We are a non-profit organization Humanity Integrated that is comprised of people who find themselves in the most interesting yet trying times of human evolution – the time of global crisis, which is the first stage of a profound change.
http://vimeo.com/photogl/the-trouble-with-being-human-these-days
As our survival has been collectivized, we need to be good to each other if we want to survive.”
–Zygmunt Bauman, sociologist
As long as you think that nature is ‘out there,’ then you have the basic separation that allows you to see the environment as ‘other’ and people as distinct from that, and that separation of ‘self’ from ‘nature’ is really what white man brought to civilization. That is the disease, the deep, deep wound that will be healed one way or the other in the decades to come.”
–Paul Hawken, environmentalist, entrepreneur and author.
Nowadays we fly around like individual bees exulting in our freedom. But sometimes we wonder: Is this all there is? What should I do with my life? What’s missing? What’s missing is that we are Homo duplex, but modern, secular society was built to satisfy our lower, profane selves. It’s really comfortable down here on the lower level. Come, have a seat in my home entertainment center.
One great challenge of modern life is to find the staircase amid all the clutter and then to do something good and noble once you climb to the top. …
Most people long to overcome pettiness and become part of something larger. And this explains the extraordinary resonance of this simple metaphor conjured up nearly 400 years ago. ‘No man is an island entire of itself. Every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.'”
–Jonathan Haidt
Manuel Lima, senior UX design lead at Microsoft Bing, shows how interconnected networks are increasingly becoming the modern day norm for understanding the organization of information and social interactions, and as a result, visualized networks are increasing in popularity as cultural memes.
As shown in the above video, a defining factor of an interconnected network is that if one of its elements changes, that change affects the whole network and thus the whole network changes. Accordingly, a collapse in one part of the network clearly causes all the other parts to be affected by it, as is most painfully and obviously exemplified by the global financial crisis.
Thus, this interconnected network perspective of understanding the organization of social interactions clearly shows the need for mutual responsibility as a leading social value.
As knowledge advances to harness the interconnected network outlook on every area of life, the social values that characterize “the world of the past” – individualism, maximizing profits and self-interest – and their methods of stratification and protectionism still prevail in human society.
- Every day Americans are bombarded with hundreds of messages suggesting that ‘the good life’ is attainable through ‘the goods life,’ by making lots of money and spending it on products that claim to make us happy, loved and esteemed.
- On the news shows we hear a near constant refrain from economists and politicians about the importance of consumer spending and economic growth.
- Around 150 billion dollars are spent most years to embed consumer messages in every conceivable space.
- Commercialization and consumerism also reach deeper, warming their way into people’s psyches and encouraging them to organize their lives around higher salaries and owning more stuff.”
- Research consistently shows that the more that people value materialistic aspirations and goals, the lower their happiness and life satisfaction, and the fewer pleasant emotions they experience day to day.
- Depression, anxiety and substance abuse also tend to be higher among the people who value the aims encouraged by consumer society.”
- Scientists have found that materialistic values and pro-social values are like a see-saw; as materialistic values go up, pro-social values tend to go down. This helps explain why people act in less empathic, generous and cooperative ways when money is on their minds.
- When people are under the sway of materialism, they also focus less on caring for the earth. The same type of see-saw is at work here: as materialistic values go up, concern for nature tends to go down. Studies show that when people endorse money, image and status, they’re less likely to engage in ecologically beneficial activities like riding bikes, recycling, and re-using things in new ways.”
- If we hope to have a happier, most socially just, and more sustainable world, then we need to develop ways to diminish materialistic values in our personal lives and in society … and promote intrinsic values for growing as a person, being close to one’s family and friends and improving the broader world.
- The grip and consumerism and commercialism have on our world can seem inescapable, and there are certainly powerful forces that push materialistic values on us, but by making changes in our personal lives and by working for broader societal changes, we can break the hold of materialism and be freer to live our intrinsic values. That, in turn, would help us to take important steps to our greater personal well-being, a more humane society, and a more sustainable world.”
In other words, what do you consider as being the most important values for you and for society?
