The Values God Gave Us
— Visiting
Lecturer Series —
DRAFT
By
Daniel Raphael, PhD
https://sites.google.com/view/danielraphael
https://independent.academia.edu/DanielRaphael1
Introduction ...................................................................................................................................................... 5
1.
Seven Universal and Timeless Values ................................................................................................ 7
Illustration: The Seven Values that have Sustained Our
Species’ Survival ....................................... 7
Illustration: Priorities of Decision-Making in a Socially
Sustainable Society.....................................
13
2.
Moral Decision-Logic and Moral
Definitions for Each Value ................................................ 17
3.
Ethics Statements for Each Moral
Definition ................................................................................ 27
5.
Social Sustainability — Bedrock for Moral and Ethical Decision-Making ........................ 35
Table,
“Social Sustainability, Two Types” .................................................................................................................................... 35
6.
Which Form of Morality to Choose?.................................................................................................
39
7.
A Logic-Method for Validating Decisions and Actions
As
Being Moral and Socially Sustainable...................................................................................
47
Social Sustainability Design and
Validation Schematic ............................................................. 55
Conclusions ...................................................................................................................................................... 57
BIO ......................................................................................................................................................
59
The Values God Gave Us
© Copyright Daniel Raphael 2018 USA.
[Formatted for a printed document.]
The Values God Gave Us
Daniel Raphael, PhD
—
opus unius hominis vitae —
No
Broken Hearts is an Imprint of
Daniel
Raphael Publishing
~
Daniel
Raphael Consulting
PO
Box 2408, Evergreen, Colorado 80437 USA
Introduction
If
you were God, you have already created the universe with billions of planets,
some of which have billions of people on them.
Now, being God what was your purpose for creating the universe, all of
those planets, and so many billions of people?
Just
for a few minutes, I am going to “take you around the houses,” as they say in
England, meaning that we are going to take a detour in this discussion, but it
will be an interesting detour.
People who believe in God have been
taught that
God
is perfect;
God
is eternal;
God
is without form (doesn’t have a body);
God
knows everything that is going on in the universe;
And,
God is present anywhere and everywhere, including our mind.
The
last sentence above is the key to the answer.
It seems very reasonable, and also very logical, that God created people
to experience the process of living. By being
in our mind, which most people call “the Presence of God,” God gets what It did
not have before – the experience of living.
But what that doesn’t answer is this question, “If our experience is
supposed to give God the experience of living, then are all of our experiences
meaningful to God?”
The
answer to that question seems to be this — God is perfect, but has not
experienced the process of becoming perfect, which is also a process of
living. Hmmmm, the process of becoming
perfect…. In order to do that it would first
take a decision by us to want to choose to become perfect; and second, we would
need to know how to make “good decisions” that contribute to our process of
living to become more and more perfect.
All of that makes sense and seems to be very reasonable. Of course if you don’t believe in God, then
it all sounds like a lot of hokum and balderdash.
Living
with God in our lives changes the whole picture of life and living and gives
our lives a greater purpose and meaning.
Again, there seems to be one big missing piece and in need of a
question. “So, after we have tried to
live our lives as a process of becoming perfect so that God could understand
that process, then what happens when we die?
Are we just discarded like some old milk carton with our picture on it?”
The
metaphor that seems to answer that question, in part, is that of a bee hive. Bees are born in the hive by the tens of
thousands, go out into the world, gather lots of nectar and then return to the
hive to share their experiences of nectar-collecting. It is very much the same for us, but instead
of collecting nectar, we are collecting life’s experiences for God.
Now,
this is where the book comes into play. To
give us a head start before the first chapter we need to know one very
important bit of vital information about making decisions. It is
important to know that values
always underlie all of
the decisions we ever make whether in a micro-second, or those that take years.
And, in order to make decisions that
contribute to our life and to the experience of God, we need to know that God has already given us the values
for making those decisions!
Being
really clever, God put those values inside of us in our DNA so that everyone
who was ever born, is born, and will be born always has those values with
them. Once you make the personal
decision to want to live and make decisions that contribute to God’s experience
of living through you, then it is important to know what develops after that.
f
NOTE: This book is a God-centered derivative of my
earlier book, The Moral and Ethical
Decision-Logic of the Seven Organic and Universal Values. Both are condensations of a yet earlier and
much more comprehensive book, ORGANIC
MORALITY, Answering the Critically Important Moral Questions of the 3rd
Millennium. Both are available as
free downloadable PDFs at
https://sites.google.com/view/danielraphael/free-downloads
1
Seven Universal and
Timeless Values
The
seven values that were embedded by the Creator in our DNA are illustrated above
that also shows their relationship to each other. The seven values are integral to our being,
and being integral they give us the capability to make decisions to become
complete as a person and the capability to become more perfect, and more
loving.
Characteristics of
These Values
The seven values in the illustration above
exist in every person of every race, culture, ethnicity, nation, and
gender. They express certain
characteristics that validate their existence, and offer us the opportunity to
develop a logically integrated morality and ethic for all of our personal,
familial, societal, and international relationships, for everyone.
These seven values are the original cause of human motivation
that give us the urge to improve our quality of life materially and socially. We can safely predict that these same values
will continue to motivate our species to search for an ever-improving quality
of life, and to grow into our innate potential individually and collectively into
the future centuries and millennia.
Organic / Innate / Timeless
Even though I cannot prove it, evidence
seems to suggest that these seven values are organic to our species and have
been embedded in our DNA from our earliest beginnings. They have motivated us, everyone, to yearn for
the improvement of our quality of life materially and socially.
These seven values are the original cause of human motivation, [1] (pages
12 & 13), that
urge us to improve our quality of life materially and socially. We can safely predict that these same values will
continue to motivate our species to search for an ever-improving quality of
life, and to grow into our innate potential in future centuries and millennia.
Universal
These values are also universal to all
people of all races, cultures, ethnicity, nations, and genders. We are all the same! Ask anyone, whether they live in Bangladesh
or Baltimore, Houston or Hanoi if they would like to develop the innate potential
they brought into life and to improve their quality of life with an equal
ability as anyone else would or could.
The answers are universally the same.
Self-Evident
The
self-evident nature of these values is only one of several characteristics that have obscured their presence while in plain sight. The four primary values are self-evident
similarly as those stated in the famous sentence in the United States
Declaration of Independence, “We
hold these truths (values) to be self-evident, that all [people] are created
equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights,
that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” The proof of this becomes evident when people
around the world are asked whether they would like to enjoy an improving
quality of life, as they define it.
