As the idea of ‘helping people’ (or the term ‘HELP…’) is used in the context of this ‘people unite’ declaration, petition and pledge, including on this site, and as the idea of ‘helping people’ (or the term ‘help’) has been and is misused or distorted (in many historical and contemporary situations) alongside behaviours which have at least instrumentally caused and perpetuated (and still at least instrumentally cause and perpetuate) more suffering and injustice than it’s possible to describe sufficiently or adequately here, it could be important to elaborate or clarify how the idea of ‘helping people’ (or the term ‘HELP…’) is being used or defined in the context of this ‘people unite’ declaration, petition and pledge, including on this site, or what the idea of ‘helping people’ (or the term ‘HELP…’) is intended to mean in the context of this ‘people unite’ declaration, petition and pledge, including on this site, and what it absolutely does not mean in this context.  The text on this page doesn’t give explanation of the reasons for this ‘people unite’ declaration, petition and pledge, or explanation of reasons why this ‘people unite’ declaration, petition and pledge could be useful for efforts to overcome and eliminate or 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…), and for explanation of some of those reasons, please go to the ‘home’ page and the pages titled ‘some more explanation’ and ‘is this too vague?’ on this site (by clicking on those buttons in the top-right corner of the pages on this site).

        Many situations where the idea of ‘helping people’ (or the term ‘help’) has been and is distorted and misused are obviously far too complex to go into in sufficient detail here, so that the following descriptions of situations can only be thought of as massively simplified analogies for some situations like those (where the idea of ‘helping people’ (or the term ‘help’) has been and is distorted and misused), and though these analogies obviously don’t cover all the necessary issues, they hopefully point towards examples of some issues around how the idea of ‘helping people’ (or the term ‘help’) has been and is distorted and misused, and hopefully at least some of those issues will be made clear enough. 

One aspect of an example of a way in which certain groups have misused or distorted (and still do misuse and distort) the idea of ‘helping people’ (or the term ‘help’), is in how those certain groups have wrongly defined that particular societies, civilisations or communities are inferior to them, and have wrongly defined that those societies, civilisations or communities are therefore in need of their ‘help’ (or in how those certain groups have wrongly defined that those societies, civilisations or communities are in need of their ‘help’ because (they’ve wrongly defined that) those societies, civilisations or communities are inferior to them); those certain groups have wrongly defined that they are capable of ‘helping’ those societies, civilisations or communities because (they’ve wrongly defined that) they are superior to those societies, civilisations or communities.  Those societies, civilisations or communities (who from here on will mainly just be referred to in this as ‘those civilisations’) have faced, endured, fought and survived so much more suffering and injustice than it’s possible to describe accurately or adequately here, which has been forced on them for many generations, and is still being forced on them, by groups outside of those civilisations.  Those civilisations are obviously totally capable of living and behaving in ways which effectively fight suffering and injustice they face, or which effectively benefit everyone in those civilisations (without even instrumentally causing any suffering and injustice to any people outside those civilisations), and of organising flourishing societies/civilisations/communities, etc, if those groups outside of those civilisations stop causing suffering and injustice to them, or if, for example, those groups outside of those civilisations stop taking away their self-determination and autonomy (self-determination and autonomy insofar as no one even instrumentally obstructs anyone else’s self-determination and autonomy), and stop denying them access to the land and resources they need in order to effectively fight suffering and injustice they face or effectively benefit everyone in those civilisations (without causing any harm to any people outside those civilisations), and organise flourishing societies/civilisations/communities, etc; and those civilisations would obviously have been able to do all of that previously or all along if those people outside of those civilisations were to have not caused that suffering and injustice to them in the first place.  Those civilisations obviously aren’t inferior to those groups outside of those civilisations, and obviously don’t need that ‘help’ which those certain groups outside of those civilisations wrongly believe that they need.

But people outside of those civilisations still wrongly believe (or wrongly define) that those civilisations are incapable of living and behaving in ways which effectively fight suffering and injustice they face, or which effectively benefit everyone in those civilisations, and wrongly define that that is the reason why those civilisations have faced and continue to face the suffering and injustice they have faced and continue to face (which in reality has been and still is forced on them by groups outside of those civilisations).

