Mutual Responsibility – Page 12 – 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.

October 24, 2012

Education About Interconnectedness Is A Matter Of Human Survival

Unfortunately, too few people have understood the evidence, or have grasped the true scope and significance of the environment. The systemic explanation of the causes of environmental deterioration and disaster is radical in a fundamental sense, i.e. reaching for root causes. People commonly perceive their ‘environment’ as the total of numerous separate interrelationships that have no apparent connections. In fact, these interactive relationships are ultimately, even though remotely, connected.

Although humans consciously interact with the total environment only in relation to particular aspects or elements, survival as a species may depend upon their understanding that those interactions occur within the infinitely greater and more complex systemic reality.

Science is progressively enlarging our awareness of this greater environmental context. Its ubiquitous complexity explains the rationale for the aphorism that ‘you can never do just one thing.'”

Today’s Social Behavior Is At Odds With An Interconnected Approach

The modern view of progress has been distorted psychologically in a way that has obscured its cumulative adverse impacts on humanity.

Human behavior, while driven by forces both internal (cerebral) and external (environmental), is moved by perception.

How people interpret what they perceive is largely determined by their own experience within their culture, and is a legacy of generations past, transmitting interpretations of reality which may persist as after-images even though the reality has in fact changed.

The man-nature dichotomy, the conquest of nature ideology, material expansion, and perpetual growth have long been dominant themes of modernity. They continue to be a mantra of social behavior, albeit increasingly at odds with science-based holistic systemic perceptions of reality.”

Few People Understand Interconnectedness

Moreover the ‘system’ is synergistic in that changes affecting one aspect of the system may cause changes in other parts of the system. It is truly impossible to do just one thing. Yet few people appear to understand that the ultimate environment is an interactive system and more, because it exists within a dynamic cosmos without which our living world is inconceivable.

The systems synergistics concept implies an ultimate unity of knowledge, elaborated recently in writings by E.O. Wilson (e.g., Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge, 1998).Yet our published knowledge of the world remains largely specialized and segregated. This may be unavoidable if research is to advance detailed knowledge.

But there is also need to appreciate the connective, integrative, interactive aspects of holistic knowledge which we seem poorly equipped to comprehend, but ignore at our peril.

These possible root causes may be examined separately, but in the human persona they integrate to form a coherent outlook on life. The vision may be erroneous yet satisfying to a human urge for coherence and consistence with a personal view of self interest.

The Human Mind Hasn’t The Skill Or Experience To Yet Understand Interconnectedness

The most basic and important questions regarding human behavior have yet to be answered empirically by the sciences of the brain and nervous system, complemented by sociobiology. Our assumptions today are largely based upon inference. Yet inference, drawing on human history and observed behavior, may lead to pertinent questions and hopefully to reliable hypotheses toward averting hazards to the future. Returning to our question: Have the evolved capabilities of the human mind and culture failed thus far to sufficiently equip humanity to comprehend and evaluate the consequences – good or bad – of its accelerating far-reaching impact upon its environment and thereby upon itself? Jay W. Forrester, systems scientist at MIT, thought so, and in a 1971 article published in Technology Review he wrote:

‘It is my basic theme that the human mind is not adapted to interpreting how social systems behave. Our social systems belong to the class called multi-loop nonlinear feedback systems. In the long history of evolution it has not been necessary for man to understand these systems until very recent historical times. Evolutionary processes have not given us the mental skill needed to properly interpret the dynamic behavior of the systems of which we have now become a part.’”

The Success Of Our Future Depends On Education About Interconnectedness

Any successful society must be an educational institution. However great its commitment to individual freedom and diversity, it needs a code of civic virtue and a general devotion to the common enterprises without which it cannot flourish or survive.

Will a critical mass of society accept the leadership required to move humanity toward a sustainable and sanative future? The state of the world today may justify hope, but does not encourage optimism. Hope for a preferable future will be of little avail unless joined to action.

