The Society Agreement
THE HEALTH OF A SYSTEM, OF THE MODERN SOCIETY
There are some basic truths about the functioning of complex wholes. This include the importance of putting each part to its correct place in the system. This is connected to the value of objective thinking, honesty and justice and to the success of market economy: in each of them one gives things feedback according to what the things are like and that enables one to put each thing to its correct, best place in the system.
Having each part at its correct place in the whole means that the system isn't broken. This is connected to the value of unifiedness, fracturelessness in well "planned" systems.
The value of fracturelessness is in turn connected to the value of harmony:
Imagine a system broken into pieces, starting to repair the system you put some parts to their correct places: you get small unified, harmonical islands, the better repaired the system becomes, the more harmonical its functioning, the more unified the whole. A well planned system functions without contradictions and fractures, harmonically. The next step from harmonival is unified well functioning. Such are the systems of nature.
The value of harmony as a vector sum
Several harmonious forces sum up to much a bigger force
than a group of contradictory, unharmonical forces
or a separate one of the forces in question.
< > v ^ contradictory
versus
> > > > noncontradictory, harmonical
Harmonical solution creates more benefit and loses none to opposition
- unlike the contradictory solution attempt.
Thus, cooperation gives strength while strength is lost in conflicts.
So one who values cooperation is stronger than a like one who values conflicts.
And so "soft" harmonical means prove to be valuable.
Like this one can see how peace is more beneficial than war and count the difference. One must just add the huge effect of the enormous destruction caused by the enemy. Also there is a loss in war to the safety of the future, like the society agreement with other countries tells.
Applying this result thoroughly gives the efficiency-optimised result:
the most harmonical arrangement:
the natural and healthy (in harmony with the natural ways of functioning of the living beings)
loose (according to the way that things are)
global (all parties in harmony and cooperation)
cooperation.
Ally as much as you can. That brings you success in life. Ally with the society in order to produce good living conditions, ally with the moral ones for the same common cause and with friends to defend the things, which you value. Ally with the living kind to achieve the paradise, Gaia.
Compare the value of harmony to the value of unifiedness and fracturelessness.
HARMONIC FOREST ISLANDS
Harmonic forest islands is the best way that I can think of to think of people living peacefully together. Each person alone is an island with harmonic forest growing on it. Each cooperating group is a harmonic forest island. One can think through the whole society agreement this way: the structure of the whole world in a way, which is constructive for happy life and good moral. This natural division of the world also teaches one healthy independence at the same time as harmonical cooperation.
This way of cooperating can be described also by marking each thing done a vector and by grouping the vectors according to their direction, so that one gets an optimised use of forces.
THE SOCIETY AGREEMENT
The island principle
A way to arrange cooperation:
either cooperation or independence.
(Use separate islands for different conflicting parties.)
People who CULTIVATE the same thing belong to the same ISLAND.
Share results of cultivation on the island according to justice, which takes into, account the basic living requirements of each. ("Live and let others live." is a good rule to follow.)
Check who belongs to your own island: those who do not follow some set of rules, do not deserve the benefits created by them.
One can create islands for the exchange of benefits.
Like this one can count what are one's responsibilities and rights toward the society: which islands one is on, what are the rules needed for cultivating those things: that's what benefits one has gained and that's what one must follow. This is called the society agreement.
By taking into account also other kinds of islands, i.e. all things that one causes (cultivates), one can see how we together make the world what it is.
One of the most important islands is that “in emergencies one is fairly helped by those who are capable of helping”. It includes an obligation to help but one gains the protection in emergencies which is dearly needed.
Forming groups by being in a same situation or by caring for the same thing:
* all mothers
* all those who care for children (including children them selves)
* all those who support good moral, obliged when they find themselves in a situation like this, needing moral guarding behaviour working for the good of all
* all who care for the future of us all
* all living beings
The society agreement says: all those of the group agree to work for the common cause according to real justice which takes into account human values, carrying responsibility of the whole, with the help of common sense with a holistic view.
The freely organized citizen democracy in Finland in Europe is of this type.
Compassion helps us to see the similarities between our lives and so to form this kind of cooperating groups.
