IntroductionPR
Conversations with Monjoronson #34 – Service-based Society; Moral Compass - Nov. 25, 2011 - Daniel Raphael
Teacher: Monjoronson
Topics:
- Service-based society
- The three core values of sustainability
- A moral compass
- The co-creative design team
- Being guided by spirit
- The sword of spirituality is two-sided
- Cultural change of attitudes and opinions
- The moral compass points to a future of sustainability
- The difficulty of applying the moral compass to governance
- The “Occupy Wall Street” social phenomenon
- A consistent, uniform, integrated moral conscience of morality
- The Declaration of Independence
- Individualism
TR: Daniel RaphaelModerator: Michael McCray
November 25, 2011
Prayer: Dear Father and our Creator Father and Mother, Michael and Nebadonia. We give thanks to be included in this journey. We are extremely grateful that each of you has decided to make this journey with us, life as a journey into greater understanding. We give thanks that our Avonal Son will soon join us in spirit and in truth. Amen.
MMc: Monjoronson, good morning and welcome.
MONJORONSON: Good morning. Thank you. How was your Thanksgiving Day?
MMc: It was beautiful. My family, my daughter, my wife and I were together and she prepared a wonderful meal. We looked back on times when the table wasn’t so heaped with plenty, and we gave thanks that this year, at least, we have much to be thankful for.
MONJORONSON: Wonderful. We wish that there would be a Thanksgiving Day in all nations around the world, a time to take pause and give thanks for the abundance—what ever that abundance is—around them and in their lives, and seek the First Source and Center to heap this gratitude upon.
MMc: I want to thank you for last week’s session; we have seen a significant positive response. There have been a few individuals already who are looking forward to participating in groups to design the new parameters for healthcare.
MONJORONSON: Excellent! This is our hope that you [meaning all readers] would initiate and volunteer to move ahead with this project.
MMc: Right now, we are collecting names of individuals and we will see what we can do to move this forward.
MONJORONSON: Thank you very much. You will be pleased with the results, even before the first year is completed.
MMc: Some of our friends still have some questions about how we get there from here. I think that is why you are proposing that we construct a new healthcare system in a new paradigm years in the future, and then work backwards from there.
MONJORONSON: Yes.
Service-based society
MMc: Even though I am familiar with the three core values of sustainability, the quality of life, the quality of individuals, the need to provide all individuals with the ability to grow, and I have a rudimentary understanding of the schematic for sustainability and how a co-creative design team functions, I am still having a hard time conceiving of how a service-based society might work. Would you please provide us with some examples?
[This is Daniel: A service-based society?]
MMc: Yes, rather than a profit-based society, a society that is based on service.
MONJORONSON: Thank you. One moment. As you know from your own commercial history, and your personal history in life, there is no ‘free lunch.’ Yes, this will be a service-oriented society, but there will also be a minor profit motive involved. This is not a competitive system, but it is a system of knowing where the costs are, and where the benefits are. It is more of an accounting system of effectiveness, rather than for the disbursement of dividends. In 500 years, the aspect of dividends will be very archaic; it will be well passed. You have seen what has occurred in the last 150 years in your nation regarding corporations and this too will change immensely in the future. The greatest impediment to movement of your society moving forward easily is the resistance by individuals who think that ‘what is’ is forever, and this is simply not so. Just as there were tremendous and significant cultural evolutionary and changes and developments in your nation in the last 200 years, you will see that and more in the coming 200 years as well. One must be flexible and capable of appreciating the ground movement under them culturally, in your society, and soon you will see these cultural changes throughout the world. You are beginning to see and appreciate these cultural changes, societal changes, in nations that are similarly constructed, similarly in operation, those that are democracies. These have a tremendous effect even on those nations which do not have a democratic base.
The movement into a service-based society will be conceived of differently than the services that you see in your nation now. Healthcare is a service, education is a service, and restaurants are a service and so on. These are services as opposed to products. In a service-based society, as you mentioned, it will be the quality of life that will be engaged, rather than the objects of your history of industrialism in the world. This is object-based, this is product-based, and you have seen that your nation has moved from a product-based nation to a service-based nation, but this is still part of the old paradigm of your societal economy. The new paradigm will see the individual as an asset, whose worth becomes greater by the investment in developing their potential within. This will have many repercussions in your culture and throughout the world. I will stop now and wait for further questions for you to clarify.
MMc: Thank you.
The three core values of sustainability
MONJORONSON: One moment. I would like to return to the topic you mentioned before asking your question. You mentioned the three core values of sustainability. These three core values are irreducible; the sustainability of life cannot be reduced below these three values. One is life, and in the old interpretation of your economy, you have interpreted life in a quantitative manner, that one life is equal to another life, and so on, without regard to the qualities and attributes that an individual brings with them. In the new paradigm, the three irreducible core values of sustainability will be primary to the development of economies and the world’s civilization. Life, in this regard, means the quality of life—not just ‘having’ a life, but having a life of quality.
The second value is equality, that you have equal access to develop the potential that is within you, with the same equal capacity of anyone else. This does not mean that you will become a 162 IQ, as someone else, but it means that if you have an IQ of 85, then the potential that lies within you is developed within your capability to do so. So too, is the same for a person of genius quality. In the new paradigm, you do not expect any less of the person with 85 as you do with 160, or vice versa. Both must strive to develop their innate qualities to their greatest capacity and capability of their potential, as they choose.
The last value is growth. Life without growth is meaningless, it is static, it is boring, it is dull and has no meaning. Life without the hope of growth has no meaning as well. Even if one is not growing and not developing, you hold within you the hope of growth and of developing those potentials, those capabilities within you. This is essential. Individuals need to grow and become sustainable as individuals, and their contribution to a society of individuals who are developing their capabilities and potential, assist the sustainability of their family, communities and societies, and eventually the nation and civilization as a whole.