The resources needed to sustain mankind’s tenancy on Earth are present and available. How they will be used will determine the future insofar as that future may be shaped by human minds and hands.

All excerpts in this post are quoted from Dr. Lynton Keith Caldwell’s “Is Humanity Destined to Self-Destruct?.” Dr. Caldwell was a political scientist and principal architect of the 1969 National Environmental Policy Act.

Image: “Multiple Gaseous Interconnected Gelatinous Enclosures Spawned During Overly Aggressive Agitation,” by Jeff Baxter on Flickr.

October 24, 2012October 24, 2012

Living As Cancer Does Not Lead To Happiness

As Humanity In General Feels More Depressed, Emptier And More Afraid Of The Future Than Ever, The Search For The Right Definition Of ‘Happiness’ Is On

Robert Skidelsky, Professor Emeritus of Political Economy at Warwick University and a fellow of the British Academy in history and economics writes in his article “Happiness Is Equality“:

…The king of Bhutan wants to make us all happier. Governments, he says, should aim to maximize their people’s Gross National Happiness rather than their Gross National Product. Does this new emphasis on happiness represent a shift or just a passing fad?

It is easy to see why governments should de-emphasize economic growth when it is proving so elusive. The eurozone is not expected to grow at all this year. The British economy is contracting. Greece’s economy has been shrinking for years. Even China is expected to slow down. Why not give up growth and enjoy what we have?

No doubt this mood will pass when growth revives, as it is bound to. Nevertheless, a deeper shift in attitude toward growth has occurred, which is likely to make it a less important lodestar in the future – especially in rich countries…

…More equality would not only produce the contentment that flows from more security and better health, but also the satisfaction that flows from having more leisure, more time with family and friends, more respect from one’s fellows, and more lifestyle choices. Great inequality makes us hungrier for goods than we would otherwise be, by constantly reminding us that we have less than the next person. We live in a pushy society with turbo-charged fathers and “tiger” mothers, constantly goading themselves and their children to “get ahead.”…”

The Greatest Mistake People Make When Assessing Themselves Is Separating Themselves From The Surrounding Natural System, As If Humans Were Above, Separate of The Natural Environment

The situation is more simple than people think.

People tend to forget who they are. Humans are not some special aliens, disconnected from the rest of living creatures or the natural system they live in, but they are part of it.

Humans still belong to the group of mammals, the biological human body does not differ from other sophisticated mammals apart from small differences, the whole body and even the psyche is working based on the same laws and principles.

And what is called “happiness” in biological terms is an overall balance, homeostasis within the actual ecosystem, and in this case this ecosystem exists within a single human being, within human society and between human society and the rest of the vast surrounding natural system.

Happiness, the feeling of balance, the ease people can settle in life depends on how optimally they take part in the system with harmony.

Problems Humanity Experiences Today Stems From The Fact That The Present Human Socio-Economic System Is In Direct Opposition To Nature’s Law Of Balance

The constant quantitative growth lifestyle stubbornly pressed on despite it obviously collapsing is unnatural, it is going completely against the natural laws in the surrounding environment.

At the moment humans behave like cancer within the natural system. With the present system humans harm themselves, we have the human induced disease statistics – depression, divorce, substance abuse statistics and the collapse of basically – all human institutions as proof. Besides humans harm the general human society witnessed through social inequalities, growing national and international tensions, future-less and jobless youth, and humans harm the environment where again the proof is obvious from global warming to countless species extinction, ocean and air pollution, and so on.

Growth In A Closed And Finite, Interconnected System Has To Be Qualitative, Optimizing, Refining The Interconnections Aimed At The Well-Being Of The Whole System

The article claims that “growth is bound to return” but the return of quantitative growth is impossible. The laws surrounding humanity are unbreakable and if the human species is planning to survive with the evolutionary process, humanity has to adapt to the natural system instead of trying to bend it to match its selfish and greedy desires. The growth that is possible from now on is qualitative, like the maturing biological body after growth has finished.