Irreducible
Life
and the four primary values are the superordinate values of our species and are
not subordinate to any other values. The
pursuit of an improving quality of life, growth, and equality provide the
foundation for human motivation as interpreted by the individual, and express
themselves in a personal hierarchy of needs.
The Four Primary
Values
From the standpoint of God creating our
species, God gave us the values to urge us to improve the quality of our lives,
the urge that provides the motivation to become more perfect. How else could we grow to become more whole
and more loving with the possibility of become more perfect throughout our
lives? God gave us the urge and the
freedom to make choices guided by the values It gave to us.
The four primary values are remarkable
because they constitute an organic “code of decision-making” that
will produce consistent results regardless of the culture in which they are
used. And once we are past the stage of
survival, then we can exist year to year, and have a stable and productive
life.
Life is the ultimate
value.
Life is a VALUE that everyone appreciates, but
there is far more to living than having life.
Life is one of seven values that help us make decisions about our life
and our experience of living.
Life, the three primary values, and the three
secondary values create an integral system of values. Decisions
made about Life are qualified by the other six values as the
criteria for human decision-making.
Quality of Life.
While
life is fundamental to survival and continued existence, it is the quality of life that
makes life worth living and gives life meaning.
In a democracy, access to the quality of life is provided when a person not only has an equal right to life, but that person also has an equal right to growth
as anyone else. This is what makes immigrants
so excited to move to a democracy — they seek freedom to experience the quality of life that makes life worth living — to control
their own destiny and to explore their innate potential with the opportunities
that a democratic nation provides.
Growth
Growth is essential for improving our
quality of life. To be human is to
strive to grow into our innate potential.
Only a proactive morality and ethic has the capability to support the
growth of others.
This value ensures that the inherent
potential of individuals, societies, and a civilization becomes expressed and
fulfilled, which encourages an improving quality of life for everyone. Without growth, there would be no
possibility of social evolution and social sustainability.
Equality
Equality reflects the Creator’s
generosity. God gave everyone the same
inner resources to develop. God loves
each person the same. Because of that, equality is
inherent in the value of life — everyone’s life is valuable. This is the value that empowers us to work
together to improve our world.
Equality is inherent in the value of
life. We give equal value to
each individual, and we would seek to provide more equitable opportunity to
every individual to develop their innate potential, as we would our own.
A Caveat for the
primary value “Equality.”
The moral and ethical person is not naïve to assume that everyone else
is moral and ethical. But until proven
otherwise, be authentic, genuine, ethical, and do practice and use its Expressed
Ethics. It is unfortunate that we live
in a hostile social environment where we seem to be constantly confronted with
those who have chosen to be NON-human.
Non-humanness can vary from short-changing us at the cash register, to
the extreme of kidnapping, rape, and death of a victim. Do not tempt those who are NON-human to
express their inhumanity to you!
The Three Secondary Value-Emotions
Equality à Empathy, Compassion,
and “Love”
The
primary value Equality is the source
for the three secondary value-emotions values.
We know when equality is out of balance because God also gave us the
secondary value of empathy –
to “feel” or put our self in the place of another person and sense what that is
like, whether that is in anguish or in joy.
When we feel empathy for others, we want to act in compassion [2] – to reach out to the other person and
assist them in their situation. When
empathy and compassion are combined and we feel that equally for everyone, then
we say that we have a “Love” for all
humanity. – the capacity to care for another person or
all of humanity, as we would for our self.
Empathy,
compassion, and “Love” are
the “inner values” that support the inner development of a higher quality of
life for our self and with others. They provide
the motivating energy to grow into a more complete, mature, and functional
individual within our self and within our social environment. They allow us to see the common good as
societal rather than selfishly personal.
Expressing these three values demonstrates the highest ennobling
qualities of human nature at its best. With
these three value-emotions, we have the direction and motivation from which to
develop highly positive family dynamics; and a loving, compassionate, and
empathic means of supporting the growth in individuals, families and societies.
When we consciously internalize the four primary
values and the three value-emotions, we realize that the collective power of
individuals affects individuals everywhere, as much as the individual affects
the collective whole.
Together, these seven values provide us with a unified, values-based theory of human motivation. [3] The synergism of these seven values gives us a
complete picture of why people do what they do.
These values are the energy behind human motivation and an accurate
reflection of us as individuals — thinking and compassionate. The four primary values and the three
secondary value-emotions complete the circle of our existence by engaging the
analytical-side of us and others with the intuitive and heart-connected side of
our existence.
Further, these values give us the capability of
improving the quality of our lives through the development of how we feel about
our self — the intra-personal
relationship with our self, and our inter-personal relationship with others. The unification of the primary values and
secondary value-emotions creates a value system that motivates us to explore
our innate potential to find meaning in our life, and to aid others to develop their
own. The three secondary value-emotions
connect us to others through our empathy to act in compassion to come to the aid
of others. In doing so, these values
reflect that we are being fully human and whole children of our Creator. Peace will never become possible until we
become fully human in our intra- and inter-personal relationships.
Primal Human Motivation
Functional, loving families, and good communities
support the development of our intra-personal relationship, and that in turn
supports us to develop good, caring, and compassionate relationships with others. Who benefits?
Everyone!
The Illustration of the Organic
Decision-Making Tree below provides
individuals and organizations with a logical and rational process for moving
human motivation collectively from the simple task of sustaining the species to
sustaining the social fabric of our communities and societies. The illustration makes it very clear that
there is a reciprocal and symbiotic relationship involved between the
individual/family and organizations.
The only decision-makers in the illustration are the
individual/family and organizations.
They are mutually dependent upon each other to sustain the communities
and societies in which they both exist.
They success is dependent upon all families and organizations faithfully
using the seven values as the criteria for their decisions. The characteristics of those values are
particularly critical to the logic of using those values.
The Priorities
of Decision-Making that will
result in socially sustainable families and organizations is the context for
development of stable and peaceful communities and societies.
First, sustaining the species is the first priority of our genetic
program. The primal motivation of the individual is to reproduce to sustain the continuation of the species. At the early animal survival level of our
species, that does not require a family, community, society, organizations, or
morality and ethics.
The
illustration above first shows
that sustaining the species
is the first priority of our genetic program.