As a helping aid in forming this kind of groups, an objective holistic picture of the world formed by objective thinking, which doesn't take sides, and which recognizes things as phenomena with feelings connected to them, feelings that tell about the importance of such things in life and in the world generally and about what to do with such things: which things to support and which to prevent for the good of all: children, free time, catastrophes,...
Feelings of this kind are typical to the Finnish speaking Finns:
what is the role of each thing in life and in the society,
how do things form our fate - is it good to have such things in life or not?
It is typical for us Finns to use a holistic view of the world at large all the time.
Remember this also at the times of war: do not break against justice even then. There is a society agreement with the enemy too, preventing the wars from getting longer and more cruel. Check how much is lost when you do not follow some rules. That much you have to lose yourself, even if you are a man and soldier and think that what you are doing is for the common good. Those who keep the society agreement, are still entitled to their share of good, even if they are female and civilian. Read my text about healthy aggressivity. More than that isn't allowed. Being for the good health of the world and of the societies is moral, so it is supporting some islands of the society agreement, not destroying them. The army of Finland is strictly for defence only plus for some peace keeping operations of the United Nations.
The society agreement like picture of the world allows one to make cost benefit analyses also at the times of war. The costs of a war are huge, peace is a much much more beneficial option.
NATURAL PATCHES AND SOCIETY AGREEMENT
NATURAL PATCHES
* individual
* social group
* group working together
for some goal
following some set of rules
(not hurting each other,
co-operating for the goal,
nice behaviour
and so on):
1. Things that one needs to run one's life:
* home
* food
* means to get such for oneself (work and the possibility to work)
* safety
2. Things that one likes:
* hobbies
* delicious food
* and so on
And arranging these together:
* hobby group
* ordering food from shop
* And the possibility for such
Large groups
agreeing not to hurt
each other badly
or at all
(no need to, if the places are separate
or far away from each other)
Justice
&
A Harmonic Forest Islands type of society agreement
(like the one above)
Rights and priviledges are conditional:
shared only according to justice!
DEFENCE AGAINST DECEPTION IN ALLEGIANCIES
Think of the world as a huge society agreement: who is really on your own island in each question, you can trust. Who is not but appears to be, who is disguised as one of your own, you cannot trust. So you need an island against the dangers created by those pretenders, especially if they are enemies. One way to guard against such attacks is to use separate islands in deciding about things: you decide on your island on objective grounds which support common good and then check if it agrees with the decisions of others and communicate about the decisions so that you and the others can learn from each other. This is the reason why we are individuals and not solely social beings: so we can make defences against betrayals. If your decisions agree, you are parts of the same group in that question. If not, then you are somewhat on different islands - either as a result of differences in understanding and experience - like usual: that's why the communication and social instincts are needed. Or because the others try to deceive you to an action which is harmful to you or to your group or serves some other goal which you do not agree about - that's why you need to trust your own understanding too.
HANDLING UNSURENESS ABOUT TRUSTWORTHINESS
If you are in a situation where you do not know how things truly are, for example whether you can trust some person or not, you should act in a way that is O.K. from the point of view of the both possibilities. Take yourself care of the important things in your life, so that they get well even if the other person is not trustworthy. On the other hand, give yourself and the other person a possibility to living in harmony, in a constructive way: do not break anything that you do not need to - especially not those things that the other person needs if she/he truly is trustworthy. Try to do things according to justice, and work for common good, without harming good persons and without letting the evil ones to benefit in any way more than they deserve when they are judged according to their moral. Like making an ordinary deal with safety precautions. These safety precautions mean in practise moral guidelines and making the morality of action in practise the condition for any rights. (Rights can be refused also afterwards and deals devalidiated if the other one breaks against the moral guidelines.)
HOW TO AVOID CONFLICTS
One simple advice on how to avoid conflicts, is to get more independence when one feels the need to aggressively influence things, so that one can peacefully influence them instead.
Read my texts about the healthy aggressivity.