As the whole global human network has evolved into the interconnected and interdependent state, from now on the processes should concentrate on changing our attitudes and relationships according to this interdependence. In other words, how to use interconnections in the most optimal way for the benefit of the whole organism, how to refine the whole system primed for overall harmony and balance.

We do not stand a chance, as the awesome natural forces during natural catastrophes show us we are no match for them: nature around us will not change, only we can.

Equality Within Human Society Has To Be Coupled With An Attitude And Approach That Is Based On The Unbreakable Laws Of The Natural, Living Ecosystem

Returning to the main theme of the quoted article, equality in itself does not lead to happiness. If we are equal in our tendency to exploit everything and everyone for our own favor, that would just lead to further destruction. This attitude led to the global crisis humanity is sinking in at the moment.

Thus social equality has to be coupled with the right attitude, an inclination towards a mutually benevolent relationships among people on a global scale.

Humanity has to climb down from the high pedestal and start researching and understanding the surrounding natural system from a new viewpoint. Not from the point of exploitation – how people can use nature for their own “misunderstood well-being” – but how they can learn nature’s laws so humanity can become a partner in the system, helping in the maintenance of the general balance and homoeostasis, and enjoying unprecedented quality of life through this approach.

Image: “55. cancer-information” by Tips Times from Flickr

October 22, 2012October 24, 2012

Our New ‘We’ Generation

On May 14, 2012, Greater Good Science Center Faculty Director Pr. Dacher Keltner delivered the

commencement address for graduating psychology students at the University of California, Berkeley, asking them to look for the best in themselves and in humanity.

In 1986, Ivan Boesky, of insider trading fame, gave a graduation speech on this very same Berkeley campus of free speech and Nobel laureates. That day he declared, ‘Greed is healthy.’Below are some powerful excerpts from his speech.

A year later in the movie Wall Street, Gordon Gekko famously turned that phrase into, ‘Greed is good.’ This battle cry was part of a pendulum swing seen before in history, one that expressed a certain view of who we are as a species. We are selfish gratification machines. Happiness is found in material pursuits. Other people’s concerns are not our own. Altruism is an illusion. The bad in human nature is stronger than the good.”

Can A System Teaching Self

Interest Gain At The Expense Of Everyone And Thing Provide Us A Beneficial Society?

That phrase and its accompanying ideology was the mantra of my generation, and scientific studies show it brought us:

Rises in loneliness and a loss of friends;

A loss of trust in our communities and institutions;

Increases in narcissism and decreases in empathy;

Spikes in anxiety, to the point where 75 percent of Americans now say they are too stressed;

And the recent economic collapse, an insulated one percent, and levels of inequality in the United States that are literally shortening the lives of our citizens.”

Science Reveals The Depth Of Connections Between Humans And The Power Of This Influence That Can Have Intrinsic Effects For Humanity’s Improvement Or Destruction

We can care because we have evolved the capacity to rise above the loud demands of the internal voice of self-interest, and imagine the minds, interests, and concerns of others. This empathic flight is enabled by mirror neurons and large portions of the prefrontal cortex of the brain. It is enabled by our wildly contagious tendencies.

Recent studies of a community in Massachusetts find that all manner of tendencies—dietary habits, anxiety, sadness, hope and happiness, and generosity—spread through neighborhoods as readily as flues and colds. Recent studies find that when we give to a stranger, that stranger goes on to give seven percent more in interactions in which we are no longer present.

We are separated by the boundaries of our skin, we are separate constellations of trillions of cells, but in the reaches of our mind we are connected to one another. Other people’s gains and costs can become our own. And in these acts of empathy, where we see the world through the eyes of others, we come to understand that we all suffer, we all yearn for the happiness of our children. We come to see that we share a common humanity.”