This is what is coming to your world; this is what we are delivering to you. Failure to engage this qualitative aspect of your lives, of your nations and of your world will doom your civilization to decline and eventual collapse. One must get past—and when I say ‘one,’ that means the individual—and a nation—must get past the arbitrary evaluation of objects and material goods as the measurement of one’s capacity and goodness in their community and society. This simply is not so. We are, and have been in observation of the “Occupy Wall Street” phenomena and it is not amusing. What you are seeing is that your nation as a culture has maximized its product-oriented, object-oriented materialism to the greatest extent. It has sought to own, control or dominate all material production to the greatest extent possible in its existence and has become even more so. This centralizing materialism is harmful to individuals. You are seeing in a nation where you have tremendous resources for education, for medical care, for stable societies and communities, where individuals are now demonstrating for access to opportunity. Material things they have taken for granted; their freedoms they have taken for granted; that which was fought for during the American Revolutionary War has been achieved—fully! All political and civil rights have fundamentally been fulfilled and actualized in your nation politically, by the early 1970’s. Your nation now is on the cusp of entering into the new era. It may do so violently; it may do so peacefully, but it will change, for there is no other alternative.
A moral compass
What is missing is a moral compass to guide the behavior of individuals, and of corporations, nations and governments, and your global civilization into the future, a device that is so true and accurate that is applicable to all civilizations of this world, as well as it is to civilizations of other worlds. This is the moral compass that is provided, and the synergism between the three core values, as they are demonstrated in the schematic for sustainability. (As an aside to the transcriptionist and to the moderator, I request that you attach the document entitled: “Validating Sustainability” to be attached to this transcript for everyone’s use, and we ask that if it is available in other languages, that it be provided as well.)
A moral compass has never been given to you. It has only been developed evolutionarily as necessary in societies. The code of Hammurabi, which was adopted by Moses and many others throughout the history of your civilizations, is a necessary document for the good-working order of your societies. These too, are object-oriented in many ways, although there are qualitative aspects to the injunctions so that relationships and harmonious order are maintained. What is blatantly missing from this ancient moral code is the direction and guidance to do good towards sustainability. The Golden Rule, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you,” is evident and is reflected in every religion and every culture and every language-based culture in the world. This is a truism that cannot be surpassed.
The ultimate “Do unto others,” is to engage them and improve their lives in a quality manner, so that they can develop themselves within. What does this do? What this does for the individual is to give them a higher sense of appreciation for themselves, self-esteem and self-image. It as well engages the individual to aspire, to improve their mentality, their socialization, such that they begin to ask questions of the larger aspects of the universe. Where does this abundance come from? And of course, it comes from the First Source and Center.
The whole object of all these programs, dear ones, is to lead you into an intimate, personal relationship with the Divine—the Thought Adjuster, the God presence within you, and ultimately with the First Source and Center in Paradise. There is no other reason for us to be here on your planet, other than that. By improving the sustainability of your world, we as well, simultaneously, improve the potential for you as individuals to become God-centered, God-dedicated and to love your fellow brothers and sisters as one family. We know that for many of you who come from dysfunctional, disruptive, aggressive and abusive families, this seems like a tremendous burden. Our instructions are to assist you to devise sustainable family dynamics, such that you and your grandchildren will generate children who are truly functional, those who are happy, those who are satisfied, those who seek to develop themselves without looking back over their shoulder at the ghosts of their family past.
The moral compass is an ultimate instrument that we give to you. It is very simple to use, but if you are not used to thinking in other dynamics or parameters, it will seem very strange to you. Do not be surprised when you use the moral compass that it will call into question many of your beliefs. Remember that although there are only three simple values that under-gird the sustainability of all humanity on this world and on other worlds, it is the beliefs that spin out of those values that make the difference. Some cultures have developed some very strange, aberrant beliefs out of those values.
And there are expectations: for every belief, there are dozens of expectations that must be demonstrated to fulfill that belief. Your expectations and the fulfillment requirements, those are measurable. If you believe in God in the old traditional way, then Sunday is a hallowed day, a sacred day that is dedicated to worship God, the Father of all. However, if you are not a God-centered individual, but an animist, then you would praise and love animals every day of the week, and are a vegetarian. So your beliefs that emanate out of these values will vary tremendously. You will find that some are in error; some are very helpful and constructive to your sustainability.
I apologize for going on at length here, but all these aspects are interrelated. When you begin working on your healthcare system, as you would envision it 500 years from now, then you will begin to analyze and begin to look at the beliefs that you have now, and also devise beliefs that must be in place in order to support a sustainable medical healthcare system. This will be your most enlightening aspect and you will have some jaw-dropping experiences as you contemplate your existing beliefs, and then the new beliefs that are necessary to support your new medical system.
I salute you and praise you; I think that you will find that once you begin, you will be quite excited about this process, and what develops out of it. First, we must begin to teach you how to use the moral compass and how to look at this aspect. This will be not difficult, but it will be something that you will necessarily need to engage and look at, and to support the teachers, as they teach you how to use this so that more teachers are available and eventually, it would be wonderful to see several teachers in every state. The more population in a state, the more teachers that will be necessary.
The co-creative design team
I have an injunction for you, a caveat: Be careful, however, that you do not become so God-centered that you disallow those who do not believe in God to participate with you. You must allow everyone to participate with you in the capacity that they are able to. This is called, ‘tolerance.’ They must be tolerant of you consulting with your Thought Adjuster and your Melchizedeks in your sustainability design team, and you must be tolerant of them for not participating and respect their thoughts. It is important that everyone participate because everyone will arrive in the future, with or without a belief in God. Our concern is to improve the quality of all the world, for those who believe and those who do not believe. The generosity that you saw in Jesus’ life must be demonstrated in your own life to those who are not believers, and it is not your job to sell them on the belief in God. It is simply that this is something that works for you in the larger dynamic of an ascending life. Those who see life as terminating with their material death, that is most unfortunate; their generosity to participate in an effort to which they will never see the end of, has to instill in you a tremendous sense of awe and gratitude and appreciation, and for their largess to share their lives in this way, for results they will never see.
MMc: Thank you! And please don’t feel that you need to apologize for “going on.” For me, it is like a rose bud design. These various ideas are there, but they are not fully formed and I can feel the rose bud growing and opening up to include other ideas as you speak, so that my…
MONJORONSON: I apologize simply because this is a discourse, a conversation between two people, and though you perhaps hold me in high esteem, that I do not want to dominate our relationship to exclude you. You are an important aspect in our relationship for the readers and listeners. I want to be respectful of that.
MMc: I certainly don’t feel excluded. And the ability to sit and listen to you and be able to interact with you is a wonderful situation, and one that I am truly thankful of and grateful for, and I appreciate that you have developed these things much further than I have, and as I approach them through my own small perspective, listening to you talk, that perspective becomes much, much larger.
