0.1 Why Bother?

Version 1.7 November 2016                                        Previous Version

Everyone from everywhere, from all walks of life should care about these issues.  They matter.  Let’s look at a bit of what is happening around the world now.

1.   Terrorism & Nationalism

Globally, more and more people are worried about terrorism.  The West focusses on Islamists, but many whites overlook their own white supremacists.  Sunni and Shiite Muslims terrorise each other.  In India the Hindutva movement terrorises Muslims and Christians.  Burmese Buddhists terrorise Muslim minorities.  We all want Truth and Justice.  more

2.   Understanding

Globally, the lack of access to education keeps people in poverty, reinforcing sexism, racism and overpopulation.  Even in affluent countries, too many people have a poor understanding of science, believe pseudoscience peddled on the internet, and deny the climate is changing.  more

3.   Violence and War

Globally, there is too much violence.  American led wars in Afghanistan and Iraq made them more unstable and more violent.  Civil wars in Sudan, Sri Lanka and Syria caused floods of refugees into neighbouring countries, whose ultimate destination is affluent Western countries, straining those countries’ tolerance of asylum seekers and minorities in general.  more

4.   Identity

Globally and locally identity politics is becoming more significant, or more obvious.  Many people blame colonial Europe, or America, for the poor state of developing countries.  Many Westerners feel apologetic and don’t value their own cultures.  Most people define themselves by gender, ethnicity, religion or nationality, based on a limited understanding of history.  more

5.   Beliefs and Values

Globally, poverty, inequality and environmental destruction are pervasive, even though the world as a whole is rich enough to fix these problems.  Too many people belief in opinions rather than facts.  Our values are too selfish.  Many are losing faith in “traditional” democracy and turning to extremist leaders and parties.  Life seem to have no meaning any more.  more

6.   Questions

We need better answers to lots of questions, answers that are coherent and consistent with each other, consistent with the facts and the realities of our social and political life.  Simply listing the most relevant questions is tedious, but we can do it.  Then we must face up to them.  more

7.   Summary of Critical Issues

We can summarise these concerns into a set of critical global, national and personal issues, regarding population, pollution, climate change, war, trade, religion, values, economics and politics.  The methods now used to address conflicts are past their use by date.  Many common preconceptions that affect global, national and interpersonal politics are simply wrong.  more

8.   We need a brand to promote!

The central theme of these pages is that we, as a global society, as nations and as individuals, have more hope of fixing these issues if we have a better understanding of beliefs and values.  We need to firstly to develop and present that understanding in a comprehensible and concise way.  But critically we need to be able to identify it, refer to it and cite it: In short, we need a recognisable brand, a name that implies this complex set of global beliefs and values.  more