This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 License.
This is to tell you about a petition that works alongside and supports all effective action to fight climate change, poverty, and all suffering and injustice, but calls for awareness that as long as only such small minorities of us are fighting these problems, and are not eliminating their underlying structural causes, we will possibly never be able to end such massive problems as poverty and climate change, and will not be able to end all human induced suffering and injustice, and maximize benefit for everyone. Climate change, poverty, and the global economic crisis are all symptoms of current social, political and economic structures and systems, which intrinsically generate harm to people and the environment, by coercing people into applying their agency only within the confines of these systems, so that they at least unintentionally live in ways which at least instrumentally harm others and the environment, through their action or inaction. The massive number, complexity and variety of all the problems in the world, and the hegemonic, extensive and all-encompassing nature of the current social structures and systems, means that we can only eliminate all the problems if all people unite in universal action to ensure it is everyone's absolute priority to devote their thought, behaviour and agency to ending the suffering and injustice, maximizing the well-being of everyone, and reorganizing society so that this can and must happen.
The way social systems and structures are currently constructed prevents us from ending climate change, poverty, and all human induced suffering and injustice, and intrinsically generates harm to people and the environment, by preventing this necessary universal human action, and this is possibly mainly because of ideological structures that coerce people into believing the lies:
- that in order to satisfy their egoism, they have to conform with these systems, compete, and therefore live in ways which harm others and the environment
- that there can be no alternative to the way society currently operates, and that we cannot change these structures and reconstruct society.
But if we get everyone to acknowledge:
- the evidence that the most effective way of satisfying our egoism is through benefiting others and living in harmony with the environment, so that egoism can be harnessed to motivate people to make the necessary changes to society, and therefore can be satisfied using only means which are not harmful
- that there can be no proof that we cannot make these changes, and all that can guarantee we cannot is if we are too pessimistic to try, so surely it's worth trying for
possibly the main factors preventing the necessary universal action are weakened, and there is less preventing all people from uniting in the goal to create structures that:
- encourage and enable everyone to make it their absolute priority to fight all human induced suffering and injustice, and maximize the well-being of everyone
- encourage constant criticism of themselves to ensure that people are constantly applying their agency to finding ways to improve society, and that they induce the reproduction of this behaviour
which is possibly the only way we can end climate change, poverty, and all other human induced problems.
Having eliminated these harmful ideological structures that prevent people from uniting in universal action to maximize benefit for all, we can then set about changing other political, economic and social structures. We must all fully actualize and apply our rational and reflexive potentials to finding the most effective means of reconstructing society in this way, to enable a smooth and peaceful transition from the current social order to a new one, so that society does not simply collapse. We can reach a consensus on how to create such a society if we are prepared to leave prejudices to such ideas behind and come together in an environment that enables completely free thought and communication; we must be able question and criticize rationally and reflexively all our own preordained assumptions as well as others', and all the strong views people have about such issues, so that we can discern together objective truths on which this consensus depends. This movement must be actualized collectively through universal thought and behaviour, can have no leaders or hierarchy, and must transcend or break down all divisions between us, so that we can all acknowledge we are all just people who must unite in this universal action; such an objective consensus does not need to conflict with or detract from cultural diversity or individual existential freedom and autonomy, but actively aims to restore and maximise these as long as they are only actualized in ways which aren't even instrumentally harmful to other people and the environment.
Even within the current 'democratic' political machinery we have a practical need for such ideological structural change in the way people think, and universal changes of consciousness, values and ethical orientation, if we are to be able to end climate change, poverty, and other massive problems, because:
- we need the majority or all people to demand from those in power, who are accountable to us, that the solutions to the problems, lots of which already exist, are actualized, which does not happen at the moment
- we need those in power to see that it is in their interest, as well as it being their obligation, to make these changes.