The primal motivation of the individual is to reproduce to sustain the continuation of the species. At the early animal level of our species,
that does not require a family, community, society, organizations, or morality
and ethics.
Second, organizations have the added responsibility for
supporting the good functioning of the individual/family. The reason organizations have this
responsibility is because families are the source for the workers, managers,
executives, and all decision-makers in all organizations for all future generations. If the quality of the child’s preparation for
entering into the work force, whether as a laborer, or as a member of some
board of directors, is high, then those organizations will benefit from the
good work that the parents have done raising that child.
God did not
create organizations, whether in the form of government agencies or
corporations of all types. Those are the
invention of people. When we give the illustration above
deeper thought some very large insights become visible. In our developed and complex societies, no
thought is ever given to sustaining the species. We take that for granted. What we fear is the collapse of our societies
and communities that would threaten the collapse of our families and our way of
life. The irony of it all is that no one
ever really gives any thought to the sustainability of our societies and
communities that support the well being and lifestyles of our families. In other words, no one has really given that
situation much thought in order to make a decision about the sustainability of
society AND the family.
f
2
Moral Decision-Logic
And Moral Definitions for Each
Value
Most of us have heard the words “values,”
“morality,” and “ethics.” The seven values
assure the survival of our species, but morality and ethics have never been
tied to anything more substantial than someone’s opinion about how we ought to
behave. With God as the source of our
creation and the seven values in each of us the development of a morality and
ethic based on those values seems almost self-evident. i.e., values, and moral and ethical behavior,
become the necessity for us to reliably progress on our spiritual journey to
rejoin our Creator in Paradise.
f
As a very brief aside, the four primary values were
not discovered until 2008, and the three secondary in 2014. The characteristics of the four primary
values began to reveal themselves in an experimental “design team” that I had
initiated in 2007 to discover the link between expectations and beliefs about
disappointment in personal relationships.
Years later, it became obvious to me that there was a logic-relationship
between these seven values and their characteristics. That relationship is presented here in a proactive
logic-based morality and ethic that could be easily understood. f
The Decision-Logic of the Seven Human Values
è Moral Definitions
è Ethics Statements
è Expressed Ethics
●
Values underlie the decisions
responsible for the survival of our species;
●
Moral Definitions provide us
with a set of rules to guide human decisions and actions to prevent destructive
life-altering behavior of human interaction;
●
Ethics Statements tell us how
to fulfill moral Definitions.
Using “equality” in this example as the originating value in the
sequence: Treating others as you would
your self means that you do not treat others less than your self; and it also
means that you do not treat yourself less than you would treat others. The value of others is equal to that of your
self, and your value is equal to that of others – act accordingly. The importance of this value is that others
are not excluded from consideration, and from opportunities to grow and to
improve their quality of life; and neither are you.
● Expressed Ethics tell us what to do to fulfill
Ethics Statements. Expressed Ethics are
the ethical values and principles that individuals, families, companies and
corporations, and public agencies adopt to conduct business and their lives
without jeopardizing their personal and social integrity and to improve those
relationships. As example, the personal
ethical principles for “equality” would include fairness, justice, integrity,
respect, loyalty, truth, trust, accountability, responsibility, and being
transparent, authenticity, and being honest.
Expressed Ethics1 is used in this text for what most
people call ethical values and ethical principles. The words “Expressed Ethics” is used to tell
the reader that it is the fourth stage of the values logic-sequence. For example, the Expressed Ethics for the
Primary Value Equality would include fairness, integrity, transparency,
acceptance, appreciation, worthiness, validation, honesty, and authenticity. The table above illustrates the values
logic-sequence.
You probably have accurately guessed
that the combination of these four steps provides a logic-sequence where each
step supports subsequent steps in the sequence.
The seven values are used as the criteria to validate each step in a
logic-sequence, particularly the last step.
Now,
let us begin to build logic-sequences beginning with the moral Definition.
That step will lead us to Ethics Statements and
so on from there. As always, we
begin with values.
The “IF . . . THEN”
of Building Logic-Sequences
Building any logic-sequence begins
with the statement, “IF _ _ _ _ _, THEN _ _ _ _.” It begins with something we speculate to be
true. When we create an “if-then
statement” it must be checked for its validity to know if it is PROVEN to be
true, to not. Once it is proven to be
true, then we call that statement a “PROOF” for the that step in the logic-sequence.
As an example from simple geometry,
the “if-then statement” of a triangle is this, “If the points of a three-sided object are joined, then the sum of the angles is always 180°. The important final word in this logic-sequence
is “always.” To validate this, we would measure the sum of
the angles of dozens of different types of triangles anywhere in the world at
different times of the day. The validation
process provides us with a “proof” of the logic-sequence of the statement. Once the Proof is made, then we can use the
Proof to build other “if-then statements,” and validate those proofs by actual
measurements. With the seven values, we can
build an integrated logical system of morality and ethics that will prove to be
useful to anyone, anywhere in the world, now and into the far distant
future.
Building logic-sequences (moral
Definitions) from the seven values begins with the statement, “IF the values do exist in everyone, THEN will it be possible to discover the
characteristics of these values also exist in everyone?”
To validate that “if-then statement,”
we would then go out into the world and interview thousands of people from all
over the world to determine if those values really do exist in everyone we
interviewed. If that proves to be true,
we would then develop the characteristics of those values.
Because that research has already
been completed, we know that the seven values exist in everyone in the
world. Because everyone who was
interviewed identified with those values, we can then describe the
characteristics of those values. The
characteristics of those values include that they are universal to
all people. From the written history of
past societies and civilizations, we also know that these values are timeless, meaning that people have expressed
these values in their life from the earliest recordings of history.
From our own experience today, as
well as our conclusions made from historical records, we know that these values
are innate and organic to
our being, and not learned.
That suggests that these values are embedded in our DNA.
What is remarkable about these values
is that once they are pointed out to people, their existence seems so obvious
that they are seen as being self-evident.
These
values are also proven to be irreducible.
That is confirmed when we challenge each value to discover what lies
behind each of them. Knowing that values always underlie all decisions, our
question becomes, “What are the values that lie behind Life?” Because you either have
life or not, there is no decision to be made.
We conclude that the value Life is irreducible.
