So many people within the current structuring obviously devote so much intelligence, ingenuity, creativity, imagination, skill, talent, time and energy (etc) to types of work and activity which can be empirically and rationally verified to:
– not fight the suffering and injustice in the world and maximise benefit for people or humankind in the most effective ways;
– obstruct other people from having self-determination and autonomy insofar as they don’t obstruct anyone else’s self-determination and autonomy;
– at least instrumentally so much cause suffering and injustice in so many ways;
– not benefit people engaging in those types of work and activity anywhere near as effectively as living and behaving in ways like those outlined in the text of the ‘people unite’ declaration, petition and pledge above.
The mainstream and dominant discourses in the current structuring of human society are obviously so far away from where they would need to be to have the purpose of finding or empirically and rationally verifying (as far as possible what the most effective ways to fight all the different causes of suffering and injustice in the world and maximise benefit for everyone (and make that the priority of human society); the entire framework which the mainstream and dominant discourses take place in, are carried out in or are confined to (in the current structuring), is obviously so far away from where it would need to be in order for humankind to be able to collectively find the most effective ways to collectively fight all the different causes of suffering and injustice and maximise benefit for everyone (and make that the priority of human society). Even the mainstream and dominant discourses on how people should live and behave (and on fighting suffering and injustice and maximising benefit for people), and the frameworks which those discourses take place in, are carried out in or are confined to (in the current structuring) are so far away from being focused on fighting all the different causes of suffering and injustice and maximising benefit for everyone in the most effective ways (and making that the priority of human society). The idea or possibility of taking the amounts and kinds of action that can be empirically and rationally verified (as far as possible) to be necessary in order for as much as (can be verified like that to be) possible to be done to fight all the different causes of suffering and injustice (primarily social structures, systems and behaviours which can be verified like that to cause and allow the most suffering and injustice) and to maximise benefit for everyone in the most effective ways (and in order to make it the priority of human society to do all of that), is hardly even presented as an option within those dominant and mainstream frameworks and discourses within the current structuring, or is hardly given any serious consideration or space (or is hardly taken or presented seriously at all) within those dominant and mainstream frameworks and discourses within the current structuring. What’s presented in those dominant and mainstream frameworks and discourses (or in the influences which can be empirically and rationally verified as far as possible to have the most influence on people…) within the current structuring, as being what’s most important, what matters most, and what people should value most or aspire to most, is obviously completely unrelated to taking the amounts and kinds of action that can be empirically and rationally verified (as far as possible) to be necessary to do as much as possible to fight all the different causes of suffering and injustice and to maximise benefit for everyone in the most effective ways (or to make all of that the priority of human society). Many people within the current structuring obviously think critically within the confines of frameworks which those mainstream and dominant discourses (on those issues) are confined to in the current structuring, but obviously don’t think critically about those frameworks, or how to change those frameworks so that they can be focused on fighting all the different causes of suffering and injustice in the world and maximising benefit for everyone in the most effective ways (and making that the priority of human society). Or within the current structuring, many people think critically about options within the current structuring (which don’t significantly change that structuring), but don’t think critically about the current structuring itself, or how to change it in order to make it the priority of human society to fight all the different causes of suffering and injustice in the world and maximise benefit for everyone in the most effective ways. One of the problems with those frameworks (which is touched on above) that those dominant or mainstream discourses are confined to, is that one of the notions which those frameworks are based on is that it’s not possible for humankind to change the current structuring to make it the priority of human society to fight all the different causes of suffering and injustice in the world and maximise benefit for everyone in the most effective ways, but again all the arguments that it’s not possible for humankind to do that are all arguments which can’t be proven, or rely on premises which can’t be proven, and there’s far more evidence to refute those negative arguments than there is to corroborate them. At the same time as how pretty much all people would probably agree that it should be the priority of human society to fight all the different causes of suffering and injustice in the world and to maximise well-being, happiness and fulfilment for everyone in the most effective ways, so many people are misled or coerced within the current structuring into believing:
– that they can’t or shouldn’t hope for much more to be done to fight suffering and injustice in the world and maximise benefit for everyone in the most effective ways, than is already being done within the current structuring;
– that they should think that the current levels or amounts of action to fight suffering and injustice in the world and maximise benefit for everyone are satisfactory and acceptable;
– that it’s weird (and even unacceptable) to try and make it possible for far more action to be taken to fight the suffering and injustice in the world and maximise benefit for everyone in the most effective ways, than is taken within the current structuring (or to try and make it possible for far more effective action to be taken to fight the suffering and injustice in the world and maximise benefit for everyone, than is taken within the current structuring);
– that it’s normal and acceptable to not try to (and to not be motivated to) make it possible for far more action to be taken to fight suffering and injustice and maximise benefit for everyone, than is taken within the current structuring…, or that it’s weird and unacceptable to be motivated to take more action to do that;
– that therefore not only are the current amounts of suffering and injustice in the world acceptable and normal, but that also the even worse amounts of human suffering and injustice, or even human extinction, following the extinction of possibly over a million other species (which again, according to peer-reviewed science, will caused by certain social structures, systems and behaviours within the current structuring of human society which are irreversibly destroying the ecosystems and environments which humankind can’t survive without, unless we can change those social structures, systems behaviours fast enough…), are acceptable (though so many people obviously aren’t informed of how that far worse human suffering and injustice will be caused unless we can change those social structures, systems and behaviours fast enough…).
