Living Together Research Proposal

Living Together is a proposed multidisciplinary, collaborative research project spanning the social sciences, business, philosophy and information technology. The researchers involved share a holistic world view and are drawing upon the holistic thinkers and concepts within the aforementioned disciplines to address the question:

“On planet Earth, can we live as one human family in peace, equality and prosperity?”

After experimenting with different formats we are now exploring this topic within the format of an academic paper.

We have broken down this overarching question into three more specific sub-questions which we intend to address and will give us the three main sections of this paper.

1. World Government - “Can a system of world government help to overcome world conflict and foster equality and prosperity? If so, how would it operate and how would it be structured?”
2. Philosophical Foundation - “Within cultural diversity, can common values be found which can serve as a foundation for a system of world government? And futher, can these values support the unfolding of individual human potential in a way that benefits society, to achieve peace, equality and prosperity?”
3. Implementation and Transition - “Having discussed the holistic values and corresponding systems required, in which form and sequence can these ideas be implemented in the context of current society”

Aims

1. To draw together multiple strands of research into holistic approaches from various disciplines and create a common ground and an academic platform for further research and related projects.
2. To create a vision for a peaceful, just and prosperous global society which inspires the public imagination by creating stories and scenarios based on the findings of the paper.
3. To create or promote prototype organisations and tools which will help us move toward the vision.

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• summary of 'world government' discussion
  • The paper will begin with an overview of current theories regarding a world government based on a centralised institution given a mandate by existing nation-states. The assumption that our current socio-economic structures (centralised decision-making, competitive market model, representative democracy) are a sound foundation for a peaceful and just world government will be questioned.
• establish peace as common, most basic human desire
• purpose of paper:
  • create a clear and comprehensive vision for our (humanities) future.
  • a vision beyond the obvious and the absolute necessary
  • a vision to give hope to all people, all life

• challenge idea of ONE way of living; diversity of nature within onenes
  • tribal living varied
• need for fresh start; current attempts are based on the idea the we (as Takers) rule the planet and that new programs within the existing vision can be the solution; changing from controlling effects to controlling causes (pick up point in I and give examples)
  • we are part of nature and with this understanding we need to create a new vision that enables us to live in harmony with our surrounding
  • law of limited competition, i.e. dont destroy our competitors food and/or deny their access to it

• State what the roles of each individual involved is within the project of writing this paper

This overarching question is sub-divided into the the following lines of inquiry:

World Government

Can a world government help to overcome conflict and foster equality and prosperity? If so, how would it operate and how would it be structured?

See also

• World government
• North American currency union
• World Currency Unit

old text

• If the existing nation-states are not a sound basis for world government, how else could the world government be given a mandate? Which resource distribution, governance systems and forms of organisation would be required? We will establish the notion that strong local governmental structures and further to that the development/empowerment/well-being of individuals are important as a basis for world government.
• In the course of making this point, the following issues will be addressed: How can local governance be realised in a way that is scalable to a global level? How can sustainability be addressed? Can there be a unified framework which leads to the integration of economic, social and political goals? Is it worthwhile to distinguish between "global" in the sense of "whole" and world government? To conclude the first section, the importance of philosophical foundations underpinning any system of government will be addressed. Is it even possible, considering the suposively great diversity of cultures and beliefs, to make such a system work?

What are the current ideas of the political science mainstream regarding creating a peaceful, just and prosperous global society? Are these goals even being pursued by political scientists, and if not, what are their goals? The currently popular ideas will involve the strengthening of centralised institutions like the world bank, united nations, world trade organisations and the decreasing role of nation-states which will be required to relinquish authority to said global institutions or even a world government.

[drop? too negative and hard to prove from an accademic point]Statistics show that the trend in recent decades has been the disempowerment of national and local government in favour of multinational corporations and global institutions. However, this has resulted in an increase in environmental problems, injustice, political instability and chaos. How is it possible that more of the same will lead to a better result?

The question arises: Is it necessary to distinguish between the notion of “world government” in the sense of centralised decision-making and “global government” in the sense of holistic decision-making, which reconciles the needs of the individual and the needs of society. This implies that a system of Global government first and foremost provides the means to empower the individual and would build local, regional and global governance systems upon the cooperation of empowered individuals.