Now, let us examine growth. What values support our growth? It, too, is irreducible because it is an
unconscious urge of our species and is not a decision. Growth spontaneously begins to express itself
immediately when children are born. Within
days infants begin to recognize faces, voices, and begin to babble in the
process of learning to talk. Then comes
crawling, standing, stepping, walking, running (and falling), then onto learning
the full scope of languages, writing, music, mathematics, and art.
As for equality, the
conclusion is the same. We do not decide
that we want to be unequal to others. The
necessity of equality is born in each of us.
It is an irreducible value.
Only within the last few years has it been scientifically proven
that the two secondary values of empathy and compassion exist in our DNA. Asking
people, “Do you have empathy? Did you
decide to have empathy? How about
compassion? Have you ever decided to
have compassion?” There are no other
values behind those values that support a decision to express empathy or compassion. They are irreducible as well.
When we become aware of these six values as having been a part of
our everyday decision-making become evident, we are able to come to the
conclusion that every person in history, now, and in the future is being urged
on by the values in their DNA to seek a better quality of life.
Non-humans. Consciously or
unconsciously deciding NOT to grow, not to express equality with others, and
not to express empathy, compassion, and a generalized “Love” of humanity is a decision
to become NON-human. From my own
experience from working in criminal felony adult corrections, that decision is
only rarely a conscious decision.
A Few More Details, First. The values need
to be explained in a bit more detail in order to provide a better understanding
of the logical nature of the moral Definitions and Ethics Statements that we
create.
LIFE
is the logical prerequisite for the functioning of the other six values. Life is primarily a motivating value to stay
alive.
Growth
is the logical evidence of life. Growth
is the evidence of the genetic program expressing the innate potential of the
individual and the species. Growth is a
motivating value and the prerequisite for the improvement of our quality of
life.
Equality
is a motivating value as we compare the quality of our life to the quality of
life of others.
Quality
of life is a motivating value that takes
into account the other six values as they relate to the seven spheres of human
experience, (physical, mental, emotional, intellectual, social, cultural, and
spiritual).
Empathy,
compassion, and “Love.” The presence of
these three secondary values in a person’s life is evidence of the degree of
that person being human — humane.
Without these secondary values life is a brutish and brutal
experience.
The
last few pages have been tedious, but essential to assure us that the values
exist in everyone, everywhere. From this
point we can begin the process of building logic-sequences using the seven
values with the confidence that what we are building will stand the test of
time for all races, cultures, ethnicities, nationalities, and genders. (Yay!)
Developing Moral
Definitions
At
first, the seven values do not seem nearly enough to give societies and nations
the necessary support for their survival, and the development of social
stability. The simplicity of their
appearance is deceiving. What makes the
possibility of societal and international peace possible is the integrated
nature of those values working together that reveals their unexpected synergism.
The
following operational moral Definitions are stated in the context of moral,
amoral, and immoral perspectives. They
are stated as affirmations rather than as proscriptions. The focus is on the desired behavior rather
than on undesirable behavior.
Moral Definitions for the Four Primary
Values
è Seven Values è
Moral Definitions è Ethics Statements è Expressed Ethics
Moral Interpretations provide us with a set of rules to
guide human decisions and actions to prevent destructive life-altering behavior
of human interaction.
Life — The
Ultimate Value
Proactive Moral Definition: Assign value in all of your decisions to
protect and value life.
Amoral: Do not go out of your way to support the
life of others, but neither cause them any harm.
Immoral: Use others for your own benefit and without
regard for their life, whether an individual or thousands.
Quality of Life
Proactive Moral Definition: Make
decisions for yourself and others that improve the quality of your lives.
Amoral: Make decisions for yourself that improve the
quality of your life without jeopardizing the quality of life of others.
Immoral: Make decisions that use others and what they
have to improve the quantity of your life.
Growth
Proactive Moral Definition: Make
decisions and take action that create opportunities for you to develop your
innate potential; and, whenever possible develop opportunities for others, and assist
them to grow into their innate potential to improve their quality of life as
you would for your self.
Amoral: Make decisions and take action to create opportunities
for growth for yourself.
Immoral: Make decisions and take action for your growth
as a means to take advantage of others.
Equality
Proactive Moral Definition: Make decisions and take action for improving
the quality of life and unleashing the potential of others as you would for
your self.
Amoral: Make decisions and take actions to maximized
your situation without jeopardizing the equality of others.
Immoral: Make decisions and take actions that put you
at advantage, and the disadvantage of others.
Equality is the pivotal element of proactive organic
morality.
The socially sustaining
value of equality is the last extension of our
primal ancestors who came together as a group to make their hunting and
gathering more efficient – without killing each other. The same exists today with this proactive morality
with the awareness that the “group” now includes everyone of the 7.3 billion
people on this planet.
When
this magnitude of equality is taken into consideration, then material
sustainability takes on a totally different definition than has been given to
it in the last 50 years. With this
proactive morality in mind, material sustainability becomes capable of taking on
the moral load of these seven values to contribute to the quality of life of
everyone. As importantly, equality takes
on the obligation for being morally responsible for the quality of life of all
future generations.
Moral
Definitions
for the Three Secondary Values
NOTE:
Because “Equality” is the primary value from which the three secondary
values emanate the Moral Definitions for the secondary definitions all relate
to supporting the achievement of equality.
Empathy
Proactive
Moral Definition: Extend
your awareness past your own life to that of others to sense their situation in
the seven spheres of human existence:
physical, mental, emotional, intellectual, social, cultural, and
spiritual. Reflect on what you sense and
compare that to your own awareness(es) of your own seven spheres of human
existence.
Amoral: Extend your awareness past your own life to
that of others to sense their situation in the seven spheres of human
existence: physical, mental, emotional,
intellectual, social, cultural, and spiritual.
Immoral: Be aware of your own existence without regard
to that of others around you, near or far.
Compassion
Proactive
Moral Definition: Based
on your developed sense of empathy, take action to come to the aid of others,
to support the improvement of their quality of life and to grow into their
innate potential, as you would do for your self.
Amoral: Be aware of the life-situation of others and
your self without needing to take action.
Immoral: Be aware of your own life-situation and take
action to improve your own situation first at the expense of others, regardless
of their situation.
“Love”
Proactive
Moral Definition: Love in the
context of proactive morality is defined as the combined energies of empathy
and compassion towards others, as you have for your self. This is truly the most developed definition
of equality — to see and value others as you do for your self, and choose to act
accordingly.