People obviously can’t let themselves/ourselves be dragged down into going along with not trying to (or not being motivated to) make it possible for far more action to be taken to fight the suffering and injustice in the world and maximise benefit for everyone in the most effective ways (or to try and make it possible for far more far more effective action to be taken to fight the suffering and injustice in the world and maximise benefit for everyone, than is taken within the current structuring)…, and they/we obviously need to set the standards far higher. And again, though many different forms of action are needed for the following purpose, if enough people or all people can show, confirm, or declare to each other their support for doing that, and pledge that they would join in doing that (possibly in a way like signing and sharing something like this ‘people unite’ declaration, petition and pledge), it could at least contribute to shifting and changing the framework which those mainstream and dominant discourses currently take place in, are carried out in, and are confined to within the current structuring (or it could contribute to making more space for people to find and implement the most effective ways to shift and change that framework…), so that those (and all) discourses can be for humankind to collectively find the most effective ways to collectively fight all the different causes of suffering and injustice and maximise benefit for everyone (and make that the priority of human society); and it could at contribute to helping ensure people aren’t dragged down into going along with not trying to (or not being motivated to) make it possible for far more to be done to fight suffering and injustice in the world and maximise benefit for everyone in the most effective ways… .
**For more explanation of ideas behind this, and how it could help us get further in fighting all the different causes of suffering and injustice, and in maximising well-being, happiness and fulfilment for everyone in the most effective ways…, and for answers to questions you may have, please click on the ‘some more explanation’, and ‘is this too vague?’ buttons near the top of the page.
Or please email peopleunite@peopleunite.net if you have more questions, comments, criticisms, suggestions or ideas about how this could be improved, or about what action could be more effective in getting far enough in fighting the suffering and injustice and in maximising well-being, happiness and fulfilment for everyone (or in making it the priority of human society to fight suffering and injustice and to maximise well-being, happiness and fulfilment for everyone in the most effective ways).
Thank you very much.
All the very best,
peopleunite@peopleunite.net
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 License.<!–
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This is to tell you about something which you should hopefully support if you agree that a massive amount more needs to be done to fight the suffering and injustice in the world (including that which you face), and that a massive amount more needs to be done to maximise well-being, happiness and fulfilment for everyone, or if you think that your life and others’ lives should be a lot happier or more fulfilling. It obviously supports and encourages all effective action to fight suffering and injustice, and to maximize well-being, happiness and fulfillment for everyone, but highlights how as long as only such small numbers of people are able to take enough action to fight the suffering and injustice in the world, and the underlying ideological, political and economic structural causes of the problems, we
– will never get far enough in fighting all the suffering and injustice, or in maximizing well-being, fulfillment and happiness for everyone,
– may never be able to end or prevent such massive causes of human suffering as poverty, conflict and ecocide,
– won’t be able to do enough to help people suffering from illnesses like cancer,
– won’t be able to prevent even more obscene amounts of human suffering from being caused by people irreversibly destroying the ecosystems and environments which humankind can’t survive without,
– won’t able to prevent people causing each other suffering and pain in more personal social interaction and relationships.
And obviously, linked to that, is how as long as only such small amounts of the resources in the world are made available to fighting the suffering and injustice, and to maximizing well-being for everyone in the most effective ways, we’ll also never get far enough.
Or until all people unite to make it the primary aim and absolute priority of human society to fight suffering and injustice and to maximise well-being, happiness and fulfilment for everyone, we will never get far enough.
There are obviously obscene amounts of suffering and injustice in the world, and everyone has to face some pain in their lives, though obviously some people have to face far more than others. And there’re so many amazing people who do and give so much for the good of others and the world, but within the current political, ideological and economic structuring of human society, only such a small minority of all the resources, human energy and time can be or are devoted to fighting suffering and injustice or to maximizing well-being for everyone most effectively. All the arguments that human society needs to be structured in this way or can’t be changed from being like this, or all the arguments that the way humans behave now within this structuring is the only way people can behave, all rely on premises which can’t be proven, and there is far more evidence to refute these negative arguments than there is to support them. The current structuring of human society forces people to spend so much more time and energy than is necessary in other possible structurings doing jobs which don’t bring them happiness or fulfillment effectively enough, if at all, just to provide for themselves and their families, pay the bills, or to participate in ways of living which also don’t bring happiness or fulfillment effectively enough, and most of these jobs and lifestyles have practically nothing to do with fighting the suffering in the world or with maximizing well-being for everyone in the most effective ways, and aren’t at all necessary for humankind’s survival, well-being, fulfillment or happiness. So much suffering and injustice is presented as being merely an unfortunate accident that people can’t do anything about, but apart from some suffering caused by some natural disasters like earthquakes and some diseases, all the human suffering and injustice, like poverty, is at least instrumentally or partly unintentionally caused by other people, so that apart from that suffering caused by such natural disasters, all other human suffering and injustice can potentially be ended by people, and a massive amount more can be done to prevent or minimize the suffering caused by natural disasters and diseases, or to help people effected by them. And again all the arguments that we can’t do these things rely on premises which can’t be proven.
I’ve been lucky enough to be able to work for quite a few different charities and activist groups for quite a few years, and still work for various different charities and activist groups, but I started thinking a lot more about the need for this kind of thing partly because of when I had brain cancer when I was a child, and had to have chemotherapy, radiotherapy and surgery and all that, and before that, because of when I was about ten years old when my Mum died;and I know I haven’t suffered nearly as much as so many people in the world, especially people who have been forced into extreme poverty, conflict and extreme oppression, and so many others, but going through a bit of pain due to those things and some other stuff, made me think a lot more about how there’s nothing more important than fighting the suffering and injustice in the world and doing all you can to help or benefit other people. So when I got better, I tried to help out with as much as possible of the charity work I came across, and volunteered for as many different charities as I could, fighting causes of human suffering ranging from breast cancer, other cancer and meningitis to poverty and ecocide. For a few years I raised around £10,000 a year for various charities through street collecting with a bucket as a volunteer, and helped organize lots of charity gigs and events, or spent quite a long time just getting charity petitions signed on the streets, or helping out homeless people.
