Forum Post: A Sincere Proposal

(This post is inspired by some ideas I have been thinking about for a while and The Free World Charter. For those who haven't heard of it, follow this link: http://www.freeworldcharter.org/en/charter

I have a big proposal to offer. I've been thinking about it for a while and it is founded on a few principles. Here they are.

1. Human beings should have equal rights and equal power in determining all their decisions. That is true democracy. No representative. A democracy built on the people as government, making informed decisions about their society.

2. Human beings should have equal access to all the resources on the planet. No one should own what is the right of all creatures to possess. Meaning: everything should be free and people should work together to build abundance so that all people can have what they need.

My question is: how could something like that be possible?

What I am proposing is that we come together as people who desire social change, to discuss this, and find a way to make it happen in our world today. What I am thinking about is just small spaces where these principles can be true. These principles are not new and I didn't make them up. They have been a part of the collective consciousness for centuries.

I believe that revolution should not just be protesting, but creating alternatives for the world to see, creating and exploring daring alternatives to our collective future. Could we build something better? That is what I would like to find out and I am hoping that there are people out there like me, who would love to explore a new form of protest, creating spaces for ourselves where our ideals can be true as a way to show the world it can be done.

This is not a simple process but I believe that as people who seek equality, who want to see a world where people have autonomy and the power to build their own destinies free of the corrupt hierarchical struggle that has plagued society for so long, it is something that we need to do, something we need to pursue if we truly want our world to be better.

But we must also overcome the myth of failure. In fact, we must expect and embrace failure as the part of the process towards what we want, towards understanding and learning what could work.

I am not proposing entire cities where this is true, only small communities, where gift economy and resource-based economy is practiced and social spaces that conduct themselves with pure democracy as their goal. A system that doesn't ask permission to be the way it is, simply deciding to conduct itself in accordance to their own highest principles. Occupation of our own neighborhood and communities which may someday lead to a large movement and a large shift in social consciousness towards self-sustainability, resourcefulness and pride that doesn't come from a hierarchical system but from a system of equals.

We can do this but we can be afraid to fail. We must bold enough to try again if we do fail, if the communities we build don't meet our expectations. Trial and error is the practice in all fields of study. Social change should not be any different.

How we can bring about change today Here are some suggestions that I believe would be valuable for the work we are doing today.

1. Start a movement of doing. We need to test our ideas out on a smaller scale. We need to move from the idealistic to the practical, find real solutions to real problems, leaving the arena of the general and getting very specific. And we need to test these specifications on a small scale. We could create schools that are self-sustaining and free. We could create little pockets on the planet of sustainability where everything functions under a democracy without a leader and everyone works together to make decisions. We need to create real spaces where our ideals hold true, so that they can be tested and potential problems can be worked out through creativity and innovation.

2. We need to make this process open-sourced. Let us not put the whole burden on a few people. Let’s represent our ideals through the act of doing. Let everyone get involved in the creation of this space. Thousands of people working together, sharing ideas openly without ego, finding solutions to difficult problems: that is how we can create change today. By the thousands people can come together and actually build these spaces where our goals hold true, not afraid of failure, and aware of the potential pitfalls of ego and leader worship.

3. Contact all the people working on this individually and create a world-wide web of collaboration. There are people all over the world that are doing specific things in specific areas that would be valuable to change globally and we need to tap into that potentiality. We need to invite people with knowledge and expertise into the movement to come up with real solutions to the many problems we may face.

4. Create documentaries of the process that you can share on youtube. Let’s not limit it to one camera crew. Through sharing files we could have thousands of people sharing their short videos, editing them together in order to create a collaborative documentary filled with videos of work being done by hundreds of people. We could exchange files through email and build an assortment of videos from all over the world, creating one of the largest media collaborative campaigns in the world.

5. Create a space to discuss and coordinate movements. Facebook and youtube won’t be enough. Forums are great but we need something that can be plugged into in real time, where people can flow in and out of the conversation. Chatrooms are a very valuable tool for this. There is a site that I personally know called stickam.com that has chatrooms that can hold 12 people on cam and hundreds of people in the room at the same time. This would be an excellent resource that people can use to plug in and discuss ideas at any time, speeding up the progress and the sharing of ideas. (A chat like the one on this site can also be immensely useful for this)

Even with all of this, change will take time. But it is important to try and I believe we should try, unafraid of failure, mindful of our shortcomings and potential pitfalls. An open and honest discussion of change that ends with real tangible work: that is what I am proposing. If you believe as I believe please continue this discussion on this forum or email me at buildaworldinnitiative@gmail.com