Chapter One:
Systemic
Around the world, people are pushing back against a system that's obsessed with chasing money, power, and status. This system creates toxic competition and huge gaps between the wealthy few and everyday people who are struggling to get by. There's a growing movement working to build something better - a society focused on taking care of each other, where everyone can afford to live comfortably and feel safe in their communities. We're making real changes to reduce suffering, spread happiness, and give everyone a fair chance to succeed. By coming together, we can create a powerful movement that challenges the current system where a small group holds most of the power. Instead, we can build something new from the ground up, led by regular people like us.
Messages We Hear Growing Up:
"Chase your dreams - you can be anything!"
"Just work hard and you'll succeed."
"Having lots of money means you're winning at life."
"Anyone can get rich if they really try."
"Poor people just aren't trying hard enough."
"Rich people earned everything they have."
"Being greedy is fine - everyone's doing it."
"What's in it for me?"
"Life's a competition - there are winners and losers."
"Nothing matters except winning."
"Don't rock the boat."
"Buy nice stuff to show you're successful."
"I need the latest iPhone because everyone else has one!"
"There always needs to be someone in control."
"My boss acts like a dictator."
"At least I can be in charge at home."
What This Looks Like in Politics:
Politicians use their power to get richer
Money has a huge influence on who wins elections
People hate and misunderstand those who disagree with them
Nobody wants to meet in the middle anymore
Politicians care more about winning than helping people
Everyone thinks they're morally better than others
There's this toxic mix of materialism (loving stuff), militarism (loving power), and discrimination
Some people take national pride way too far
How Society Pushes These Ideas:
Being a leader means making people do what you want
It's okay to play dirty if you end up winning
Countries justify pushing other countries around
Everyone's taught to be selfish because "that's just how things are"
Life is treated like a zero-sum game - if you win, I have to lose
When we grow up hearing these messages everywhere, they become our default way of thinking and acting. We learn to try to climb the social ladder, look down on people "below" us, obey people "above" us, and just go along with what everyone else is doing - often without even realizing we're doing it.
Think of society like a giant machine made up of different parts - schools, businesses, governments, and regular people like us. All these parts work together in what we could call the "me-first system." This system is all about getting more money, more power, and more status - basically being "better" than others. People either try to control others or give in to those with more power to get ahead themselves.
You can see this everywhere - in friendships, local groups, big companies, and even how countries treat each other. People are constantly ranking themselves and others based on who they think is "worth" more as a person.
Here's the weird thing: no one person or group is actually in charge of this system. Even the people at the top who seem to have all the power can be replaced - the system just keeps going.
We all keep this system running without really thinking about it. Every time we buy cheap clothes made in factories with terrible working conditions, or even when we vote, we're part of it. Everyone's both a player in this game and getting played by it.
In this me-first system, it doesn't matter how you get money, power, or status - just that you get it. Doing the right thing often doesn't count for much anymore. People forget that everyone could win if we worked together instead of against each other.
Society likes to say that anyone can make it if they're smart and work hard enough - that everyone has an equal shot. But that's not really true. People with advantages have a much easier path, and they pass those same advantages to their children and friends.
This me-first attitude messes up all kinds of organizations - activist groups, religious communities, charities, families, schools, and workplaces. You see people disrespecting each other, acting superior, pointing fingers, holding grudges, and fighting all the time. All this selfish behavior just makes the whole me-first system stronger.
Many people and groups are working hard to help others and make the world better. They fight poverty, protect human rights, and try to make society more fair and democratic. But there's a problem - all these good efforts are scattered and disconnected from each other.
Usually, these groups focus on fixing one specific problem, helping certain people, or working in particular communities. While they do good work, they're like putting band-aids on bigger problems. By treating each issue separately, they miss how everything's connected and don't get to the real source of these problems. When activist movements achieve their goal or fail, the movement often fades away.
This website takes a different approach. We're looking at something bigger than just politics or money. We want to change how the whole world works because all countries are connected to each other and share many of the same problems.
Sometimes it makes sense for some people to have power over others — but only if it helps everyone. Think about parents keeping their kids safe from traffic, traffic lights keeping drivers from crashing, or stopping a bully from hurting someone. People should respect authority when it's used for good reasons. But in today's world, people chase money, power, and status just to have them, not to help others or make the world better.
We want to change this me-first system into one based on caring and compassion — not just in one country, but everywhere. Yeah, we know that's a huge goal! But it's important to speak up about what you believe is true. The more people start thinking and talking about these ideas, the better chance we have of making real change.