If you care a lot about humankind and people generally, even when you’re doing all you can to fight suffering and injustice, you can get incredibly upset, angry and depressed about just how much suffering there is in the world, and about how the effect that one person seems to be able to have, within that current structuring of society, in fighting all of that, seems to be so small in relation to all the suffering and injustice; (as) there are so many different causes of suffering, and you just don’t know where to start. Like a lot of other people I was thinking and feeling like that, and kind of still am, and so I was trying to work out what was the most effective course of action to take in order to end as much suffering and injustice as possible, or how you could have most effect in fighting the suffering. My solution to this for a while was to volunteer for as many different charities and activist groups as I could, fighting as many different causes of suffering as I could, using as many different means as I could. That’s kind of still what I’m doing a bit now, but while I was doing this charity work, I started thinking more about how as long as only such small amounts of the resources in the world are made available to fighting the suffering and injustice, if you’re using resources to fight one individual cause of suffering on one level of causation, like cancer or AIDS, or poverty or ecocide, you’re stopping resources from being used to fight other causes of suffering; and while only minorities of people are able to take enough action to fight the suffering in the world, if you and others are using your time, energy and agency to fight one cause of suffering on one level of causation, like cancer or poverty, you’re stopping time, energy and agency from being used to fight other causes of suffering. So the lack of enough resources being made available to fight suffering, and the lack of enough people being able to take enough action to fight suffering, are causes of suffering in themselves on other levels of causation. I became more aware later of how the current ideological, political and economic structuring of human society contributes massively to preventing enough people from being able to do enough to fight the suffering and injustice and to maximize well-being for everyone most effectively, and to preventing enough of the resources in the world from being used to do this also (as well as preventing people from being able to find happiness or fulfillment effectively enough); and so all the different causes of human-induced suffering on certain levels of causation, from poverty and recessions, to the lack of sufficient action to help people with illnesses like cancer, all have the same underlying causes on other levels of causation, which are linked to this way which human society is currently structured politically, economically and ideologically, due to these effects which this current structuring has, of preventing enough from being done to fight suffering and injustice and to maximize well-being for everyone. Until we change that structuring, or the underlying structural causes of all the suffering and injustice resulting from human action or inaction, we’ll never get far enough in fighting all the suffering and injustice. The levels of action to fight suffering within the current structuring aren’t enough, and the means currently predominantly available to use to fight suffering within the current structuring aren’t enough on their own. Or until enough people or all people can unite to make it the primary aim of human society, and our (everyone’s) absolute priority to fight the suffering and injustice, and to maximize well-being, happiness and fulfillment for everyone, we’ll never be able to get far enough.
Because of all the suffering in hospitals, when I first had to go into hospital myself when I had cancer, I thought that hospitals would only be incredibly sad places, but when I was actually there, I saw how, although people there have to cope with such terrible pain and sadness, they can still be so happy and positive, and also so kind, caring and compassionate. And those people in hospitals, and pretty much all people who I’ve come across who’ve been through a lot of pain, and who are so happy, kind and compassionate, all say that going through those traumatic things made them realize that doing all we can for others is what matters most, or is all that really matters; and it had made them realize that things which had controlled their lives before, like conforming with consumerism, competing in various, often-disguised ways, and other negative aspects of the current structuring, don’t really matter at all in comparison. Again I know I’ve hardly suffered at all compared to so many people in the world, especially people who have been forced into poverty and so many others, but going through certain things like brain cancer, and my Mum’s death when I was about 10, definitely contributed to making me agree with these people, that there’s nothing more important or more beautiful than people benefiting others or acting out of kindness and compassion for others, and also that there’s nothing more fulfilling than acting out of kindness and compassion for others, benefiting others, and fighting suffering and injustice. And there’s so much psychological, sociological and other research and evidence which shows that one of the most effective ways for people to become happy and fulfilled is to benefit others, develop better human relationships and communities, and fight suffering and injustice; we all experience this in our day to day lives that benefiting other people, or acting kindly towards others, makes us feel good, or that we all get so much benefit, happiness and fulfillment within ourselves from benefiting others, as well as how benefiting others can cause other people to reproduce and reciprocate this beneficial behaviour to you and others; obviously we should always take action to benefit others primarily because it’s the right thing to do, not because it benefits ourselves, and any benefit to ourselves should only be intended to be a secondary side effect, but this does mean that we can potentially harness our drives for happiness and fulfillment to motivate ourselves to benefit others and fight suffering and injustice. And again there’s so much psychological, sociological and other research and evidence which shows that consumerism, the competing within the current structuring, and other negative ways which are mainly made available for people to use to try and find happiness and fulfillment within this structuring, don’t bring happiness or fulfillment effectively at all, or effectively enough, and not nearly as effectively as benefiting others, developing better human relationships and communities, or fighting suffering and injustice; obviously people need a certain amount of material resources in order to survive and to provide for basic human needs (and therefore to maintain their ability and potential to benefit others), but more evidence and research shows that obtaining or possessing more resources than are needed to provide for these needs, doesn’t bring benefit, happiness or fulfillment effectively at all and not nearly as effectively as this other action like benefiting others, developing better human relationships and communities, or using these resources to fight suffering and to benefit others.
