Manifesto

Manifesto for a Better World

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1.0 Health and Wellbeing

 

1.1. Our individual and collective health and wellbeing and that of the planet must be a starting point for all policy decisions

1.2 Modern medicine has greatly helped us to better understand and avoid the kind of acute issues that previously burdened humans such as hunger, poor sanitation, injuries and infectious diseases and most people now live lives relatively free from these dangers. But living in increasingly man-made environments has exposed us to increasingly man-made physical, biochemical and mental stresses that accumulate in our bodies and minds until they exceed our personal endurance thresholds and emerge as chronic diseases. Our man-made lifestyles are now increasingly found to be the main cause of most chronic illnesses such as many cancers, heart disease, stroke, type II diabetes, overweight, mental health issues and chronic pain, once more weakening our ability to withstand acute physical, mental and infectious challenges.

1.3 Whilst modern medicine has done wonders to avoid and remedy the acute ravages of nature, it has done little to address the man-made lifestyle stresses that tend to lead to chronic problems. Instead it has focussed mainly on managing the symptoms with pharmaceuticals and other interventions in order to help people better live with their problems, rather than undo the causes of them. This policy of treating symptoms rather than eradicating the causes has led to a huge and influential medical industry which profits from people being unwell rather than well, one that is hugely expensive to governments and people and one that people are increasingly becoming dependent upon. An enlightened policy on healthcare would seek to identify and eliminate the lifestyle stresses that lead to chronic diseases as both a treatment and a cure, so that medical dependency and its vast cost can be reduced and retained only as a last resort.

1.4 All animals have an indiginous diet that they have evolved with and are therefore best suited to and humans are no different. Foods we are not well adapted to will create biological stresses, which over time will inevitably lead to chronic diseases. There is growing evidence that many manufactured and especially ultra high processed foods and drinks significantly contribute to a raft of debilitating chronic illnesses that burden not only the individual but also the society that has to pick up their medical and social care costs. Whilst people should have the freedom to choose the foods they want, government policy should be aimed primarily at educating people about the personal cost of regularly consuming such foods and drinks and it should tax these products at high enough rates to make them significantly more expensive than healthier choices and use the taxes to cover the potential healthcare and public information costs that they indirectly impose on society.

1.5 Chronic physical pain is fast becoming another world epidemic, especially in developed countries. Persistent muscle contractions caused by increasing physical, biological and mental stresses create biomechanical inefficiencies and compression of organs, blood vessels and other delicate tissues leading to widespread inflammation and accelerated degeneration. Modern 'screen-orientated' lifestyles are becoming increasingly sedentary and add to postural problems that compound the issue. Doctors and physical therapists have little understanding of these root causes and instead mostly treat the symptoms once the syndrome is already well established. Early recognition of muscle contraction patterns and the gradual removal of the worst stresses is the only viable long term solution. Whilst exercise is a useful antidote to some sedentary lifestyles, it does little to undo the underlying muscle contraction issues and load further stresses on an already compromised body. Only understanding, addressing and removing the physical, biological and mental causes will slow the epidemic.

1.6 A significant rise in chronic mental stress is another massive worldwide problem. Whilst there are pockets of valuable research in this field, little is understood about its root causes. However, there is a growing acknowledgement that mental stress starts with 'pesistent fear' of a wide range of things and can become more insidious when a person feels 'trapped' by the source of these fears. Fear in its various guises is a powerful tool increasingly used by authorities and more subtly by companies to manipulate people's behaviour. A progressive government interested in the wellebing of its citizens, would seek to reduce the most obvious causes of fear, unfairness and threats to people's autonomy, such as loss of civil liberties, surveylance, coercive advertising, inequlity of incomes and the growing anxiety due to the nature of social media platforms.

1.7 Pregnancy, birthing and bringing up small children should happen in as natural a way as possible. Increasing medicalisation of this important time may have brought safe-guards, but it has also made it a more impersonal and stressful experience for parents and children alike. Having local pregnancy, birthing and childcare centres removed from hospital or clinical environments, operated locally and promoting more natural methods should be at the centre of every community.