As we can only achieve these things through universal action throughout society, to change the structures, and end all the problems and all their underling causes, to maximize benefit of all, due to how:
- if only minorities of individuals attempt to make these changes, they will not get far enough
- if not everyone is contributing and cooperating, those who are will merely be exploited by those who still have the competitive orientation
- eliminating only one cause of suffering and injustice can cause or exacerbate other problems, due to how extensive the effects of the harmful social systems and structures are in global society
- and just to maintain a position in western society that gives you potential to make the necessary structural changes, people can hardly avoid conforming to some extent with the systems which cause the problems, until we make these structural changes; the only action one can take exclusively individually as opposed to collectively, to stop contributing to problems is to exist completely outside these systems (which even then contributes to the problems instrumentally due to how that action which could be applied to making the necessary structural changes collectively, to fight the problems, is not), whereby one loses the potential to change them collectively
- it is probably not be sustainable or feasible for every individual to simply immediately start existing outside these systems without massive structural change occurring previously, as possibly even greater harm would be done to people and the environment
we must firstly get all people just to express their agreement and approval of these ideas by signing this petition; in our so-called democratic process, if enough people, or all people, sign it, and so demand these changes, none of the harmful structures can stop us from making these changes; all these harmful structures are is ideas, but ideas that have control over the thoughts and behaviour of lots of people; all that gives them this power is that these people conform with them and do not criticize them; the more people who recognize this, and do criticize all these structures (particularly initially the ideological structures that provide the initial barrier to this required universal action), the weaker these structures become; we need to make a tangible record of people who do this, to illustrate and prove the support, strength and momentum this movement is gaining (which will in itself give it more strength), to others, and to those who oppose it, who will look for any excuse, however invalid or unjust, to dismiss it; one of the demands of the petition is that all people, all means of communication, and all structural influences on human thought and behaviour, especially the media initially, contribute to encouraging this change of consciousness, and to facilitating this movement, so that we can coordinate with everyone else and mobilize to make these changes together. We must continue the amazing and effective action that so many people are instigating to fight the problems in the world, but possibly the only way we can eliminate all the problems, is if we also all sign this petition (which does not require much effort), and get as many others as possible to sign it, so that all people unite in universal action to end human induced suffering and injustice, and maximize the well-being of everyone.
This petition seems an obvious means of fulfilling these roles, but if you have any ideas about what that could work better, please feel free to get in touch about them, or just get on with them yourselves when you can (as long as they are peaceful), though it would still be good to hear what you're up to.
No-one should feel threatened by this movement, as its purpose is to benefit everyone as much as possible.
The petition should never be seen as an end in itself, but as a means of achieving this end of getting all people to unite to ensure it is everyone's absolute priority to eliminate all suffering and injustice, and maximize benefit for all.
To sign the petition and join the thousands who already have, email your name to petition@peopleunite.org.uk. Or Read on for more explanation. For any comments, enquiries, or criticisms, please email the address at the bottom of the page.
Although the person who has started this, but who is not the leader*, will be primarily devoting their life to this movement, just to make them seem slightly less unbalanced and mad, they also raise around 10,000 pounds a year for more established charities, join in lots of direct actions organized by other activists, and get hundreds of other poverty and climate change petitions signed every few months, though these actions are arguably too much within the current social order to change it, hence this other movement; the point of this movement is that it should accompany and encourage all effective means of fighting the problems in the world, and should not divert people from other actions to fight the problems.
Although appearing in the media is pretty unnerving, it is crucial for the success of the movement to get influences on peoples' thought and behaviour, like particularly the media initially, to spread awareness of it. So as well as being out on the streets getting people to sign the petition, this person will be doing other peaceful bits and pieces to try to get the media and other structures to do this. If you want to help out at all, feel free to get in touch.
*Another reason why this person should not be seen as a leader, and why there should be no hierarchy in the movement, as well as the reasons given above, is because it is the ideas the movement aims to actualise that are of significance in this context, as opposed to the individuals promoting them, though it should be added that there should be no danger of reification as these ideas in themselves encourage people or agents who actualize or carry them to constantly criticise them.
(p.u.felixhaslam@googlemail.com)
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Some more explanation...
