Global Problems Call The Need For A Worldwide Human Family

With the current globalization of our problems, we need to extend our circle of empathy and view humanity as a worldwide extended human family. As long as we refrain from facing that challenge, divisiveness and unsolvable conflicts will persist.

–Rodrigue Tremblay, in “Rodrigue Tremblay C.V. on The Code for Global Ethics”

 

The Need To Establish A Higher Threshold Of Human Morality

[In a more universal civilization], first and foremost, the scope of human empathy would be more universal and more comprehensive, and would not merely apply to some chosen people, to members of a particular religion or to persons belonging to a particular civilization. In practice, this would require that we establish a higher threshold of human morality, beyond the traditional norm of the Golden Rule (“Treat others as you would have others treat you.”) It would require that we adopt what I call a Super Golden Rule of humanist morality that incorporates the humanist rule of empathy: “Not only do to others as you would have them do to you, but also, do to others what you would wish to be done to you, if you were in their place.” — Of course, the corollary also follows: “Don’t do to others what you would not like to be done to you, if you were in their place.”

–Rodrigue Tremblay, in “For a Better Global Civilization”

 

Empathy, Tolerance & Sharing

Three interrelated moral imperatives that have always been sound moral values, but which I feel will become increasingly required for humanity to go forward and survive. And I refer to: – more human EMPATHY, – more interpersonal TOLERANCE, and – more interpersonal SHARING (altruism and generosity) as a foundation for a more harmonious, for a freer and for a more prosperous world.

–Rodrigue Tremblay, in “For a Better Global Civilization”

 

The Empathy Principle

According to the empathy principle, one must aim at treating others as if one were in their place, and not necessarily expecting reciprocity as is the case in the traditional Golden rule of morality that one finds in virtually all moral systems (“Do to others as you would have them do to you”).

 

The empathy principle can thus be framed this way: “Do to others what you would wish to be done to you, if you were in their place.”

 

That is why I say that empathy can be the solid foundation of a more civilized global society based on the solidarity of all human beings. It is the awareness that other people can suffer, be happy and flourish just as one does, and that one should treat others accordingly.

–Rodrigue Tremblay, in “For a Better Global Civilization”

 

We Must Aim To Create The Greatest Good For The Greatest Number Of People

As an economist but also as a humanist, I believe that collectively, we must aim at creating the greatest good for the greatest number of people, not the maximizing of purely selfish personal financial objectives.

–Rodrigue Tremblay, in “For a Better Global Civilization”

 

Happiness Is More Than Money & Power

Many economists, and I am one of them, believe along with British philosopher Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832) that the pursuit of money does not necessarily lead to personal happiness and to general well-being. Happiness is more than money and power.

 

Indeed, many studies have shown that while it is true that well-being tends to rise with income, it also tends to level off after reaching a certain level. Surveys show, for example, that many people often prefer to earn less rather than be deprived of sleep time, or rather than commute long distances, or rather than living away from friends. This is a reflection of the notion that economics and money are not everything in making people happy and satisfied. There are other values in the moral scale of things, and that’s what I would like to emphasize.

–Rodrigue Tremblay, in “For a Better Global Civilization”

 

Living & Surviving On The Same Small Planet

This Super Golden Rule of human morality could indirectly encompass the idea of moral reciprocity, but it goes much further towards genuine altruism, compassion and human empathy. It truly defines our moral obligations to others in positive terms about what should be done—not in negative terms with the implied fear of retaliation for bad behavior (“Don’t do to others what you would not like to be done to you, because they may do it to you if you mistreat them”).

 

I think that such an approach to morality is likely to impose itself in the future as human beings realize more and more that they are all living on the same small Planet, and that if they want to survive collectively (and not repeat the disastrous experience of the dinosaurs who became extinct some 65 million years ago, after roaming the Earth for close to 200 million years).

–Rodrigue Tremblay, in “For a Better Global Civilization”

 

Humanity Is Globally Interconnected, But In A Competitive Way

As I see it, the world today faces a fundamental moral dilemma.

 

—On the one hand, we live in an environment in which technology and scientific progress—as we would expect—have made survival somewhat easier for many populations.

 

—On the other hand, economically, this is done increasingly in a competitive global context, and this could have potentially perverse effects on our tendency to feel empathy for others.

–Rodrigue Tremblay, in “For a Better Global Civilization”

 

The Central Question: Education

The central question is: Besides teaching science and general knowledge, can we also teach empathy, compassion and civility, especially to the young?

–Rodrigue Tremblay, in “For a Better Global Civilization”

 

Simple But Revolutionary Idea: We Live On The Same Planet & We Should Attempt To Survive On This Planet As Members Of The Same Human Race

To reach that new level of global ethics, we may need nothing less than a moral revolution in our thinking, a new moral norm, a global moral revolution, to fit the modern problems we are facing today and in the future. Such a moral revolution may even be needed for our own biological survival as a species.

 

In general terms, let me say that I firmly believe that we should adopt the simple but somewhat revolutionary idea that we are living on the same small planet and that we should attempt to survive on this planet as members of the same human race.