Linked with how those groups wrongly define that those civilisations are inferior to them and therefore need their help, another aspect of that example of how those certain groups have misused or distorted the idea of ‘helping people’ (or the term ‘help’), is partly in how they have wrongly defined that those civilisations are in need of their ‘help’ because they’ve wrongly defined that those civilisations’ ways of living and behaving are inferior to their ways of living and behaving; those groups outside of those civilisations (obviously wrongly) still believe those civilisations need other people to show or teach them how to live and behave in ways which effectively fight suffering and injustice they face, or which effectively benefit everyone in those civilisations, etc.  The ways in which those groups outside those civilisations live and behave don’t even effectively fighting all the suffering and injustice in their own societies, and at least instrumentally cause suffering and injustice to people in their own societies, as well as at least instrumentally causing so much suffering and injustice to people in other societies, civilisations and communities; but those groups outside of those civilisations (obviously wrongly) believe that in order for those civilisations to be able to effectively fight the suffering and injustice they face, they need to be ‘taught’ or shown how to live and behave (and organise or structure societies, etc) in the ways that those people outside of those civilisations live, behave, and organise or structure their societies, etc; and when those people outside of those societies/groups do try and ‘teach’ or show those civilisations how to live and behave (and organise or structure societies, etc) in the ways that those people outside of those civilisations live and behave (and organise or structure their societies, etc), they misuse the term ‘help’ by referring to that ‘teaching’ (of those behaviours, and structures of systems) as ‘helping’.  And that’s aside from how that ‘teaching’ or imposing of the ways in which those groups outside of those civilisations live and behave (and organise or structure societies) also has caused and causes (at least instrumentally) far more suffering and injustice than can be accurately or adequately described here.

And other linked aspects of examples of ways in which certain groups in certain situations have misused or distorted the idea of ‘helping people’, or the term ‘help’ (which can obviously feed into aspects of the examples mentioned above) include:

   – when certain groups happen to be capable of giving or offering to other people something which they wrongly refer to as ‘help’, those certain groups wrongly define that that in itself means that they are superior to those other people (or when those certain groups wrongly define that other people are in need of something which those certain groups wrongly refer to as ‘help’, those certain groups wrongly define that those other people are inferior to them because they are (wrongly defined to be) in need of that ‘help’);

   – when certain groups wrongly define that any people who happen to be capable of giving or offering ‘help’ (or what they wrongly refer to as ‘help’) to any other people, are superior to the other people who could be given that ‘help’ or who those certain groups wrongly define to be in need of what they ‘refer’ to as help, and so on;

   – when certain groups wrongly define that, if any people indicate they are in need of ‘help’, if any people are defined to be in need of ‘help’ (or what they refer to as ‘help’), or if any people are being given ‘help’, those people are inferior to any people who do not indicate they are in need of ‘help’, any people who are defined to not be in need of ‘help’ (or what they refer to as ‘help’), or any people who are not being given ‘help’ (or when certain groups wrongly define that any people who don’t indicate they’re in need of ‘help’, any people who are defined to not be in need of ‘help’ (or what they refer to as ‘help’), or any people who are not being given ‘help’, are superior to any people who indicate they are in need of ‘help’, any people defined to be in need of help (or what they refer to as ‘help’), or any people who’re being given help), and so on;

   – when certain groups have encountered people behaving in ways which those certain groups don’t understand, and those certain groups wrongly define that those people behave in those ways because (those certain groups wrongly define that) those people aren’t capable on their own of behaving in ways which those certain groups understand (which obviously aren’t superior to the ways in which those people are behaving), or because (those certain groups wrongly define that) those people are inferior to those certain groups, and those certain groups wrongly define that those people therefore need to be taught how to behave in ways those certain groups understand, or therefore need their ‘help’, and so on.