1.8 The scientific field of meta-awareness, borrowed from practices found in nearly all pre-industrial cultures, suggests that people in the modern world are increasingly becoming dominated by persistent thoughts created by their cognitive mind and have increasingly lost touch with ways to step back from those thoughts and see the wider context. The main outcome of this is to be predominantly concerned with the self and not to be able to genuinely empathise with others or see the bigger picture. This growth of 'selfishness' has wide implications for society as it reduces creativity, innovation and collective activity and leads to more entrenched, narrow views and disputes. A progressive government interested in the diversity and development of its collective culture, would seek to talk about and promote the rediscovery of more meta-awareness.

1.9 Shelter is a basic human requirement, which for most people means a home that is familiar, safe, sufficiently comfortable and sustainable. The more secure and self-sufficient a person is in their home, the more stable and fruitful their life is likely to be. At the most fundamental level most developed countries already have the land and buildings they need to allow all their citizens to be housed comfortably. The threat hanging over most home owners is their inability to own their land and property, and be able to continue to pay for and maintain it. But technology is making self-building, self-maintaining and self-sufficiency an increasingly more achievable goal for everyone. A progressive government would seek to give all its citizens the rights, tools and skills needed to own a home (including its land) without mortgage and be progressively more self-sufficient in generating its own local energy, food and communal services. This would require an overhaul in our attitude towards land ownership, tenancy, centralised services and the vested interests that benefit from the current system.

1.10 People's right to control who and what comes into their own home and what they put into their own body is a basic requirement for autonomy. 

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2.0 Environment & Transport

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2.1 There is widespread acknowledgement that current human methods of living are fast destroying the ecosystem that is essential to biodiversity and a sustainable planet. Rapid depletion of species and habitats and man-made pollution of the environment shows little sign of stopping. It is already a disaster for many species and habitats and will almost certainly soon be a disaster for humans too.

2.2 Despite already acknowleding the plight we are in, we are clearly failing to adequately address the situation. However, this is not down to a lack of information, ideas or potential solutions, but a failure of world governments to be willing to look beyond the vested interests that benefit from the current economic system and redesign it for the benefit of the planet, nature and its own citizens. If a sufficiently radical overhaul of the way we live is not possible through current political institutions, then new political parties must emerge with a mandate to overhaul the current 'company first' approach and replace it with a 'planet and people first' one instead. People must then find the courage to vote for it, putting aside their own fears about change and the fears that vested interests will bombard them with as soon as any change to the status quo looks likely.

2.3 Industrial farming may suit our current economic model, but a decentralisation of farming and more biodiverse farming methods are likely to be necessary if we are to move towards heathier foods and a more sustainable planet. A progressive government should encourage local communities to be self sufficient in food production and encourage a local emphasis on producing food and whole communities looking after their own local environment in a sustainable and biodiverse way. With people increasingly able to work from home, cities could be reduced in size to encourage people to live nearer to nature and their sources of food.

2.4 Autonomous communities which produce their own food, energy and local services would strengthen social cohesion. The understanding and technology needed to do this already exists and should be seen as a progessive social development. This would greatly decrease people's reliance on big businesses and centralised government.

2.5 Technologies that can start to undo the destruction humans have reeped on the land and oceans is emerging and a duty to restore the damage we have created to the ecosystem should be at the forefront of any government policy and also on local community agendas. This reversal might include greatly reducing reliance on mass produced meat, fish and crops and concentrating instead on sustainable local production.

2.6 A revolution in transport is coming. The phasing out of combustion engines and the introduction of autonomous driving will change who can 'drive' and what we get around in and the decentralisation of working and the services we need will change what we need transport for. A new policy to encourage local 'pooled' transportation and gradually downscale the road network, needs to be at the front of any government's transportation agenda.

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3.0 Economics, Business and Trade

3.1 Economics, business and trade is simply a model through which people exchange the fruits of their productivity with other people. We have become so disconnected from the origins of this process that we no longer feel that we have any ownership or control over it. A vast industry has grown up that profits from the process of getting one person's productivity to another person who needs it, such that a large part of the price we pay for many simple things and a significant part of the taxes we pay to governments are related to this process or the regulation of it. If people were able to directly exchange simple goods and services without going through central regulation and monetary systems then the cost of living would be greatly reduced, making autonomous living much more affordable. 

