Project Methodology
The Basic Theory
The theory goes something like this: Perhaps IF we can identify and verify a common set of needs/desires/experiences of the human condition AND realize a shared compassion for living humanely THEN we may be able to use these inherent truths as a basis from which to reevaluate our economic systems, social systems, governmental systems, environmental regulations and legal systems. In short, we need to develop the rational basis from which such a sustainable social re-engineering can occur.
The Ultimate goal of the UHNA project is to develop a common sense set of guidelines or natural ’science’ that is intuitively understandable and practically applicable which can be globally disseminated allowing the people of the world to evaluate and alter their own state of happiness and security in a sustainable and self determinate fashion.
Most projects and research in this field conclude by identifying the basic categories of human needs. An appropriate analogy might be identifying the basic categories of the periodic table such as the ‘solids’, ‘metal’ and ‘liquids’, whereas the UHNA project seeks to define the individual elements like ‘carbon’, ‘hydrogen’ and ‘oxygen’. The UHNA project may very well be able to catalyze the development of an intuitively understandable and comprehensively verifiable ‘map’ or ‘periodic table’ describing the elements human behavior. Hopefully, the project can also catalyze the development of a basic social science that can be understood and used by the common person.
The UHNA project differs from other social/human needs projects and research in that it addresses the topic from a ‘bottom up’ and ‘middle outward’ perspective simultaneously to disseminate its comprehensive findings directly to the subjects of the project as opposed to a ‘top down’ strategy.
The best way to accomplish this is to stimulate the formation of a strongly motivated and highly visible popular mass movement to create an informed and active citizenry. The key to achieving this is by motivating the masses with an ego-centric, mutually benevolent commonly shared compassion.
The basic methodology of the project will center around gathering empirical data from individuals on a global scale to create the worlds largest signatory list. Visitors to the UHNA site will be asked whether or not they agree with each statement of need on the signatory list as it relates directly to them personally. The responses will be used to assess the relative universality of each of the elements on the initial list of humane needs.
The project will be translated into multiple languages and will be designed in a modular format that will allow organizers to explain the project and gather signatories locally to add to the global database. The project will be launched locally via appropriate cultural events and promoted by high profile signatories.
Visitors to the UHNA site will be able to review graphical statistics to compare respondent answers with a broad range of basic demographic information. This will allow people to see who thinks like them.
While data is being collected, researchers across various fields of study are welcome to participate in cross referencing their work with the elements of the UHNA list. During this phase of the project, a call for papers and abstracts will begin and a conference will be planned.
The goal of the conference will be to review the project data in order to develop tools for visitors to the UHNA site to assess their personal balance of humane elements and begin linking to local resources that can help visitors achieve greater balance.
The project will be funded initially by donations and grants until the web site receives enough hits that will allow advertising revenue to perpetuate it’s existence. Funds will be distributed to local organizers and researchers from the global project fund.
April 8, 2008 at 1:22 pm
We must look, not at the positive, but come to terms with the negative: our Shame. Shame is the trickiest all the emotions, also the least mentioned, because speaking of shame causes shame. It’s ether -ike quality stullifies and mutes the brighest , it objectives others and those they deal with, it causes people to become greedy in an indirect attempt to cover one’s dark sides, it causes rage as repressed issues are let out of the closet, it’s the cause of distractions and exceses of all kinds, the direct or indirect cause of most crimes, wars. How much more to we need to know about shame to come to our senses and began to tell our stories to listening ears in communties the must organize, if only for that purpose.. There is much more to say on shame and what it’s been doing for ever.
And shame has the ability to entrap itself within us by coming around our back side, where it creates more of it in a strangehold. The way to get over it is through it, by naming the events in our lives that have had a shame hold on us. Then we can begin to achieve equanimity.
April 18, 2008 at 2:01 am
Coming up with a list of fundamental needs can be as easy or as difficult as we want to make it.
It can be a short, one-off list of succinct bullet points, a la the Ten Commandments. At the other extreme, it could be a finely nuanced list that captures every need of every individual on the planet, constantly updated to reflect new needs as they are identified, anywhere, any time.
But is making a list really the point? Is getting an agreed (!!) definitive NEW list of what constitutes a fundamental set of human needs really going to achieve anything?
Aren’t there many such lists available already?
Don’t we all, as individual members of this global community know what our own personal needs are?
Is agreement even possible at this relatively early stage of human evolution? For instance, how long will it be before no one on the planet includes the need for a gun in their personal list of can’t-live-withouts? (I don’t need one, but you might).
Rather, is it about finding a way to unlock the recognition of our shared humanity in those that don’t have it?
Is it about finding a way for that shared sense of humanity to actually mean something to us ALL?
Is it about finding a way for that sense of shared humanity to manifest in day to day life in all corners of the planet?