You should sign this petition if you agree that a hell of a lot more needs to be done to fight the hideous amount of injustice and suffering in the world. It should be seen to support and work alongside all effective action to solve the world's problems like poverty and climate change, but calls for awareness that as long as only such a small minority of people are motivated into action to fight them, and as long as people only target such superficial and often relatively small causes of them, we will never be able to end all the human induced suffering and injustice, and we may never be able to end poverty and climate change. The petition is a call for all people to unite in the goal to fully actualize our rational and reflexive potentials to fulfill our obligation to maximize the well-being of everyone and eliminate suffering and injustice, to ensure it is everyone's absolute priority to achieve this, and to create and maintain a society that enables and encourages everyone to achieve this. We can only eliminate all the suffering and injustice that people unnecessarily inflict on each other, and the damage people unnecessarily inflict on the environment, if all people unite in this goal, and if all of us devote our minds to finding means to reform and reorganize social systems and structures to ensure it is the ethical orientation of society to constantly strive to be maximizing benefit for everyone, and so to constantly be improving society in these ways. It could possibly help us to achieve this if we all recognize the evidence to that the most effective way of satisfying our egoism is through benefiting others and living in harmony with the environment, as opposed to continuing to compete and conform with ways of living which are instrumentally harmful to others and the environment; egoism can therefore be an extremely useful force that can be fully harnessed to maximise morality and motivate people to make these necessary changes. People are coerced into applying their thought, behaviour and agency only within the current social, political and economic system that intrinsically generates injustice, suffering, and harm to the environment. Peoples' agency, thought and behaviour is essentially extracted to maintain this system, which is the cause of the current global economic crisis, poverty and climate change. We all need to be fully applying our thought, behaviour and agency to changing this system, and the ideology which accomanies it, that coerces people into conforming with it, and therefore into fuelling environmental and humanitarian disasters.
To sign the petition, email your name to petition@peopleunite.org.uk. Or Read on for more explanation. For any enquiries, problems, or anything else, please email the address at the bottom of the page.
The massive number, variety and complexity of problems and their causes, in all areas of society, means that it is practically impossible for all suffering and injustice resulting from human action or lack of it, to be eliminated by
- such small governmental bodies while populations do not fully participate in this project, and while it is the ethical orientation of the majority of the population to live in a way which, intentionally or unintentionally, contributes to the problems, due to other structural influences
- the implementation of policies by governments to target each problem individually in such a situation (without there also being policies to ensure everyone participates), because targeting individual problems and their causes with the type of bureaucratic procedure often currently used, without targeting all other problems, can exacerbate or cause other problems, either directly or instrumentally. The problems cannot be solved when such small amounts of the resources and human agency in the world are used or applied to solving the problems, as is the case now. The amounts currently made available aren't anywhere near sufficient to solve all the problems, and so when limited amounts are applied to fighting certain problems as opposed to others, the other problems remain unsolved, or worsened due to lack of action. If all the individual causes of suffering and injustice are to be eliminated, all resources and human agency need to be devoted primarily to fighting the problems before anything else, and people trying to solve certain problems cannot be competing for these limited amounts, with people trying to solve other problems.
The massive number, variety and complexity of problems and their causes, in all areas of society, means that we can only eliminate the human induced suffering and injustice in the world if every individual is fully applying their mind or agency to solving all the problems around them, which they have the ability to affect, and if all resources are used to maximize the well-being of everyone. The underlying cause that needs to be eliminated, or what can be described as immorality, is the lack of this universal action to fight all structures that cause this lack of action in itself, and to fight the behaviour and thought which conforms to these structures, or is not directly oppositional to them. Until we make this goal the ethical orientation of society, and make it everyone's absolute priority to 'make immorality history', people will always harm each other and all on the planet unnecessarily. This petition aims to motivate the necessary movement to enable it to be everyone's full intention to maximise benefit for all and benefit others at least as much as the self, which requires the full actualization of our rational and reflexive potentials to find the means to achieve these goals.
