About the UHNA project
This blog is set up to explain the UHNA project, its solution methodology and to invite contributors & collaborators to help with its implementation.
The fundamental assumption
The fundamental assumption this project is based on is that the overwhelmingly vast majority of people on this planet, regardless of gender, religion, race, age, economic status, geographic location, political affiliation, country of origin or cultural influence want to live a humane lifestyle.
A definition
A humane lifestyle can be defined as: the ability of an individual or society to live in psychological, physical, spiritual, intellectual and emotional balance and security; or in other words to live a fulfilling and happy life.
To accept this assumption, just ask yourself if it is your desire to live humanely. If so, then you may find this project interestingly motivating…
The fundamental hypothesis
METAPHORICALLY SPEAKING, this project is an attempt to develop an intuitively understandable and universally useful:
• ‘periodic table’ of the human condition and globally verify it by creating the world’s largest signatory list, book series, live event series and evolving internet resource platform translated into 20+ languages
• science for describing the dynamic relationships and balance of the fundamental ‘human elements/experiences‘ rooted in the individual perspectives we all inherently share
LOGICALLY SPEAKING, IF there exists a universal set of elemental needs/experiences directly associated with leading a humane lifestyle,
AND these elements can be behaviorally defined, intuitively understood, assessed and globally verified,
THEN there exists the opportunity to create and disseminate a set of intuitively understandable universal guidelines/models which can catalyze a universally benevolent conscious movement based on fulfilling the humane needs of the individual ego.
THUS, the creation of such a platform can empower individuals and communities to create the conditions conducive to supporting sustainable humane lifestyles based on a common set of principals that are globally verified.
Project feasibility
Essentially, this scenario places everyone of basic functional psychological capacity potentially in the same target market; thus implying it’s potential to universally motivate. People tend to cooperate and are more conscious of each other when they share a similar set of fundamental principles.
The outline of this project suggests a methodology which can feasibly facilitate a fundamental shift in consciousness of the individual on a global scale towards empowering them with the means to live a humane life style, thus greatly improving the odds of preserving, expanding and evolving human/e rights within societies. Addressing these issues at their roots will also be useful in understanding the nature of conflict and acts of desperation.
A review of Historical and theoretical background logic
Regardless of how many laws are created to preserve humane rights or how many declarations of human rights there are that get officially recognized by hierarchical organizations, those rights will never be realized into actualization unless the nature of those rights are clearly understood by the individuals in any society for whom the rights were intended to be guaranteed.
Therefore, it is logical to approach this subject from the perspective of consciously engaging the individual with an intuitively recognizable set of fundamental principals which empower him/her to be more successful in fulfilling their ultimate right to self determinately actualize the implementation of their human/e rights.
“Give a man a fish; you have fed him for today. Teach a man to fish; and you have fed him for a lifetime”—Author unknown…
November 2, 2007 at 11:49 pm
give a woman/man a beautiful place to live and let the woman/man express her/his visions and let us create our homes in our diversity and let us live in freedom and understanding for each other…let us create new centers of inspiration and art, dance and music and JOY
November 5, 2007 at 2:30 pm
Looking forward to learning more about the Project . Good luck.
November 6, 2007 at 1:30 pm
Hello Scott, we already had great discusions about this idea. Glad to see that it’s coming together. I hope your event on the 4th of Nov. was good. Speak to you soon. Sending you good vibes from London!
November 12, 2007 at 8:20 pm
Hi Scottie, I’m impressed by your new project, seems both ambitious and altruistic! I’m looking forward for the developments. Good luck!
December 1, 2007 at 3:40 pm
Hi. Interesting project, though a biy redundant. Catholic social doctrine has already done this.
December 2, 2007 at 5:21 pm
if catholic social doctrine has already done this, then perhaps you can give me a reference link that you are familiar with so i can review this summary. i think that you are misunderstanding the concept a bit…this project does not require one to prescribe to any specific religious or political doctrines, which are in themselves the basis for highlighting differences and segregating populations as opposed to uniting them.
December 18, 2007 at 9:32 pm
May some of the peace in the world come from here.
