social and political change so that change contributes to the sustainability of societies and collectively to our global civilization. Because change is unstoppable, it is time to imagine change in positive and constructive terms that bring about positive results.
Historically, “change” has been viewed as something that was malicious, uncontrollable, and destructive, much like riding an unbroken horse. Because we are afraid of change, the view that change must be halted leaves the rider sitting on a horse that does not bring the rider to any destination. These suggestions provide a means to harness social and political change through the guidance of the three core values of social sustainability so that change becomes tamed, harnessed, and able to bring our societies into a desirable and sustainable future.
In the past, social, political, and financial-economic interests have manipulated the forces for change for their own selfish interests to gain authority, control, and power over those who do not have access to the same dimensions of power. Those selfish ends are all unsustainable as all of human history clearly demonstrates.
These suggestions for a re-design of existing democracies provide the means to harness social change as the motive power that will keep a democratic government in step with its own citizens. The combined input of millions of citizens would provide the intelligence, stabilizing, trending, and thoughtful consideration to those who must make the decisions for the management of the public’s affairs. The much bandied fear of the fickle nature of the public is not much concern to us as is the well confirmed habit of public executives who are easily corrupted by moneyed interests for political and corporate purposes. The antidote for the fickle nature of the public is a cold splash of personal responsibility for the course of the public’s affairs.