MONJORONSON: I would like to speak on another subject, if I may.
MMc: Certainly.
Being guided by spirit
MONJORONSON: This document that will be attached, entitled “Validating Sustainability,” has the name of this one on it as the author. However, as the antecedents of thought that brought this into existence occurred well over 20 years ago, and have been seed thoughts planted in the mind of this one and others, and we have been very careful in guiding books and documents, friends and associations toward this one for a greater gathering of information, and in tuning the mind so that these words could be written as they are. It is not that this one is special, any more than you are. It is simply the process that he has dedicated his life to, and has been open to receive this guidance.
Each one of you is no exception; your lives are being guided. The fortunate side of being guided is that you have a focus, you seem to have something to do in your life. The downside of receiving this focus is that you almost, all those who have ever participated in this process, are usually so engrossed and invested in the project that their social and material supports suffer after the project begins. Few can attend to the responsibilities of families, jobs, careers, payments and so on, and also attend to the responsibilities of a spiritually infused relationship that has a destiny, that has an outcome that will eventually become revealed. Many of you are already on this path; some of you are approaching retirement; some of you are single and retired; some of you are single, have a job and who have tremendous amounts of spirit time in your life. You are useful to us to a tremendous degree. You have only to ask for our guidance, in terms of opportunities opening to you; all you have to do is say “yes” to them, explore them, and if they are productive and of your kind, then move ahead with them. If they are not, then pull away from that opportunity and try another one.
We cannot do this work without your participation, therefore it becomes eminently obvious that the product of our work comes through individuals, whose names are stamped on the documents and on the work that is done. This is simply the way it is. This has a manifold benefit: One is that it teaches the individual how to be open and receptive to changing guidance, and open to opportunities and to incorporating ideas and insights into our joint work. A secondary benefit is to the audience to whom this material is directed. There is no competition involved, there is no special-ness involved; it is simply that the course of some individual’s lives has left them so open as to be vulnerable to the guidance of spirit, that there is nothing left in their lives for them to pursue. So you must take this to heart, that this course of life of being open and receptive and productive in this manner is long, it is arduous and difficult, and very few with [a] “normal life” are able to pursue.
The sword of spirituality is two-sided
The sword of spirituality is two-sided, that you must give up a lot of yourself to pursue it, and the other side benefits everyone else, including yourself, if you are able to appreciate that. This is a journey which few have been able to take; it is very similar to St. John of the Cross, and his “dark night of the soul.” There are very few people who have come forward, who have not experienced that to some severe degree. It is not a test, it is simply one of the aspects of spiritual growth and maturation. We salute all of you who are young, who have responsibilities, who have families and financial obligations, and student loans that “never end,” it seems for some of you, (a chuckle) and that you are attending to these responsibilities while aspiring to become spiritual.
This is no different than what has occurred with this one; it is simply that there was an opening at one time, which made it possible for us to “pound in,” the aspects of what this life was about, and the possibilities of growth that would require tremendous patience and tremendous tolerance and perseverance. This is useful to us. All of you have the same capacity to pursue this same career—we do not necessarily urge you to do so, as it is very arduous and very difficult. It is much easier to grow into your spirituality as the daily responsibilities of your normal life begin to expire. Your house becomes paid for, you retire from work, you have the assistance of your spouse or partner, or living situation which is conducive to much more inner development. And so, as you approach the terminal years of your mortal life, the journey should lead you inward in a manner in which you shortly before your death, you begin to visualize those morontial beings around you who care for you and love you so much. Some of you already see these; be at peace with this, know that they are your companions and [not] harbingers of death. The conclusion is, do not give up the journey, my friends, we need you!
MMc: The journey into greater understanding, day-by-day, the journey that takes us into our service. It’s the wonder of it. Thank you very much!
MONJORONSON: You are welcome.
Cultural change of attitudes and opinions
MMc: The last time we met, I said the world is changing, at least in its basic philosophies, and you said, “It is the culture that must change.” Culture is the very fabric of society, rather than philosophy, which can be held by a few and is more or less, an intellectual thing. You mentioned one cultural change that you are working on, that the attitudes and opinions of the masses are important. I suspect that there are many other changes that will need to be made in our cultures of our societies. Would you care to elaborate on these?
MONJORONSON: Yes. In our work we are striving such that the lessons of history are not repeated. They are highly destructive. Our observations of individuals, whether they are presidents or senators, congressmen or state legislators, governors or corporate heads of business, or whether they are individuals going to work in their pickup truck at the car factory, or going fishing—it doesn’t matter—it seems that everyone has a very similar narrow-minded approach to life and to their existence. These high leadership positions forget that there is a tolerance beyond which the masses will not go, and that there will be resentment, revolt and social upheaval if they do not check their powers and share it with the populations.
The difficulty that your society is in at this time is to remember the lessons of history. If not remembered, they will be repeated. The cultural changes that we speak of are in many ways historic and have already been discovered and written about, but forgotten, and in forgetting these, [they] must be remembered and brought to mind. Sometimes this is brought to bear by force and difficulties; other times it is the insight and awareness of some leader who recognizes that they are upon the brink of social unrest. Your nation is not anywhere near that point, of course, but there is a certain resentment, a disagreement with the arrogance and aloofness of your leaders who represent you.
These are difficult times. There is a way through this, but this will not be revealed today, it will be revealed in time and gradually for you to read and appreciate. It does involve the moral compass and it will give everyone validation and validity and a means of validating their statements and their disagreements, and as well, show the way ahead to those in leadership positions. This is a remarkable tool and we urge you to begin to understand it, to use it and apply it. It is truly a culture-changing instrument, which will lead your world into the eventual settlement. It is one of those social/cultural developments that will last for all time. Remember, dear ones, you have been praying for, you have been asking for, you have been projecting your consciousness to become involved in the conscious evolution of your world—well, here it is! We give you one single simple tool of such power that it is useful on all planets where sentient life is involved. This will give you a tremendous level for rationality, for development of laws and public policy. You are the agents of cultural change; you are the ones who will change what exists and what does not; you determine what is your social reality, and you must share this through the wisdom of your minds, with spiritual guidance. We will not be there, standing in the picket lines with you, but we will be supporting your right decisions as you proceed.
The moral compass points to a future of sustainability
MMc: What is this “moral compass” that you speak of?