INDEPENDENCY AND COOPERATION WITH UNIFICATION
How to fit together the needs of independency (defence, justice) and the benefits of unification and cooperation? One needs different degrees of freedom and safety precautions in addition to unification. One can have separate islands for each party, or them in harmony and cooperation, or such with a promise to stay so, or such for a long time or one single area. Safety precautions make it possible to sift to a more independent arrangement if one gets abused. The ideal is to be free and cooperate at the same time, such is the healthiest kind of system, I think. In other words the arrangements should be so ideal that a new participant would on one's own choose the same ones as are already in use. This is the way that the culture and the society of the Finnish speaking Finland work. That is: if they try to choose the best ones and not sabotage the systems. Separate islands and independence are needed just as a defence against sabotage and other attacks. Those who cooperate survive better.
Between island there can be exchanges: what one has a lot it will give to others and get something that they have a lot in return. If someone has lots of strength, it can help the weak ones, who in turn make the promise to help in return.
DEFENCE:
SAFETY PRECAUTIONS
Always make carefully sure that the most important things get right! Make several checkings instead of just one: use all the weight of the importance of the thing in question.
TRUTH
About the importance of staying with sure knowledge, the exact truth:
Different points of view and different pieces of sure knowledge are like pictures taken of the same house from different points of view and different distances. They fit together perfectly to form a totally correct picture of the house.
If one instead takes the rough building instructions of one corner of the house and shows them to someone who imagines based on that what the corner really in practise and the house as a whole are like, one gets a picture which has reaches the truth in some sense but is in other respects badly mistaken. Several such points of view do not together form an unified whole. Instead one gets a fragmented picture of the world since the pieces do not fit together.
Stay with honesty!
So all points of view fit together to an unified whole which is a correct picture of the world.
Read the texts Fulfilling all needs at the same time and Build upon the healthy.'
If you go to the right direction, you might get something done. If you go to a wrong direction, you surely do not get anything done. So it is worth trying.
I never take an evil person as a model for myself.
Instead I trust my own sense of health and happiness.
NOT TAKING SIDES
Not taking sides is a prequisite for justice and for true objectivity.
HONESTY
X% honesty in a system gives (X%)^n effectiveness to the system where n is the dimension of the system and X% the amount of hitting the truth, what ever the reason for it. So systems are build on honesty.
Speak the truth when you say something. The deeper you touch the truth, the better you will be listened to. Your soul is like that of others.
Honest looks
If the looks of people are not correct, honest and sincere, people get wrong roles in the society and the functioning of the communities suffers a lot.
One should not allow the disguising of evil as good. That is against honesty and justice, against the functioning of a system and against correctability. The Swedish speaking Finns do not understand this, the Finnish speaking Finns do understandf it.
NO social roles
Social roles are partly lies: they try to build on a ground that does not exist or deceive others into supporting unjustices. These are both serious faults, which should be avoided.
Lies and unjustice decrease the effectiveness of arrangements.
There is a Finnish saying: "What the big before, the little ones after." If the leaders of a country steal by lying or doing unjustice - either from other countries or fron their own subordinates - others typically copy the amount of lies in order to trust in the most intelligent ones' understanding. So if the leaders gain X% extra by lying or doing unjustice, all the others try to do the same. That means at least X% of everything lost to lies, so the effectiveness of the system decreases X% per every dimension of the system. So the leaders gain (100+X)% * ((100-X)%)^n = ((100%)^2 - (X%)^2 )((100-X)%)^(n-1)< (100%)^2 - (X%)^2 < 1. So since the dimension of the system, n, is at least one, the leaders lose instead of gaining! For example the dimension of the system n=2 if there is stealing plus laziness because of lack of motivation because of the stealing. That would cause a loss of 2X% in addition to the gain of X% by stealing, so the total effect is a loss of X% to both the leaders and to the citizens. In other words, lying or unjustice as a practise in a country decreases its standard of living noticeably, so much that honesty and justice would be a more benefical option.
A proud nation is a self sustaining nation! Also if it is a big nation capable of mistreating others - It will not mistreat others even if it were strong enough for that.
Remember that if you are in an important place in the market economy so that you could gain a lot by stealing a little or even more, you are one of the leaders of a country and so the above calculations apply to you too. (You are an opinion leader, an example to others, especially in your own branch where your money comes from.) So you will lose by stealing and doing unjustice, not gain.
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