The structures that stand in the way of this, whether they are consequences of intentional or unintentional human action, are not fixed, and however powerless we may feel as individuals, if we unite in this universal action we can make the necessary changes. The structures that stand most in the way of us achieving this are those which make people believe the lies that it is not in our interest to do so, and that we could never make these changes anyway. The more people who become open to these ideas, the weaker these structures become, and together we can tip the balance and eliminate any structures which stand in our way. With the current mechanisms of power and political machinery in this supposedly democratic society, we just need to demonstrate to governments and other power-centres, who in the end are accountable to us, and should be seen as us, that there are enough people behind this movement, which in democracy seems the way to peacefully bring such change. Communicating these ideas through personal interaction may not be sufficient, so we must gather enough support to demand that all structures, means of communication, and influences on human behaviour and thought, like NGOs, governments, the media, ideologies, and education systems, are changed so that they contribute to facilitating this movement and change of consciousness. A petition seems an obvious place to start, but if you have any ideas that could help, please email them to the address below. In order to demand that influential structures like the media contribute to the movement, we may need to show that there are enough people supporting it, by getting the petitions signed. Then when structures like the media are spreading the words, it will generate more support and encourage more people to sign the petition, which will then enable us to demand more awareness to be raised, and more support to be given by more such influential structures, and so on, until it is the ethical orientation of society to be maximising benefit for everyone. Please participate in this dialectic by signing the petition, or in other ways, and join the thousands who already have, so that all people can particpate in the broader dialectic in which people, in order to maximise the well-being of everyone, devote their agency to creating structures that encourage all people to unite in the goal to maximise the well-being of everyone, and to reproduce such structures and behaviour. This is happening, and if there's even the smallest possibility that we can succeed, then surely it's worth a shot.
The priority of this movement initially is to motivate people into action to fight climate change, as we have so little time left to stop it, and prevent even more obscene amounts of suffering from hitting the Third World, which will be hit first and hardest, and then the rest of the world.
It is possibly sad that we might have to appeal to egoism as opposed to compassion in order to motivate some people into making moral changes, but continuing to compete and conform with ways of living which are harmful to others and the environment at least instrumentally are also harmful to the self in that they do not maximize benefit for it. People who are coerced into believing that they need to compete with others for material profit, and harm people and the environment, in order to satisfy their egoism, must realize that it is either just as much in their interest to participate in these changes as it is in their interest to continue striving for profit at others' expense, or that making these changes will benefit them more. Although a certain amount of material resources are needed for basic biological needs to be met, there is so much evidence that true fulfillment requires much more than material resources, which can only be provided if people are truly maximizing benefit for each other. Obviously many people in the world need to lower their levels of consumption significantly if the planet if peoples' existence is to be at all sustainable, but if people only consume just what they need to meet their basic biological needs, there are potentially enough resources for everyone; at times of overpopulation, people will need to agree to such measures as each couple only parenting one child, and each person only being able to have a child with one other person, for however many generations is necessary.
To sign the petition, email your name to petition@peopleunite.org.uk. For any enquiries, problems, or anything else, please email the address at the bottom of the page.
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You cannot deny that a hell of a lot more needs to be done about how hideously immoral and unjust human society is; all suffering people inflict on each other on personal and social levels through their action or lack of action is completely unnecessary and preventable. We cannot continue with only a minority of us attempting to eliminate this suffering, and only targeting such relatively small causes and areas of it, as happens now, as it will never have enough effect. We all have to acknowledge there is nothing more important for humans to achieve than uniting in the common goal to fully actualise our rational and moral potentials to overcome and eliminate all immoral traits from our characters, and to end all the problems in the world, as it is the only way we can minimise suffering to a level where only factors beyond human control can cause suffering. There is no excuse for this not to be right at the front of everyone's consciousness, and the primary aim of everyone's lives. I'm not saying anything profound, but it is outrageous that the type of thing I'm arguing is not obvious to everyone.
People possibly are unnecessarily deterred from moral behaviour by the lie that it has to consist in altruism. Egoism can induce disgustingly immoral behaviour, but only needs to result in immorality when people are deceived into believing that they need to live selfishly in a way that harms others at least instrumentally in order to fully benefit themselves; morality should maximise benefit for all, including the self, and is not incompatible with egoism. We all have the innate benevolence in our characters which causes a sense of well-being to be generated internally within us when we ourselves help others; there is a vast amount of evidence to show that people derive most benefit or happiness from benefiting others in this way, as well as in ways of receiving benefit externally from others in return for benefiting them, etc. We need to develop this phenomenon to the point where we are able to fully satisfy our egoism with moral behaviour, so there would be no need to seek any other sources of benefit for the self which are harmful in any way; egoism can therefore provide the most powerful force that we can harness to fuel moral living and behaviour. If we could achieve this complete correlation between egoism and morality, there would be no reason at all for people to be immoral.