The beginnings of love and caring can manifest when humans begin to connect with what is external from themselves. Our young generation shows great potential to begin building an influential environment towards this direction.

In the words of the poet Percey Shell The great secret of morals is love, or a going out of our own nature, and an identification of ourselves with the beautiful which exists in thought, action, or person, not our own. A man, to be greatly good, must imagine intensely and comprehensively; he must put himself in the place of another and of many others; the pains and pleasures of his species must become his own. The great instrument of moral good is the imagination.”

And you are something more. I hear it in the new questions you ask in the classroom and in your research, and I see it in your actions in the world. You’re using psychological science to humanize the criminal justice system, destigmatize mental illness, create nurturing environments that build stronger connections in the frontal lobes, reduce stress—our biggest killer—in the health care system, make Facebook kinder.

You are Generation We. And I don’t mean the video game console Wii; or “wee” in the British sense of meaning “small”; or “oui” the French word for yes; or “we” like what a two year old says when he has to go to the bathroom.

I mean “we” as in us, we as in this human species, we as in common humanity, we as in all sentient beings.”

Dacher Keltner is currently a Professor of Psychology at U.C. Berkeley and founding faculty director of the Greater Good Science Center and co-editor of the magazine Greater Good, an interdisciplinary center that is translating the new science of happiness and compassion to thousands of educators, practitioners, parents, and concerned citizens. The above excerpts were taken from the article: Generation Wii… or Generation We?

Images courtesy of xedos4 & Maggie Smith at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

October 22, 2012October 21, 2012

Interdependence: A Property Inherent In Nature

The major problems in the world are the result of the difference between how nature works and the way people think.

–Gregory Bateson, English anthropologist, social scientist, linguist, visual anthropologist, semiotician and cyberneticist whose work intersected that of many other fields.

When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world.

–John Muir, naturalist, author, and early advocate of preservation of wilderness in the United States.

October 21, 2012October 21, 2012

What Would A Mutually Responsible Economy Look Like?

i love you and i care for you brother ^_^

I have now reached the point where I may indicate briefly what to me constitutes the essence of the crisis in our time. It concerns the relationship of the individual to society.

The individual has become more conscious than ever of his dependence upon society. But he does not experience this dependence as a positive asset, as an organic tie, as a protective force, but rather as a threat to his natural rights, or even to his economic existence.

Moreover, his position in society is such that the egotistical drives of his make-up are constantly being accentuated, while his social drives, which are by nature weaker, progressively deteriorate.

All human beings, whatever their position in society, are suffering from this process of deterioration. Unknowingly prisoners of their own egotism, they feel insecure, lonely, and deprived of the naive, simple and unsophisticated enjoyment of life. Man can find meaning in life, short and perilous as it is, only through devoting himself to society.”

– Albert Einstein, 1949

A Mutually Responsible Economy?

In essence, we already know what a mutually responsible economy looks like. It is the economy that exists within the family. In the family, each person operates according to need and merit. There is the mother, father, children, and the extended family. Each operates according to a particular role: The baby, the mother, the father, grandparent, etc.

These roles then are further broken down. The baby is, “helpless,” “precious,” “in need of protection.” The father is perhaps the “bread winner,” the mother, “the caregiver,” etc. To contemplate what form an economy based on mutually responsibility would look like, where each seeks to provide for others, it is probably best to start with something we know.

Obviously, all families don’t act in a mutually responsible way. And an economy based on mutual responsibility doesn’t mean, “Shangri-La.” After all, a family can provide each other with what they need and still have disagreements. But a family that operates cohesively is a family that operates with mutual responsibility, where each contributes to the family and is supported by the family.

According To Need And Merit

The family operates according to need and merit. For instance, everyone in the family needs shelter, food, and socialization. But if the son, 15, goes to the father and says, “Dad, I’m about to turn 16. Will you buy me a car when I get my driver’s license?” then the father has a calculation to make: “Is buying my son a car according to need?” After all, the family has a car, possibly multiple cars. Does the son really need a car?

