[Bodhi]

First time poster, here in Avalon, and glad to be here

Let me first fall into the choir; great thread

So, there's a lot of interesting things to be said, obviously, so from a philosophical/historical viewpoint, here it goes:


1. Goverment

When looking into the future, remembering our past is critical. We have, as earlier post mentioned, been through all kinds of different ways of organizing society, and there are many lessons to be collected from this. Unfortunately, there are some characteristics that has repeated themselves over the ages. Two of them in particular is monumentaly unfair distribution and that our organizations utilizes an ego-intelligence function.

In regards to the distribution problem, one could imagine a system that a) recognizes that survival is a human right. Including everything that is needed to live in a fashion compatible with a generously constructed idea of human dignity. To work would not be a requirement. You are always provided for, no matter what. Our resources are definitely there to achieve this. We just need to overcome the fear that too many will take the "easy way out", and just lay around all day. In my view, and experience, this is simply not likely to happen. Knowing that you are provided for, attention turns to focus on the creative, and it alleviates enormous amounts of fear. Free of that fear, the entrepreneurial force on this planet would boom beyond belief. Talking about technology we could only begin to imagine what that would spur. The human psyche [I]wants[I] to be passionately involved in something. We have an almost hard-wired drive to be skillfully and meaningfully engaged in our world, and what in it we find ourselves loving.
... and b) have a system in place where all money-transactions (get to the details of that in a sec.) are transparent. Perhaps initially just the ones that exceeds a certain amount. This is a simple way of making it incredibly hard (or harder) to engage in any kind of activity misplacing large amounts of value, or to facilitate unjust distribution of resources.

And the ego-intelligence function then. By this I mean a centralized organizing factor such as government. Ponder this for a second;
Are you familiar with the concept of emergence(not emergency)?. Emergence is a phenomenon that happens when many small "stupid" parts, together form an intelligent system, without any of the parts being in control, or even knowing the structure of the whole. Take an ant-farm for example. No one ant - not even the queen - has any idea how the colony works. Yet it does, with military precision. So what happens is that the system becomes transcendent over its parts. Ebay is another example. Instead of having one ego-intelligence judging the credibility of all sellers and the validity of all buyers, which would be monstrously ineffective, they instead installed a rating system by which the system became self-regulatory. So no one controls the market, because the market in-it-self does a better job than any one intelligence could.

Now call me a romantic, but if ants could do it... why shouldn't we be able to? Obviously our situation requires a much more sophisticated system, but the principle is nevertheless sound. We mistake ourselves when we talk of which government is best, when we should at least strife to become a naturally self-regulatory system. This is not anarchy, mind you. There is method to this madness , just that we together, when letting go of trying to control the system, become a system that transcends the intelligence of our individuality.

On a final note here, it also must be understood that this transition are not likely or desirable to happen over night. Such a system would be very vulnerable to the predatory behavior of the few, so it's potential for being realized grows in proportion as we grow. It is not a black and white situation, but could in my opinion easily be achieved during the course of a century, or maybe so little as a human lifetime. Just get people to believe it's possible, and how to do that? See point a)


Eventually though, I think it's going to be an escapable part of our evolution to head for world government. But as Paul Warburg (the creator of the Federal Reserve system) stated - and I agree;

We will have world government. The only question is if it will be by conquest or consent

Right now it's happening by conquest. But if could somehow solve our immediate problems, we could create a world government not only by consent, but one that encompasses connection as its founding mechanism. That is; the government would grow from our independence & self-sufficiency, self-regulatory system, to be merely a manifestation of our connection to each other. Imagine a psychic network (as someone did earlier in this thread), interlinked with its representatives. That power is latent within us. Some of us (myself not included yet ) have already done this, so it is definitely, without a doubt possible.

Imagine an Internet of psyches, where we not only share information, but also memories, experiences, emotions and insights. That, would without a doubt, change everything.

I think that this will be the first signs of the next step in our physical/biological evolution. And it's happening right now! Holy sh*t...

2. Morality

I'm currently involved in constructing an eco-village (albeit were still only in planning stages), and I found myself philosophizing over laws and regulations. I imagined there being some sort of monument in the center of the village with an engraving on it. This below was my first draft (please excuse that for many of you these are klichés;