The state at which an individual's moral potential is fully actualised can be indicative of their complete well-being, but only a certain amount of material resources are required for this to be possible; any behaviour which uses more time, resources or action to benefit the self than are necessary (for their moral potential to be fully actualised) is immoral when there are others in need of it for their full moral actualisation, as no behaviour harms or benefits only the self with no instrumental affect on others, and vice versa. This renders nearly all, if not all of us immoral, with the great people there are being brainwashed into believing they cannot be better and still satisfy their egoism; we all have the potential to change this, and it is our greatest duty to do so and totally direct our lives towards morality; moral standards have to be set this high if we are to have enough affect. The possession of excess resources does not necessarily increase benefit to the self, but does harm many, and any of us who do this can be blamed for the suffering and death of so many resulting from their lack of these resources. However these excess resources have to be given willingly, as a result of those who possessed them realising that their possession of excess resources does not genuinely increase benefit to them, and that they will be more benefited by acting morally and donating willingly. So this does not require or condone the confiscation or destruction of resources, art, architecture, or anything of beauty that generates just and genuine benefit, as this help to eliminate immorality, which will therefore continue to induce suffering; this movement only condones what will genuinely maximise benefit for all; lack of material resources due to others' immorality is obviously not the only way in which immorality causes suffering, though many with sufficient or excess resources who do not feel fully benefited will stupidly assume they need more resources, when their lack of full benefit arises from other problems in human society created by immoral expressions of egoism. Material resources given to places that desperately need them cannot end the suffering there because the problem again comes back to other affects of immorality in that place; the suffering of those in extreme poverty cannot just be remedied through state enforced redistribution of wealth, although this would be better than nothing, as the suffering will exist as long as immorality does. The only solution is for all people to unite to eliminate immorality with the intrinsic result that such inequalities would disappear like all other intentional human induced suffering; it is in everyone's benefit to do this, including those who will donate the money, and so people should willingly make it happen.
Moral egoism requires that our primary intention is to maximise benefit for all (with the accompanying benefit to the self being seen as only a secondary side affect), and so also requires the full actualisation of our rational potential to discern what behaviour will fulfil this. Miscalculations of what the most moral course of action is will inevitably occur due to the limitations of human rationality, but this is not immoral if an individual did exercise their full rational potential and their intention was moral. Harming others due to a lack of rational thought constitutes intentional immorality - the choice not to use our full rational potential in this case reflects a choice to harm; inaction is just as much of an expression of human agency as action is. Benefiting others when the primary intention is for self-gain can be immoral in itself, but also in its consequences, as the individual's full rational potential will not be being applied solely to the ends of discerning the most moral actions, but also to how to acquire reward for themselves, so it is likely benefit will not be maximised for all and people will be harmed at least instrumentally.
That human society effectively operates on principles of animalistic competition, just in more elaborate and disguised forms than those that drive other species, strengthens peoples' view that they need to harm others or aim for superiority over them in order to be fully benefited, which will always result in unnecessary immorality and the harming of all people; currently not only individuals, but people of different sex, nationality, age, ethnicity, religion, or those with any other superficial differences, are unjustly presented as superior to others and forced into competition with each other, when such categorising should not occur, let alone result in competition; everyone has to acknowledge we are all just people, are all equal, and morally overcome such shallow differences so we can unite instead of competing. This egoistically immoral competition means that one individual's or group's benefit will only come at others' expense, necessarily resulting directly or instrumentally in others' harm, and intrinsically induces immoral behaviour by setting people against each other like this; its pollution of everything from pursuit of physical health and fitness, intelligence, relationships, love, sex and even quality of character will always destroy the virtue and beauty in these things and everything else, reducing it all to further expressions of immorality; characteristics admired in today's society today are usually those which will enable someone to compete well and defeat others, so are often immoral; and people held to be worthwhile by society are usually those who can do well in the competition, and so are also often at least instrumentally immoral. Virtues or moral characteristics enable people to follow the most moral course of action in particular situations and so can almost only really exist in a society where we are united, as opposed to in competition, in the common goal to benefit all, or in people who are trying to bring about this state. Morality has to be acknowledged as the most important goal humans can aspire to and replace the unjust values that dominate so many peoples' lives. All powerful drives in us for meaning, purpose, admiration, etc, can be harnessed to encourage moral behaviour, as there can be nothing worth more admiration, more meaningful or purposeful, or anything that could satisfy any of these desires in us more than actualising full moral potential. It can provide a moral outlet for emotions which can be necessary for human well-being, but currently can often only be expressed in harmful ways; reactions to suffering like anger can be channelled to fuel moral action, providing a strong motivating factor in fighting the true causes of the of the suffering, i.e. immorality. With everyone united, morality can aim to and should maximise benefit for all individuals without being at anyone's expense.