Amoral: Love
others as your self, but without the consideration to act on that love.
Immoral: Narcissistically
love your self and use others to fulfill that narcissism.
When we come to the awareness that God
created us for this journey of life, God also gave each of us a map, sign
posts, and directions to find our way to join It in Paradise. Nothing else is necessary, except the
decision to pursue this journey and then making the right decisions of what
works to move us ahead. To choose to use
these values means that the individual, family, and organization of any size
has also chosen to see others as being of equal value and treatment, just as
God does.
To choose
these values is to choose inclusiveness, not
separation. In a society that has chosen
to move forward toward social stability, peace, and sustainability, to treat
others as having less value than our self causes separation and becomes an
immoral act.
Inclusion does not mean that everyone all
the time in all situations and circumstances has to be included in making the
decisions and taking actions. What it
does mean is that our options, choices, decisions, and actions do NOT exclude
others from being worthy of receiving equal treatment. For example, on a scale of today’s society
(2018 C.E.) that means there would be no conscious or unconscious policies to
exclude minorities from receiving real estate loans to buy a home in a
particular area of the city. It means
that any form of discrimination, prejudice, and bigotry is an immoral act that
threatens the quality of life, growth, and equality of the excluded individuals
and their groups.
It does not mean, for another example, that
you could build an 800 square foot home in a subdivision that only has homes of
3,000 square feet and upward. Equality is
personal and means that YOU are accepted as you are as any other person would
be in that subdivision, regardless of race, culture, ethnicity, nationality, or
gender.
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3
Ethics Statements for Each Moral Definition
è
Seven Values è
Moral Definitions è Ethics Statements
è Expressed Ethics
Ethics Statements tell us how
to fulfill moral Definitions. These statements give us the basic
understanding of what we do to fulfill our relationship with our Creator and
our 330 million people on this planet.
Doing so assures our “right living” on our infinite spiritual journey to
Paradise.
My preference is to create Ethics Statements
as affirmations for positive behavior, rather than proscriptions for negative
behavior. Using both, however, provides
a broader understanding of the two sides of Ethics Statements.
Ethics
Statements
for the Four Primary Values
Life — The
Ultimate Value
Proactively Moral: Assign value in all of your decisions to
protect and value life.
Ethics Statement:
Protect and give value to all life
(Buddhist). Take the life of other
species only for your meals. Do not to
take the life of species for sport, or to sell protected species.
Do
not create more life that will infringe on the life, quality of life, growth,
and equality of others. This means to
procreate only enough children to replace you when you die.
Quality of Life
Proactively Moral: Make
decisions for yourself and others that improve the quality of
your lives.
Ethics
Statement:
See others as an equal of your own life to know how to
support your efforts to develop their innate potential to grow to
improve their quality of life as you would for yourself.
When making decisions or writing policies and laws put your self on the
receiving end to see how you would react, and adjust the parameters of your
decisions accordingly.
Growth
Proactively
Moral:
Make decisions and take action that create opportunities for you to
develop your innate potential; and, whenever possible develop opportunities for
others, and assist them to grow into their innate potential to improve their quality
of life as you would for your self.
Ethics Statement: Assist others to grow into their innate
potential just as you would do for your self.
Show others, as you are able, to recognize the opportunities that may be
of assistance to them to grow and improve their quality of life.
Equality
Proactive
Moral Definition: Make decisions and take action for improving
the quality of life and unleashing the potential of others as you would for
your self.
Ethics Statement:
Treat others as you would your self means that you do not treat others less
than your self; and it also means that you do not treat yourself less than you
would treat others. The value of others
is equal to that of your self, and your value is equal to that of others – act
accordingly. The importance of this
value is that others are not excluded from consideration, and from
opportunities to grow and to improve their quality of life; and neither are
you.
NOTE: As you can see, the above proactive Ethical Statements
are general in nature. Use them to guide
the development of your own ethical statements and policies involving specific
issues.
Ethics Statements
for the Three Secondary Values
NOTE:
In their bare essence the three secondary values are easily identified
as “value-emotions.” When they are used
together, they are inherent and morally proactive in nature. Empathy
is the reaching out to
sense the situation of others. Compassion
is reaching out in
action to assist others in their situation.
“Love” for others is the great arc that
goes out from each of us individually to encompass the whole of humanity
collectively and individually.
When
the three secondary value-emotions are used together, Ethics Statements are
unnecessary because exercising the secondary value-emotions together becomes
the guide for moral and ethical behavior — to see and value others as we see and
value our self. For those who do not,
the following are provided:
Empathy
Proactive Ethics Statement: Extend
your awareness past your own life to that of others to sense their situation in
the seven spheres of human existence:
physical, mental, emotional, intellectual, social, cultural, and
spiritual. Reflect on what you sense and
compare that to your own awareness(es) of your own seven spheres of human
existence.
Compassion
Proactive Ethics Statement: Based
on your developed sense of empathy, take action to come to the aid of others,
to support the improvement of their quality of life, and to grow into their
innate potential equally as you would do for your self.
“Love”
Proactive
Ethics Statement: Love
in the context of proactive morality is defined as the combined energies of
empathy and compassion for others, as you have for your self. This is truly the most developed definition
of equality — to see and value others as you do for your self, and choose to
act accordingly.
4
Expressed Ethics
Expressed
Ethics
tell us what to do
to fulfill Ethics Statements.
Expressed
Ethics, for example fairness, transparency, and honesty, are the ethical values
and principles that individuals, families, companies and corporations, and
public agencies adopt to conduct business in their lives without jeopardizing
their personal and social integrity and to improve those relationships.
For
God-believers who are Christians,
Expressed Ethics puts the
“Christ” back in Christianity.
The
Expressed Ethics
of the Four Primary Values
è
Seven Values è
Moral Definitions è
Ethics Statements è Expressed Ethics
Life — The Ultimate Value
Ethics
statement: Protect and give value to all
life (Buddhist). Take the life of other
species only for your meals. Do not to
take the life of species for sport, or to sell protected species. Do not create more life that will infringe on
the life, quality of life, growth, and equality of others. This means to procreate only enough children
to replace you when you die.
Expressed
Ethics: acceptance,
validation, patience, tolerance, forgiveness, and vulnerability for
example.