But then there is merit. The father could see that a car is a status symbol, a rite of passage, etc. and then place a condition: “I will give you a car if you do X and Y.” So the family operates according to need but also according to merit in order to provide each other what is needed.

But how can this example of the family apply towards the creation of an economy that exists in relation to everyone, and not just the family which is naturally tied together, where each member from birth or through desire wants to be together?

The Need For A Mutually Responsible Economy

As the above quote from Einstein says, each person in society is tied to all the others. However, although we are tied to one another, each needing all the others in order to receive his or her needs; we do not view these ties as beneficial. Therefore, our economy is structured around the pursuit of the individual and not the pursuit of society as a whole.

But if each did perform their role, their self-calculating role, where each provided for others only in order to acquire one’s needs—and this worked—who would complain? The problem is that this path no longer produces gain. Today economic hardships are increasing. The economic system we have built, according to personal benefit, no longer operates in a way where each generation can build upon the accomplishments of the last, where equality grows, and inequality fades.

Applying Need And Merit To The Economy

When it comes to need and merit in relation to the general economy (i.e., everyone), it should be becoming increasingly more apparent why such a system should hold great possibility. It has been reported, for instance, that nearly 1/3 of all food produced today is thrown away. In correlation, nearly 600 million die a year due to malnutrition and hunger.

If an economy operated like a family, according to need and merit, then no one would go hungry. After all, each person has the need for food, for shelter, for healthcare, etc. so excess food would be given to those who have the need for it. But then what would happen to such things like competition? Wouldn’t competition shrink to nonexistence if such a system were to be put into place? With mutual responsibility, what is to become of those who are stronger, smarter, perhaps more privileged; are they to simply now receive everything the same as those who are perhaps weaker, lazier, not as smart, etc.?

This is where merit can be applied. However, before merit can be accurately applied, first the need for an integral view, to view the economy, the global economy, as a system, as parts in a chain or cogs in a wheel, is first needed.

The Need For New Education

If everyone in society were taught about their natural reliance upon others, that labor is divided so that goods and services can be made available more easily, that society works best when work is done for the benefit of society, then the idea of mutual responsibility would seem like a natural necessary conclusion. Moreover, the need to develop a mutually responsible global economy would also be apparent given the reliance that each nation has upon all the others or their daily survival.

In regards to equality, need, and merit, a mutually responsible society would treat all members of society equally. For instance, given that each role in society is needed, from janitors to politicians; each role would be treated equally because each role would be seen as pivotal for society’s continued operation.

Equality then could be achieved through merit being applied in a new way. For example, instead of paying certain members of society more for doing more skilled work, social merits could be given instead. After all, the one who does more skilled work than one who does less skilled work still has the same needs and the extra merit that this more detailed work demands could easily come through societal honors, thereby creating economic equality while still providing merit for such work.

Also, in regards to competition, in a mutually responsible economy it would still exist. The form would only change: Instead of competing to profit for oneself, a person would compete in order to best benefit society. Equality then could be achieved rapidly and competition would be a driving force for it and the creation of a continually more cohesive and sustainable society.

Image: “i love you and i care for you brother ^_^” by ๑۩۞۩๑~OTH~๑۩۞۩๑ on Flickr.

October 21, 2012October 21, 2012

Time To Act: Continued Constant Economic Growth Will Lead To Collapse

The earth is full. It’s full of us, full of our stuff, full of our waste, full of our demands; yes, we are a brilliant and creative species, but we’ve created a little too much stuff—so much that our economy is now bigger than it’s host, our planet…”

– Paul Gilding, independent writer and adviser on sustainability.

The above and following quotes are from Gilding’s TED talk on sustainability.

