Your job is to look for consistency or inconsistency and let us know your reactions.
Ready? Set? Go!
RESPECT FOR DIVERSITY....We must honor cultural, ethnic, racial, sexual, religious and spiritual diversity within the context of individual responsibility to all beings. We must reclaim our country's finest shared ideals: the dignity of the individual, democratic participation, and liberty and justice for all.
FEMINISM....We must replace the cultural ethics of dominance and control with more cooperative ways of interacting. We must encourage people to care about persons outside their own group. We must promote the building of respectful, positive and responsible relationships across the lines of gender and other divisions. We must proceed with as much respect for the means as the end (the process as much as the product of our efforts). We must learn to respect the contemplative inner part of life as much as the outer activities.
SOCIAL JUSTICE....We must respond to human suffering in ways that promote dignity. We must encourage people to commit themselves to lifestyles that promote their own health. We must have a community controlled education system that effectively teaches our children academic skills, ecological wisdom, social responsibility and personal growth. We must resolve personal and intergroup conflicts without just turning them over to lawyers and judges. We must take responsibility for reducing the crime rate in our neighborhoods. We must encourage such values as simplicity and moderation.
GRASSROOTS DEMOCRACY....We must develop systems that allow and encourage us to control the decisions that affect our lives. We must ensure that representatives will be fully accountable to the people who elected them. We must encourage and assist the "mediating institutions" - family, neighborhood organizations, church group, voluntary association, ethnic club - to recover some of the functions now performed by the government. We must learn the best insights from American traditions of civic vitality, voluntary action and community responsibility.
COMMUNITY BASED ECONOMICS....We must design our work structures to encourage employee ownership and workplace democracy. We must develop new economic activities and institutions that will allow us to use our new technologies in ways that are humane, freeing, ecological and accountable and responsive to communities. We must establish some form of basic economic security, open to all. We must restructure our patterns of income distribution to reflect the wealth created by those outside the formal monetary economy: those who take responsibility for parenting, housekeeping, home gardens, community volunteer work, etc. We must restrict the size and concentrated power of corporations without discouraging superior efficiency or technological innovation.
DECENTRALIZATION....We must reduce power and responsibility to individuals, institutions, communities and regions. We must encourage the flourishing of regionally based culture, rather than a dominant mono-culture. We must have a decentralized democratic society with our political, economic and social institutions locating power on the smallest scale (closest to home) that is efficient and practical. We must redesign our institutions so that fewer decisions and less regulation over money are granted as one moves from the community to the national level. We must reconcile the need for community and regional self determination with the need for appropriate centralized regulation in certain matters.
ECOLOGICAL WISDOM....We must operate human societies with the understanding that we are part of nature, not on top of it. We must live within the ecological and resource limits of the planet, applying our technological knowledge to the challenge of an energy efficient economy. We must build a better relationship between cities and countryside. We must promote sustainable agriculture and respect for self regulating natural systems. And we must further biocentric wisdom in all spheres of life.
NONVIOLENCE....We must develop effective alternatives to our current patterns of violence at all levels from the family and the street to nations and the world. We must eliminate nuclear weapons from the face of the Earth without being naive about the intentions of other governments. We must constructively use nonviolent methods to oppose practices and policies with which we disagree and in the process reduce the atmosphere of polarization and selfishness that is itself a source of violence.
PERSONAL AND GLOBAL RESPONSIBILITY....We must be of genuine assistance to grassroots groups in the third world. We must help other countries make the transition to self-sufficiency in food and other basic necessities. We must cut our defense budget while maintaining an adequate defense. We must promote these ten GREEN values in the reshaping of our global order. We must reshape world order without creating just another enormous nation-state.
FUTURE FOCUS....We must induce people and institutions to think in terms of the long range future, and not just in terms of their short range selfish interest. We must encourage people to develop their own visions of the future and move more effectively toward them. We must judge whether new technologies are socially useful and use those judgments to shape our society. We must induce our government and other institutions to practice fiscal responsibility. We must make the quality of life, rather than open ended economic growth, the focus of our future thinking.