Quality
of Life
Ethics statement: See
others as an equal of
your own life to know how to support your efforts to develop their innate
potential to grow to
improve their quality of life as
you would for yourself. When making decisions or writing policies and
laws put your self on the receiving end to see how you would react, and adjust
the parameters of your decisions accordingly.
Expressed
Ethics: Fairness,
integrity, transparency, acceptance, appreciation, validation, worthiness,
deservingness, honesty, authenticity, faithfulness, discretion, patience,
tolerance, forgiveness, and vulnerability support the quality of life of
others, and our self.
Growth
Ethics statement: Assist
others to grow into their innate potential just as you would do for your
self. Show others, as you are able, to
recognize the opportunities that may be of assistance to them to grow and
improve their quality of life.
Expressed
Ethics: Fairness,
integrity, transparency, acceptance, appreciation, validation, worthiness,
deservingness, patience, tolerance, forgiveness, nurturance, and vulnerability
are a few that support the growth of others.
Equality
Ethics statement:
Treating others as you would your self means that you do not treat
others less than your self. The value of
others is equal to that of your self – act accordingly. The importance of this value is that others
are not excluded from consideration, and from opportunities to grow and to
improve their quality of life.
Expressed
Ethics: To appreciate Equality at the roots of our
humanity that emanate from our DNA, Expressed Ethics tell us “what to
do” at the most basic level to fulfill “Equality.” When we see the expression of fairness,
integrity, transparency, acceptance, appreciation, validation, worthiness,
deservingness, honesty, authenticity, faithfulness, discretion, patience,
tolerance, forgiveness, nurturance, and vulnerability we are seeing the
expression of our humanness at its very best that supports the equality of
others, and our self.
These
Expressed Ethics are at the very end of the logic-sequence of values to values
definitions, to ethics statements. They
are the deepest expression of the primary value “Equality.” Viewing the illustration on page 7, the Expressed
Ethics are the living expression of empathy, compassion, and our “Love” for
humanity. Their expression is a logical
development from the three secondary value-emotions of empathy, compassion, and
“Love.” They are a natural and logical development of that sequence, and the natural
and logical expression of our humanness.
The Expressed Ethics for the Three Secondary Values
Because empathy and compassion are
innate to our being, their power to motivate us occurs when we feel their urge
to come to the assistance of others. The
secondary values truly are at the heart and soul of our humanness, and are the
measure of our humanity. With these
three secondary values, we see our self as one with all others, not separate
from them.
Their existence as “value-emotions”
tells us that they are also the “activators” for Expressed Ethics. Empathy and compassion are so much in
alignment that they become the expression of “Love” towards others generally,
and for all of humanity. Their
attunement is such that all of the Expressed Ethics apply to all Ethics Statements.
The
Beneficent Synergism of the Seven Values. Logically, Expressed Ethics tell us what to do to fulfill Ethics Statements.
Expressed Ethics serve the givers and
receivers who have chosen a positive way of life. Expressing them with others creates a
synergistic reward system of positive thinking and speaking that develops trust
and confidence in others while reducing isolation and feelings of
exclusion.
Values, moral Definitions, Ethics Statements,
and Expressed Ethics offer a synergism that supports the development of
functional, socially sustainable families, communities, societies, and
organizations of all types and sizes, and functions. The validation for their effectiveness is the
smooth operation and functioning of individuals, families, organizations, and
have been proven to improve the profit margin and effectiveness of companies
and corporations. [4]
f
Expressed
Ethics
for Each Ethics Statement
è Seven Values è Moral Definitions è Ethics Statement è
Expressed Ethics
Expressed
Ethics is
the fourth stage in the logic-sequence.
Their expression occurs in our personal life when we are in contact with
another person. When you see the
expression of fairness, integrity, transparency, acceptance, appreciation,
validation, worthiness, deservingness, honesty, authenticity, faithfulness,
discretion, patience, tolerance, forgiveness, nurturance, and vulnerability you
are witnessing the very best elements of being human.
When
we see these Expressed Ethics being demonstrated in the lives of our self, and
others, we know that if all people were to express them in all situations that
world peace would not only be possible, but it would spontaneously exist! The
Creator gave us the values that not only gave our species survival but give us
the means to grow into loving, caring, nurturing people who are fully capable
of peace in all areas of their life as whole and integrated individuals.
All
of the Expressed Ethics demonstrate
“other-interest” contrasted to the gross expression of self-interest that we
see all too often. The great spiritual teachers, masters, and
avatars always taught their students these other-interest Expressed Ethics. They are
evidence of personal mastery over the self-interest of personal preservation,
and the driven need for authority, power, and control.
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5
Sustainability —
Bedrock for
Moral and Ethical Decision-Making
The
logic of what we have learned so far tells us as God-believers that social
stability in families, communities, and societies is a way of life that is
produced from livng the seven values in our life and by expressing the
Expressed Ethics. What is produced from
God’s investment of the seven values in us is the eventuality of social
sustainability.
If
we decide as families, communities, and societies to embrace both material and
social sustainability, we really need to know for how long, and what
“sustaining” really means. The table below provides clear definitions of
the two branches and what is necessary for a society to “become sustainable.”
The Durations of
Existence
Survival
presents us with the immediate appreciation of life now and the threat of death
within this day or the next.
Existence
presents us with the necessity of assuring our survival over a period of time
with death still being a constant reminder in our daily activities.
Maintenance
presents us with the necessity of assuring our existence is maintained into an
indefinite future. And this is the place
where most people and their communities and societies exist — in an indefinite
future.
Stability. As a society moves toward social
sustainability it has begun the process of making decisions that assure it has
a definite, peaceful, and stable future.
The Durations of
“Sustaining”
Sustain: To lengthen or extend in
duration. This also implies a
continuation of what exists already, which may not be sustainable.
Sustainable: Capable of being sustained in the
long term.
Sustainability: The ability to sustain.
Social
Sustainability: The ability of a society to be self-sustaining
indefinitely…, for 5 years, 50 years, 250 years, 500 years and more because of
the intention for its existence and the design of its functions.
Consciously choosing UNsustainability
is to choose the death of societies and the quality of life of all future
generations. It is an immoral decision
whether made consciously or by the omission to decide. It is an immoral decision because it
primarily violates the values of growth and equality of the generations that
have not been born.
Trying to achieve sustainable growth
is first of all an oxymoron — it is contradictory and impossible. Many people in business strive to sustain
growth of their corporation’s profits.
