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CONTENTS

Principal Endeavor of HCW

Mission  of HCW – MISSION Statement

 

Humane Civilization Worldwide
Domestic Nonprofit Corporation, Texas, 2017 November 15

CONTENTS:

Preface / Introduction

DONATIONS, Memberships,  About us – Membership 

Climate Emergency – Quality of Life

Chapter 1 – Economic Issues; Climate Change; Human Needs 
1.1 Modern Economic Institutions: A Short Historical Perspective; Two Models of Development
1.2 Human Nature and Economic Behaviors
1.3 Money: The function of money; positive money or real money versus credits
1.4 Interests and Investment Earnings
1.5 Economic Progress
1.6 Economic Units: Structure, Size and Interactions
1.7 Economic Goals, Economic Stability 

Chapter 2 – Problems of Modern Democratic Institutions & Legal Systems
2.1 Some Major Problems of Modern Cultures.
2.2 Corruption and Terrorism
2.3 Multicultural Communities
2.4 Problematic Political Institutions
2.5 Adversarial Legal Systems

Chapter 3 – Philosophical-Scientific Basis of Political Thoughts; Natural Ethics
3.1 Introductory Thoughts on Human Nature, Ethics, and Religion
3.2 Human Nature
3.3 Human Instincts and Culture; Psychiatric Problems
3.4 Global or Natural Ethics
3.5 Ethics and Political Institutions
3.6 Quality of Life; Simplicity, Comfort versus Pain, and Meaning in Life

Chapter 4 – Model Framework of Economic, Legal
4.1  Utopias Versus Realistic Model Institutions
4.2  Economic Institutions:  Money Supply and Industries. The Failure to Effectively Addressing Global Warming
4.3  System of Taxation; Minimum Basic Income; Incentives for and Limitations on Economic Activities
4.4 Social Organization
4.5 Improved Democratic Governance
4.6 Ethics, Psychology and the Legal System; Crime Prevention
4.7 International Organizations

Chapter 5 – Moving Towards the Proposed Changes

Appendix A: Poverty & Hunger in Economic Theories
Appendix B: Basic Philosophy; Inherent Conflicts & Peace – to be added
Appendix C: Development of Ethics & Religion – to be added
Appendix D : The Human Brain, Volition, Feelings and Ethics
Appendix E: Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Political articles: ecology, climate change
Greta Thunberg inspired letter to politicians, organization leaders and scientists
Comprehensive Family Planning – Abortion Issue

Abuse-addiction articles
Abuse-addiction; PTSD, vulnerability factors
Abuse-addiction: Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome (NAS)

Blog

Political

Abuse-Addiction:

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Principal Endeavor of HCW

HCW is about improving the world: Developing principles of governance and institutions that promote humane conditions and humane treatment for all.

  • For this endeavor relevant studies concern: 1. human nature, instincts and the influences of cultures and subcultures, and predispositions to psychological-psychiatric disorders; 2. effects of economic systems, and other institutions; 3. science-based ethics, that is based on universal wish for wellbeing and broad compassionate empathy without us-versus-them thinking, and that considers human nature; it is not derived from traditional-religious morals.
  • We then must create detailed, comprehensive plans that involve improving or ‘re-inventing’ most of our institutions.
  • Knowledge obliges: studying issues in detail, coming to pertinent conclusions, and then not helping by applying gained knowledge is not ethical.
  • HCW thus plans to initiate and/or participate in a worldwide movement consisting in many NGOs, other groups, scholars, and politicians that cooperate in realizing a detailed, comprehensive plan of actions, reforming/re-inventing institutions, etc.

The climate emergency, recognizing the urgency to address it in a systematic way, may motivate a broad range of actions and indirectly encourage rapid broad societal-institutional changes as advocated by HCW. The 2020 covid-19 pandemic, the worldwide responses to appalling racism and income inequality, and the audacious actions of populist and dictatorial governments should add to the recognition that broad reforms are urgently needed:

  • U.S. institutions need to start operating in crisis mode comparable to the efforts and sacrifices when preparing to enter WWII with the consequent Marshall Plan. And we should expect other highly industrialized countries to go along and the rest of the world to follow.
  • Efforts must address primarily infrastructure and civil engineering tasks, the economic system, and incentives for changes in people’s lifestyle, and secondarily education, legal and political systems, and other pubic-governmental responsibilities.
  • We also need to implement humane ways of reducing overpopulation, giving women worldwide ready access to effective birth control including abortions, and plan compassionate responses to mass migrations.