Is it about finding a way for that sense of common humanity to prevail over powers and systems that are currently sustained by emphasising differences and separation by imposing and/or marketing a myriad of ‘us and thems’ such as inter- and intra- national borders, gender, race, religion, culture…even the football team of choice.
Is part of the contribution of initiatives such as the Universal Humane Needs Assessment in providing support for individuals such as myself who subscribe to Gandhi’s view that we must BE the change we want to see in the world.
I can not directly change you, him or her wherever you may be. But by learning to live a life based upon a personal sense of shared humanity, I can hopefully contribute to a global movement in that direction.
Think globally, act personally?
April 22, 2008 at 10:32 am
why is a list necessary when all you have to do is look around and find someone who needs help…….then give it to them. In your household, in your community, in your city, in your state, in your country and in our world. we need to come together and realize, we could be living in harmony, everywhere, all the time.
April 22, 2008 at 11:54 am
Mark, a list may not be necessary for you because you may be a more conscious and compassionate individual who can act of your own free will to do some good in the world. The real question you should be asking is, if there were a list could it inspire more conscious compassion in more people? I think the answer is yes. I definitely don’t think that the creation of this signatory list will make anything worse…sb
April 29, 2008 at 9:38 am
In response to Mark’s point I would say that from my perspective living a humane life has nothing to do with ‘helping’ others. Simply put, given the scarcity of good information, living humanly is causing as little damage to others while pursuing what I determine to be what is best for me. However, it is commonly forgotten that what is best for me includes the success my community. In today’s global economy ‘my community’ should be correctly recognized as profoundly large an interconnected.
I don’t want to get stuck on semantics but I think ‘helping’ necessarily involves a judgment of what is right or wrong for someone else’s life that you may or may not know anything about. Do you help by giving a little money to a homeless drug addict? Is it helpful to give work and economic opportunity to people living in extremely impoverished areas on the other side of the globe? What if that work is dangerous, unhealthy and the economic opportunity ultimately unsustainable?
Well, I just don’t know the answers. What is the homeless drug addict going to do with the money? How dangerous and unhealthy is the work? How extreme is the poverty? What is a sustainable economy after all? If you are helping in order to actually improve someone else’s life, you need to know the answers to these questions. The problem is that these questions are often simply answerable given the reliability of information from a drug addict or global media. And if you don’t bother to answers these questions before helping then I suggest you read JoAnne’s comment about shame at the top of this thread and ask yourself another question: Why are you trying to help someone when you don’t actually know the consequences of your actions?
The process of compiling an elemental list of humanity may make it easier to answer difficult questions and allow us to better ‘help’ others. However, from my perspective, the value of such a list is its ability to inform us about how to peruse our own goals in harmony with those around us. We are really only able to make truly informed decisions about the direction of only one person’s life — our own.
Perusing goals for only our own personal benefit may seem on the surface to be selfish. However, if you insulate yourself from the world of marketing and forget about notions of success promoted in the popular culture, the fact remains that the vast majority or our fundamental personal goals are shared by billions of people around the world. It is the discovery of these fundamental common goals and acknowledging them across social/political/economic boundaries that will ultimately allow us to harmonize our actions, live humanly and better the quality of life for everyone.
Interestingly, many of those things that I have broadly labeled here as fundamental personal goals tend to be called basic human rights in situations when resources are under threat. Conversely, resource rich post-industrial places in North America, Western Europe and — I suspect — East Asia are suffering a humanitarian crisis. There is little shortage of food and shelter for the body but savage scarcity of metaphysical food and shelter for the ‘soul’ (for lack of a better word). This hidden humanitarian crisis of the first world may play out to be equally devastating. It appears that in an attempt to fill a hole in our ‘soul’ with stuff produced by burning carbon and other unsustainable processes we are threatening the stability of our biosphere in its entirety.
This situation is not caused by a lack of ‘help’ but a lack of good information about the total lifecycle of the products consumers are buying, a lack of good information about what satisfies our ‘soul’, and the lack of an easily digestible plan to coordinate action across massively complex networks to make our local and global communities more efficient and more humane. From this perspective a feasible project to: define, verify and utilize a universal set of elements fundamental to living humanely is long overdue.
May 14, 2008 at 10:30 am
We must reaffirm our positive Ideals and Goals
The Creator
Endowed us with!
The Ideals
Peace, Patience, Compassion, Friendship, Helpfulness, Generosity, Brotherly and Sisterly Love, Cooperation and Harmony+
The Goals
To Live in Peace and Harmony with other Human Beings, Species and the Environment.
Imitate the Creator by living in a renewable, sustainable manner+
ADD your own.
Join the Micro-Democracy Revolution
Self contained Communities providing local
Manufacturing, Education, Organic Food, Capital, Health Care, Media and Entertainment.
Remember
All the possibilities exist!
Chose wisely and pick the right path.