Also, if you were given the task to plan how society as a whole would come to treat intrinsic values with more importance than materialistic values, what would you include in that plan?
Quotes in this post were taken from the above video “The High Price of Materialism” by the Center for a New American Dream, which are the words of psychologist Tim Kasser.
When it comes to the implementation of a new idea, whether it is in science, economics, culture, etc.—every idea, if it is new, has an uphill battle to undertake. When Galileo proposed that the earth revolved around the sun, and not the other way around, it was the beginning of that idea’s long trek up the hill of what had previously been thought. It was a similar trek walked by the idea of natural selection proposed by Darwin, or by Edison numerous times, or by hip hop to become accepted as a respectable form of music.
And so it is now with the idea of mutual responsibility. Just as the earth revolving around the sun suffered through past arguments to the contrary, mutual responsibility does likewise. It has been said to be some sort of form of communism or socialism, a utopian idea, etc. But every new idea undergoes this sort of critique before it, if it has merit, is eventually accepted.
When thinking of the idea of mutual responsibility, where instead of a person valuing individual ideals, or loose collective ideals for the sake of receiving one’s needs and not suffering harm from the rest of society; its value in an increasingly interconnected and interdependent world should be becoming apparent.
Because if it can be shown that society, global society, is suffering as a result of interdependence not being valued, and that this then leads to the development of crises on all levels (economic, interpersonal relations, communities, states, nations, international relations), then what idea other than mutual responsibility—where people agree to mutual conduct and responsibility for everyone—is more natural?
It is conceivable that through the prolonging of the current global crisis (in education, culture, economics, climate change, health, and international relations) that mutual responsibility could be arrived at by masses of people through persistent suffering.
But such a path—suffering—is not desirable. This path requires conditions similar to osmosis: A concentration gradient where, here, an idea eventually passes through the barrier of what is accepted and what is not due to concentration, i.e. here suffering increases to a point where it passes through its barrier.
The other path is that of education.
If mutual responsibility were to be taught in the education system as a natural part of life that every modern student should know, this would then hasten mutual responsibility’s acceptance into the marketplace of ideas.
If a child in school learns about ethics, about what society deems good and bad, and then is put into an environment where such ethics are not valued, then that child will forsake his or her learning due to society’s influence. This is why mutual responsibility, in addition to it being taught, must have a practical application in the form of community involvement.
It is similar to someone who wishes to quit smoking. Does a person who desires to stop smoking congregate closely with those who smoke? Of course not, that is if they are serious about no longer smoking. Because the influence of society, of the smokers on that person, will be an inhibiting force.
If a person reaches the conclusion that mutual responsibility is needed in order to create a healthily functioning society, and as such wishes to develop an attitude of mutual responsibility, he or she needs to be surrounded by those who also hold this idea with regard.
Even still, although education and community involvement are needed for mutual responsibility to grow to be an accepted idea, it is still not enough. This is because although small groups of people, or even whole communities, can hold this idea, it would still not be on the level needed for a global society that is interconnected and interdependent to be swayed.
That being said, there is an interesting phenomenon known as “critical mass.” It is the concept that once an idea is held by ten percent of a population that idea suddenly begins to spread rapidly and its growth is sustained. As a result, the conundrum of living in a global society which knows little about its interconnection and interdependence also holds a shining light: It provides a network of connections that allows for the transmittance of ideas rapidly.
As a result, with new education, community involvement, and the transmittance of the idea of mutual responsibility through social networks (physical and virtual), it is conceivable that critical mass, as a result of the prolonging of the global crisis, could be reached rather quickly.
The continued spread of the idea would then be the result of self-perpetuating motion.
Image: “Unity – Zickri Teo” by Adi Arfan Mikhail.
![Is It Possible We Can Actually Extend Our Empathy To The Entire Human Race As An Extended Family? [RSA Video]](https://mutualresponsibility.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/rsa-animate-empathic-civilization.png)
Bestselling author, political adviser, and social and ethical strategist, Jeremy Rifkin, says we must “begin rethinking human nature” and “bring out our empathic sociability so that we can rethink the institutions of society and prepare the groundwork for an empathic civilization.”