+++++
We humans are caught between two opposite forces: fear/anger and trust/love. This happens in our own lives, in groups, and in whole societies. Both forces can be good when they're not taken too far. Ideally, they balance each other out.
Fear helps keep us safe from real dangers, and it's natural to get angry about unfair situations. But sometimes, we get scared of threats that aren't really there, or our anger goes overboard, and we become judgmental.
Trust helps us relax and care about others. When people feel safe, have enough money to live on, and feel free to be themselves, it's easier to show love. But at times, we trust too easily, or we let our feelings stop us from standing up for people who need help.
When fear/anger and trust/love are balanced, they keep each other in check. Trust helps us handle real fears without panicking, and caring about others helps us use our anger to make positive changes.
But here's the problem: the me-first system makes fear and anger bigger while pushing down trust and love. This messes up both individual people and communities, leading to a few people getting most of the money, power, and status.
This creates all kinds of problems:
When people are scared, they may get angry and think only about themselves
Everyone's pushed to compete ruthlessly and be super selfish
People, organizations, businesses, and countries are always chasing more power, money, and status
People want to be "better" than others to feel good about themselves
They give in to more powerful people and follow the crowd when it's convenient
People use others' fear and anger to get what they want
By thinking they're superior people justify pushing others around
Those who "lose" end up feeling worthless
What you own shows your "rank" in society
Even people whose job is helping others (like counselors or social workers) can talk down to people and treat them like children, which makes it harder for people to work together and make real change
Worrying about status makes people doubt themselves
Always trying to be in charge ruins equal partnerships
Everyone thinking about themselves first makes it hard to work together as equals
Politicians will do almost anything, even start wars, to keep their power
America and other countries try to control other nations through invasion, violence, dividing people against each other, or controlling them indirectly
In these ways, the me-first system stops people from working together, leading to corruption and a society that's unstable because too much power is at the top.
This leads to:
Destroying the environment
People getting angry and blaming each other
Communities being divided
Hidden patterns in society make all this worse. We can't see these patterns directly, but we can figure them out by looking at what's actually happening.
Many of our problems - social, cultural, personal, economic, environmental, and political - are symptoms of this bigger issue: the global me-first system.
+++++
Imagine a world where we use power, money, and influence to help everyone reach their full potential, not just ourselves.
Instead of people bossing each other around, authority would exist where it makes sense (like teachers having authority to teach, or coaches to train).
We'd learn to form opinions about right and wrong without looking down on others. We'd stand up for what we believe while staying open to hearing different views and finding middle ground.
We'd find a sweet spot between being confident and being considerate of others.
When people praise us, we'd appreciate it but not let it go to our heads.
Most of us grow up learning to either dominate others or give in to them.
We’d unlearn or control the habit of automatically dominating or giving in and learn to work together better as equals.
Professional helpers (like counselors and social workers) would work directly in communities alongside activists and regular people. Everyone would learn from each other instead of some people always being the "experts" teaching from above.
A better society would create spaces and systems that bring out the best in people.
Kids would learn to understand both their thoughts and feelings and to speak honestly about what matters to them.
All our social spaces - from families to schools to workplaces - would encourage people to help each other become their best selves.
People who care about others would create new ways of doing things that make society fairer and more cooperative. They'd try to reform our "me-first" culture while keeping its good parts (like innovation and hard work).
This practical approach to creating positive change would focus on both long-term dreams and realistic short-term objectives. It would improve society from all angles — working with current leaders while also building up new grassroots movements.
Philip Woods says that "holistic democracy" means working together in a way that:
Helps everyone grow as complete people
Shares power fairly
Encourages real conversations where people try to understand each other
Creates a sense of belonging and confidence by giving everyone a voice
Many people and groups are already working toward these goals. You might have heard the word "holistic" in healthcare (treating the whole person, not just symptoms) or education (developing the whole student, not just test scores).
This approach aims to improve both individual lives and entire systems by being:
Holistic: considering the whole person and whole society
Democratic: giving people a say in decisions that affect them while respecting different views
This holistic and systemic reform would benefit everyone, protect the environment, and support all forms of life.
+++++
Ideally, a new multi-issue, diverse, nonviolent, global, grassroots movement independent of political parties will advance this reform — a movement similar to yet more powerful than the U.S. Populist, labor, civil rights, women’s, environmental, and gay movements.