And the unnecessary amount of resources which people in some parts of the world use and possess in their lifestyles of consumerism and competition, come from economic processes and behaviour which involve taking or stealing resources from people in other parts of the world (by force or deception), who need these resources to survive; and the unnecessary amounts of resources which some people in some parts of the world use or possess in these lifestyles come from processes which take or extract so many resources from the planet or the environment, and pollute so much, that they’re irreversibly destroying the ecosystems and environments which humankind can’t survive without; and if this behaviour and ecological harm continues at anywhere near its current rate, pretty much all people in future generations won’t be able to get the food or resources they need to survive; those main ways which the current structuring of human society makes available for people to use (or coerces people into using) to try to find happiness and fulfillment, like consumerism, competition, and the lifestyles of using or possessing far more resources than are needed to survive or to be happy and fulfilled, cause so much suffering and so many deaths to people in the world now, and will cause so much more suffering and so many more deaths to people in future generations, as well as not bringing happiness and fulfillment effectively to people living in those ways. The current structuring of human society causes or allows people to behave in ways which cause so much suffering and injustice to others, through global economic processes, conflict, and in personal and social relationships and interaction, even if this harm is often partly unintentional and instrumental. And again this harmful behaviour doesn’t bring benefit to the people behaving in those ways as effectively as other action like benefiting others and fighting suffering and injustice. And this current structuring allows or enables some people to use, take or possess far more resources than they need to survive or to maximize their own happiness or well-being, and allows a situation where other people have the resources which they need to survive taken away from them. And again, the current structuring of society forces people to spend so much more time and energy than is necessary in other possible structurings and ways of life, doing jobs which don’t bring fulfillment or happiness effectively enough, just to get even the basic amounts of resources which they need to survive or pay the bills, let alone the amounts of resources required for conforming with consumerism or lifestyles of using and possessing more resources than are needed to survive, which also don’t bring happiness and fulfillment effectively enough. And often these jobs, as well as consumerism and these lifestyles of some people, do contribute to these processes, systems, structures and behaviours which cause so much suffering and so many deaths to other people in the world now and in future generations, by taking from people the resources they need to survive, and in other ways, as well as not bringing happiness or fulfillment effectively enough to people living in those ways.
There’re enough resources in the world to provide for everyone’s needs, and to maximize well-being for everyone, so there’s not even a need for people to compete with each other to get the resources they need to survive, or therefore to get resources they need to become happy and fulfilled, and that also goes for an even bigger human population than there is now. And there’s so much evidence to show that ‘human nature’ or the ‘human character’ is malleable, that the social environment which people find themselves in has far more influence on how people behave, and that people aren’t ‘naturally’ or intrinsically competitive and selfish in ways which harm others; obviously people have the potential to be competitive and selfish in ways which harm others, but whether they act like that or not depends on whether the social environment which they find themselves in is one which coerces people into acting like that or not; and people also have the potential to overcome drives to compete and act selfishly in ways which harm others. Obviously people do also act incredibly kindly within the current structuring of human society, but partly due to how this current structuring promotes the lies that competing, and obtaining unnecessary amounts of resources, and other harmful selfish behaviour, are effective and acceptable ways of finding happiness and fulfillment, this current structuring does also coerce people into believing the lies that in order to satisfy egoism, to become happy and fulfilled, or to provide for their own and their families’ needs, they need to at least instrumentally or partly unintentionally harm other people, and the environments humankind needs to survive; and so within the current structuring of society, people do compete, act selfishly in ways which harm other people, and cause suffering to others or each other both within personal and social interaction and relationships, as well as through global economic processes and behaviour, and in other ways, when this harmful behaviour doesn’t bring benefit to the people living in those ways as effectively as other behaviour like benefiting others; so this current structuring creates a situation where you’re constantly under threat of being exploited to varying degrees by other people who are trying to benefit themselves or become happy and fulfilled by harming you at least instrumentally or unintentionally to varying degrees, which obviously makes life pretty stressful and isn’t at all conducive to people’s happiness and well-being; and this harmful behaviour which the current structuring incites, of people not treating others or each other as well as they could and should, can cause others in turn to act in ways which harm others and you. And again, all the arguments that this is the only way humans can behave, or that human society can’t be changed from being like this, rely on premises which can’t be proven, and there’s a lot more evidence to refute these negative arguments and premises than there is to support them. And in the kind of structuring of human society that we can make or bring about, where resources, human time and energy can be or are devoted to fighting suffering and injustice, to maximizing well-being for everyone, and to providing for everyone’s needs, people will be able to see that there’s no need to compete with or harm others to get resources you need to survive and therefore to maximize your own happiness, fulfillment and well-being, and people would therefore not necessarily act selfishly in ways which harm others or compete; and in this kind of structuring that we can make, people would also be able to see that benefiting others and living in community and solidarity, are most effective ways of finding happiness and fulfillment, so they would see there are more reasons why there’s no need to compete or be selfish in ways which harm others in social interaction or in any ways, in order to become happy and fulfilled most effectively; and as benefiting others or each other can cause other people in turn to benefit others and you and to reproduce this beneficial behaviour, benefit can become self-generating. And there’s more evidence to show that people can’t be completely happy and fulfilled when they know that there are other people in the world who are suffering, and who are suffering at least instrumentally because of your own action or inaction, or when you’re not taking enough action to fight the suffering, or not as much as possible. And spending time and energy on consuming more than is necessary for survival and to maximise well-being, happiness and fulfilment for yourself, and on competing and on other harmful selfish behaviours, gets in the way of, or stops you from doing things which bring happiness, fulfilment and well-being more effectively, like benefiting others and developing better human relationships. In many ways the current structuring of human society therefore limits how happy and fulfilled even people can become even when they have enough resources to be happy and fulfilled.
