Progressive Open Source Thought and Action Network

Developing a cohesive approach to progressive change initiatives is difficult because progressive initiatives are diverse. All progressive change efforts would benefit from a structure and process to collaborate and unify across individual change initiatives. Open Source software has used a methodology has done this for software, and the same methodology can be adapted to creating a powerful progressive think tank. This article outlines a structure and process for developing a progressive think tank.

Bio-Economy

Given that our current economic and political systems have been developed exclusively in response to human social needs a systematic reorientation to take human continuity with the ecosystem into account will seem to be a radical departure from the norm. In this case the norm is the problem because it has not adapted to the reality of our situation. What about an economy based on biology?

More Force = More Moral Responsibility

As force amplifies the effect of choice and action, moral responsibility must expand proportionally.

The more force applied to any action the greater its effect. Human beings have become tremendously more forceful since the beginning of industrial revolution. The increased forcefulness that we have used to extract benefits from nature has had helped to expand the scope of human consciousness.

Expand Consciousness and Support Life

Act to promote growth of the scope of consciousness in the service of life. This statement is the foundational principal of this moral system. Since the purpose of life is growth in the scope of human consciousness, acting in a way that supports that objective is valued positively. Conversely acting in a way that limits growth in the scope of human consciousness is valued negatively.

Self-Replenishing Systems

Thinking in terms of sustainability is better than not taking the impact of our actions on our environment seriously, but I think there is a subtle and important fault in looking at the relationship this way. Having grown up in an industrial capitalist economy, most of us unconsciously accept "the economy" as an irreducible something on which we depend for our survival.

Systems and Human Power

Systems of human cooperation are the primary method used to magnify human power. We are now in an era of human history where technology seems to be the primary amplifier of human power, but the growth of technology is really an outgrowth of human systems. The human systems that have collected knowledge in written form and made it widely available are the backbone of the technical accomplishments of our species.

Consciousness is co-occurring with space-time and energy

The purpose of defining these principals is to bring materialism and idealism together in an integrated view of reality. The conflict between idealism and realism is best characterized by the assertion of original supremacy of either Consciousness or Matter. The origin of one aspect of reality precedes the other and is therefore superior, the other aspect being derivative of the first.

Consciousness exists as a fundamental aspect of Reality

The Case for Inclusion of Consciousness as a Constitutional Aspect of Reality. Our deepest explorers of human subjectivity have reported, cross culturally, that direct realization of consciousness causes a change in world view that assigns Consciousness a high degree of reality and that this is directly experienced in realizing a change in consciousness that has many names in different traditions, Satori, Enlightenment, Self Realization, etc.

The Cosmos and Consciousness

This series of principals addresses the cosmological, or most abstract set of philosophical statements in this system and it is intended to set the context for the previous sets of principals on human nature, moral/ethical, political, and economic systems. Each series of principals is interrelated to the others but each is also designed to stand on its own.

Several ways of looking at the existence of consciousness, its origins and relationship to the other aspects of reality are reasonable.

Subscribe to