As envisioned here, this movement would advance cultural, social, personal, economic, environmental, and political reforms and reform institutions by establishing new structures. These changes would be radical because they’d address root causes while retaining positive traditions. We’ll never fully achieve this ideal world, but it could be our North Star as we move in this direction.
Unifying the compassionate humanity community would be extremely difficult, but merely envisioning possibilities can bear fruit. So, consider the following thought experiment.
Imagine, in the United States:
Members of a new movement affirm shared principles, unite, respect everyone’s humanity and equal worth, nurture self-improvement and egalitarian community, construct democratic hierarchies with accountable leaders, cultivate mutual empowerment, support each other in their self-development, counter oppressive socialization, and nurture compassion throughout society.
This unified, diverse movement relieves suffering, promotes justice, spreads joy, serves humanity, the environment, and life itself, and creates a more harmonious society in every sector. This movement aims to reform the ego-driven System into a compassion-driven System. Their gains are seen in every arena.
With private and public sector measures, society ensures everyone can get a good living wage job, adequate retirement income, and affordable housing, childcare, and health insurance.
In the United States, a public-service-employment trust fund enables federal revenue sharing to local and state governments to hire people to provide vital services, including in-home support services for the elderly, childcare, and environmental cleanup. Increased taxes on the wealthy, cracking down on offshore tax havens, reducing wasteful military spending, and donations from private charities and philanthropists finance this trust fund.
Voluntary drug and alcohol rehab centers and mental health crisis centers provide quality services on demand, relying heavily on peer counselors funded by the federal public-service-employment program.
The federal government increases the minimum wage to a level sufficient for a single person to make ends meet and indexes it to inflation. It increases the earned-income tax credit to ensure families avoid poverty.
The federal government reduces subsidies to large corporate farms and uses that money to support family farms. Consumers help family farms by shopping at farmers’ markets. More public investment in green energy is leading to more good jobs. These measures boost rural economies.
We accept justifiable domination, protect children from traffic, use red lights, and hold people accountable for harmful actions and violations of others’ rights. Police walk their beats and develop relationships with residents and businesses, which enhances public safety. When we put people in jail, we do so without dehumanizing or brutalizing them.
This foundation of economic security and public safety enables everyone to live well, care for themselves and their family, and improve their situation if they so choose. Everyone can netter be creative, contribute to their communities, and leave the world a better place when they pass on. People no longer fear becoming destitute or homeless because they live paycheck to paycheck.
The President leads consumer boycotts against businesses that engage in price gouging, which helps to control the inflation that results from a full-employment economy.
This security enables many to engage in artistic, social, and political activities rather than working longer hours. Their life is good enough. Those who seek to gain more income pursue these ambitions ethically and avoid cutthroat competition motivated by the egoistic urge to dominate.
Couples form co-equal partnerships, deciding together how to distribute their domestic responsibilities. Whenever feasible, families involve children in making decisions about collective activities. Schools maximize students' decisions about the focus of their study and their work.
Increasingly, corporations adopt public-benefit charters that obligate them to serve the public interest while making a profit. The federal government has amended laws that had impeded workers from forming unions. As a result, more workers belong to unions, which gives them more voice over working conditions and wages. Workers also gain seats on corporate boards and help strengthen those bodies’ community obligations. Workers regularly evaluate supervisors and vice versa.
In families, schools, workplaces, and organizations, many people:
Open meetings with a moment of silence for meditation, reflection, relaxation, or prayer.
Conduct a “check-in” for members to briefly report their feelings.
Convene a “process group” that enables people to report on how they’re feeling about how they are interacting with each other. During these sessions, members share appreciations or resentments, if any, and report on instances when they felt others were being too bossy or domineering or when they themselves acted on a desire to dominate, submit, or conform for personal gain. These issues may not be resolved in these sessions; members may choose to address them later.
Movement members:
Affirm both their membership in the human family and their individual identities, such as those based on religion, race, and gender.
Help each other undo or control the oppressive social conditioning and unconscious biases deep within.
Pause for rest and recreation, take care of themselves so they can better care for others, and organize activities that cultivate holistic democracy.
Practice active listening.
Respect everyone’s essential equality as well as their distinctive qualities.
Avoid both selfishness and self-sacrifice.
Recognize they reinforce the ego-driven System, which they inherited, and commit to help reform it.
Engage in honest self-examination, avoid chronic denial and excessive distractions, and acknowledge their weaknesses.
Set their own personal growth goals, which, for some, involve spiritual development while recognizing that perfection is impossible.