In fighting the suffering and injustice in the world and maximizing well-being, happiness and fulfillment for everyone most effectively, and in ending the underlying structural causes of human-induced suffering and injustice, we obviously need political and economic analysis, to change the political and economic structuring and behaviour which causes so much suffering, or prevents enough action to fight suffering. But we can’t do this or get far enough in fighting all the suffering and injustice and in maximizing well-being, happiness and fulfillment for everyone, unless we also make these ideological structural changes of values, aspirations and consciousnesses, and make these changes in the ways we think, behave, treat others and construct our characters and traits, so that people can prioritise fighting suffering and injustice, and maximizing well-being, happiness and fulfillment for everyone, and see that there’s nothing more important than doing this, and also that there’s nothing more fulfilling than doing this; it could help us get a lot further in making these changes to fight suffering and injustice and maximize well-being for everyone most effectively, if people can acknowledge and act on this evidence that behaving in ways which benefit others, is one of the most effective ways of becoming happy and fulfilled, as this enables people to harness drives for happiness and fulfillment to motivate ourselves to take this necessary action to benefit others and fight suffering in the most effective ways, and to unite with all people to make it the primary aim and priority of human society and everyone to fight suffering and injustice, and to maximize well-being, happiness and fulfillment for everyone, which is possibly the only way we can get far enough in doing these things.
This might all sound naïve and idealistic, but until people start taking things like this seriously, we’ll never get far enough in fighting all the suffering and injustice in the world or in maximizing well-being, happiness and fulfillment for everyone; and it’s surely far more naïve to assume that we can end massive causes of suffering like poverty (and its structural causes), or to do enough to help people in need generally, while only such small numbers of people are able to take enough action to fight suffering and injustice, while only such small amounts of the resources in the world are made available to fighting suffering, and while people are still in a mindset which makes them think that in order to benefit themselves and become happy and fulfilled, they need to at least instrumentally or partly unintentionally harm other people (through obtaining more resources they need to survive, competing, and conforming with other negative aspects of the current structuring which cause suffering and injustice); the current structuring of human society, or the current ideological structuring and aspiration or value systems, which make people believe the lies that in order to become happy and fulfilled, they need to at least instrumentally or partly unintentionally harm other people (in ways like consumerism, and competition and all that), make people value, aspire towards, or care about these harmful lifestyles and behaviour, because they’re coerced into believing the lies that they bring happiness and fulfillment effectively when they don’t, and when they do cause harm to others at least instrumentally. And so these current dominant value and aspiration systems, or harmful competitive mindsets, also make people value or care about the current structuring which enables them to continue this harmful behaviour, as again they’re coerced into believing the lies that it brings happiness effectively when it doesn’t; so these value systems cause people to not want to take action to change these structures and behaviours in order to fight suffering and maximize well-being for everyone most effectively, or cause people not to see the point or importance of doing this, and also cause people not to see the benefits it will bring to everyone including themselves; or these value and aspiration systems even make people try and stop or discredit action to fight the suffering and injustice and their underlying structural causes, because this action to fight suffering will stop them from being able to do those harmful things which they’re coerced into wrongly thinking are effective ways of finding happiness and fulfillment, when acting in ways which benefit others could bring them benefit, happiness and fulfillment far more effectively; people are coerced into believing the lies that in order to maximize benefit for themselves, they need to maintain the structuring which allows them to obtain far more resources than they need to survive and become happy and fulfilled, by at least instrumentally or partly unintentionally exploiting others, when participating in making these changes to society to fight suffering and injustice and to maximize well-being for everyone most effectively, is a far more effective way for them to find happiness and fulfillment. In a sense, any other action to fight suffering and injustice and maximize well-being for everyone, which doesn’t address these harmful ideological structures, values, mindsets, and harmful ways of thinking and behaving, is therefore possibly premature. We need to be able to make these ideological structural changes of values, aspirations and consciousness in order to be able to make the necessary political and economic structural changes to fight suffering and maximize well-being most effectively, and to be able to affect the dialectics between these structures and human agency and behaviour in ways which enable people and society to move in directions in which all people can unite to make it the primary aim and priority of human society and everyone to fight suffering and injustice and maximize well-being for everyone; the political and economic structuring obviously also effects the ideological structures, value systems and human thought and behaviour, and they all effect each other dialectically, and we, or all people, obviously need to work out exactly what motivates people to act in ways which cause so much suffering and injustice, and find the most effective and beneficial means of stopping this harmful behaviour, or of people stopping themselves from behaving in these harmful ways; or we need to prioritise finding the most effective and beneficial means of eliminating the underlying harmful motives, values, aspirations, mindsets, structuring, or anything else which causes the harmful behaviour. Making such changes in values, aspirations and ways of thinking, behaving and constructing characters, is possibly necessary if we’re to end the harmful structuring and behaviour in ways which don’t cause more suffering, or in ways which are peaceful, and other ways may therefore not be possible anyway for various reasons. We possibly need to make such ideological structural changes if any political and economic systems which replace the current one aren’t also to cause obscene amounts of suffering, or if those in power within the current structuring (or those higher up in the current power differentials and hierarchies) are to be replaced by people who won’t also cause obscene amounts of suffering. (These current ideological structures and value systems, as well as current political and economic structures, prevent enough people from being able to take enough action to fight suffering and maximize well-being for everyone, and prevent enough of the world’s resources from being made available to do this.) Or we need to make these changes in ideological structures and value systems, as well as in political and economic structures, in order to get far enough in fighting suffering, or to make it the primary aim and priority of human society to maximize well-being, happiness and fulfillment for everyone and fight suffering and injustice.