A Familiar Message With Little Regard Given To It

It is nothing new that advocates and scientists are warning that consumption is out of control on our planet. However, little is done to educate us, the various populaces of the planet, that our current levels of consumption are detrimental to the future survival of our species, other species, and the planet as a whole.

As Gilding says,

We’re burning through our capital, or, stealing from the future… what this means is our economy is unsustainable … when things aren’t sustainable they stop.”

In Love With A Crazy Idea

When we think about economic growth stopping we go, ‘that’s not possible,’ because economic growth is so essential to our society that it is really questioned… it is based on a crazy idea, the crazy idea being that we can have infinite growth on a finite planet… I’m here to tell you the Emperor has no clothes, that the crazy idea is just that: It is crazy.”

Gilding states a counter argument:

But we need growth. We need it to solve poverty. We need it to develop technology. We need it to keep social stability.”

His reply:

I find this argument fascinating, as though, we can kind of bend the rules of physics to suit our needs… the earth doesn’t care what we need. Mother nature doesn’t negotiate. She just sets rules and describes consequences and these are not esoteric limits. This is about food and water, soil and climate, the basic practical and economic foundations of our lives.”

The Specifics Of The Growth Crisis

Many of you will be thinking: ‘But surely we can still stop this. If it’s that bad, we’ll react.’ Let’s just think through that idea.

We’ve had 50 years of warnings.

We’ve had science proving the urgency of change.

We’ve had economic analysis pointing out that not only can we afford it, it’s cheaper to act early.

And yet the reality is we’ve done pretty much nothing to change course. We’re not even slowing down.”

We’re not acting. We’re not close to acting. And we’re not going to act until this crisis hits the economy and that’s why the end of growth is the central issue and the event that we need to get ready for.”

Here is Gilding’s full TED talk [17 min.]:

The Lack Of An Integral Perspective

So, when does this transition begin, when does this breakdown begin? In my view it is well underway. I know most people don’t see it that way. We tend to look at the world, not as the integral system that it is, but as a serious of individual issues.

We see mistakenly each of these issues as individual problems to be solved. In fact, it’s a system in the painful process of breaking down.”

Change Takes Everyone Working Together

We are more than capable of getting through everything that’s coming… when we feel fear and we feel loss; we are capable of quite extraordinary things… There’s certainly no economic or technical barrier in the way… the only thing we need to change is how we think and how we feel and this is where you come in… we can be more. We can be much more.

… We can choose this moment of crisis to ask and answer the big questions of society’s evolution. Like, what do we want to be when we grow up when we move past this bumbling adolescence when we think there are no limits and suffer illusions of immortality?

… We can do what we need to do but it will take… every one of us. This could be our finest hour.”

Image: “Built for collapse” by Danny Birchall on Flickr.

October 20, 2012October 19, 2012

Can Africa Continue Booming In A ‘Global Crisis Economy’?

Africa As Other ‘Emerging Markets’ Is Still In An Upward Swing, Especially Compared To The Stagnating Western Economies

An article, “Africa’s Big Boom” on the pages of Project Syndicate discusses the recent positive developments on the “forgotten continent.”

Africa is undergoing a period of unprecedented economic growth. According to The Economist, six of the ten fastest-growing countries in 2011 were in Africa. Average external debt on the continent has fallen from 63% of GDP in 2000 to 22.2% this year, while average inflation now stands at 8%, down from 15% in 2000. This positive trend is likely to persist, given that it is based on structural geographic and demographic factors, such as rising exports, improved trade conditions, and steadily increasing domestic consumption.”

Is Local Development, Continuing Growth & Progress Possible In An Otherwise Struggling Global System?

One of the biggest problems and reasons that no solution has been found for the global economic crisis is that isolated outlooks on all kinds of situations, including the economy of single nations or continents, still prevail. In other words, outlooks that do not take the full, global picture into account.

Thus, there is a lot of talk about “emerging markets,” China and India, and now also Africa, regions and continents that were either suppressed, or were dormant up until recently and that have now started to catch up to the more developed part of the world.