–Rodrigue Tremblay, in “For a Better Global Civilization“

We are, first of all, not solitary creatures and second of all, we are deeply embedded in the lives of others. It’s very easy to forget that and to engage in an atomistic fallacy — where we think that all we have to do is study the individual components of a system in order to understand the system. That’s clearly not the case when it comes to social systems.

–Nicholas Christakis, in “Q&A with Nicholas Christakis: Our modern, connected lives”

If a few nations step forward and begin changing the narrative of ‘us and them’ to ‘everyone,’ we will see a new dawn. If a few nations begin actually making operational a verification system we can all depend upon and push to bring all into such a system, we will all benefit.

–Jonathan Granoff, in “A Good Framework for a Good Future”

A social network is a kind of human superorganism, with an anatomy and a physiology — a structure and a function — of its own. Our local contributions to the human social network have global consequences that touch the lives of thousands every day and help us to achieve much more than the building of towers and the destruction of walls.

–James Fowler, in “Social Network Guru”

Many problems that challenge us today can be traced back to a profound tension between what is good and desirable for society as a whole and what is good and desirable for an individual. That conflict can be found in global problems such as climate change, pollution, resource depletion, poverty, hunger, and overpopulation.

–Martin Nowak, in “SuperCooperators: Altruism, Evolution, and Why We Need Each Other to Succeed”

We are beginning to see the entire universe as a holographically interlinked network of energy and information, organically whole and self referential at all scales of its existence. We, and all things in the universe, are non-locally connected with each other and with all other things in ways that are unfettered by the hitherto known limitations of space and time.

–Ervin László and Jude Currivan, in “CosMos: A Co-creator’s Guide to the Whole World”

If humans were to model the lifestyle displayed by healthy community of cells, our societies and our planet would be more peaceful and vital.

–Bruce Lipton, in “The Wisdom of Your Cells: How Your Beliefs Control Your Biology”

If ordinary people really knew that consciousness and not matter is the link that connects us with each other and the world, then their views about war and peace, environmental pollution, social justice, religous values, and all other human endeavors would change radically.

–Amit Goswami, in “The Self-Aware Universe”

The idea of the universe as an interconnected whole is not new; for millennia it’s been one of the core assumptions of Eastern philosophies. What is new is that Western science is slowly beginning to realize that some elements of that ancient lore might be correct.

–Dean Radin, in “Entangled Minds”

Collaboration is vital to sustain what we call profound or really deep change, because without it, organizations are just overwhelmed by the forces of the status quo.

–Peter Senge, in “The Fifth Dimension: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization”

It is indeed a paradox that so many from what are considered developing countries wish to come to the West, where we have an epidemic of depression, isolation, and loneliness, while the U.S. alone consumes 25 percent of the world’s resources. However, it is often these “third-world” cultures that offer some of the most profound wisdom and insights that have been garnered over thousands of years, while our own history spans a few hundred years.

–James Doty, in “The Science of Compassion”

The human brain now holds the key to our future. We have to recall the image of the planet from outer space: a single entity in which air, water, and continents are interconnected. That is our home.

–David Suzuki, cited in Pauline Vetuna, “A Force of Nature: David Suzuki”

We are (most of us) embedded in an exceedingly complex network of social relationships, many of which are vital to our well-being. Every day we confront issues relating to the needs and wants of others and must continually make accommodations.  And in addressing these conflicting interests, the operative norm is – or should be – fairness, a balancing of the interests and needs of other parties, other ‘stakeholders.’

–Peter Corning, in “What’s the Matter with Libertarianism?”

The more we study the major problems of our time, the more we come to realise that they cannot be understood in isolation. They are systemic problems, which means that they are interconnected and interdependent.

–Fritjof Capra, cited in Michael Jackson, “Systems Approaches to Management,” p. 5

Social change will only come about through a process of education, that education is not limited to the classroom or to institutions of higher education, and that each of us, as an individual, has a responsibility to serve as an educator.

–Daniel Chodorkoff, in “Education for Social Change”

School performance, public health, crime rates, clinical depression, tax compliance, philanthropy, race relations, community development, census returns, teen suicide, economic productivity, campaign finance, even simple human happiness — all are demonstrably affected by how (and whether) we connect with our family and friends and neighbours and co-workers.

–Robert Putnam, in “Robert Putnam, Social Capital and Civic Community”

Harmony is the deepest factor for the universal peace. But it will be effective o­nly if people will know how to achieve and develop social harmony.

–Ernesto Kahan, in “Spirituality, Harmony, Poetry and Medicine”

The planetary phase of history has begun, but the future shape of global society remains profoundly uncertain. Though perhaps improbable, a shift toward a planetary civilization of enriched lives, human solidarity, and environmental sustainability is still possible.

–Paul D. Raskin, in “The Great Transition”

Perhaps we humans are cosmic dwarfs; perhaps we are molecular giants. But there is no denying our mid-scale complexity. We humans live neither at the range of the infinitely small, nor at that of the infinitely large, but we might well live at the range of the infinitely complex. We live at the range of the most caring; we ourselves might embody the most capacity for caring.