Again, those descriptions of situations are obviously so massively simplified that they can only be thought of as analogies for some situations where the idea of ‘helping people’ (or the term ‘help’) has been and is distorted and misused, and though again those analogies obviously don’t cover all the necessary issues, they hopefully to point towards examples of some issues around how the idea of ‘helping people’ (or the term ‘help’) has been and is distorted and misused, and hopefully at least some of those issues have been made clear enough.  And the ways in which the idea of ‘helping people’ or (or the term ‘help’) is used (or misused) in those analogies or examples above, are ABSOLUTELY NOT how the idea of ‘helping people’ (or the term ‘HELP…’) is used in the context of this ‘people unite’ declaration, petition and pledge, including on this site.  Or, what the term ‘help’ is used (or misused) to mean in those examples or analogies, is ABSOLUTELY NOT what the term ‘HELP…’ means when it’s used in the context of this ‘people unite’ declaration, petition and pledge.

The way in which the idea of ‘helping people’ (or the term ‘HELP…’) is used or defined in the context of this ‘people unite’ declaration, petition and pledge (including on this site), means that only maximising benefit for people in ways which can be empirically and rationally verified (as far as possible) to be the most effective ways (or behaving/acting in ways which maximise benefit for people in those most effective ways) can be referred to as ‘helping people’ (according to how the idea of ‘helping people’ (or the term ‘HELP…’) is defined in the context of this ‘people unite’ declaration, petition and pledge); if people are behaving/acting in ways which don’t maximise benefit for people in those most effective ways, then the ways they are behaving/acting cannot be referred to as ‘helping [those] people’ (according to how the idea of ‘helping people’ (or the term ‘HELP…’) is defined or used in the context of this ‘people unite’ declaration, petition and pledge); if people are even instrumentally causing any suffering and injustice by behaving in ways which they refer to as ‘helping people’ then they cannot be referred to as ‘helping people’ according to how the idea of ‘helping people’ (or the term ‘HELP…’) is used or defined in the context of this ‘people unite’ declaration, petition and pledge; when the idea of ‘helping people’ (or the term ‘HELP…’) is used in the context of this ‘people unite’ declaration, petition and pledge, it can be defined as taking the amounts and kinds of action which can be empirically and rationally verified (as far as possible) to be necessary in order to fight suffering and injustice (which people face) and maximise well-being, happiness and fulfilment (or benefit) for people in those most effective ways (as much as it can be verified like that to be potentially possible…), or finding and implementing those most effective ways of doing all of that…; and for those ways of doing all of that to be the most effective ways of doing all of that, those ways can’t even instrumentally cause any suffering and injustice to anyone else, insofar as no one else even instrumentally causes any suffering and injustice to anyone else, and so on; only maximising benefit for people (in those most effective ways) without benefiting any person, people or group(s) at the expense of any other person, people or groups (including themselves/ourselves), insofar as no one even instrumentally causes suffering and injustice to anyone else (and so on), can be referred to as ‘helping people’, according to how the idea of ‘helping people’ (or the term ‘HELP…’) is defined in the context of this ‘people unite’ declaration, petition and pledge; so when the idea of ‘helping people’ (or the term ‘HELP…’) is used in the context of this ‘people unite’ declaration, petition and pledge, it can also be defined as (or its definition can also include) taking the amounts and kinds of action which can be empirically and rationally verified (as far as possible) to be necessary in order to fight all the different causes of suffering and injustice and maximise well-being, happiness and fulfilment (or benefit) for everyone in those most effective ways (as much as can be verified like that to be potentially possible…), or finding and implementing those most effective ways of doing all of that… (or making it the priority of human society to do all of that…).

