Greetings Hivians. As my first post I would like to introduce myself and a little project I hope you all will like. I’m Jeff G. and this (I hope) will be the beginning of Life, the Universe and Almost Everything (LUAE, I pronounce it loo-ee).
The main idea of the project is quite simple- an open dialogue about all of the big issues in our world today in which we can all participate and have a voice. As a beginning, it is necessary to start with a few blog posts. But my hope is to expand into live streaming media with real time audience feedback and participation. This is one of the reasons I am excited to have recently become a member of the Hive ecosystem, because nearly all of the necessary elements to make the participatory live streaming project work already exist here.
Everything is on the table for discussion: Politics, Religion/Spirituality, Social Justice, Economics...ad nauseum. But why would anyone want to open up such a Pandora’s Box? Well, the answer is pretty straight forward. Every real problem in the human world can be traced back to a single root cause, the inherent negative characteristics of basic human nature: Fear, Hatred, Greed, Envy, Jealousy...etc. We all of us carry these inside ourselves as potentials. Unfortunately another characteristic of our nature is a tendency to ignore our own potentials, positive and negative. We all want to think the best of ourselves, and the vast majority of us do in fact make considerable effort to not let these potentials (particularly the negative ones) manifest. Unfortunately because we do not like to acknowledge that we do possess such potentials, we tend to practice a very subtle form of denial.
The reason I think this project is so critical now is that the solutions to the problems are also derived from basic human nature. For every negative trait there is a positive one that can form a basis for solutions. So the point of the dialogue is to foster a common understanding and provide a platform that can be an engine for positive change. By simply having a conversation we can break the chains of denial and at the same time create commonality not in spite of our differences but rather in celebration of them. As the conversation moves forward we will find ideas that can become projects. And as our participating audience grows, so do our resources of Human Capital and Crowdsourcing. In this way the project also becomes an incubator for both Nonprofit and For Profit ventures that can transform our ideas into real positive change and social evolution (not to mention greater economic potential) across the globe.
In order for this project to work and not simply devolve into an emotionally driven furball argument, we will all have to adhere as best we can to one basic rule. It is called the Kingdom of Ends. Never treat another merely as a means to an end but always as an end unto themselves. This principle is a logical derivative of the Categorical Imperative and it gives us a good example of the kind of discussions we can expect.
I mentioned above how positive aspects can overcome the negative. This is an example of how reason and acceptance can overcome fear and hatred. In order to practice the Kingdom of Ends it is necessary to acknowledge that each of us sees and understands the world around us in a totally unique way. Even cultural and ethnic heritage do not create an absolute commonality in this. In fact, those two characteristics and the role they play in the social aspect of our individual identities contribute to the practice of exclusion, which is one of the most basic problems we are seeking to overcome. However we will have to discuss this matter in a later conversation. The Kingdom of Ends demands absolute inclusion without any reservation. This is a matter of logic and reason and cannot tolerate any emotional influence that could even potentially exclude someone. The only way to practice this is with understanding and acceptance. With this as a common practice we overcome fear and hatred and gain the ability to be a community that celebrates difference rather than rejecting it. In order to gain the necessary common understanding it is imperative that we communicate, sharing our unique points of view which enables each of us to broaden our own unique understanding of the world. This is where ‘common’ understanding comes from. The ironic twist is that even with this enhanced understanding we still each have a unique perspective, so the idea of ‘common understanding’ is at best a misnomer. More of a ‘connected’ understanding really.
[ Editors Note:
I'm not so sure that's true. I would say that understanding does not constitute agreement. I personally "understand" a lot of things that I emphatically don't agree with. Also, "common" doesn't mean "universal". It just means that the majority "get it". So, it is possible to achieve common understanding without necessitating common agreement.]
My Sister Val often acts as my editor and this is one of her comments about my statement regarding ‘common understanding being a misnomer. She makes a good point as usual. This is exactly the kind of dialogue we are hoping to engender.
Well, I don’t want to be too long winded in an introduction, so I think that is enough philosophy for now. I hope y'all see the same potential I do and like what you see. If you are interested in getting involved in developing this as a project please post ideas (particularly about setting up direct communications for a core starting group) in the comments. Once we have a core group working we can set up a community and then start building towards the live streaming and audience participation functions.
My thanks to all who have read to this point.
Sincerely,
Jeff G.
Blessed Be.