MONJORONSON: The moral compass is the… let me give you a simple example: Let us say that you have a round piece of paper, and you pencil in a little diamond at the top and you call this “true north,” and then you write on this piece of paper, “east,” “west” and “south.” Now, my friend, this is the rudiment of a compass, but will it direct you to a destination if you go out to sea?
MMc: No, it will not, because it is just a piece of paper.
MONJORONSON: Exactly! And so, you need a magnetic needle to point to magnetic north, correct? (MMc: Yes.) So in the moral compass, you have the “true north,” which is a state of social sustainability in the future. You do not know, and even we do not know, when this will occur. It could be 200 years, 500 years or 2,000 years ahead, but there is a vision, an ideal, a true north of what you want and where you want to go with your life. The other three points on this compass are: life—the quality of life, equality and growth. This is the compass that will guide you into the future, as you use the schematic.
The schematic is simply the document in which there are four columns: in the left-hand column are the three values. In the second column are beliefs, and the third column are expectations, and in the fourth column are the measurable criteria that fulfill the expectations. Are you with me so far? (MMc: Yes, I am.) You must use the synergism that exists in this document to point to true north—this is the ultimate visionary goal that you have for this compass.
In the meantime, let us say you have a public policy or public law that fulfills what you put in the third column of expectations, and then you would expect citizens to conform to that to fulfill it. What are the beliefs that generated this law? Are they supported by the quality of life? Does it give quality of life to everyone? And, does it engender growth in everyone? If not, then the law is invalid and does not contribute to the sustainability of your people. This becomes much more vivid as you begin to place real policies and laws in the expectation column.
What does busing children, black and white, across school lines to balance the equality of education for these various populations add to the quality of life, equality, or growth? This can be tested in the schematic. If it does not support the improvement of everyone’s potential, then it is not a law or public policy that contributes to the increasing sustainability and improved sustainability of your society, and must be amended or scrapped. Doing this with all existent laws and policies. You can do this within your own home, concerning the welfare and care and family policies of how you treat children. Many of the rules in a family do not contribute to the growth and development of the children who are in that family. These instruments, the moral compass and schematic of sustainability with the three core values of sustainability, are applicable to individuals as they work with their own lives in doing good or doing harm, making contributions and making selfish acquirements, to the dynamics of the family, a school board policy meeting, to the hiring of teachers, to a medical practice, to the policy designs of a medical clinic, to all aspects of your society. It is universal; it is applicable to all humans, no matter what race, ethnicity, gender, nationality, language or culture.
The only exception is religion, where we find some religious aspects are not sustainable and do not contribute to a sustainable civilization. The point of the moral compass is that it is universal; is applicable to the individual, to the highest levels of global governance, and is in fact, used throughout those worlds that are approaching the days of light and life, which have not come into self-governing functions at the lowest level, without need of an overarching global government—but that is eons into the future for Urantia.
MMc: So what you are saying is that the moral compass is the application of the schematic for sustainability and the three core values to any idea or situation or belief system or law, or whatever, to see if it actually points to “true north,” to sustainability?
MONJORONSON: That is exactly right. It is, in fact, useful in the production and the acquirement of natural resources, when a company considers going to a land where indigenous people are living, and wishes to extract minerals or natural resources with the indigenous people being present. One would apply this moral compass to guide the company in the least damage to the indigenous population, while still acquiring the materials, the natural resources that they wish to receive. Actually, you will see this moral compass being applied in global long-term planning sessions with international corporations and companies of lesser magnitude.
The difficulty of applying the moral compass to governance
It will be most difficult to use in politics and political governance because there is so much position-taking within and among those groups. What the moral compass does—and I will use the word “moral compass” to include the three core values as they operate within the schematic of sustainability, we will simply call it the “moral compass”—that this moral compass will assist interest groups in testing their own sustainability and positions, and will also assist in the process of governance to show and demonstrate to legislators how the policies and laws they propose are position-taking, rather than interest-centered. What is of greatest interest is the developing sustainability of their district as it fits into the larger context of a state, which fits into the larger context of the nation, and eventually, the world. You will be able to demonstrate very clearly what is position-taking, and what is interest-centered, without having to buy into or compromise yourself, or [a] stepping down approach from the ideal. [It] will require you to compromise and therefore the political process that requires compromise, without position-taking, will be necessary. Negotiating and mediating, and even arbitration will continue to be used as necessary, but with the moral compass as a guide all of the outcomes will make far more sense, and will be productive and point towards larger developing ideas and concepts of sustainability.
MMc: Looking at our political system at the moment and the way it’s operating, having them use some type of moral compass is going to be a big change for them, I believe. Currently they are acting in their own best interests, and not in the interests of the people of the United States, or people of the world. This is an unfortunate situation, but I’m afraid what I am saying is the truth.
The “Occupy Wall Street” social phenomenon
MONJORONSON: I will not comment on that, as we could digress into political issues and problems that are more than evident in your nation at this time. My only main point is to state that the “Occupy Wall Street” social phenomenon is one that will not go away. It is the cusp of the new culture and will require a new morality, which is now being developed by us, with one of your people. If I may speak on this a moment, the historic object-oriented morality will not work in the sustainable world as it is materially based and not based upon qualities.
We spoke of this earlier today, but I would like to add that there are other ways of making moral decisions to guide the outcome and course of a sustainable civilization. The old morality of an “eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth” leaves everybody blind and unable to chew their food. This may seem humorous, but the object of that lesson is profound, that the morality that was sufficient for ancient and traditional cultures and nations, is no longer suitable by itself, but must be included in the context of a much larger moral system that does actually contribute to not only the good governing of a nation of laws, but adds to the sustainability of those nations, and of the civilization. This is an important moral horizon that is soon coming to your world and will be helpful in conjunction with the moral compass.
MMc: Should we actually use the moral compass to look into our own morality and ethics?
MONJORONSON: Oh, yes, most definitely!
MMc: Very good. So that once we are aware of the schematic for sustainability and the three core values, we are set to examine our world and prepare it to move on into sustainability?
A consistent, uniform, integrated moral conscience of morality
MONJORONSON: Yes, there is, as you know, with most people, some individuals who have a penchant to look back historically and others look forward into the future; one deals with historic and existent problems and the other deals with moving successfully into the future by envisioning a sustainable future, and working backwards from there. Both of these activities will occur and different groups will take on different functions. If you could imagine or visualize that the moral compass could be used by various public interest groups, how would Green Peace use this? How would Amnesty International use this? How would your ecological groups use this? How would Mothers against Abuse do this, and so on. It provides a consistent, uniform, integrated moral conscience of morality to guide all of humanity forward towards a single goal, and that is of a sustainable world, and eventually one that exists in the days of light and life.