In the way in which the idea of ‘helping people’ (or the term ‘HELP…’) is used or defined in the context of this ‘people unite’ declaration, petition and pledge (including on this site), there is absolutely no hierarchy necessarily implied between people who happen to be helping others (or happen to be capable of helping others), and people who happen to be being helped, or people who happen to be in need of help (according to how the idea of ‘helping people’ or the term ‘HELP’ is defined in the context of this ‘people unite’ declaration, petition and pledge, as outline above).  The way in which the term ‘HELP…’ is used in the context of this ‘people unite’ declaration, petition and pledge is partly based on the idea that possibly all people, obviously to very different extents, face suffering and injustice in some forms (and absolutely no hierarchy necessarily exists between people who face different amounts of suffering and injustice).  And for many reasons*, and as so much evidence shows*, the most effective ways for all people to overcome and eliminate or fight the suffering and injustice which they/we themselves/ourselves face and to maximise benefit for themselves/ourselves, can be for all people to unite in diversity to collectively fight all the different causes of suffering and injustice in the world and maximise benefit for everyone or each other in those most effective ways*.  And so the way in which the term ‘HELP…’ is used in the context of this ‘people unite’ declaration, petition and pledge is partly based on the idea that possibly all people, to different extents, are (according to how the idea of ‘helping people’ or the term ‘HELP’ is defined in the context of this ‘people unite’ declaration, petition and pledge, as outline above) therefore in need of help in some form (and absolutely no hierarchy necessarily exists between people who need different amounts of help).  Linked with all that, the way in which the term ‘HELP…’ is used or defined in the context of this ‘people unite’ declaration, petition and pledge is also partly based on the idea that the most effective ways for all people to maximise well-being, happiness and fulfilment for themselves/ourselves can be more all people to live and behave in ways which consist in benefiting or ‘helping’ (according to how the term ‘HELP…’ is defined in the context of this ‘people unite’ declaration, petition and pledge, as outlined above) other people, or each other, as much as is potentially possible in those most effective ways (without benefiting any person, people or group(s) at the expense of any other person, people or group/groups (including themselves/ourselves), insofar as no one causes any suffering and injustice to others even instrumentally, and so on), and forming the best human relationships, community and solidarity potentially possible (in harmony as far as possible with the natural world (or the rest of it) as well as each other), or in uniting in diversity to (collectively) do as much as is potentially possible to collectively eliminate or fight (all the different causes of) the suffering and injustice in the world and maximise benefit for everyone or each other… in those most effective ways (so that all people can potentially harness or channel their/our drives for well-being, happiness and fulfilment to motivate themselves/ourselves to do all of that or to unite in diversity to collectively take the amounts and kinds of action which it’s (or which it can be empirically and rationally verified (as far as possible) to be) necessary for humankind to collectively take in order for humankind to collectively fight all the different causes of suffering and injustice in the world and maximise benefit for everyone or each other in the most effective ways, as much as is potentially possible… (and make all of that the priority of human society…), taking into account that in order for benefit to be maximised for everyone in the most effective ways, people’s primary intention in benefiting other people possibly can’t be to benefit themselves/ourselves, but possibly always needs to be to benefit other people in the most effective ways, with any benefit to themselves/ourselves only being intended to be a secondary by-product).  So the way in which the idea of ‘helping people’ (or the term ‘HELP…’) is defined in the context of this ‘people unite’ declaration, petition and pledge is partly based on the idea that it’s most beneficial for all people to be mutually benefiting or ‘helping’ each other (according to how the idea of helping people (or the term ‘HELP…’) is defined in the context of this ‘people unite’ declaration, petition and pledge, as outlined above) as much as is potentially possible in those most effective ways, without there necessarily being any hierarchy between people; and doing all of that obviously can also constitute forming the best human relationships, community and solidarity potentially possible in those most effective ways. 