And making these ideological structural changes of values, aspirations and consciousness, as well as these political and economic structural changes, which we need to make to end causes of suffering like poverty, and to get far enough in fighting all the suffering and injustice, will again bring so many other benefits to everyone’s lives and to human society generally by definition, in terms of bringing about so much better human relationships, community and solidarity and other ways of finding happiness and fulfillment which are far more effective than those the current structuring of society mainly promotes, as well as helping us fight other causes of suffering like cancer more effectively; making these change will enable people to have complete freedom to find the most effective ways to become happy and fulfilled, and complete existential freedom for self-expression, insofar as people don’t obstruct anyone else’s freedoms to do the same. And again, the current structuring prevents people, who have enough resources to be happy and fulfilled, from being happy and fulfilled enough, due to how it diverts people from other behaviour which brings happiness and fulfillment far more effectively, like benefiting others, and finding existential and spiritual freedom with solidarity, community and action with others in ways which benefit others and don’t cause harm even instrumentally. The current structuring coerces those people, who have more resources than they need to survive, to believe the lies that in order to fight their lack of happiness and fulfillment, they need to use more time and resources primarily or only on themselves, which doesn’t bring them happiness and fulfillment as effectively as other behaviour like benefiting others, and obviously doesn’t fight suffering and injustice effectively, and possibly harms others at least instrumentally due to lack of action to fight suffering, or due to people not using these excess resources, time and energy to fight suffering when they could be used to do that; this lack of fulfillment can only be effectively fought by changing the structuring which causes it and which causes so much other suffering, and by fighting that suffering and all its causes. And uniting with all people to make it the primary aim and priority of human society to fight suffering and injustice and to maximize well-being, happiness and fulfillment for everyone is possibly a most effective way of satisfying drives for meaning and purpose, as well as drives for happiness and fulfillment.
There are obviously obscene amounts of suffering and injustice in the world, and we all have to face some pain our lives, though obviously some people have to face a lot more than others. And it’s pretty obvious that it would make things a lot easier and better for everyone if people could do more to help each other out partly by working out all the different causes of suffering, from harmful global structures and processes to harmful behavioural or character traits, and working together to eliminate them (as well as helping people get through suffering which is genuinely beyond human control), and also partly by helping each other find the most effective means of becoming happy and fulfilled, living in community and solidarity, instead of being forced into competition with each other, on so many different levels and scales, with people trying to benefit themselves by at least instrumentally or partly unintentionally harming you or others in disguised or overt ways; it could help us all a massive amount in so many ways, on top of helping humankind getting much further in fighting suffering and injustice, if people could acknowledge and act on this evidence that benefiting others is one of the most effective ways of becoming happy and fulfilled, so that people could harness drives for happiness and fulfillment to motivate themselves or ourselves to behave in these beneficial ways which help everyone maximize well-being, happiness and fulfillment for everyone or each other most effectively, and to create an environment which would enable people to eliminate behaviour and traits from their characters which cause harm or suffering to others (which people can do in the right kind of environment and if everyone helps each other to do this). It seems pretty much everyone, or everyone who’s been through any pain or suffering, knows, however deep down it is, that helping people in need, being there for each other, saving lives, and all that, is what really matters and what it’s all about really. This movement and this call for all people to unite to make it the primary aim and absolute priority of human society and everyone to maximize well-being for everyone and to fight the suffering and injustice in the most effective ways, is just an extension of all of this and these principles, as the levels of action within the current structuring to help people in need and save lives aren’t enough. And if you think it’s right to help people in need, save lives and fight suffering and injustice, hopefully you’ll agree we should go the whole way and make it the primary aim and priority of human society to do these things; if you see a small child is about to be hit by a car, or is drowning, you do whatever you can to save this child, only the decision we face now is not only whether to save just one child from drowning or from being hit by a car, but whether we save billions of people from being killed by this behaviour and structuring which causes so much suffering and injustice already, and is irreversibly destroying the ecosystems and environments that humankind can’t survive without. We’ve already run out of time to fight the suffering of so many people, and we’re rapidly running out of time to be able to prevent the even more obscene amounts of human suffering that will result from people irreversibly destroying the ecosystems which humankind can’t survive without, as the damage people are causing to the planet is causing global ecological tipping points to be crossed over already, so that very soon it will be too late for there to be ways to prevent this unstoppable increase in the amount of human suffering and injustice, which will be beyond human control; but at the moment we still possibly have some time and some chance to prevent these even worse amounts of human suffering, and it’s currently within our control to change these structures and behaviour which cause it, but only if we make it our absolute priority to fight such causes of suffering and injustice.
As there are so many different causes of suffering and injustice, and as they are so complex and diverse, we can possibly only fight them all most effectively if all people unite and mobilize together to fight them. And the underlying ideological, political and economic structural causes of all the human-induced suffering and injustice, are so engrained, far-reaching and all-encompassing that we can possibly only break free of them and change them if pretty much all of us (all people) mobilize together. And if not everyone mobilizes to make these changes to fight suffering and injustice and maximize well-being, happiness and fulfillment for everyone most effectively, then those who do will potentially just be exploited, like millions or billions of others, by the people who are still in the competitive mindset which makes them think they need to be selfish in ways which harm others to benefit themselves. Obviously we need to fully actualize our rational and reflexive potentials to find the most the effective ways of making these changes, and empirically, rationally and reflexively question, challenge and critique all ideas, information, thoughts, and all that we come across, including ourselves. If we can do this and can enter dialogues in environments which enable just beneficial behaviour and intentions, and free thought and communication, to work out together the best means to make these changes, we can arrive at solutions together and reach consensuses on how we can restructure human society to maximize well-being for everyone and fight suffering and injustice in the most effective ways, which work for everyone and enable unity and diversity; it’s not right for some people to force or impose solutions or ideas on others about the means we should use, and people need to have autonomy to find their own solutions, insofar as they don’t obstruct anyone else’s ability to find their own solutions, and the massive diversity and complexity of human situations and cultures also requires this. And we have to make sure the structuring we create encourages and ensures constant criticism, questioning and improvement of every aspect of society, including ourselves, and ensures the continued reproduction of this beneficial behaviour to maximize well-being for everyone and to fight suffering and injustice most effectively.