MMc: The compass works very well as long as the people that are using it are not self-serving or serving some other purpose, other than trying to find the best service for the quality of life, the equality of the individual and the growth of the individual. Am I correct?
MONJORONSON: Yes, if there are personal agendas, hidden agendas, or group agendas, then this will also become obvious and their position will become very arguable with others who see through their façade. And there will be those individuals and groups who will use it to validate and justify their own ends, but that is short-sided and short-term, as it is applicable only to the larger group and to [the] long-term. Self-interest will show itself to be exactly that.
MMc: The self-interests of individuals and groups are part and parcel to our society as it exists now and hopefully, people will understand that they need to open up that short-sightedness and become more available to the universal thought that these three core values actually do represent the way forward.
The Declaration of Independence
MONJORONSON: One of the reasons why your nation has lasted as long as it has is because of that famous statement in the Declaration of Independence that all are created equal and we hold these rights to be True that all men have unalienable Rights of Life, Liberty and a Pursuit of Happiness. If you underline the most significant words in there, one is “equal,” one is “life,” and one is “liberty,” and the “pursuit of happiness,” meaning growth, then you have the three core values of sustainability embedded in the Declaration of Independence. The pursuit of happiness would mean that with liberty one is able to pursue their life as they choose, to unlock or develop the potential within them as they choose, and to grow, if they choose—or not. The basis of your democracy is based on these three core values; they only need to be slightly interpreted in a new way, to apply to the difficulties that are occurring in your nation and world now. This will all make good sense to you in less than a year, as you will be engaged in many activities, including your own, which involves the medical paradigm. You see, the old paradigm of democracy is passing for this nation and other nations in similar technologically developed and matured democracies. The new paradigm will move the nation and individuals from an object-base to a quality-base, so that the extrinsic value which has been so overly developed and over-blown, comes into balance as the intrinsic value of individuals begins to be developed, considered and improved, to give people, once again, hope for a meaningful future and an improved circumstance for their life, as they choose to engage that.
MMc: Certainly a lot to think about. You say the changes in democracy are going to be coming about within the next year or so?
MONJORONSON: No, I meant that you and your friends will be seeing evidence of this in the literature and elsewhere, and we hope that it will become a firestorm of interest and activity, for the forces of disintegration are eminent in this nation and elsewhere, and the elements of construction are present, but have not been developed. You must realize that the attitude and orientation of most Americans is very positive; it is a “can do” environment that you live in, and now it must be a “can do” to improve the qualities within individuals, rather than simply the houses they have, the cars they drive and the income they make.
Individualism
MMc: I understand. You mentioned last week, the extreme individualism that is rampant in our society, this cuts both ways; it can be positive if it is directed in a way that is positive. We can point true north with these individuals [if] we had moved them along in that way, they will find the way to make not only our nation, but the world, sustainable, I believe.
MONJORONSON: We are very hopeful. The down-side of individualism is the “me-ism,” that has developed so rampantly and throughout your society. There is a selfishness that is pervasive and highly detrimental to true individualism, where the person is appreciated as unique and separate, and not to be violated, but to respect them and engage them as they are able to, in the larger context of their communities and societies. The individualism that leads to social separateness and aloneness is detrimental to the integration of the “we-ism,” that must be developed in a sustainable society. The forces of separation in your nation are strong, whereas the forces of integration are weak. There must become an appreciation for individuals as they are. You see teams of individuals who come to work and they work together as a team, and they are amicable, friendly and productive and go home and go on to their own lives, separate and apart.
Even parents and children have a separatism that is detrimental to the functioning of the family and the community, and to the larger context of society. This will need to be amended; there must be respect for the individual as separate, but this separatism where you are all so many segments within a pomegranate, each separate and apart within the whole, is not productive and helpful. Neither are we expecting you to throw the pomegranate in a blender and make everybody the same. This would thwart the appreciation of the individual as unique and contributing in their own unique, special way towards the improved qualities of your society.
MMc: So the individual pieces of fruit are more like the raspberry? They rub up against one another in the form of a cohesive unit.
MONJORONSON: Yes. We have covered a lot of territory today. I anticipate that there will be many questions from your readers, and this would be helpful. There will be a need for clarification, as you publish this document. It could be re-entitled as “The Moral Compass,” but let us leave it as it is and publish it as it is. This one is spent. It has been an intense time for him.
MMc: Thank you. So we are going to wrap it up for today?
MONJORONSON: I wish to, as this one has said, he is “spent.” You will find that you have probably more words in this session than we had last session.
[Note: With that, we ended our session, with thanks and appreciation to Monjoronson and Daniel.]
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[Note: The document, "Validating Sustainability" is attached.]
Validating Sustainability
~
Exploring the Synergism of
The Three Core Values of Sustainability
and
The Schematic for Sustainability
By Daniel Raphael, Ph.D.
Preface
We can no longer afford the opinion that sustainability relates solely to petroleum, clean water, air quality, trees, or other material definitions. As we witness more frequent cataclysms around the world our concept and thought of sustainability must include sustainability of our basic social institutions — for existing families, communities and societies, and for rebuilding them after a cataclysm.
What criteria should we use, then, to validate the sustainability of our beliefs and expectations, and of our way of life? as these will surely predict the social sustainability of our future. Further, what mechanism is available to test and implement our vision for sustainable families, communities, and societies?
The three core values of sustainability — life, equality, and growth — are a good place to start as these provide the irreducible definition of social and material sustainability; and, are universal to all 7 billion individuals on our planet in every cultural, ethnic, racial, religious, and national group. Synergistically, the core values and the Schematic for Sustainability, provide the means for 1) testing the design of existent social institutions for their contribution to social sustainability; 2) testing existing and proposed social policies for their contribution to sustainability; and, 3) designing and then implementing our vision(s) for sustainable families, communities, and societies.
What follows is a pragmatic discussion that involves the synergism of the three core values of sustainability and the Schematic for Sustainability. Together, they bring clarity to questions of social sustainability. Material sustainability then becomes viewed as it contributes to social sustainability.