The way in which the idea of ‘helping people’ (or the term ‘HELP…’) is used or defined in the context of this ‘people unite’ declaration, petition and pledge (including on this site) is also partly based on the idea that, partly because of the massive diversity of different contexts and cultures in human society, in order for humankind to be able to overcome and eliminate or fight all the different causes of suffering and injustice in the world and maximise benefit for everyone in those most effective ways…, humankind needs to ensure (in those most effective ways) that all people have self-determination and autonomy insofar as no one obstructs anyone else’s self-determination and autonomy*.  In the text of the ‘people unite’ declaration, petition and pledge, some phrases or clauses in the later parts of some sentences which are written out in full near the beginning of the text, are replaced with ellipses in other sentences further on in the text (so that not so much more text is repeated); and following on from what’s mentioned just above, if the text of the ‘people unite’ declaration, petition and pledge is extended fully to include those parts of sentences which are later omitted and replaced with ellipses, that text (of the ‘people unite’ declaration, petition and pledge) includes the idea that the most effective ways for all people to maximise well-being, happiness and fulfilment for themselves/ourselves can be for all people to live and behave in ways which consist in uniting in diversity to collectively take the amounts and kinds of action which it can be verified (as described above) to be necessary for humankind to take in order for humankind to collectively ensure (in those most effective ways) that all people have self-determination and autonomy insofar as no one even instrumentally obstructs anyone else’s self-determination and autonomy…, as well as (or together with) uniting in diversity to collectively take the amounts and kinds of action which it can be verified (as described above) to be necessary for humankind to collectively take in order for humankind to collectively fight all the different causes of suffering and injustice in the world and maximise benefit for everyone or each other in the most effective ways, as much as is potentially possible…; the way in which the term ‘HELP…’ is used in the context of this ‘people unite’ declaration, petition and pledge is partly based on the idea that possibly all people, obviously to very different extents, face obstructions (of some form) to their/our self-determination and autonomy (self-determination and autonomy insofar as no one obstructs anyone else’s self-determination and autonomy), or to their/our self-determination and autonomy to find and implement those most effective ways to maximise benefit for everyone (including themselves/ourselves) and fight all the different causes of suffering and injustice, in their/our own contexts, insofar as no one even instrumentally obstructs anyone else’s autonomy to do the same, and insofar as all people are also uniting in diversity globally to collectively take the amounts and kinds of action which can be verified (as described above) to be necessary in order for humankind to collectively find and implement those most effective ways to collectively fight all the different causes of suffering and injustice in the world and maximize benefit for everyone or each other globally…, or to collectively make all of that the priority of human society… (acknowledging and acting on how, by definition, in order for ways of doing all of that… to be those most effective ways of doing all of that… in any contexts, those ways need to be ones which don’t cause any suffering and injustice to any other person, people or group(s) even instrumentally (or which don’t obstruct anyone else, even instrumentally, from living and behaving in ways that consist in maximizing benefit for everyone or each other, including themselves/ourselves, in those most effective ways…), insofar as no one (else) even instrumentally causes any suffering and injustice to anyone else, & so on).  And again for many reasons*, and again as so much evidence shows*, the most effective ways for all people to ensure they/we themselves/ourselves have self-determination and autonomy (self-determination and autonomy insofar as no one obstructs anyone else’s self-determination and autonomy)…, can be for all people to unite in diversity to collectively ensure (in those most effective ways) that all people (or each other) have self-determination and autonomy (self-determination and autonomy insofar as no one obstructs anyone else’s self-determination and autonomy)… .  And so the way in which the term ‘HELP…’ is used in the context of this ‘people unite’ declaration, petition and pledge is again partly based on the idea that again possibly all people, to different extents, are (according to how the idea of ‘helping people’ or the term ‘HELP’ is defined in the context of this ‘people unite’ declaration, petition and pledge, as outline above) therefore in need of help in some form to ensure (in those most effective ways) that they/we themselves/ourselves have self-determination and autonomy (self-determination and autonomy insofar as no one obstructs anyone else’s self-determination and autonomy)…; and again absolutely no hierarchy necessarily exists between people who need different amounts of help for that.  And other ways of articulating parts of what’s written above in this paragraph would be to say that:

   – possibly all people, obviously to very different extents, face obstructions (of some form) to their/our liberation;

   – again for many reasons* (and again as so much evidence shows*), the most effective ways for all people to bring liberation for themselves/ourselves, can be for all people to unite in diversity to collectively bring (in those most effective ways) liberation for all other people (or each other);

   – possibly all people, to different extents, are (according to how the idea of ‘helping people’ or the term ‘HELP’ is defined in the context of this ‘people unite’ declaration, petition and pledge, as outline above) therefore in need of help in some form to bring (in those most effective ways) liberation for themselves/ourselves (and again absolutely no hierarchy necessarily exists between people who need different amounts of help for that).

So that (and many people will obviously be familiar with the ideas which are being referenced here, or a specific quotation that’s being referenced here) if the most effective ways for people to maximise benefit for other people, each other or everyone (including themselves/ourselves) and fight all the different causes of suffering and injustice in any contexts, are for people to work together with everyone else (in those contexts) to mutually or collectively bring liberation for each other (because everyone’s liberation is bound up with each other’s or everyone else’s in those contexts), then when it’s applied to those contexts, ‘working together with everyone else to mutually or collectively bring liberation for each other’ is what the term ‘HELP…’ means in the way it’s used or defined in the context of this ‘people unite’ declaration, petition and pledge. 