Pretty much everyone agrees that we need to make these changes, but people are coerced into believing the lies that these changes are impossible, or that other people don’t want to make these changes, which are some of the factors which stop people from trying to make them. So if enough people show each other that they think these changes should happen and that they want to help make them, it could help break down those lies which stop people from making these changes. In a democratic society, a way for movements or ideas to gain a voice, is for enough people to show support for them, and a way for people to show each other they think these changes should happen and that they want to help make these changes, which is gathering momentum, is for people to sign the ‘people unite’ declaration, petition and pledge, by sending their names to people@peopleunite.net; when enough people do this, hopefully as well as helping break down those lies that stop people from making these changes, it could also help open up spaces for these dialogues to happen in the mainstream of human society, for everyone to work out the best ways to make these changes to fight suffering and injustice and to maximise well-being, happiness and fulfilment for everyone in the most effective ways. It could also help facilitate the necessary mobilization of people so we can work out collectively how we can make it the priority of human society to fight suffering and injustice and to maximise well-being, happiness and fulfilment for everyone. Obviously people should also take as much action as they can to fight suffering and injustice and to maximize well-being for everyone all the time alongside this kind of thing (and so many people obviously do show such incredible kindness and take so much action to benefit others, and there are so many amazing groups of people to take action with). But as the current structuring of society forces people to spend so much time and energy doing jobs which don’t effectively benefit others or fight suffering, don’t bring happiness or fulfillment effectively for people doing them (or others), aren’t at all necessary for humankind’s survival, well-being or happiness, and do contribute to systems, processes and behaviours which cause so much suffering, this structuring does impose limits in some ways on the amount of action people can take to fight suffering and injustice within this structuring, without changing it; or it obstructs people’s full potential for kindness, and stops kindness from being applied in the ways which most effectively benefit others, fight suffering and maximize well-being for everyone. So signing this declaration, or this way of showing support for these ideas, by sending your name to people@peopleunite.net, is also signing a pledge to take as much action as possible to fight suffering and injustice and maximize well-being for everyone most effectively, so it can’t be seen as a way to shirk responsibility or as an excuse not to take action to fight suffering and injustice, but as a way to express that you wish more could be done, and know more should be done to fight suffering even when you are doing all you can within the current structuring to fight suffering and injustice, when the current structuring has forced people into a situation in which they don’t have enough time and energy to take enough action fight suffering and injustice in the most effective ways. So hopefully in these ways and others, the desire and intention which people have to do more to fight suffering, which the current structuring prevents from having enough effect, can have some effect, and won’t merely evaporate into nothing. Or even if the current structuring stops this desire and intention from having enough effect, having a record or proof of it in this way could help it have an effect in fighting the suffering and injustice in these ways and others.
Sending your name to people@peopleunite.net can also have the purpose of signing a kind of petition calling all people to unite to help make it the priority of human society to fight the suffering and injustice and to maximize well-being, happiness and fulfilment for everyone. And in calling for everyone to help make these changes, it also calls for all people who control influences on peoples’ thought, behaviour, consciousness, values and aspirations, like the media and education systems, to also fully participate in making these improvements to human society, and to prioritise motivating people to fight the suffering and injustice in the most effective ways, and getting people to see all the other benefits this action can bring to everyone’s lives (or to make it the priority for these influences under their control to be used primarily to motivate people to make it the priority of human society to fight suffering in injustice and to maximise well-being, happiness and fulfilment for everyone). It calls for them to prioritise raising awareness about all the suffering and injustice in the world, the structuring and behaviour which causes it, and what action needs to be taken to fight the suffering and injustice, and their structural and behavioural causes, in the most effective ways. It call for them to prioritise raising consciousness about all these ideas and all that would help enable all people to unite to make it the priority of human society to fight suffering and injustice and to maximise well-being, happiness and fulfilment for everyone; it calls for them to highlight to people how making these improvements to human society, which we need to make in order to fight suffering and injustices like poverty and ecocide most effectively, can bring so many other benefits to everyone’s lives, and can make life and society better for everyone, in ways like bringing about far more community, equality, freedom, solidarity, better human relationships, and other far more effective ways of becoming happy and fulfilled than are promoted mainly in the current structuring. And it calls for them to enable people who have far more resources and power than they need to survive and to be happy and fulfilled, to see that using their excess resources and power to fight suffering and injustice in the most effective ways and to make these necessary improvements to human society, would, by definition, bring them far more effective ways of becoming happy and fulfilled, than using them in the ways the do now brings them, which often, at least instrumentally causes so much suffering and injustice. So, in calling for all people to unite to make these improvements, this kind of petition also calls for people who have far more resources and power than they need to survive and become happy and fulfilled, to prioritise using their excess power and resources to fight suffering and injustice, and to maximise well-being, happiness and fulfilment for everyone in the most effective ways (partly motivating them by showing how this can benefit them more). No-one should feel threatened by this, as its purpose is to maximize well-being for everyone. Another thing that stops people with the resources and power to make these improvements, from doing so, or from using their excess resources and power to fight suffering and injustice in the most effective ways, is the lie that it wouldn’t benefit them to do so, so showing these benefits, and the far better lives that this action can bring, will hopefully help break down that other lie which stops people fighting suffering most effectively. While people are taking as much action as possible to make these improvements to human society to fight suffering and injustice in the most effective ways ourselves, in democratic process, the more people who send their names to people@peopleunite.net, the more we can demand that all other people also take as much action as possible to make it the primary aim and priority of society and everyone to fight suffering and injustice and to maximize well-being, happiness and fulfillment for everyone.