This, however, does not mean that the system being used, which copies the Western model, is a fruitful one. It simply means that they now have a lot of growth potential in relation to where they were before.

Looking at the global picture, however, these regions or continents have no chance of avoiding the problems the Western part of the world is already facing, since the economic paradigm, viewed from a global perspective, is based on a faulty and unsustainable foundation.

So on paper, China is still growing using its previous momentum, India is already slower, and the same goes for South America, and of course from a level at almost zero, Africa too can produce spectacular results until they hit the same wall everybody else is hitting.

The Present Socio-Economic Model Is Unnatural & Unsustainable, Regardless Of Region, Nation, Culture Or Governance Structure

Constant quantitative growth is simply impossible to maintain. It is unsustainable because it does not suit the system humanity exists in today.

Today’s world has reached a certain maturity. It is like a child who completes its “child” stage of development and moves on to becoming an adult. Now, instead of more quantitative development, a different, more mature, more qualitative kind of development has to start.

When a human being completes its growth, it happens gradually, some body parts and limbs still grow for a while, but the body in general stops growing and has to transform to a different kind of function.

This is what is happening to humanity today, it has reached a new stage of growth which requires a different kind of functioning than what the past models offer. Until people start understanding this concept, and in the meantime, continue stubbornly trying to push for further quantitative growth, they appear as if they are promoting cancer. In other words, by isolated parts of the “body of humanity” only focusing on growing themselves and not taking the benefit of the whole of humanity into account, by that they exhibit cancerous qualities that end up endangering other parts of humanity, and ultimately also themselves, as a result.

A Global, Interdependent Network Can Only Function Based On Global And Mutually Responsible Cooperation

At the end of the article, regional integration is suggested as being necessary for the further improvement of the economic situation in Africa:

African governments should pursue intra-regional trade liberalization, institutional integration, and infrastructure development with greater determination than ever. Their commercial enterprises need to progress in these areas in order to develop further and improve living standards for all.”

This regional integration is a positive step, but it is not enough. For development that would truly improve the living standards of all, such integration would need to extend worldwide, crossing all national and continental borders, using the already existing multi-level interconnections in a positive way.

As humanity shifts into a new globally interdependent era, new kinds of leaders and experts are needed, people who take into account the whole integrated system, who understand its laws and principles, and who can provide its citizens with the knowledge and tools to experience this global interdependence in a positive way. While isolated outlooks still prevail over global ones, the only “growth” taking place is the growth of multiple cancers, trying to take in as much as they can for themselves at the expense of the whole body, not understanding that by doing so they cause harm to other nations and ultimately, this harm also returns to themselves.

Image: “Africa in hearts” by futureatlas.com from Flickr

October 19, 2012October 20, 2012

Breaking Down The Borders Between People

To Be Alone, Or Not To Be Alone?

“The individual in his sociological aspect is not the complete organism. He who attempts to live without association with his fellows dies. Nor is the nation the complete organism. If Britain attempted to live without cooperation with other nations, half the population would starve.

The completer the cooperation, the greater the vitality; the more imperfect the cooperation, the less the vitality. Now, a body, the various parts of which are so interdependent that without coordination vitality is reduced or death ensues, must be regarded, in so far as the functions in question are concerned, not as a collection of rival organisms, but as one. This is in accord with what we know of the character of living organisms in their conflict with environment.”

If We Learn The Depths Of Our Interdependence And Embed In It The Power Of Cooperation, Could We Steer Towards A Brighter Future?

“The higher the organism, the greater the elaboration and interdependence of its part, the greater the need for coordination. If we take this as the reading of the biological law, the whole thing becomes plain; man’s irresistible drift away from conflict and towards cooperation is but the completer adaptation of the organism (man) to its environment (the planet, wild nature), resulting in a more intense vitality.