There obviously might be many other aspects to situations like those in those analogies which make it harmful to use the term ‘help’, and if there are, please get in touch to say what they are; after taking into account all of what’s written on this page, it obviously still might be harmful to use the term ‘help’ in the context of this ‘people unite’ declaration, petition and pledge, or there obviously might be other reasons why it’s harmful to use the term ‘help’ in this context, and obviously please get in touch to say if it is still harmful and what those reasons are, addressing what’s written on this page, but please also suggest other terms which it would be more beneficial to use; obviously terms like ‘assist’ and ‘support’ have been considered for this, but terms like those possibly don’t have certain beneficial characteristics (in certain contexts) which the term ‘help’ has, and obviously pretty much all the reasons why the term ‘help’ can be harmful in certain situations (like those mentioned on this page) can also be applied to those terms too. And there obviously may be many other reasons why using the term ‘help’ could be harmful or could cause suffering and injustice in certain situations, but the purpose of this ‘people unite’ declaration, petition and pledge is obviously to overcome and eliminate or fight all the different causes of suffering and injustice in the world and maximise benefit for everyone in the most effective ways, so if using the term ‘help’ does cause any suffering and injustice in any situations, part of the purpose of this ‘people unite’ declaration, petition and pledge would obviously be to eliminate that specific cause of suffering and injustice in the most effective ways too; and for various reasons the most effective ways of eliminating that specific cause of suffering and injustice may not be to simply never use the term ‘help’ at all in any situations (or to stop using it completely in any situations), but possibly could involve:

   – primarily overcoming and eliminating (in ways which can be empirically and rationally verified (as far as possible) to be the most effective ways) all the behaviours wrongly referred to as ‘help’ or ‘helping’ which even instrumentally cause suffering and injustice (alongside overcoming and eliminating all other behaviours which even instrumentally cause suffering and injustice);

   – ensuring (in those most effective ways) that people are aware of the necessary issues (like those raised on this page) about how the term ‘help’ has been, is, and can be used/misused in harmful ways or misused to refer to behaviours which are harmful, so that again people can ensure (in those most effective ways) that no one behaves in those harmful ways (or any even instrumentally harmful ways) at all, and can ensure (in those most effective ways) that the term ‘help’ isn’t used/misused in any (even instrumentally) harmful ways or isn’t misused to refer to any behaviours which even instrumentally cause suffering and injustice.

As well as being used/misused in harmful ways like those mentioned earlier on this page, possibly the term ‘help’ also has been, is and can be used in very beneficial ways, and it could still potentially be quite a useful and beneficial term for various reasons in many contexts, if it’s used or defined in ways like the ways in which it’s used or defined in the context of this ‘people unite’ declaration, petition and pledge (like in the ways outlined in other sections of the text above, like, for example, if it’s used or defined as maximising benefit for people in ways which can be empirically and rationally verified (as far as possible) to be the most effective ways, or taking the amounts and kinds of action which can be verified (as described above) to be necessary in order to fight suffering and injustice (which people face) in the world and maximise well-being, happiness and fulfilment (or benefit) for people in those most effective ways, as much as it can be verified like that to be potentially possible… (or finding and implementing those most effective ways of doing all of that…), without even instrumentally causing any suffering and injustice to anyone else, insofar as no one else even instrumentally causes any suffering and injustice to anyone else, & so on, and working together to collectively do all of that for each other…).  

* Again the text on this page doesn’t give explanation of the reasons for this ‘people unite’ declaration, petition and pledge, or explanation of reasons why this ‘people unite’ declaration, petition and pledge could be useful for efforts to overcome and eliminate or 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…), and for explanation of some of those reasons, please go to the ‘home’ page and the pages titled ‘some more explanation’ and ‘is this too vague?’ on this site (by clicking on those buttons in the top-right corner of the pages on this site). 

Thank you very much.

All the very best,

peopleunite@peopleunite.net

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