Introduction
Designing a sustainable civilization is a daunting task, one that takes a good deal of thought, patience, and perseverance, and not just by a single team of individuals, but by hundreds of teams. The task is that large. The process begins by asking cogent questions — questions that will untangle the knots of the world’s social institutions.
In this inquiry, we are going to approach only social sustainability. Topics of material sustainability are already well noted in the literature, particularly Jared Diamond’s two books, Guns, Germs and Steel, and his following book, Collapse. It seems obvious that, until the global human population is in balance with the material elements of sustainability, human population will diminish greatly. For a sustainable global population to come into existence, we must educate ourselves how to control our numbers in relationship to our material environment, and simultaneously learn how to design and implement sustainable peace beginning with the individual and family.
We begin this inquiry by asking, “What elements support or empower a sustainable civilization?” As this question is overwhelming, we must begin at a level that we can more easily examine — the family and ultimately the individual. It is the individual and the family that are the basic units of any society and civilization. At the level of the individual and family, we have a great deal of personal and educational experience, as well as social research to answer the relevant questions.
The frontier of social institutions is the family. It is from the family that individuals originate. That is stating the obvious. And it is stated because the sustainability of the individual and the family are so closely tied that to state one is to state the other. It is crucial for the survival and sustainability of a civilization that families become able to produce children-becoming-adults who are capable of raising their own children who become sustainable members of a sustainable community and society. Upon the individual and family all else is predicated.
It is from this basic foundation of the family and the individual that we begin to ask further questions. What elements support, empower, and enable the existence of a sustainable family?”
To ask about families, we must simultaneously ask about the individual. What elements support the development of individuals who are capable of supporting a sustainable family? With those answers in hand, we can begin to ask about the community.
To answer that question we have to begin at a period of time before conception. Yes, we could point to public policies oriented toward social sustainability: education, health care, jurisprudence, criminal justice, arts and culture, commerce, and others. These may become the public charge of our communities, cities, and states, but initially and always couples are totally responsible to ensure their children are educated, socialized, and prepared for adult life, as a sustainable single person and as a sustainable procreative partner.
Schematic for Sustainability —
1st Variation
With the Schematic in hand, (page 13), fill in the blank spaces in items 1, 2, and 3.
1. Is the topic you are exploring one of social or material sustainability?
a. State the social topic you are exploring;
or,
b. State the material topic you are exploring.
2. Venue: You can begin at either the global level, or the level of the individual/family. But, eventually, you must necessarily lay the foundation of all global societies and civilization with the individual and family. And, this is a good place for beginners to begin.
3. What is your intention? Why are you doing this? It is important that all members of your Co-Creative Design Team, and later association of teams, have a very clear, consistent, and shared intention. Otherwise, confusion will become evident rather quickly.
Almost inexplicably, when we state our intention clearly the universe seems to step in to arrange what is needed to fulfill the intention, with our help.
There is an imperative need for transparency in the use of the Schematic. Visible or hidden agendas for personal, political, or group power, authority and control will work against any efforts to design, implement, and maintain a sustainable social institution.
Instructions for items 4-7 of the Schematic continue on page 10.
Values —
Values provide the core reference for any society, and for any one individual. Everyone has a set of values, albeit sometimes very small in number, that guides the choices, decisions, and actions they make in their life. Values support material survival and social existence, and support the development of inherent potential in individuals, families, and communities.
Life (quality of life), Equality, and Growth are the three core values that support sustainable social institutions. There may be secondary values that support a sustainable society, but these are the three irreducible core values that support social sustainability. In these beginning instructions, do not be too concerned with secondary values. The three core values are enough to work with.
In the Schematic, the three core values offer the central referent to all else that follows, whether beliefs, expectations, or the measurable criteria of the desired/visioned outcome for your sustainable topic. The core values offer the final authentication and validation of a project’s capability to work toward sustainability. Team members have only to refer to the core values to validate their progress.
Life — Aside from taking life for granted as necessary to sustain ourselves into the future, it is the quality of lifethat makes life worth living. If the number of lives has to be limited to balance the equation of material sustainability in the world, then the quality of life becomes primary for every individual.
Equality — Equality is inherent in the value of life. We give equal value to each individual, and we would seek to provide more equitable opportunity to every individual to develop their innate potential, as we would our own. And even for those with less potential than others, they have equal value to live life to explore and express the potential they do have. Without equality, life is a competition where the resources of one’s living-potential is squandered in competitive warlike existence.
Growth — Growth is the natural course of life for individuals and civilizations. This value ensures the inherent potential of individuals, societies, and a civilization becomes expressed and fulfilled, which encourages an improving quality of life for everyone.Without growth there would be no possibility of growing into sustainability. And once the population of our global civilization is balanced with the natural resources, then growth has everything to do with the individual rather than the growth of nations, or greater population.
Beliefs —
For every value there emanate numerous beliefs. Don’t be surprised to find differences within your Co-Creative Design Team, when you begin to examine the sustainability of existing social institutions. Even though there are only three simple core values, there generate hundreds of beliefs, some that work toward social sustainability and some that do not. Discussing how they do and don’t support the social sustainability of an individual, family, community, or society will make for interesting discussions, and is primary to the work of the Design Team.
What follows is an experiential exercise for newly formed Design Teams: Have all team members write their individual beliefs about how to raise a child to become a socially sustainable adult, and who contributes to the sustainability of their family, community, and society. When you compare your various beliefs you will find some that are very different.
Don’t get caught up in the “how” question. For example, “How could such differences come about?” will lead you into numerous rabbit holes of speculation. You will soon find that “the how question” is not very useful. Rather, it is more useful to reveal all beliefs concerning that one topic, and then examine them without judging them as good or bad, or referring to the individual from whom they came.
This exercise will reveal differences in beliefs even concerning life, equality, or growth depending upon the racial, ethnic, cultural, or religious origins of the team members.
When differences of belief(s) are discovered, it is necessary for the good working order of a Team to examine those beliefs by holding them up against the light of each core value. Not surprisingly, most differences revolve around the core value of equality, a reflection to the differing cultural, ethnic, racial, or religious origins of those individuals. At the end of the day and the work of the Team, all beliefs must be held to contribute to the sustainability of the individual, family, community, and global civilization because these are the irreducible core values of all people no matter of what origin or identification.