Eventually, it becomes an impossibility, which at the present time has
not yet shown its ugly face. Then an
existential moral problem will exist. Do
we exploit the material environment to maintain profits and our high standard
of living compared to the rest of the world, or do we begin to practice
conservation (decreasing usage, reusing, recycling, and re-purposing) to
support the children of our future generations?
One of the intentions of this book is to
make all God-believing people aware of our moral responsibilities to the
billions of people of future generations, and that includes our children’s
children and great-great grand children.
When we think of the primary value “equality” what we are talking about
is designing our material resources and social institutions so that the social and
material resources are available to nurture and support the development of the
innate potential of those future generations.
Brief Summary
Now
the question. “Do we want our societies
and our way of life to become sustainable or UNsustainable?” We can make that decision once we appreciate
how intimately our decisions today will affect the survival, existence,
stability, and sustainability in their broadest definitions of those who have
yet to be born.
As
you can see from the last three paragraphs, the “rules of engagement” for
resolving these difficult situations must come from the seven values, their moral
Definitions, and Ethics Statements.
Relying upon humanly conceived value systems and interpretations will
only lead to more and more difficult situations, (read, Volatile, Uncertain,
Complex, and Ambiguous, “VUCA”), with no final authority to rely upon. If our societies are to be sustained, then we
must rely upon the set of values the Creator gave us in the beginning, and
apply them to the decision-making processes of all organizations to give them
the same longevity as our species.
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6
Which Form of Morality
to Choose?
This chapter will compare the archaic
morality that has been in use for over 4,000 years to the proactive morality
that is based on the values that have sustained our species for over 200,000
years. Again, this will present us with
a question, “Do we stay with the old reactive morality or do we begin using the
proactive morality that provides answers to difficult social, political,
economic, and environmental problems?” Let’s
compare the two. [5]
Traditional
Morality
Historically, the moral code of
western civilization has changed little over the last 4,000 years [6]
from the time that Sumerian King Ur-Nammu of Ur (2112-2095 BC) wrote it. It was later adopted by Hammurabi and Moses,
among others. It was written as a means
of preserving and maintaining social order and the functioning of society
through a uniform standard of social conduct, i.e., a moral code.
It was
designed as a personal morality
within a small community. It was never
codified as a social morality to
guide the moral conduct of social processes, organizations, governments, or
corporations. Neither was it intended as
a global moral code for nations of
the international community. The
development of the traditional moral code was an incredible advancement in
normalizing social relations based on the artificial values that Ur-Nammu thought would work at the time. But, because the traditional moral code was
not based on the timeless, natural, and organic values that are innate to
humans, it did not keep pace with the social evolution of people.
The traditional moral code is man
made that uses the man made values that King Ur-Nammu and his advisors thought
would be of help. And, yes, those values
did help for the times when they were put into place. But, because those values were man made for
the times, that moral code was not capable of evolving with the evolution of people’s
needs to improve the quality of their lives.
To improve the conditions (read, “social evolution”) of our lives, the
moral and ethical needs of our evolving communities and societies also need to
evolve. But they haven’t. Traditional morality is inherently flawed
because it is not based on the God made values that were given to us when we
were created. Because the seven values
are proactive to encourage our growth, social change is inherent to the value
system God gave us.
Invalid Assumptions.
King Ur-Nammu’s moral code is retrospective and punitively based. One of its assumptions has been that the
punishment of immoral behavior would cause citizens to become moral in order to
avoid subsequent punishment. We know all
too well from the history of four millennia that punishment is not an effective
deterrent to immoral behavior.
What is wrong with this moral
code? Nothing really, as long as it is
applied as an unevolved person-to-person morality in very simple communities. But when it is applied by a social agency
(courts of law, juvenile, divorce, and custody litigation for example) its
performance comes up short. What is
missing is an evolved morality that empowers social agencies as the courts to
determine the sustaining needs of litigants and of society.
Historical
Corrections. Perhaps
the greatest fallacious assumption of the traditional moral code is that it tries
to correct the behavior of the wrongdoer, a very familiar theory of “modern”
criminal corrections. When we look more
closely at its “corrective” function, we soon realize that it proposes the
ludicrous notion of correcting the faults of the past. Because punishment occurs after the fact of
the immoral behavior, it is truly 100% ineffective. Further, Ur-Nammu’s moral code does nothing
to proactively improve our societies. It
simply punishes the wrongdoer with the victim, family, community, and the
public no better for the wrongdoer’s punishment. Said another way, the incarceration of a
murderer does not bring about an improvement in the social sustainability of
the community from which he or she came.
Reactive,
Not Proactive. The traditional moral code provides only a
moral accounting of righting wrongs, never urging citizens to aspire to higher
moral standards of living, or to add to the quality of their life, or the lives
of others by the decisions they make.
The old morality provides no incentive for proactive good behavior,
other than to avoid getting caught.
Because the traditional moral code
has not been proactive to work toward social sustainability, after centuries of
its use we have begun to see the moral and social disintegration of whole
communities in our larger cities due to drug use, violence, property crimes,
and sexual, physical, emotional, mental, and social abuse of infants, children,
and the elderly. Social status and
economic elevation have not exempted members from family abuses, community
delinquency by adults or fiscal malfeasance by executives with their victims
numbering in the tens of thousands.
Bad
Code.
From a contemporary technological perspective, the traditional morality
of western civilization for the last 4,000 years is a form of morality that in
computer terms is “bad code.” It is “bad
code” because it is not based on a logically integrated set of values. It may solve some problems but not others,
and it may solve problems inconsistently depending upon who is using it.
Grievously, the ethics that emerge from the “bad code” of traditional
morality do not provide a universally level playing field for all people of all
races, cultures, ethnicity, nationality, and gender for all times.
A
Conclusion.
The traditional morality that all of us have been raised with is based
on the values that are man made and not capable of enduring the rigors of time
and vast array of moral challenges that come about over the centuries and
millennia. What is needed now is a proactive
moral code of decision-making that is based on the proactive values that God
gave us for all time for all people, and for all organizations. They are in organic alignment with each
individual because those values are already a part of each of us.
Organic Morality
For complex and developed democratic
societies, an organic proactive moral code is needed to provide a structure of
logic for making decisions that provide clear and unambiguous outcomes, for
everyone, equally. An organic morality based
on our seven organic values offers two primary functions to sustain future
generations:
First, to define the proactive moral
decision-making and behavior of individuals and organizations that contribute
to the social sustainability of individuals, families, communities, and
societies.