* The Earth is sacred, and must be treated as such. As we form our environment to suit our purposes, we must do so in a fashion that does not damage the equilibrium, for this we are part of as well. We seek to find our place WITHIN the ecology of our surroundings, not to create a new one that does not harmonize with what nature has already provided.
* The intentions of all intelligence matters, and through the grace of Infinite Intelligence, our intentions also creates the next step in the casual chain. We are all personally responsibly for everything that happens within our world. We vow to have built this community with good intentions, and with this instrument, we work for a future that will see love, great logic, understanding, harmony and happiness evolve to new heights.
* Consciousness is sacred, and we hold the exploration of this consciousness to be an intrinsical part of every individuals spiritual journey. The means we utilize in this purpose are as sacred as our intentions for using them, and the moral quality of these same means is in proportion to the extent they have the weight of reason on their side.
* We are all one, and this one is what we call God. Enlightenment is the process in which we little by little remember more about this nature, and our place in it. While exctacy belongs to the pure hearted, all victory belongs to God, for the victories we seek for ourselves, are not true until they are victories for everyone.
* We hold that no society of any size is functional over time that has not an integrated system in place for the personal development of the individual. The development of society takes place alongside the development of the consciousness of the individuals inhabiting it.
* All systems of control must be created for the ends of something good within itself. A control-system for the purpose of utility, is only as good as this gained utility facilitates a natural good, such as freedom or happiness. Utility or control for its own sake quickly turns to an undebated routine, and left unchecked, this will give birth to confusion and illusions about our journey through life. In the time of the great shift, the pursuit of this road without a heart nor elevation, has almost killed the entire planet, and this, must never be forgotten.
* Freedom is the natural state, and any infringement on this state must be justified not only with consent but also with logic. As soon as this logic is no longer sound, the infringement must end. All intelligent beings are free to find their own way to enlightenment, as long as this does not obstruct or harm any others.
* Respect for everything is the sign of the growing. Happiness before everything is the sign of the wise. Love for everything is the sign of the Enlightened. These states are good in and of themselves. We hold it as our responsibility to contribute in whatever way we are fit to the achievement of these states in anyone that enters our world, as long as our contribution harmonizes with that persons freedom and sovereignity.
* Only sentient beings can ever be recognized to have the rights of personhood. Abstract or intangible constructions, such as companies or foundations, may never have them, for given them, they will in time grow to become monsters with no masters. This power must come with responsibility and accountability, for power in the wrong hands, turns into poison.
* We hold the concept of ownership as a tool for our ability to organize the material world around us, and our collaboration within it. It has no other justification, and is not a distinction made by nature. It is therefore not absolute, but should always be respected insofar as it furthers our strive to share this life in peace.

Pheew... So anyway, these are not laws. It is a common acknowledgement of a basic smallest denominator version of common sense and lessons learned. Gonna work a little more on them later. Somewhat blurry at the moment...

I once heard an alternative interpretation of the ten commandments (from Neale Donald Walsch - or God as he states it). That they were roadsigns, and not commandments. If you are on the right track, you will not cheat on your wife, you would not steal from your neighbor, and so on. When we recognize ourselves in what the "roadsign" says, we know we are heading the right way. Interesting brain-food when contemplating a new legal system. Could this hippie-**** ;-) actually be applicable? I think so...

3. Money

So here is the deal. Money by definition is nothing more than "the most commonly accepted medium of exchange". This is neutral. Money is not evil, it simply is. What you would need is a currency based on real value, instead of debt. Wont go into details here, but I agree with Jefferson (think it was him...), that

...the creation of currency is not only governments most sacred responsibility, it is also it's greatest creative opportunity

- or something to that effect...

You just need a way to make it fit a self-regulatory system. I think that can be achieved by letting it successfully grow from smaller units to bigger, as the hard end-of-the-line basis for the currencies value becomes standardized for a growing number of communities.

4. Music

I honestly don't think we're gonna need to lift a finger for this one. This will take care of itself. I'm a composer, and I can tell you, that just like the artist who "saw" the horse in the giant block of marble, and with his chisel and hammer just sets it free, music is already "out there". Above us in some weird way, already written but waiting to be set free. It is as if it is given to a musician. Do you think that someone playing solo plans every note? No, but it flows seamless nevertheless. It just comes to you. It is not something we can loose, any more than we can loose the ability to be born with two legs.

5. Family

Another great idea from a book (many books actually) is that children should be raised in small collectives, with the first guardian being grandparents. Most people have their first child roughly around 30, or much sooner depending on where you look. Which means when they are only children themselves. And by then you have so much things left that you need to experience. Your journey has just begun, and though we love them dearly, children are not always practical to have around. Imagine that the community (in very small scale at first) stood up to help, under the supervision of the elder members of the childs own family. I bet the grandparents would love to have their grand-children around them at the dawn of their life. It seems as if we gravitate towards that sentiment, as we grow older.

And of course the parents would not be excluded from this circle. They would become an intimate part, but with the understanding that they are themselves still in school. And that it is still important for them to experience things for themselves, alone on the road.



Jeeps this post became long. I'll leave the speaker-stick now for a while



It is mans destiny to learn, and to throw himself in to new and undiscovered worlds Juan Matos