3.2 More complex goods and services require knowledge, investment and collective productivity. Where possible, the ability to establish and set up local suppliers of these services would help strengthen autonomous communities. This would mean an overhaul of the patent and copyright system, allowing inventors to make a fair and proportionate gain from their inventions after which their ideas become openly available to local communities for their collective benefit.

3.3 Where a company provides goods and services on a national level, society would hugely benefit from a fundamental change in a company's stated purpose. A company's first statutory purpose should be towards social benefit, with consideration to people's health, wellbeing and to environmental sustainability. The current primary duty to 'maximise shareholder returns' should become secondary to this new primary goal.

3.4 Any personal rewards to individuals within a company structure should be capped at an amount proportionate to their contribution and their personal needs. This would reduce the disproportionate accumulation of wealth beyond the reasonable needs of an individual.

3.5 Employees of a company should automatically become shareholders in the company they work for and assume equal responsibilities for its social contribution. This would overcome the problem of employees absolving themselves from the activities of the company they are involved with and cause them to choose the company they work for more carefully.

3.6 During the financial crisis of 2008 and the Covid crisis of 2020/21, many governments printed money in the guise of 'quantatative easing'. The smoke and mirrors around this process meant that most people weren't fully aware that such a mechanism simply devalues the assets and savings of every person in that country and redistributes it to whoever the government chooses to give the new money to. Allowing governments to control money supply and redistribute it as they see fit threatens normal people's financial security and often leads to further inequality. A government that wanted to protect its citizen's assets and avoid unfairly increasing 'corporate assets' would ban these methods and embrace monetary control that gave power to individuals rather than institutions.

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4.0 Education and Work

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4.1 The world is rapidly changing with automation and artificial intelligence set to replace most traditional jobs, perhaps by the end of this decade. The type of work humans will still be required to do is still uncertain, but it seems inevitable that most jobs in manufacturing, driving, information processing, law, accounting, computer programming, insurance and many other industries will largely disappear. This will radically change society and our concept of education and work.

4.2 In the coming 'new world' some people will still run businesses that provide goods and services and some others will be needed to help them manage their processes, but the vast majority of people will probably not be needed to maintain the current economic system. It seems inevitable that these people will spend most of their time building and maintaining their own homes and communities and offering personal skills to others in their community. Cities and towns are likely to decay as there will be no centralised work to cause people to congregate in them so people will look to congrate in smaller communities and become more involved in embellishing those communities.

4.3 In the coming 'new world' most of what is currently taught in schools may still be useful on a personal level, but for most people it will no longer be designed to help them get a job. Instead the skills people will need to learn will be much more about achieving self sufficiency and contributing soft skills to their local communities.

4.4 Better gender equality has been one of the greatest achievements of our time and great strides have been made. Whilst equal opportunity should be a central tennet of any government, it should also be accepted that men and women are different and their different tendancies and skills will naturally create unequal representation in some areas. Reward should always be based on results regardless of gender.

4.5 With so few people having traditional jobs, the whole economic system will need to be overhauled. Central government will no longer be able to fund its projects on income taxes and will be increasingly unable to fund social benefits, pensions, social care, centralised hospitals, centralised education or centralised services. Instead people will need to return to self-sufficient local communities where people look after each other rather than rely on the state. This many not be a bad thing as money, monetary systems and centralised governments will become less important.

4.6 A community that is relatively self sufficient will need to contribute little to and take little from a centralised system. To succeed, its people will need to accumulate all the knowledge and learn all the skills needed to be self-sufficient. A continued conection to a global knowledge base and best methodoligies will therefore be essential.

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5.0 Politics, Law, Order & Defence

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5.1 Whilst democracy purports to give power to the people, in practice it tends to fall well short of this ideal. Voting for a party rather than an individual means that few people tend to have little idea of what their local representative stands for. Bottom-up government would give more people the chance to participate in local decision making. They would then elect a non-party local representative to represent them at the next level. 