We need to be liberated from all negative preordained influences to enable the existential freedom necessary to this movement to result in moral characters. Benefit to the self and moral potential are greatly increased if we are free to define our own identities and be true to ourselves, and there is no justification for us not to define ourselves as moral as this can fully satisfy and correlate with egoism. Again morality needs to totally replace the unjust and oppressive values that effectively dominate the modern world, which make conformance to the immoral norm of behaviour and appearance necessary for someone to be considered a worthwhile person and be accepted by society, and destroy true creativity and individuality. To be free to calculate and pursue exactly what will benefit us most, and respect others' freedom to do the same, we need complete existential freedom to rationally and morally question everything with open-mindedness (including all I've said), and the full embracement of morality; without it our friendships or relationships, and all means through which we seek benefit cannot be truly complete and fulfilling, and time and resources will therefore be put to immoral use, not creating the just amount of benefit for the self or others. The compulsion for people to conform to the appearances which the immoral norm dictates you have to follow to be beautiful or worthwhile immorally over-emphasises the significance of appearance and induces further immoral waste of time and resources on products to achieve this; although it is probably a subjective opinion that moral or beautiful character is usually reflected in beautiful appearance, it bypasses this and provides another incentive for morality. But the different aspects of health from physical to rational all contribute to complete well-being and should all be nurtured to actualise full moral health and potential; openness about and truth to our emotional, physical, and other needs is necessary but only if pursued in a moral way. Everyone's desire to be accepted and tolerated has intrinsically to be satisfied with everyone's uniting, and divisions created by groups' hatred of and alienation from the immoral norm, and all unjust pretensions and inhibitions, should naturally also disappear.
Morality specifically should maximise benefit for all moral entities, and result in the greatest amount of further moral behaviour; morality should be self-generating, as benefiting a moral entity or treating them morally should increase their ability to maximise their moral potential and eliminate any causes of immorality in them; we have to fight the immorality not the immoral, who should not be necessarily punished but benefited, i.e. treated in the way that enables them to actualise full moral potential. Although benefiting moral entities therefore intrinsically generates more benefit and morality than benefiting non-moral entities, which gives moral entities a priority over non-moral entities when calculating the most moral course of action, it does not justify the human destruction of the planet, as morality obviously requires that the Earth is protected to enable moral and non-moral entities to be fully benefited in the present and the future.
I probably haven't worded any of this very well, and haven't included philosophical justifications for these arguments, but it is only really morality, or the view that we all should aim to benefit everyone as much as possible, that I'm aiming to promote, which should not need justifying, and is surely what any benevolent divinity would will. I've only been able to hint at certain issues, and have had to leave a lot out, like the justifications for all these arguments, because probably no one would want to read through anything any longer than this; thank you if you've read even this much, and if you are interested, I can give more. We are free enough for everyone to unite in this common goal to eliminate intentional human induced suffering and maximise our moral potentials; though it is for everyone's benefit, it should be done primarily not because it is egoistically beneficial, but because it is moral. It is up to everyone to contribute to find the specific ways to bring it about, however long it takes, and it can happen perfectly peacefully. As there is even the smallest possibility we could do it, we have to fight for it like nothing else.
p.u.felixhaslam@googlemail.com
this website finally put on the internet on 3 December 2006, though have been planning this movement for years
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 License.