January 10, 2008 at 3:27 pm
How about using Maslow’s hierarchy of human needs as the baseline?
Sam Keene was working about 5 years ago on a Global Index that fits with what you are up to. Also, there is the Gross Happiness Index scale used by the kingdom of Bhutan.
Add elements from ancient wisdom traditions re: happiness, human flourishing, eudaimonic pursuit. Starting place: McMahon, A History of Happiness; Dalai Lama, Art of Happiness.
Add modern elements from positive psycyhology & the emerging cognitive research on happiness. See books and articles by Jonathan Haidt, Richard Layard, David Gilbert (Stumbling on Happiness), Sonja Lyubomirsky, (The How of Happiness.) McKibben’s Deep Economy reviews the emerging happiness economics theories.
January 10, 2008 at 11:42 pm
I’m sure it’s laudable, workable, moral. All that stuff. I only wish you could use about the same number of words as, say, the Ten Commandments. Then you’d have something.
January 22, 2008 at 8:52 pm
As they say when god calls us we will get together and we will be in the knowing no more assuming when we re-member we put back together what was once to believed seperate. More to come respect on all things possible transcending time and space ….
Namaste
February 22, 2008 at 3:26 pm
Are you aware of uBuntu, a national believe of South Africans. If so, what is the difference?
February 22, 2008 at 4:05 pm
i’m not aware of uBuntu, but i will do some research and get back to you. do you have any especially good references to suggest? thanks – sb
February 26, 2008 at 9:24 pm
Thank YOU! I’m delighted to discover you and the Project as I wander through my e-mail backlog following links unconsiously (intuitively?). What a reward for my inner procrastinator! I teach a sociology course on Human Relations at a community college and feel like I just struck gold based on your ‘comment’ alone; I have not yet delved deeper into your site and I can hardly wait to do so.
The first name from my past exploration that you triggered for me is Ken Wilber and the evolution of consciousness. Then Marshall Rosenberg and nonviolent communication. Then Matthew Fox and the Four Paths of Creation Spirituality. Then something I’m about to do that my brother is involved in around a values survey.
My friends used to call me a workshop junkie and thank God I was/am and didn’t take offense–for all the reasons you layed out in your eloquent comment.
Now I’m off to dig into your site. The semester is almost half over and I’m sure I’ll have some revising to do!
Your sister in seeking,
Marcy
March 7, 2008 at 1:26 pm
The following site will encapsulate my outlook on human interface. In 1977 I aked Ben Bova if the metalaws might be applied to the Israli ?
/ Palestinian crisis of the time. He replied that it was a good suggestion but probably wouldn’t be applied. Still goes on today. 30 years. When individual prejudice intrudes, all agreements are halted. For current examples, just look around at all the daily news. Here is the relevant site :
http://www.rfreitas.com/Astro/LegalRightsOfETs.htm JK
March 17, 2008 at 7:33 pm
I’m gonna quibble with your basic assumption. I don’t think humans are primarily motivated to be humane to any but members of their primary, or in-group. All humans are motivated, however, to maximize their survival. Since humans threaten one anothers’ survival more than any other environmental force can, at least at the moment, then deaing with one another effectively becomes a primary requirement of our mutual survival. In the final analysis, warfare is inefficient as well as inhumane toward achieving this end. In fact, it is ultimately downwright unfeasible. Therefore, we can conclude that your basic premise is sound. In order to survive as a species we have no choice but to extend in-group altruism to include our entire species. In fact, to incude all species. Cutting edge research in psychology is telling us that this goal is achievable, but far from easy.
March 18, 2008 at 3:36 pm
David, I think I finally found something to mildly disagree with you about…although it has been a challenge. My basic assumption is not that humans are motivated to BE humane by NATURE, but that humans are motivated to LIVE humanely. We need to learn to BE more humane through NURTURE. This is how our intellect separates us from the other species in the animal kingdom.
April 2, 2008 at 6:14 pm
“Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” is actually a Chinese proverb and that Karl Marx said “Sell a man a fish, and he can eat for a day, teach a man to fish, and you lose a great business opportunity.”