In addressing the climate emergency, we must focus on:

  • Deceptions in our media and problems with many quasi-religious politicians and ideologues who deny the problems or believe that the market will initiate necessary changes in time.
  • Propagated ‘progressive’ ideas that are not compatible: We would have to poison environments and destroy ecosystems to mine the needed minerals for all the planned electric street vehicles; we cannot cover most land with wind and solar ‘farms’ while planting billions of trees and returning much land to a natural state; without fossil fuel and increased use of nuclear energy, we would not be able to produce close to enough electricity.
  • First and foremost we need to save energy, move to mostly plant-based nutrition, and largely replace road and air transportation with trains, narrow-track light rail to high speed trains, and ships sailing at relatively low speeds to increase fuel efficiency. (With the high level of mechanization, we can afford to travel more slowly and minimize air travel.) Many small nuclear power plants may eventually solve the energy shortage.
  • While people rarely want necessary changes to be legislated, we know that, when most or all people are affected, people readily, and often proudly, adjust to meaningful changes.

Civilizations made huge progress, but the leadership of political and economic institutions failed to provide needed guidance. We must examine what prevented institutions form moving with determination and rational science-based planning directly towards worldwide peace and humane, sustainably developing civilizations.

Basis of thoughts – goals – plans:

What we have been pursuing and plan to work on further:

  • A science-based understanding of human nature, instincts, cultures. What drives humans? How does the economic system, advertisements, ready access to credit, etc. influence people? How are the human propensities to abuse-addiction behaviors activated – how can we avoid contagion? How do civilizations deal with humans’ propensities to unethical behaviors?
  • Review of much relevant scientific and historical information; efforts to think things through and develop comprehensive plans – framework models or ‘blueprints’ – for economic, social and political institutions that lead to more humane civilizations. Then do what we can to address what we recognize as seriously flawed.
    These efforts include “reinventing” institutions, sometimes “starting from scratch,” after also studying utopian movements in order to avoid their mistakes. Economic systems are probably most important. Legal, educational, health/mental health care, and other institutional tasks of societies must be reviewed and reformed. As democratic systems function poorly in most democratic countries, their weaknesses need to be studied and addressed.

It is important that plans are comprehensive and cohesive; goals must be corresponding, never interfering with or working against each other. Based on these plans, we must promote a movement with other organizations, politicians, and scholars to work towards fundamental goals:

  • Addressing the climate emergency, promoting sustainable developments. (We must accept that ethical politicians often have to compel powerful minorities or a majority to accept important goals for the common good, e.g. with climate change legislations and laws concerning possession of weapons.)
  • Avoiding wars – negotiating and mediating, following international, ethics-based laws, must replace armed conflicts. Armies must be limited to peacekeeping troops with the task to disarm illegal militias and criminal gangs, and to help in disaster relief.
  • Assuring humane conditions for all, particularly addressing the underprivileged and addressing abuse of animals.

We must rethink our economy: What is money? Who should create, own, and allocate money? How can we stop the addiction to credit, consumerism, and consequent waste? With dramatic changes in production and services: what safety net do we need? The economic system has to be reformed. While greenhouse gas production will be highly taxed and many jobs disappear, governments must promote and create new jobs to realize a different, ecologically responsible transportation infrastructure and agriculture; an improved education, health care, and legal system; etc.

The development and teaching of science-based ethics is essential: What is ethical thinking and behaving? Ethics must address a goal of humane conditions for all, with good quality of life for people and ethical consideration of animals. And ethics must consider human nature – what thinking and behaving is psychologically or humanly possible. Ethics addresses questions regarding sentience, pain and suffering, and meaning in life. Ethics is also about responses to human propensities that foster unethical versus ethical behaviors. And ethics addresses methods of teaching the understanding and applications of ethics. Ethics must be free of traditional moral-religious and ideological notions. The elusive notions of justice, equality (being born equal, equal rights), freedom or autonomy, and ‘the golden rule’ have limited meaning.

We must rethink applied ethics, what we teach children and professionals, how to keep people safe and out of prisons, how to avoid wars. How do we teach people to avoid us-versus-them thinking, to practice broad compassionate empathy, not to give in to the natural fascination with cruelties, to regularly assess leaders’ ethics when inclined to follow them, etc. How can we address abuse-addiction behaviors and other emotional problems, child neglect and abuse, and suicides that often result from indebtedness and lack of meaning in life? Ethics must address all aspects of life and politics.

Mission OF HCW  –  MISSION Statement

The mission of the organization Humane Civilization Worldwide (HCW) is to work towards humane, sustainable civilizations by creating and continuously improving blueprints or model frameworks of economic, political, and other societal institutions, and by providing relevant education. Guiding principles are sciences, an understanding of human nature, and ethics, most importantly broad compassionate empathy without us-versus-them thinking.
The organization makes efforts to involve many people and organizations who agree at least in part or in principle with the goals of HCW. Since the world’s leaders have failed to take effective steps towards halting catastrophic global warming, addressing the climate crisis has become a high priority of HCW.