–Holmes Rolston, in “Care on Earth: Generating Informed Concern”

There is a fundamental error in separating the parts from the whole, the mistake of atomizing what should not be atomized. Unity and complementarity constitute reality.

–Werner Heisenberg, in “The Part and the Whole”

What is needed is the intelligent management of Earth’s resources. If we really wish to put an end to our ongoing international and social problems, we must eventually declare Earth and all of its resources as the common heritage of all the world’s people.

–Jacque Fresco, in “Jacque Fresco on the Future”

Human beings are ’emotional amoral egoists,’ driven above all by emotional self-interest. All of our thoughts, beliefs and motivations are neurochemically mediated, some predetermined for survival, others alterable.

–Nayef Al-Rodhan, in “Emotional Amoral Egoism: A Neurophilosophical Theory of Human Nature and Its Universal Security Implications”

Until we begin to see each other as ourselves, nothing will change. We are one planet.

–Peter Joseph, in “Where Are We Going?”

Flourishing goes beyond happiness, or satisfaction with life. True, people who flourish are happy. But that’s not the half of it. Beyond feeling good, they’re also doing good—adding value to the world.

–Barbara Fredrickson, in “Review of Positivity by Barbara Fredrickson”

Especially now when views are becoming more polarized, we must work to understand each other across political, religious and national boundaries.

–Jane Goodall, in “And if we dare…”

Human rights without responsibility, without a sense of decency, a sense of compassion, is not good enough for a society to flourish… We need to broaden our scope from the legalistic language to the language of the heart.

–Tu Weiming, in “TU Weiming in Vienna: Rise, Tianxia, rise!”

We must see ourselves in community with all other people at local, national and global levels. While this may seem superficially easy, it is actually not. Western culture, now globally dominant, has systematically trained us to think and act as though we are separate individuals, often in competition with each other for scarce resources of one sort or another, primarily money, which has be-come the perceived means to all we want and need in life.

–Elisabet Sahtouris, in “The Biology of Globalization”

We [must] all acknowledge our role as global citizens, and to fully step forward into that role of global citizenship. We must recognize our interconnectedness and to know that we are all actors on the world stage carrying great responsibilities. Each person has an impact upon the whole. There is no actor in the world who acts in isolation.

–Audrey Kitagawa, in “Practical Spirituality”

As we enter the 21st Century it is clear that we have entered an unprecedented global age in which our diverse cultures, religions, philosophies, worldviews and perspectives encounter one another in the marketplace of our global village. It is now clear that our future sustainability on this planet calls for radical advances in our rational and human capacities to negotiate the powerful forces between worlds as the human family moves towards a sustainable global civilization.

–Ashok Gangadean, in “Meditations”

The whole system is under tremendous strain. Although the increasing pace of change is essential for developing new solutions, it is also pushing society to its limits. In global structures, it all comes to a head in the form of sudden crises. This leads to tipping point situations in which the seemingly impossible becomes possible.

–Franz Josef Radermacher, in “Interview with Franz Josef Radermacher”

Much of modern life is based upon a false logic, a logic that assumes that happiness and well-being come from financial prosperity.

–Nic Marks, in “The Happiness Manifesto: How Nations and People Can Nurture Well-Being”

Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile.

–Albert Einstein, in The New York Times, June 20,1932 AEA 29–041

 

Image: "Punctuated" by Shari Alisha

According to a new report from the National Institute for Safety Management, on any given day, the average American’s life is entrusted to more than 2,000 different people who are complete strangers.

 

The report, which shows how any one of these anonymous individuals making a single mistake can easily cause another person’s death, concluded that it is only through sheer luck that anyone ever makes it through a 24-hour period alive.

 

“People you don’t know and will never even meet—food-safety regulators, bridge inspectors, whoever installed the gas lines in your home—ultimately have the power to decide whether you live or die,” the report read in part. “We have no choice but to trust that these individuals are always being very careful and know exactly what they’re doing.”

 

“Which is of course something we have no way of actually knowing,” the report added.

 

Jacob Drummond, a spokesman for NISM, unveiled a staggering list of strangers responsible for a person’s life each day, which includes everyone from officials who make sure there aren’t deadly toxins in the air we breathe, to construction workers who precariously hoist building materials over pedestrians’ heads, to motorists who stay focused and don’t veer into oncoming traffic during the rush-hour commute.

–“Report: Life Put In Hands Of 2,000 Complete Strangers Every Single Day,” in The Onion.

An experiment published in PLOS ONE showed that when 9- to 11-year old kids were asked to do acts of kindness for several weeks, not only did they get happier over time but they became more popular with their peers.

 

And another big intervention we just finished at a company in Spain showed that asking some employees to be generous to a randomly chosen list of colleagues (we called this our “Secret Santa” manipulation) produced huge benefits (for increasing happiness, connectedness, flow, and decreasing depression) not just for the givers, but for the receivers and even for observers. The recipients of kindness “paid the kind acts forward” and even acquaintances of the givers became happier and were inspired to act more generously themselves.

–Sonja Lyubomirsky, in an interview with Gretchen Rubin, “We Have Found That Almost Any Types of Acts of Kindness Boost Happiness.”

 

Image: "Ripple" by Taro Taylor.