• (added) nation states and existing world institutions are based upon national governments and therefor support the current socio-economic structures (i.e. centralised decision making, competitive market model, representative democracy). they are not a foundation for a peaceful world as they have proven. the fact that it is considered as an improvement to previous systems is not an argument for their continued existence and does not rule out the necessity for something more effective on the way to achieve peace.

The framework that allows this would need to be a governmental system that harmonises economic, social and political goals and avoids the issue of corruption that stems from secrecy, political representation and hierarchical power structures. The most fundamental principles guiding said system would allow “think global, act local” decisions and would also have “all aspects changeable”[what does that mean? elaborate]. These principles would necessitate transparency with respect to decisions made and resource movements between the organisations that form the global government as well as the possibility of direct involvement by all citizens.

Philosophical Foundation

Within cultural diversity, can common values be found which can serve as a foundation for a world government? Can these values support the unfolding of common and individual human potential in a way that benefits society to achieve peace, equality and prosperity?

Our culture and therefor our society and ultimately we our selves are strongly influenced by our surroundings, our social contacts. However, when we talk about culture we often seem to forget to ask how did our culture develop, where does it originate from? It is religion and belief that are the origins of any culture. If we look into various societies throughout history we will find that their culture developed as a reflection of their beliefs.

Once we understand that belief and religion have shaped and in many ways still does shape our culture and society we can look at these different religions and beliefs and find that within all the existing diversity and even conflict, many religions have the same origins and integrate the same core principals. Same is true for aboriginal belief systems. There are certain core elements found in all known religions and other beliefs. So it is well known that Christianity, Judaism and Islam all originate from Abraham, perhaps less known that also Eastern religions and beliefs originate from 'The Book of Formation'.

With this background it becomes clear that we must have common values as our variety of cultures ultimately has similar origins. We will call those values - universal values. These values will help us as humanity to reunite and become one not just with us, but with the planet. Within all the existing diversity we have forgotten our oneness which becomes so clear and outstanding as soon as we look for it. This oneness is intellectually supported by the excursion from above but more importantly its supported by our feelings. More and more people everyday can feel this oneness.

On a practical level, there are many guidelines we can follow to express this oneness and these universal values. Love, Grace, Nature, Abundance, Synergy, Unity and Truth are some of these universal values. The Golden Rule or the [w:Ethic of reciprocity] is a way to formalise some of these values. The 10 commandments are another way. The concept of the common greater good is another one. More examples can be found in other religions and beliefs.

When we as humanity commit to Truth and abandon lies we will see good things happen and many harmful events will vanish. If we love our neighbor as ourself and act out of love and not fear, if we act in Unity for the common greatest good and not for personal (this includes acting in the interest of our family and friends) gain, societies will transform. If we understand that Abundance is the natural state we can overcome the fear of not having enough.

Implementation and Transition

Having discussed the philosophy and systems required, how do these things get implemented in the context of current society and how do we get from here to there?

Notes

• implementation first part of section 3, transition part 2 - parallel development expresses how this transition happens
• implementation part starts with historic part and then goes through different examples existing one and imaginary ones
• implementation section shows how section two(philosophy) is represented in organisations, business, etc.
• Discussing platforms and sanctuaries using established terms, such as co-working groups, urban communities, social and business networks
• Discussing existing groups and current achievements, point to further synergies and potential connections
• inet and web offers examples of new ways of working together and operating organisations which still need to be integrated on a broader level of society; currently no major corporate or governmental institution operates in accordance with those new forms of organisation and cooperation
• need for organisational systems that people use and get beyond current business model of deception and profit
• examples for the new way: skype, wikipedia, 'farm', open source development
• show how new developments interconnect - platform development, peer-to-peer, peer based organisation
• list source(s) for given examples?
• express benefits of peer based and co-op instead of competitive

Parallel development

• Discussing the benefits of parallel implementation for both ways. Sustainability - social, environmental and economic
• parallel and 'step-by-step' model for transition. current system is moving aspects and organisations into the new way - new form of revolution which became possible because of inet, worldwide com wasn't possible before that

In this section the philosophical and structural ideas are unified for their practical implementation. The trend of progressive alignment of people who already have a global consciousness through various forms of cooperation and organisation leading to the development of global culture within the nation-states and world wide. Introducing platform organisations (better cooperative organisations?) and sanctuaries for economic sustainability(first aspect?), networks for travel, trade, knowledge exchange. Integration and higher levels of governance will arise from this network in parallel with existing socio-economic systems.(emphasise the benefit for all of parallel development?)