Man’s general way of thinking of the totality, i.e. his general world view, is crucial for overall order of the human mind itself. If he thinks of the totality as constituted of independent fragments, then that is how his mind will tend to operate,

but if he can include everything coherently and harmoniously in an overall whole that is undivided, unbroken and without border (for every border is a division or break), then his mind will tend to move in a similar way, and from this will flow an orderly action within the whole.”

—Sir Norman Angell

Image courtesy of Idea go, Mr Lightman & David Castillo Dominici at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

October 19, 2012October 18, 2012

What Kind Of World Do We Market To Our Youth?

This is a lot more then about selling products and services. This is about the direction we are going as a culture, as a society, and as human beings.”

Many practitioners of the social sciences have performed extensive research today, which concludes the powerful influences from our surrounding environments and its affects on our choices, feelings, thoughts and behavioral patterns. One of our major sources of influence comes from digital media technology which surrounds us 24/7. Our youth generation eat, drink, play, go to sleep and wake up with it. As a matter of fact today, children and teens are the number one demographic target for spending on the latest manipulative marketing techniques.

We need in a proactive forward looking way, as a society, need to say… ‘How is this changing us? How is this changing our environment? How is this changing our society? And do we want this?'”

Consuming Kids: The Commercialization Of Childhood [Trailer]

We need to look at this as a systematic problem, as a a social cultural problem and say we need to protect children from corporate marketing… What does this mean for our well-being? For their well-being?”

We have become a country that places a lower priority on our children’s emotional, cognitive, social, even spiritual development, then it does on training them to be consumers.This is a lot more than about selling products and services. This is about the direction we are going as a culture, as a society, and as human beings.”

October 19, 2012October 18, 2012

How To Deal With Tax Evasions

Singapore, A Tax Haven, A Refuge For Tax Evaders, Started Taking Steps In Tightening Regulations

The article “Singapore: Full disclosure” in The Economist describes how Singapore is introducing tougher measures trying to combat tax evasion in line with the worsening financial crisis in the Western world.

From July 2013 financial institutions will be legally obliged to alert authorities to any overseas customer who they suspect of bringing in funds to evade taxes at home, just as they are expected to report on other offences. Equally, the authorities have been sending out stern circulars to all the banks warning them to monitor their customers better, follow the existing guidelines more closely and generally get their houses in order.

The flurry of activity is partially a consequence of the debt crisis in Europe and America. Cash-strapped governments have been ramping up tax-collection efforts. Inevitably, attention has therefore turned towards those countries perceived to be offshore havens. Just as Switzerland has become a target for European tax authorities, so has Singapore.”

People Need Either A Negative Or Positive Motivation For Change

The key to solving these problems is motivation.

As long as the solution is forceful, there will always be people who will find another way, tax evasion, offshore accounts, one trick to the next, and there will always be people, organizations and nations helping them since it is in their best interest.

Firstly, today’s global society will have to find a way of educating its citizens, aiming to lead them to the understanding that by cheating, by harming the system, they actually harm themselves.

Today there is enough actual field data and scientific knowledge showing clearly that humanity has become a single, interwoven network, and when someone “bites the network,” causes harm, the same person actually bites into his own flesh.

However, the majority today still only focus on short term self-centered benefits, not understanding that in the view of today’s big picture, the prosperity and health of the individual is fully and directly dependent on the prosperity and health of the whole system.

The Process May Start With Negative Motivations & Restrictions, But For Long Term Sustainable Results, Only Positive Motivation Built On Understanding Can Work

The steps Singapore is making is already a positive example in how a changing environment can lead others to change their practices, since otherwise they could be facing sanctions and exclusions, with the other obvious example being the embargo against Iran. But these are still restrictive, negative motivational tactics. The optimal way would be when the same “rogue” states or individuals change their practices to ones where they understand that it is their best interest to fall in line with others, mutually cooperating with everyone.

Image “Fishing nets” by Jack Newton from Flickr