5.2 With most people now able to access the internet, it should be possible for individuals to vote electronically on a wide range of local and national issues. Having a local portal where local issues are discussed and votes cast would allow people to be more closely connected to and have more control over their lives. More national referendums, voted for electronically by individuals, as now happens in Switzerland would further help to strengthen the democratic principle.

5.3 There are two basic methods of law, one that assumes that anything not explicitly prohibited is allowed, whilst the other says that you can only do what is explicitly allowed. The former, which is practiced in countries like the UK, promotes a much freer society where citizens feel that they have more control of their lives. It promotes more creativity, entrepreneurial spirit and risk taking. It is perhaps this subtle distinction that is behind cultural difference between the UK and its Western European neighbours.

5.4 Centralised authority distances ordinary people from the rules that they live by, reducing their sense of autonomy. The human mind was sculpted by our lives as hunter-gatherers living in small communities where being valuable to the community gave you a seat at the table where decisions about the community are made. Our human minds still crave this ability to become tangibly valuable to the people we live next to and have some say in the decsions that effect our lives. Whilst widespread national rules which cover the basics of our interconnected lives will probably remain necessary, local communities should be allowed to guide their own local lives, co-opting people into collective ideas rather than mandating them.

5.5 The depersonalisation of communities, where neighbours live increasingly independent of each other, has increased our sense of isolation and allowed for anonimity without social consequences. We are increasingly less likely to empathise with other people or be willing to compromise on our views. To feel safe and purposeful our minds need community. A progressive government would look to give more autonomy to local communities and promote inclusiveness within local decision making methods.

5.6 Given the high rates of reoffending, our current system of monetary fines and encarceration to deter rule breaking obviously needs a complete overhaul. Whilst a central system for rehabilitating dangerous offenders is needed, its methods should look more at successful alternatives such as those currently trialled in Norway. Beyond national rules, all other rule-breaking should be handled on a local level with a view to educating offenders within their own community and any punishment should require them to do integrative work for the community.

5.7 The continued need for a national defence against external threats is a reality that we are likely to need to live with for some time. The boundaries of the nation demarkate the boundaries of the cultural values practiced within them and everyone living within those boundaries wants to live free from the threat of outside influences imposing new values on them. Artifical Intelligence is about to change the whole nature of 'external threats' and we need our best minds working on ways to keep up with this growing threat and protect people from challenges that come from any eternal authoriarian regimes.

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6.0 IT, Communication, Social Media & News

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6.1 The internet has brought knowledge to every connected household with the ability to self-educate ourselves on any subject important to our lives and then be able to source the services and products that knowledge throws up from a wide network of suppliers catering for every niche. But it has also brought an ability to more directly exploit people's vulnerabilities and weaknesses, spy on people and increasingly disconnect many from their local communities with all the sense of belonging and interconnectivity that brings.

6.2 One of the great paradoxes of the age of the internet is the growing dependency many have on social media. On the one hand it brings a new level of connection to groups no matter how far they are apart, but on the other hand it has shown to be the cause of very high levels of anxiety in those who most use it.

6.3 People are gradually changing where they get their news from, with online, non-local sources predominating. It is without doubt that what a news-provider chooses to highlight and the angle they choose to deliver it from, greatly affects people's views and what opinions and policies they choose to adopt. Governments are widely distrusted and new outlets are also distrusted if they are seen to be promoting the government's or some other group's views or agendas.

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7.0 Arts, Culture & Sport

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7.1 To excel at and enjoy most arts, culture and sport, an individual needs to step out of their logical mind and access their feelings and instincts. Being trapped in logical thoughts can be a major source of anxiety, so unsurprisingly, spending time in non-logical activities has been found to be extremely healthy providing relaxation, inspiration, new ideas and creativity. Modern governments have tended to prioritise logical teaching and logical thinking over the non-logical and in doing so has fostered a more unhealthy and narrow culture. A progressive government would reverse this process, especially since many logical jobs will soon disappear.

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