- the acknowledgement of death and the celebration of life and rooting for each other to flourish and be.”
- based on our frailties and imperfections, so when we talk about building an empathic civilization, we are not talking about utopia.”
- about the ability of human beings to show solidarity.”
- There was no such thing as Germany, there was no such thing as France. These are fictions but they allow us to extend our families so that we can have loyalties and identities based on the new complex energy communication revolutions we have that annihilate time and space.”
- Is it really a big stretch to imagine the new technologies allowing us to connect our empathy to the human race writ large in a single biosphere?”
- All humans are soft wired with mirror neurons” meaning, “if I’m observing you – whatever it is – the same neurons will light up in me as if I’m having that experience myself.”
- We are soft wired not for aggression, violence, self-interest, utilitarianism” rather, “for sociability, attachment, affection, companionship, and the first drive is actually the drive to belong.”
- We are “soft-wired to experience another’s plight as if we are experiencing it ourselves.”
- Begin thinking as an extended family.”
- Rethink the human narrative.”
- Bring out our core nature.”
Is this what it’s come to, a price tag on life, a world coursing with greed, intoxicated on monetary gain, and material conquest? Why have we allowed this? Ladies and gentlemen these are the questions you should be asking yourselves.
The world around us has been manipulated, coerced in a direction where human life is outweighed by profit.”
The quotes in this post are taken from the video at the bottom of this post: Uprising 2012: The Freedom Informant Network
All the while you chase the dream life they’ve created for you, waving it in front of your face like a carrot on a stick. Stop it, stop being guided through life. We need to quit letting the decisions of a few control the lives of the many. We need to take our future, our children’s future, back into our hands.”
When did we lose our connection with others, with community, and family? Stop focusing on the differences and start acknowledging and building upon our common grounds. Start sharing, connecting, teaching one another, and learning from each other as well.
Build our bond as human beings. Find your strength in unity. Find your voice, and then let it be heard.”
What you have to say does matter. We just need to get off our knees, stand on our own two feet, and remind them just how much we do matter. Become the change you want to see.
Build the future together, a decent future, a future where life is cherished, rather than spent worshiping money.”
Rid yourself of your cynicism, your ego, your fear. Instead open your hearts, your minds, and your eyes. Broaden your horizons… It’s time to change our ways, to evolve and break free of this viscous cycle. It’s time to educate ourselves on the issues affecting us and work together to create progressive affective solutions.
Welcome to the future. Welcome to the freedom informant network.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZwqQo4_B2E
Image: 12M 15M Global Revolution Revolución Global Zaragoza by gaudiramone’s photostream.
![Alan Watts – A Conversation With Myself [Video]](https://mutualresponsibility.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Alan-Watts1-150x1501.jpg "Alan Watts – A Conversation With Myself [Video]")
- There seems to be a complete difference of style between the things that human beings do and the things that nature does, even though human beings are themselves part of nature
- There is an interdependence of flowers and bees. Where there are no flowers there are no bees, and where there are no bees there are no flowers. They’re really one organism. And so in the same way, everything in nature depends on everything else. So it’s interconnected! And so the many many patterns of interconnections lock it in together into a unity, which is, however, much too complicated for us to think about
- Each one of us, not only human beings but every leaf, every weed, exists in the way it does only because everything around it does
- Everything we’re doing to try to improve the world was a success in the short run, made amazing initial improvements, but in the long run we seem to be destroying the planet by our very efforts to control it and improve it
- When the wrong man uses the right means, the right means work in the wrong way. In other words there’s something wrong with the way we think. And while that is there, everything we do will be a mess
Most people are aware that human behavior is damaging the environment. This damage has now become dangerous – In many areas we are approaching the tipping point that will lead to collapse of ecosystems. Most importantly, since humans evolved from Nature, we thus depend upon Nature for survival, as it is the source of all our food, air and water. If the natural systems that support life on earth collapse then humanity is going to collapse”
– Dr. James Lovelock