The Moral Humanity Movement
Scattered pockets of positive change are transforming society into a compassionate community. Seeds are being planted.
The enrichment of cultures creates a moral foundation for systemic improvements in our major social institutions.
These structural improvements nurture personal and spiritual growth rooted in mutual support that helps individuals undo divisive, selfish, competitive, domineering socialization and form partnerships.
Increased ability to cooperate enhances the emergence of a sustained, massive, united, nonviolent, grassroots moral humanity movement
Mutually reinforcing nonviolent efforts are based on Gandhi’s principle: “Be the change you seek.”
Countless individuals and organizations contribute to the moral humanity movement — including those who don’t yet identify as members. The challenge is to deepen, strengthen, expand, connect, and unify these innovations. This manifesto moves in this direction.
Read MoreBy Wade Lee Hudson
NOTE: This manifesto is a work in progress. Please review and use the form below to comment.
Scattered pockets of positive change transform society into a compassionate community. Seeds are planted. Awareness of basic realities increases. Good people relieve others’ suffering — and correct the root causes of preventable suffering. Efforts to improve public policy persist. The moral humanity movement unites these fragments and reverses humanity’s downward spiral.
Enrichment of our shared culture creates a moral foundation for systemic improvements in our major social institutions.
These structural improvements nurture personal and spiritual growth rooted in mutual support that helps individuals undo divisive, selfish, competitive, domineering socialization and form partnerships.
Increased ability to cooperate enhances emergence of a sustained, massive, united, nonviolent, grassroots moral humanity movement that persuades Washington to respect the people's will while respecting minority rights.
Mutually reinforcing nonviolent efforts are based on Gandhi’s principle: “Be the change you seek.” They liberate inherited instincts that modern societies suppress. They strengthen positive capabilities and correct weaknesses. They affirm the equal value of every individual and awaken moral commitment to compassionate action. They set aside self-centered domination and blind submission.
Countless individuals and organizations contribute to the moral humanity movement — including those who don’t yet identify as members. The challenge is to deepen, strengthen, expand, connect, and unify these innovations. This manifesto moves in this direction.
Read MoreBy Wade Lee Hudson
In “The Shaming-Industrial Complex, Becca Rothfeld describes the problem: Absent structural change, self-improvement will be limited. A large network of supportive small teams whose members are aware of this problem could be one solution. In itself, this network could constitute structural reform, which Rothfeld seeks. It could also nurture a strong sense of community whose members, given their awareness of the Shaming-Industrial Complex, would logically pursue structural reform in other social sectors and, ideally, cultivate holistic and systemic transformation.
Read MoreBy Hector E. Garcia
Knowing and using knowledge of root causes are essential to effectively and sustainably reduce and eliminate problems, especially those of a chronic and intractable nature.
Reactive tactical measures will typically lag behind the manifestations of this type of problems.
Political organizations don’t encourage members to engage in self-reform to undo divisive social conditioning, including the desire to dominate and the willingness to submit. And personal- and spiritual-reform organizations don’t nurture political action to help change oppressive public policies. If these two communities made simple shifts in their approach, they could come together and build an independent social movement powerful enough to persuade Washington to respect the will of the people, transform social structures throughout society, and support compassionate personal growth.
The first step is to agree on a shared worldview rooted in compassion.
Read MoreBy Michael Johnson
The Growing Democracy Project (GDP) is a cultural and political program for developing a legion of everyday citizens who can generate enough collective power to make democracy the dominant political force in our country.
The strategy is to produce abundant, persistent, and effective citizen action to solve shared problems at all levels of our society.
The means is the continuous development of participants’ “habits of the heart” and skillful democratic means.
Read MoreImagine a moral America. Americans treat each other as they want to be treated and respect everyone’s equal value. If you live elsewhere, imagine the same for your country.
We love our country, live good, compassionate lives, care for others as we care for ourselves, avoid both selfishness and self-sacrifice, improve ourselves and the world, are politically engaged, work to undo racism and all forms of oppressive domination, and nurture partnerships throughout society.
Read MoreBy Khalil Gibran Muhammad
As I thought about writing this review, I imagined an opening paragraph summarizing the events of this summer’s nationwide protests against police violence. How observers and participants parsed the civil unrest along the familiar lines of peaceful protesters, rioters and looters, drawing competing moral distinctions between nonviolence and violence. How the police deployed official violence to punish and intimidate activists. How heavily armed, self-deputized white men threatened and used vigilante violence against demonstrators. How President Trump called for state violence against human beings to protect property. And how the residents of many cities committed acts of violence against their intimate partners, neighbors and fellow citizens, including small children.
And then, after finishing Elliott Currie’s “A Peculiar Indifference: The Neglected Toll of Violence on Black America,” a smart, timely, deeply disturbing and essential book by a veteran scholar and leading expert on the criminal legal system, I realized that the details of every precious life harmed or lost this summer reveal a bigger truth about the nation….
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On the opening episode of this “How to Citizen” podcast, Baratunde conducts a remarkable interview with Valarie Kaur, author of See No Stranger,. Kaur clearly articulates the spirit that drives the Systemopedia with her holistic worldview and her affirmation of mutual support for self-development..
With her Revolutionary Love Project, Kaur’s addresses our relationships with ourselves as well as our relationship with others. She examines internal changes we must make to our minds and hearts as well as institutional reforms. In response to whether we are experiencing the darkness of the womb or the darkness of the tomb, she replies, “It’s both” because we see the “dying of the nation we thought we were” as well as the emergence of transformation. Large numbers of whites joining in Black Lives Matter demonstrations was particularly encouraging.
External work such as getting to know our neighbors with an open heart is critical. The founder of the Sikh faith affirmed “I see no enemy.”
Read MoreBy Wade Lee Hudson
Assumptions about human nature shape beliefs about the potential for change. Reflections on human history and child development indicate that compassion and the desire to cooperate are more primal, stronger, and deeper than hate and the desire to dominate. Which instinct prevails depends on many factors, including training, social conditions, and personal decisions. As Sitting Bull said, “Inside of me there are two dogs. One is mean and evil and the other is good and they fight each other all the time. When asked which one wins I answer, the one I feed the most.”
When people feel secure, they’re more likely to be loving and cooperative. But when they’re insecure, they’re more likely to be hateful and domineering — and willing to submit. Insecurity hardens the tendency to form ingroups and outgroups. Healthy competition becomes vicious. The hope to improve your material condition becomes all-consuming.
Society can encourage one pole or the other — domination or cooperation — or it can nurture a balance.
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