Caveat: For a Co-Creative Design Team to fully develop its potential to design functional social sustainability systems, it must become sustainable in its own right. Almost immediately, it will become necessary to clarify any and every dissonance of belief among all members. Failing to do so will compromise the efforts and product of the Team. A Team must demonstrate within its own operation, consistency with the three core values, beliefs, expectations, and its own criteria of performance.
Expectations —
Expectations lie between Beliefs and the Criteria for Fulfillment. For every belief there emanate numerous expectations — expectations for behavior that support those beliefs, and the three core values of sustainability. Here is a more personal example: If one believes that education is beneficial to individuals, families, and communities, then we would expect existent social research would validate that belief, or not.
We hold certain expectations for every belief. If we hold the belief that political freedom is essential for a society of individuals to grow (a core value), then we would expect that all citizens of adult age would be encouraged to participate in their own governance. It would look like this per the Schematic:
>>Core Value: Growth (Life, Equality)
>>Belief: Freedom
>> Expectation: Participation in self-governance.
>>Measurable Criteria: Voting Records
This example allows you to see how the separate expectations of one belief can be validated by the three core values of sustainability in the 1st Column, and verified the by Measurable Criteria in the 4th Column.
Measurable Criteria —
For every expectation there are measurable criteria that demonstrate the fulfillment of expectations. To check the validity of a measurable criterion, it is necessary to hold it up against the three core values of sustainability.
To extend the previous example: If one expects that citizens would participate in their own governance, we can validate that by measuring and analyzing voting registrations and voting records.
For social sustainability to become a functional part of a community or society there must exist measurable outcomes that prove that the expectations are being fulfilled; and, cross-validated against the three core values of sustainability.
In the expectation of universal education being beneficial, demographic research would prove that higher education positively relates to socioeconomic indicators as better health, longer lifetimes, and so on. In the case of citizens being able to participate in their own governance, our expectations would be fulfilled by evidence of voter registration, voting polls, vote tallies, and the announcement of winners/losers based upon those voting tallies.
Schematic for Sustainability —
2nd Variation
The second variation is truly a “visioning technique,” a strategic planning tool that individuals and organizations can use to design their vision.
In this second variation, we will use the example of a group of people who have come together as a Team to design a sustainable social institution by working through all Columns of the Schematic. They know what they want their vision to look like, and have in mind all of the measurable criteria for this topic of social sustainability.
In this situation, because they know what the measurable criteria are, they must begin in reverse order to Variation 1, by beginning with Measurable Criteria. They begin at the top of that column by writing a capsule statement, the “global statement of the project,” that describes the vision of their desired sustainable topic. Below that statement they would list the measurable criteria that would fulfill their vision.
In this example, let us imagine ourselves in the mid-1950s in a racially segregated southern state, of the United States. As a community of black citizens, we have formed a Co-Creative Design Team to implement our vision for racial integration of our community.
4. After filling out the blank spaces in items 1-3, above the columns, we begin at the top of the 4th column, Measurable Criteria, and write our Global Statement of the Project, i.e., “Racial Integration.” Below the statement we would list the criterion that show evidence of our vision for racial integration: a) sit in any unoccupied seat on a public bus, b) admittance to any high school in a district in which the student lives, c) employment in positions for which applicants are qualified for the work, d) using any water fountain in the city, e) ability to access any like-gender bathroom in the city, and any other criterion that would show evidence of racial integration; and, any other criterion we have for the fulfillment of our vision.
In Variation 2, for each criterion our Team must work backwards through the Schematic to validate that criterion as being supported by the three core values. Let us begin with only one criterion — equal access to public drinking fountains.
5. The 3rd Column, Expectations: If equal access to public water fountains is a criterion of racial integration, then we would expect that there would be no laws or regulations in effect that would prohibit anyone from drinking at any public drinking fountain, except in the case of a user having a communicable disease. (Users with communicable diseases could cause injury or threat of life to other users, i.e., a violation of the first core value, Life.)
6. The 2nd Column, Beliefs: We believe in the equal access to public water fountains for everyone.
The 1st Column, Values: Water is essential to the maintenance and sustenance of Life; is Equally necessary to every human; and is vital for individuals to not only live, but to Grow, and to flourish. Ease of access to public water fountains is essential for public life, as the individual determines it is needed.
NOTE: You can work the Schematic in either direction from any column. This gives greater flexibility to the Team in working through the Schematic, either validating criteria, or applying the three core values to criteria.
A Separate Discussion for Beliefs —
While most citizens will agree upon the core values, what emanates from them in the form of beliefs seems to always vary in any society depending upon their racial, ethnic, cultural, religious, and even sexual orientations. But, for any community or society to become socially sustainable into an indefinite future, all beliefs must succumb to the scrutiny of the Values-Beliefs-Expectations-Criteria schematic to answer the primary question, “Do these beliefs work? I.e., do these beliefs contribute to the sustainability of all families, communities, and societies?”
Political correctness may still exist in the future. Citizens, who are trained in using the Schematic, could easily examine any and every statement of political rhetoric for its validity as it contributes to social or material sustainability.
The Schematic would be useful to validate the special budgetary additions, “earmarks” that senators and representatives add to every budget. Those additions could be validated, or not, for their contribution to material or social sustainability, in the short-term and the long-term.
Every piece of legislation could undergo a two-fold examination, one for how it affects the balance of the budget, and second, whether it supports social and/or material sustainability. But don’t expect argumentation on congressional or legislative floors to end.
Importantly, the Schematic for Sustainability would provide a rational process allowing the actions of any government, social agency, institution, foundation, or think-tank to be validated by measurable criteria, and the by the three core values.
Well, enough of that. You get the point.
Closing
Because the three core values of sustainability are universal to all people of all cultures, ethnic groups, religions, and racial composition, the synergism of the three core values and the Schematic for Sustainability can empower local teams anywhere in the world to design social institutions according to their particular culture. No central authority or control or overarching organization is needed to begin this process. Co-Creative Design Teams in any community can begin the spontaneous global development of locally designed sustainable social institutions. Sharing results between Teams, globally, will empower constructive change of older systems of social institutions and policies in all cultures and nations.
Developing designs of sustainability forms an ideal that requires progressive stages of designing and planning the programs that lead to sustainability. Once the plans are formed, then another team, the Co-Creative Working Team, must devise developmental steps for implementing those plans in a progression that leads to greater and greater sustainability, and social stability.
