The Humanist Party
Only by applying better rationalised ideas will we create a better world
Nurturing a Society of Compassion, Awareness and Shared Responsibility
Now Utopia - A Political Philosophy for the 21st Century
The Humanist Party takes it's Manifesto straight from the pages of the political philosophy that has inspired it - The book 'Now Utopia'. Now Utopia starts as a social critique, of the flaws in our system of governance, of the inherent problems of our financial system. It examines the human journey for its achievements and its failures along the way. It looks at the culture and technology of the internet generation for the inspiration to show us what is possible. The first half of the book concludes with the premise that, with all that we know, all that we can do, and all that we can collectively agree on what we want, why can't we collectively design the society we want? What is preventing us from doing this? Is there a better way forward.
The second half of the book starts with a new philosophical perspective that may help us better understand the complexities of social design. It puts forward the idea that people, as advance social creatures, have developed a highly calibrated relationship to society made up of six personal attributes - 1) Our sense of personal determination 2) Our constant quest to understand the world around us 3) Our need for biological connection 4) Our development of capabilities 5) Courage to defend ones position and 6) Rationale for decision making.
It promotes the philosophical position of the 'Golden Rule' that appears across many religious doctrines that is basically 'what we want for ourselves we should expect others to want'. It proposes that if we are to design our utopia it would be on the understanding that we balance what we want and do for ourselves with how we impact society as a whole. If we can maintain this balance of Ego and Citizen then society will benefit as we benefit ourselves. Much of this is already in place as it has developed as a natural social process. The principles of Now Utopia however is that we can better design our political structure for greater efficiency. As we observe the dynamics of our relationship to society we can also observe how these dynamics, collectively, make up six observable complex social systems - 1) Compassionate Empathic System 2) The Intellectual Progessive System 3) The Living Biospheric System 4) The Applied Productivity System 5) The Moral, Legal, Regulatory System and 6) The Conceptual Asset Evaluation System.
Once you are able to better understand the natural and organic structures within society then you would be better able to build a government that can place itself within these soocial systems in order to most efficiently benefit the people. Now Utopia concludes that the problems that arise in society, identified earlier in the book, can be directly taken on if we were to structure our government departments in and around these complex social systems. They are identified, quite dramatically, as 'The 12 Pillars of Governance'.
The premise is that there are a dozen ways to evaluate the quality of life in society. We could establish 12 such Human Welfare Indices and each could be the specific objective of the 12 Pillars of Governance. Further, each government department could be appraised on its efficiency at delivering value to the electorate by having its funding directly assigned to one of the methods of taxation ie VAT for the Department of Health and Well-being, Corporate Tax for the Department of Education and Progress. If this was the case then each government department could have its efficiency and effectiveness evaluated on their success at delivering services measured by taxational input to Human Welfare output. The 12 Government Departments could then pledge their specific objectives to the electorate as the government's part of a 'Social Contract'.
Being that the 12 Pillars of Governance take on their own aims to deliver social objectives they would need to have their actions and intentions defined by the people, in which case people would have to be asked to vote upon what they want from the service. The most efficient model for this would require a committee to be set up for each department. They would each work on an Act of Parliament in line with the consensus of the people and ultimately voted on by the people. The 12 Pillars therefore, would require the public to vote on issues one at a time, each month, giving them time to better understand the issues involved.
The book goes on to provide further logical conclusions for every aspect of political, social and economic issues including how we can convert, in the shortest possible time frame, to enewable energy and a sustainable existence. The book is available at this website and you can also find the conclusions within the aims of this political party.