PROSPERITY VIA ACTIVISM
WHAT IS PROSPERITY?
Prosperity means everyone having an abundance of things needed to fulfill everyone's needs. Basic needs include freedom, excitement, affection, cooperation and physical survival needs. Sensitive Political Action is necessary to provide sufficiency of freedom and physical needs. This political action focuses on providing for the general welfare of all the people. It promotes education that fills needs for freedom, excitement, affection, cooperation and truth. It promotes science that does objective research for truth, free of manipulation by special interests. It promotes media that are sensitive, objective, honest and fair, unmanipulated by special interests. It promotes Intervention for all groups to increase sensitivity and responsibility.
COOPERATION
Sensitive cooperation is the most effective means of achieving Prosperity. Effective cooperation involves establishing or joining groups and promoting responsibility. See prior Lessons for details on responsibility. Cooperation should include making decisions by consensus, rather than majority rule. Group rules should include starting and ending meetings at pre-specified times. They should ask all members to speak only when designated by the leader or facilitator. A timer should be used to limit each person's speaking to a pre-specified number of minutes. The position of group leader or facilitator should rotate among experienced members. It's often best for the group to divide into committees on desired subjects. After each committee decides on proposals, the group should then vote on each proposal. The proposal may be modified or made temporary to help reach consensus. Objectors should be asked if they would agree to give a proposal a try despite doubts. Active Listening and other P.E.T. methods should be used to improve everyone's sensitivity. All members should be encouraged to learn the 12 Steps and P.E.T. and join a CodaPlus group. Groups should do Group Inventory once a month, or every 2, 3, or 4 months. See Lesson 7.
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DIALOG FOR KNOWLEDGE SHARING
RESPONSIBILITY TO SHARE
It is Irresponsible to remain ignorant of basic matters on any important subject. It is Irresponsible to be insensitive to anyone who seeks to communicate, except in emergencies. In becoming more responsible, we must seek the best media for truth and knowledge. We must also seek to advance truth and knowledge thru our associations. Truth importantly includes facts about people's suffering anywhere on earth. It also includes sensitive discussion of how best to remedy such suffering most effectively. Every group should attempt to advance such truth and other knowledge effectively. This means group members share truth and knowledge with each other. It means groups also share truth and knowledge with other groups. Knowledge includes science, history, economics, law, language, arts, personal experience etc. The best knowledge to share is that which has the greatest potential to help the common good. When groups meet, all members should be given about 5 minutes to share truth or knowledge. If time is too limited, just one or a few members may be chosen to share at each meeting. Different members should be chosen for each meeting, so all get a chance to share. An alternative is for members to print out what they want to share and give other members copies. Everyone should be free to decide themselves what seems to be truth and knowledge. Everyone should also be encouraged to comment sensitively pro or con on what is shared by others.
ALTERNATIVE MEDIA
Do good media exist that disseminate important truth and knowledge? Most media cover some such matters, but most also slant much of their coverage for special interests. The most important subjects may be Politics, History, Science, Health and Education. Most media on all these subjects are slanted and considerably dishonest, due to pride and insensitivity. Science, education, health science and history are very distorted due to special interests. Our nation [and probably all nations] is like an addict, i.e. like a person addicted to power and substances. That describes much of the dominant class of any society. The lower classes of a society are like the addict's family members. The addict is insensitive and denies doing anything wrong. The family members are co-dependent and try to cover up for the addict to appear normal. Sometimes a co-dependent family member will rebel, which upsets the other co-dependents. Most rebels tend to become addicts or power abusers themselves. Can you see how various groups in society behave like addicts, co-dependents, or rebels? Since truth and knowledge are so distorted, much work needs to be done to make it right. Will you help us do that and help bring humanity prosperity in the process?
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MORE RESPONSIBILITY
NATURAL DEVELOPMENT
For kids it's responsible to have few responsibilities, but for adults it's responsible to have many, if properly developed. Most of us adults did not have properly developed responsibilities, so we remain largely irresponsible. P.E.T. and the 12 Steps are the best ways I know of to develop responsibilities properly. Such responsibilities are fun again the way they were in our early childhoods, when we liked being more capable. When we're not having much fun, we should take inventory, because something is wrong with us. It may be that we're taking on more responsibilities than we are yet able to handle. Many of the kinds of responsibilities we try to take on are things we should not really be doing at all. Perfectionism, false guilt and senseless traditions often cause us to accept such responsibilities unwisely. In our inventories we need occasionally to review our responsibilities and discard the unwise ones.
LEADERSHIP [M. Scott Peck: People of the Lie]
The most responsible people are leaders and not followers. Many leaders are immature, but they have the confidence, courage and discipline to think for themselves and to lead. The most responsible leaders effectively encourage their followers to become leaders. They encourage followers to develop confidence, courage and discipline for independent thinking and leading. This is proper leading, which promotes sharing leadership among all members of the group. This is promoting equality, cooperation, mutual respect, consensus decision making and group inventory.
WHAT IS DISCIPLINE?
Discipline is ordered routine that produces effective and efficient action. The 12 Steps and P.E.T. are among the best disciplines for developing responsible people. Other important disciplines include nutrition, exercise, tidiness and reading for knowledge [See KNOWLEDGE SHARING]. Is discipline supposed to be fun, since it's another responsibility? I would say YES on the basis that fun is anything that feels rewarding. So how can these disciplines come to feel rewarding? Doing things in groups is often more rewarding than doing them alone. So it's likely to be helpful to brainstorm with others to find ways to do some disciplines together in fun ways.
CARRYING THE MESSAGE TO OTHERS
The last of the 12 Steps is practicing recovery and carrying the message of recovery to others who still suffer. Recovery in this case means regaining emotional health, which allows one to become more responsible. Each person who begins to become responsible is responsible for carrying the message of recovery to others. All are free to do this however seems best, but cooperatively is usually better than individually. Physical, psychological and emotional problems heal quicker when we're more loving toward others. [McKenzie] Helping others and encouraging them to help yet others is an important way to love they neighbor and heal thyself. No matter how serious our ailments are, we need to help others in order to help ourselves best. Fear of ill-health is counterproductive and must be countered with love and faith in the healing process. Negative emotions must be released, as by moral inventory, and positive ones must replace them to promote healing. Is this enough responsibility you've gotten us into? Are we having fun yet?