Caveat — History demonstrates that it takes many decades, even centuries, to build a civilization, but only years or decades to decline and then collapse. Building a sustainable global civilization will require conscious and deliberate intention and may take decades to begin, and centuries and millennia to complete — that and a precious awareness that social change will be a constant annoyance until then.
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Further Explanation of the Schematic for Sustainability
The individual is the principle orientation for all efforts that move a family, community, society, nation, or a world of nations toward sustainability. When provision for the needs of a society is designed into its social institutions to produce sustainable individuals and their families, then that society will become sustainable. Until then, its existence is in jeopardy.
If I had the capacity to illustrate the process of designing sustainable social institutions to satisfy the evolving hierarchy of needs of an individual from pre-conception through his or her elder years and on to death, I would need a holographic model with 3D, rotating capacity that could expand any lobe of it into a detailed graph or explanation. But, short of that, I will strive to do so through a brief and narrow keyhole of a narrative description:
Imagine the course of life of an individual as a vertical line on a chart that is approximately 9 feet tall, that begins before conception, and the top ends at death. Numerous stages of development can be charted for the individual on this long, vertical line of their life.
At the bottom of the vertical line is a horizontal dashed line. This represents the moment of conception. Below this are two more vertical lines representing the father and mother.
?
|
2) |_ _ _ _ _
| |
1) | |
Briefly —
Stage 1, Pre-Conception: Both parents-to-be have been determined to not carry defective genes that would lead to genetic anomalies of their children; have begun a diet specifically designed to provide for the healthiest sperm and ovum for their child; have received training and education for establishing a stable social, economic, emotional, and domestic (for example) environment preparatory to pregnancy.
Stage 2, Pregnancy: This stage is all about preparation for birth and the first year: diet and nutrition for the mother, education for both parents-to-be concerning the emotional-social environment of the mother-with-child, and father; home visits by the local health care facility professional with expertise for this era; education concerning the first year that is so formative for the psycho-spiritual-emotional health of the child and the requirements of co-parenting. (And more.)
Stage 3, Year 1: This first year will forever form the sense of safety that the child develops that so immediately affects its ability to develop trust, and then love of the parents, and respect for the adult world they grow into. More education and training to develop helpful diets and eating habits; visits by the healthcare professional; preparation for parents-as-models. The beginning of social training. etc.
As the infant grows into adulthood and into the elder years and death, there will be numerous developmental stages, physical, psychological, social, mental, and spiritual that have been described in the literature. Designers of sustainable social institutions will find themselves fortunate to have very large volumes of research material to draw from.
In a capsule, we have seen the long vertical shaft of the individual’s life, with its developmental stages marked, for a very brief, but extremely important era of the individual’s life.
Within each stage of development are the “branches and stems” for each social institution that contributes to the developing and evolving sustainability of the individual. Within each stage the individual is given equal access to the resources of the social institutions that will aid his or her potential for becoming a sustainable individual. A partial list would include education, training, physical supports, and all of the other supports that will help bring this individual to the stage of being a “sustainable individual.” This is usually achieved sometime in the third or fourth decade of their life, in their 20s or 30s, when they are prepared to become a procreative partner, or not.
The contributions of social institutions continue throughout the individual’s life, until death.
What we have not discussed is the necessity of each social institution that contributes to the sustainability of the individual to be designed as a sustainable social institution.
If we take education as example, we, in the early 21st century, would have to ask, “What does a sustainable education system look like?” The answers are many, but very consistent:
* Education that contributes to the life (quality of life) of the individual;
* Education that is provided equally to each individual.
* Education that contributes to the growth of the individual by encouraging him or her to explore and develop their inherent potential.
* A sustainable educational system would provide the necessary education and training to the procreative couple, pregnant couple, new parents; and, to the child when he/she is able to begin exploring their potential.
* A sustainable educational system provides developmental stage assessment for the individual along their life’s course.
* A sustainable educational system provides placement commensurate to their assessed capability, rather than arbitrarily by age.
* A sustainable educational system does not perpetuate competitiveness between parental couples, or their children. The only competitive venue is with the individual to better their own performance, as satisfaction in their own achievements.
You can see, then, that education is a perennial feature of a sustainable society, that begins with the parents before the birth of their child, and continues through the child’s lifetime.
A sustainable healthcare system is also primary for a society to maximize its potential to become sustainable. Healthcare and education oftentimes operate together to reinforce their messages and influence upon the individual.
From our perspective in the early 21st century, we must again ask, “What would a sustainable healthcare system look like?”
In many ways it looks almost identical to a sustainable educational system, and as holistic. It begins to influence the quality of life of the individual even before birth. It continues through all of the developmental stages with the intention to assist the individual to develop and live a sustainable life. It includes sub-sections such as nutrition and diet, spiritual/emotional-mental-social health, physical development and maintenance, for example. It, too, has an ongoing assessment program that engages at each developmental stage. A sustainable healthcare systems has as its primary intention to develop, improve, and/or maintain not only life, but the quality of life as well. The obvious inherent conflicts between maintaining life and maintaining the quality of living for that life will need to be examined.
If we continue the process of examining each stage of the individual’s development, the vertical line of a sustainable individual’s life takes on more and more stems to support the individual’s development into both a sustainable individual and a contributing member of society. As individuals become more sustainable, it is incumbent upon social institutions to also become sustainable. These two developments are what will build a sustainable civilization. To that end, design teams would then begin to examine each and every social institution for its capacity to become a sustaining part of a sustainable society; and, begin to design them to make that contribution.
The social institutions of education and healthcare are primarily oriented toward the individual. Social institutions that are oriented to the social level of society also will need to become sustainable: sustainable family design, sustainable community design, sustainable governance (government), sustainable justice system (police, courts, and “corrections”), commerce/trade/finance & monetary policy, military, and all aspects that are international.
As you can see (http://stanford.edu/entries/social-institutions/) social institutions will take on a tremendous evolution to become sustainable. And, as you can surmise, the old competitive, “profit-above-all-else” philosophy of doing business will change. It will change because it will become unsustainable in a rapidly evolving social world, that itself must become sustainable or die. In order for business to survive it must reinvent itself to not only sustain itself, but also aid the sustainability of the societies and its individuals.
This is an era for thoughtful individuals and non-profit organizations that see sustainability as necessary evolutionary step in the development of our societies and civilization — those who choose to create the conscious evolution of our world through their leadership abilities.
END