Specific efforts and tasks of HCW following its Mission

The goal of the organization is to work with other organizations on creating civilizations with humane conditions and humane treatment for all people and on protecting the environment while considering all sentient beings, by:

  • Creating and continuously improving blueprints or model frameworks of economic, political, cultural and other societal institutions that are designed to realize the most ethical potentials of people in accordance with scientific insights concerning human nature and mental processes; and
  • Efforts towards broad cooperation of people and organizations that agree at least in part or in principle with the goals of this organization, to increase the impact of humanitarian organizations and to create effective movements on local and global levels that work on peaceful reforms of cultures and civilizations using humane-civilization.org pragmatically as a guide.

Specific work shall include:

  • Educational work that focuses on natural ethics, the study of broad, but hardly recognized and/or poorly understood problems of civilizations, and reform proposals that are based on these studies and the scientific understanding of human nature, as described in humane-civilization.org; education and addressed problems may include many specific areas of interest (such as public health issues, economic problems and psychiatric problems as they relate to crime and addiction prevention).
  • Developing blueprints/model frameworks for the overhaul of economic, political, cultural and other societal institutions (adaptable/applicable to civilizations of any state of development), describing them in humane-civilization.org, and continuously working on improving them.
  • Working towards broad cooperation of people and organizations that agree at least in part or in principle; outreach to other institutions, scholars, journalists, etc.
  • Supporting other charitable and/or educational organizations that work towards similar goals and possibly assisting in coordinating fundraising and optimal distribution of funds.

Description of work towards these goals includes:

  • Developing the blueprints/model frameworks for the overhaul of economic, political, cultural and other societal institutions, as outlined in the organization’s website humane-civilization.org.
    These are based on
  • Studies of existing and past economic, political, cultural and societal institutions and elucidating principle problems; also studying ethical progressive efforts in different countries, for instance in the educational and health care systems of Finland and Denmark;
  • Studies of human nature, including the expression of instincts in different cultures (anthropology, sociology, psychology; biology, ethology, psychiatry, brain research and neurosciences) and of natural ethics that is based on global ethical principles, such as the ubiquitous wish for peace, broad compassionate empathy and progress that gives our offspring a better life, while marginalizing detrimental expressions of instincts, particularly us-versus-them thinking, thoughts and actions of vengefulness, and pursuing the natural fascination with pain and cruelties.
  • These blueprints or model frameworks of economic, political, cultural and other societal institutions are to bring the best out of human nature and promote humane civilizations. The models shall be adaptable to civilizations of any state of development; they shall be continuously reviewed, improved, updated; and new ideas shall be integrated, but they must be based on the scientific understanding of human nature and natural ethics and must not include divisive religious or ideological influences.

Educational work:

  • Providing workshops, utilizing media and other means offering education to organizations, universities, politicians, leaders and any interested people regarding work and goals of the organization.
  • Main issues include natural ethics, relevant information regarding human nature and applying the scientific understanding of natural ethics and of human nature in humanitarian work, particularly in work to reform economic, political and other institutions of civilizations, using humane-civilization.org as a guide. Teachings, discussion groups and internet discussions may address special crisis issues, such as the conflict of Israel-Palestine, the general issue of cruel dictatorships and mismanaged governance in certain countries, the greenhouse gas issue as it relates to diets and forms of transportation, the addiction crisis, etc. Teaching shall be non-partisan and not connected to religious teachings except for cooperating with religious persons and organization that accept and work according to universal ethical principles.

Working towards broad cooperation of people and organizations that agree at least in part or in principle with the goals of this organization:

  • The goal is to increase the impact of humanitarian organizations and to create effective movements on local and global levels that work on peaceful reforms of cultures and civilizations, guided at least in part by humane-civilization.org. This work will, as feasible, include establishing many grassroots chapters that also offer members social and mutual support. As organizations and people who agree at least in part or in principle with the goal of creating humane civilizations worldwide start to consider themselves and be seen as parts of one movement, supporting and working on different projects within the pursuit of the same overall goal, it is expected that political and other support will dramatically increase.

With these pursuits in mind, members and Board are to make efforts promoting growth towards a global network by finding potential members among neighbors, and friends and acquaintances in distant places, connecting with other institutions, scholars and journalists, engaging leaders of appropriate NGOs and other organizations, etc.

The organization may also financially support other charitable-educational organizations that work towards similar goals and may assist in coordinating fundraising and optimal distribution of funds.

 

 

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