Every human being deserves a say in the decisions that
affect their lives and not be subject to the will of
another. Therefore, we will work to increase public
participation at every level of government and to ensure
that our public representatives are fully accountable to
the people who elect them. We will also work to create
new types of political organizations which expand the
process of participatory democracy by directly including
citizens in the decision-making process.
All persons should have the rights and opportunity to
benefit equally from the resources afforded us by society
and the environment. We must consciously confront in
ourselves, our organizations, and society at large,
barriers such as racism and class oppression, sexism and
homophobia, ageism and disability, which act to deny
fair treatment and equal justice under the law.
Human societies must operate with the understanding
that we are part of nature, not separate from nature. We
must maintain an ecological balance and live within the
ecological and resource limits of our communities and
our planet. We support a sustainable society which utilizes
resources in such a way that future generations will
benefit and not suffer from the practices of our
generation. To this end we must practice agriculture
which replenishes the soil; move to an energy efficient
economy; and live in ways that respect the integrity of
natural systems.
It is essential that we develop effective alternatives to
society's current patterns of violence. We will work to
demilitarize, and eliminate weapons of mass destruction,
without being naive about the intentions of other
governments.
We recognize the need for self-defense and the defense of
others who are in helpless situations. We promote non-violent methods to oppose practices and policies with
which we disagree, and will guide our actions toward
lasting personal, community and global peace.
Centralization of wealth and power contributes to social
and economic injustice, environmental destruction, and
militarization. Therefore, we support a restructuring of
social, political and economic institutions away from a
system which is controlled by and mostly benefits the
powerful few, to a democratic, less bureaucratic system.
Decision-making should, as much as possible, remain at
the individual and local level, while assuring that civil
rights are protected for all citizens.
We recognize it is essential to create a vibrant and
sustainable economic system, one that can create jobs
and provide a decent standard of living for all people
while maintaining a healthy ecological balance. A
successful economic system will offer meaningful work
with dignity, while paying a "living wage" which reflects
the real value of a person's work.
Local communities must look to economic development
that assures protection of the environment and workers'
rights; broad citizen participation in planning; and
enhancement of our "quality of life". We support
independently owned and operated companies which
are socially responsible, as well as co-operatives and public
enterprises that distribute resources and control to more
people through democratic participation.
We have inherited a social system based on male
domination of politics and economics. We call for the
replacement of the cultural ethics of domination and
control with more cooperative ways of interacting that
respect differences of opinion and gender. Human values
such as equity between the sexes, interpersonal
responsibility, and honesty must be developed with
moral conscience. We should remember that the process
that determines our decisions and actions is just as
important as achieving the outcome we want.
We believe it is important to value cultural, ethnic, racial,
sexual, religious and spiritual diversity, and to promote
the development of respectful relationships across these
lines. We believe that the many diverse elements of
society should be reflected in our organizations and
decision-making bodies, and we support the leadership
of people who have been traditionally closed out of
leadership roles. We acknowledge and encourage respect
for other life forms than our own and the preservation
of biodiversity.
We encourage individuals to act to improve their
personal well-being and, at the same time, to enhance
ecological balance and social harmony. We seek to join
with people and organizations around the world to foster
peace, economic justice, and the health of the planet.
Our actions and policies should be motivated by
long-term goals. We seek to protect valuable natural
resources, safely disposing of or "unmaking" all waste
we create, while developing a sustainable economics that
does not depend on continual expansion for survival.
We must counterbalance the drive for short-term profits
by assuring that economic development, new
technologies, and fiscal policies are responsible to future
generations who will inherit the results of our actions.
Our overall goal is not merely to survive, but to share
lives that are truly worth living. We believe the quality of
our individual lives is enriched by the quality of all of
our lives. We encourage everyone to see the dignity and
intrinsic worth in all of life, and to take the time to
understand and appreciate themselves, their community
and the magnificent beauty of this world.
