User blog:JasonSears78/The Pitch for Thrive

 What is the greatest good to which humanity can align?

 It’s a hostile world we live in. When you list the most significant problems we see today, the list is common across all cultures:  they are problems of war, poverty and environmental damage.

 Children raised in war-torn areas probably feel that this plant is hostile. That we should take what we can, protect what we have and by all means, survive. Those raised in poverty, victimized by those around them in competitive, hostile families and communities, also feel that the world is hostile. And for the rest of us in the first world, it’s not much different. We have crime, domestic violence and worst of all, we are destroying our environment. From the outside, it would seem that humanity is barely skating by, desperate to survive.

 Yet there is a major problem with our behavior. This planet is not hostile to us. We should not be living like this. We have plenty of resources, plenty of room, and the ability to thrive, all of us together, spending most of our time relaxing in good health with everything we could need to be happy: friends, family, shelter and food, places to explore and ways to be entertained.

 Why don’t we do this? We emerged from the hostile plains of Africa in survival mode, and haven’t changed our behavior despite having dominated our planet.

 But that’s not just individual behavior we’re describing; the way we organize ourselves is based on the assumption that our world is hostile.

 So what characterizes hostile behavior from nice behavior? In a hostile world, you will protect your resources, you will scavenge whenever possible, and you will mainly work with the short term in mind. These strategies work great when you can’t trust your environment; things may change rapidly, threats may appear, and resources may be lost. You value your health less because being injured means you must rely on others. You value resources only to the extent that you can control them. You fear change, you worry about new things, and use aggression to defend yourself. Your relationships will be utilitarian, smaller numbers of people you spend lots of time with and have shared investments. Your reproduction strategy will favor control of family members.

 So can we see any of these behaviors in the systems we have invented to manage our populations?  A child raised in what they perceive to be a hostile environment is more likely to feel that they cannot control the world, they are victims, and exhibit highly competitive behaviors: selfishness, obsession for resources, lack of openness and trust, etc.  When we developed agriculture, we still had horrible droughts, diseases and very low life expectancy numbers: our environment was hostile.
 * Private property makes it a fundamental right to keep collecting resources, even if you are doing so unfairly
 * Competition allows for controlled opportunities to gather resources
 * Companies operate with short term profits as their core purpose
 * This is an example of environment – hostility is a very subjective term and does not mean physical threats.

 As we came up with economics and governments to address the problem with population density and size. These institutions were constructed to accommodate the majority of adult behaviors. Adults at the time largely believed their environment was hostile.

 And here’s what we see:  Our core structures are competitive, meaning those of us more competitive will succeed in securing positions of influence within those systems, reinforcing competitive strategies and devaluing cooperation.  Yet there’s one major problem – the world is not hostile. For humans, it’s actually quite pleasant. We live long lives, do what we want, and have only internally-driven threats. We have plenty of resources on the planet (we’re thriving), yet we have allowed our competitive systems to over-ride our best interests and waste resources, all driven by competitive individuals securing resources and power.
 * Economics has lead to poverty – a phenomenon of modern societies, not traditional.
 * Government has led to class systems – another new concept created by the competitive to protect their wealth
 * And since our structures compete, they waste resources.
 * And markets are about generating more resources, not using resources wisely.

 But there’s some very good news. A cooperative movement has begun. It’s made up of those of us more collaborative, more trusting. Those of us who feel like our environment is actually quite nice, and that we should be thriving and living happily. We are the cooperative movement.  For all of history, cooperative movements had influenced our systems, and created more thriving-based behaviors (social services, environmentalism, counseling, human rights, anti-war, youth development) <p style="margin:0mm0mm2.81mm;line-height:108%;text-indent:0mm;"> And now, an important balance of power has shifted. In the past, the wealthy have been far too invested in current systems to entertain massive change toward the cooperative, even when they wanted to. There was a complexity, a lack of understanding, and mistrust to those leading the change.
 * Started thousands of years ago: Plato,
 * It’s gain amazing momentum recently (Ghandi, MLK)
 * And recently has lost the need for icons – they are just movements (gay rights, marijuana legalization, abortion and right to die, 350.org, etc)
 * Christianity
 * MLK
 * Gay Rights

<p style="margin:0mm0mm2.81mm;line-height:108%;text-indent:0mm;"> But today we have something powerful – a sense of truth – of scientific inquiry that has enlightened our minds and abilities. And most recently, we’ve re-united humanity in a way we haven’t seen ever before- millions together in massive social networks, interacting like a hive, capable of amazing things.

<p style="margin:0mm0mm2.81mm;line-height:108%;text-indent:0mm;"> The cooperative have a real shot at changing everything. All it takes is the confidence to take the leap.

<p style="margin:0mm0mm2.81mm;line-height:108%;text-indent:0mm;"> That’s where The Movement comes in.

<p style="margin:0mm0mm2.81mm;line-height:108%;text-indent:0mm;"> It provides a structure, starting with individual behaviors, and organized for collective action. It’s ultimate goal, and almost religious-like belief, is that humanity can thrive sustainably on earth. Its organizing principle is that individuals need help managing sustainable behaviors. Our belief is that humanity can live happily in a sustainable way, so that together we may achieve earth sustainability.

<p style="margin:0mm0mm2.81mm;line-height:108%;text-indent:0mm;"> The Movement is needed to solve two complex problems: 1) By default, our behavioral programming will favor competition.  It takes active interference to divert this behavior.  Which leads to a more complex problem, 2) We need to know not only how to change our behavior to achieve sustainability, we need to do so in a sustainable way. We need to make the right decisions now, and be happy about it so that we do it again.

<p style="margin:0mm0mm2.81mm;line-height:108%;text-indent:0mm;"> The Movement will organize information and collective action in a way never seen before. It will take scientific principles about organizing behaviors, and apply them with a deep understanding of human behavior. It will promote smart use of technology and rare resources to construct the tools we want to live sustainable. It will start with individuals, and use an understanding of what motivates us to encourage positive changes toward an ultimate aim of organizing ourselves around cooperation.

<p style="margin:0mm0mm2.81mm;line-height:108%;text-indent:0mm;"> The Movement will be a daily part of people’s lives, and provide the alignment that will enable systematic changes needed in society. The more people we can get to behave sustainably, the more people will feel our world is not hostile, and the more cooperative behaviors we will observe.

<p style="margin:0mm0mm2.81mm;line-height:108%;text-indent:0mm;"> The Movement will start in a simple way. Anyone can do something to increase their sustainable behaviors. It will use games and concepts like mastery to promote changes. It will let people start where they want, let them work on what they want to work on, yet hold them accountable and provide the support they need. It will have a symbol, a simple theme, and a connection to many social causes. Environmentally friendly, socially responsible, employee-focused, healthy community movements will all align with these principles naturally. They are non-religious, based on scientific knowledge and will have a track record of success.

<p style="margin:0mm0mm2.81mm;line-height:108%;text-indent:0mm;"> It’s 2015. Now is the time. We finally have a shot at making it happen… world peace.

<p style="margin:0mm0mm2.81mm;line-height:108%;text-indent:0mm;"> This movement requires leadership to get started.

<p style="margin:0mm0mm2.81mm;line-height:108%;text-indent:0mm;"> Involvement in any movement requires alignment on core values – do we have alignment?

<p style="margin:0mm0mm2.81mm;line-height:108%;text-indent:0mm;"> Involvement also requires alignment between what you want to give, and what the organization needs. Here’s what we will need to move forward. At what point would you feel most comfortable to jump onboard?