Balance legitimate fear and anger with realistic love and security.
Promote compassionate cooperation and collaborative leadership.
Focus on short-term objectives that move toward their long-term ideals.
Aim to help change hearts and minds as well as social structures.
Spread joy, meet needs in their community, help humanize institutions, and engage in pragmatic political action.
Movement members also:
Form small teams whose members support each other in becoming better human beings, including undoing or controlling oppressive social conditioning. These teams form a Network of Holistic Teams. Book clubs, study groups, activist committees, spiritual and religious bodies, and others join this Network. They occasionally gather regionally to share reports on their work and brainstorm possibilities.
Convene National Grand Juries with randomly selected members that meet for one year to craft recommended public policies concerning pressing unresolved issues. People experienced with deliberative democracy methods lead these sessions. Donors provide enough funding to compensate the participants for their time.
Persuade Congress to fund a national Citizens’ Assembly with randomly selected participants to adopt recommended policies on critical issues.
Persuade elected officials, including Senators and the President, to hold carefully structured monthly Community Dialogues with constituents to hear input and answer questions. Speakers are randomly selected if need be. Large districts use Zoom to conduct these forums.
Help to organize a Purple Alliance that constantly mobilizes public pressure to enact compassionate laws backed by a substantial majority of Americans, using civil disobedience if needed, rooted in a willingness to negotiate and compromise while seeking reconciliation and mutual respect.
Help build a national political party that’s controlled bottom-up, works with the Purple Alliance, and engages in year-round precinct organizing based on local teams whose members enjoy social activities and support each other with their personal growth, community service, and political action.
The movement persuades the federal government to apologize for its past unjust wars and military interventions that were designed to reinforce American domination of other countries, engage in a cooperative foreign policy, join the International Criminal Court, sign many of the widely supported global treaties it had refused to sign, support reforming the United Nations Security Council to give voice to more countries, pledge to give serious consideration to backing General Assembly resolutions and increase support for developing countries whose people face pressures to migrate.
The movement cultivates national communities in multiple countries in a network of autonomous local teams that model an egalitarian society grounded in mutual aid. It occasionally convenes global gatherings to enhance mutual support.
Cultural, social, personal, economic, environmental, and political changes, all moving in the same direction toward democratic equality, produce a synergistic ripple effect throughout society with a positive upward spiral. Successful efforts demonstrate models for others to adopt, adapt, and scale up. Mutually reinforcing improvements contribute to the fundamental reform of the entire society.
These reforms weave together social structures that reduce exploitative domination and automatic submission and increase personal and community empowerment. They overcome exploitative domination, establish democratic hierarchies, and institutionalize compassion.
Affirming that the System is our primary problem unifies the movement, reduces divisive scapegoating, humanizes communities, cultures, workplaces, governments, and ourselves, restructures society, and establishes harmony with Mother Nature. In so doing, members broaden and deepen their understanding and nurture a commitment to holistic change. They see their actions as a step in the right direction, a never-ending movement that gains steady progress without claiming it will achieve perfection.
In a positive upward spiral, this movement is local and global, personal and political, materialistic and moral, bottom-up and top-down, inside and outside. It cultivates mutually reinforcing social, personal, cultural, economic, environmental, and political reforms that make society kinder, fairer, and more egalitarian. Based on the principle that people deserve equal rights and opportunities throughout their lives, not just at “the starting gate,” the movement addresses divisive habits, overcomes fragmentation, and reforms the world into a better, more compassionate community.
A strong, diverse organizing committee composed of community leaders helped to build this movement by convening a conference to launch it. Members occasionally modify the movement’s strategies while retaining the commitment to holistic, systemic reform.
This vision is food for thought, not a blueprint. Past reform movements made progress on specific issues, such as voting rights, but it’s unclear whether there’s been moral advancement. Many problems, such as unjust wars and famine, persist. Society may be on a downward or upward spiral, or it may be treading water. The need for major reform is urgent — cultural, social, personal, economic, environmental, and political.
However, prospects are dim for the development of a successful radical reform effort that strengthens compassion and justice and moves toward a balance between fear/anger and trust/love. Hyper-individualism, materialism, militarism, and the dominate-and-submit paradigm are deeply embedded, and we can’t rely on political parties to save us. (Politicians are almost always highly motivated by their self-interest.) Nevertheless, articulating this dream may plant seeds that produce incremental reforms here and there that improve lives. We can only speak the truth as we see it and do the best we can to help achieve what we believe is needed.