Humankind already has ways to end so many causes of suffering and injustice, and to solve so many of the world’s problems, and it’s within our potential to find ways to end all of the human-induced suffering and injustice, and to solve all the problems, if people devote their minds, and the amazing creative potential and ability which people have, to doing this. But so many of these ways of ending the suffering and injustice currently aren’t implemented, partly as people are coerced into not seeing that it would benefit them to do so; what we need all people (particularly people with excess resources and power) to generate in themselves is the will to actualize and implement these ways of ending these causes of suffering and injustice (or what we need everyone to generate in everyone is this will to actualize and implement these ways of ending these causes of suffering and injustice). And this is partly about generating that will, aspiration and motivation to make these improvements to human society to fight suffering and injustice and to maximize well-being for everyone most effectively, partly by showing people all the benefits it can bring to everyone’s lives and human society generally, but also partly by encouraging people to make changes of consciousness, values, aspirations and priorities, so people see that fighting suffering and injustice, and maximising well-being happiness and fulfilment for everyone, in the most effective ways (or making it the priority of human society to do this) is also what’s most important, as well as what can bring happiness and fulfillment to everyone most effectively. Even if this action to fight suffering and injustice in the most effective ways didn’t bring more benefit to people with more resources and power than they need to survive and to be happy and fulfilled (which by definition it does), people obviously should still do it, as people have an objective obligation (if there is any objectivity) to fight suffering and injustice, and there’s nothing more important than doing this, and any benefit to the self should only be intended to be a secondary side-effect of this action to benefit others.
What I’ve said here is obviously only a very brief summary of these ideas and of what this is about (though sorry it was as long as it was), and there’s so much more I would like to say here, as I’ve tried to edit out a lot of ideas, explanation and elaboration of what this is about, to make this shorter. But you should be able to find more of explanation and elaboration in other parts of this website, as well as answers to common questions, issues or criticisms which people raise about this kind of thing, and explanations of how this does actually address, cover, or deal with those issues. I’ve been over and over all this and all the arguments for and against this kind of action many times with charity workers, psychologists, social scientists, economists, activists and others, and have done a lot of research in these areas, but I’ve never come across any good reasons why we shouldn’t or can’t do this, or reasons which don’t rely on premises which can’t be proven, and which there is not a lot of empirical and other evidence to refute. I’m carrying on taking a lot of other action to fight suffering and injustice alongside this, doing stuff from helping look after kids in hospital to working for charities or activist groups fighting causes of suffering and injustice such as poverty, cancer and many others, so that if this doesn’t work, I’ll still be having some tangible effect in fighting suffering and injustice. But I can’t only do things like that, and can’t not also try for something like this, as I know that without trying something like this, we’ll never get far enough in fighting all the suffering and injustice. So I’m also out and about talking to people about all this a lot of the time, and asking people to show their support for this kind of thing by signing the ‘people unite’ declaration, petition and pledge, as we need as many people as possible anyway to be able to be thinking about and taking the most effective action to fight suffering and injustice, and as I’m genuinely pretty sure that something like this needs to happen if we’re to get far enough in fighting the suffering and injustice and in maximizing well-being, happiness and fulfillment for everyone. And till means of mass communication and media are doing this kind of thing, we need to be speaking to as many people as possible about this kind of thing using any means we have. And obviously pretty much everyone I speak to does show their support for this and signs this ‘people unite’ declaration, petition and pledge. Though we can possibly never be completely sure what course of action will be most effective in fighting or ending as much suffering and injustice as possible, and I’m obviously not completely sure that this is the right course of action to take, and we need to try as many different tactics and means as possible, so if you have any ideas about what action or means could or would work better or be more effective in making it the primary aim and priority of human society to fight suffering and injustice and to maximize well-being for everyone, or in getting far enough in fighting suffering and injustice, having taken into account all these ideas and arguments summarized here and on the website, please get in touch and let me know, as I only want to try and do what’s right and best or what’s most effective in fighting all the suffering and injustice in the world.
People in past generations have overcome and eliminated so many causes of injustice and suffering, which people have thought it was impossible to overcome; all this may seem impossible within the current structuring, but the only realistic course of action to take if you want to get far enough in fighting the suffering and injustice and in maximizing well-being for everyone, is to strive for movements like this which may seem impossible in the current structuring, but aren’t in reality and in other possible structurings, as it’s only the current structuring which prevents enough action to fight suffering and injustice. And we need to use means other than those predominantly made available to be used to fight suffering within that structuring, if we’re to get far enough. And again, the only thing that could ever guarantee that we can’t make these improvements to make it the primary aim and priority of human society and everyone to fight suffering and injustice and to maximize well-being, happiness and fulfillment for everyone, is if we don’t even try. And if there’s even the smallest possibility that we could ever achieve this, surely it’s worth fighting for like nothing else.
And again, until we all start taking things like this seriously, we’ll never get far enough in fighting all the suffering and injustice. All the arguments that we can’t make it the absolute priority of human society to fight the suffering and injustice and to maximize well-being, happiness and fulfilment for everyone, all rely on premises that can’t be proven, and again there is far more evidence to refute these negative arguments than there is to support them. Billions of people already need something like this to happen and are fighting for human society to go in this direction, and the lives of billions of people in future generations as well as now, depend on us doing something like this. And as well as how we need to do something like this for all these people now and in future generations, or just all people, we possibly also owe it to people who have done and given so much for the good of humankind and the world in the past, to make these improvements, to continue or complete their struggles and their work to fight suffering and injustice. We need to and can restructure human society in ways that enable all people to unite to make it the primary aim and absolute priority of human society to end the human-induced suffering and injustice (or to fight all the suffering and injustice), and to maximize well-being, happiness and fulfillment, for everyone, in the most effective ways, and it’s about time in human history that we made this happen. All the best,
peopleunite@peopleunite.net
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people unite in diversity 