Second, to clearly define immorality as
behaviors that violate one or more of the seven values, and,
a) destroy the potential of (an)other citizen(s) to make a
positive contribution to the sustainability of themselves, their family,
community or society;
b) behavior that diminishes the capacity of a citizen(s) to
make a contribution to society;
c) behavior that squanders the resources of society as it
works toward social sustainability; and
d) behavior that requires society to come to the aid of an
injured citizen to recoup their capacity to make a contribution to the
sustainability of themselves, their family, community, or society; or, support
them in their incapacity for their lifetime or until they are healed.
Third, to clearly define social predators —
those individuals and organizations that take actions (a-d) that violate the
morality of a society that is moving toward a socially sustainable future. Those individuals and organizations create an
immense drag on society’s forward inertia to achieve social stability and
peace.
Their
actions are in opposition of the efforts of society to develop the innate
potential of people individually and collectively, and greatly retard the
maturing social evolution of their society and culture. How they are dealt with by courts that have adopted
the logic of these values and morality is a question that cities, counties,
states and the nation will have to determine, eventually. Whatever sanctions are meted out must as well
work to fulfill society’s intent to become fully socially sustainable.
An Organic Proactive Morality Provides —
Organic
morality, based on the seven values, provides the defining elements for
sustaining societies, cultures, and democratic nations; and give social,
political, and economic leaders a proactive vision for giving their
organizations the capability of maturing, evolving, and becoming more effective.
For God-believers, it provides a logical means
to infuse organizations with these values that benefit everyone.
First, a proactive model of morality clearly points to the long term benefits of proactive
decisions made by individuals and organizations that use those values. Doing so, societies and individuals then
become symbiotically entwined, socially stable, peaceful, and eventually more
sustainable.
Second, a morality that is based on these
values provides a decision-making process with results that are consistent with
the inherent characteristics of those values.
In a symbiotically entwined relationship between individuals and
their society, this morality inherently assigns reciprocal value and responsibilities to individuals, families, and
organizations. Symbiotically, each individual is seen as a “social asset” whose
contributions to organizations ensure that society becomes socially
sustainable, and organization’s contribution to the individual supports their
growth to make that contribution.
Third and strategically, the
benefit of a proactive, sustaining morality acts as a guide for strategic
planners for developing congruent short and long term goals. Planning for the achievement of short and
long term goals will be made easier because option-development, choice-making,
decision-making, and action-implementation will be guided by the logic and integrated
nature of these values and their characteristics.
Fourth, and not to be
overlooked, moral and ethical behavior that is generated by the use of these
values is fully complemental to our human nature. These values are embedded in our DNA, and are
an innate part of who we are. People are
naturally and innately good — the genuine and authentic nature of us all —
evidence of our true human nature.
Social predators, those who choose to use their own priorities of what
benefits them, define themselves as not human — NON-human. The moral implications of that statement will
cause a great deal of heated discussion among traditional moralists and
ethicists. The furor of the discussion
will lie in how to prevent the appearance of social predators, and what to do
with those who are entrenched in such decision-making and behavior.
Fifth, societies will have logical,
moral, and rational arguments in the courts for dealing with individuals,
organizations and their executives, social agencies, and global agencies who
choose to work against the sustainability of individuals, communities,
societies, and national publics. Having
a consistent, integrated, and permanent morality to guide the development of
laws and social policies that support social sustainability is essential to
bring the decisions of thousands of local, national, and international social
agencies into complemental alignment.
Sixth, for civil government, these
seven values expand its vision far beyond the routine of civil maintenance, to
include its moral role as a contributor and upholder of social stability and
social sustainability of its communities.
One of the greatest problems of civil governance is that when the status
quo is accepted as normalcy, widespread mediocrity of performance soon
follows. With a vision and model of
social sustainability to fulfill, communities and cities, for example, will have
a vision to always work toward. The status
quo, standing still and maintaining what is already in place, will become a
historic reference to the mediocrity of the past. Traditional morality protects the stability
of mediocrity as a social model that now is ignoring the disintegration of our societies
however moral according to it.
Seventh, the possibility of developing
integrated social systems in a society is a major shift in culture, and the
thinking of individuals. As population
increases beyond the quantity needed to sustain a society, the less quality of
life is available to everyone equally, and the less value each new citizen
has. This is contrary to our historic
moral roots where the value of each person is seen as being unique and valuable
as they are.
On the other hand, the reaction we
have seen in middle and upper-middle class families is the increased
value-investment made in each child, while the value-investment of economically
marginalized children decreases. Giving value
to individuals is evidence, in more socially conscious groups, of the necessity
for an integral wholeness of our societies.
We are beginning to give value to the integral wholeness of our society,
even as we witness the disparate aggregation of racial, ethnic, national, and
religious groups tear our societies apart politically.
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7
A Logic-Method for
Validating Decisions and Actions as Being Moral and Socially Sustainable
We
know all too well, living in highly complex societies with many hundreds of
options for living, that making ethical decisions often puts us at odds with
the main stream of our culture and peer group.
Again a question, “Do we make decisions that please others and our
self-interest, or do we make decisions that please God and to sustain future
generations?” It’s a choice, but it goes
far beyond that. By fulfilling those
values and Ethics Statements, our lifestyles will change eventually and our
culture will bend toward ongoing social stability and peace.
For
those who live and work in the day-to-day context of our societies,
governments, and corporations, knowing how to apply the moral and ethical
option-development, choice-making, decision-making, and action-implementation
that is in alignment with those values is a fairly straight forward process by
using a “logic-device” that I call the Social
Sustainability Design and Validation Schematic, page 55. [7]
The Schematic, the Team,
and the Mischief of Assumptions
Very,
very briefly, using the Schematic is more simple that it appears and usually
begins by filling in column #7, expectations. If you have expectations, write what you need
to fulfill those expectations in column #6, Criteria for Fulfillment. Proceed now to column #8, beliefs. What beliefs do you have that set up your expectations? Are there any assumptions that you are aware
of? And so on to the other columns.
The logic of the Schematic
lends
itself to a) designing social and organizational processes; b) re-designing existing
social processes, non-profit organization founding documents, and social
policies; and c) validating existing social processes, founding documents, laws
and social policies as being in alignment with the values and ethics of the
proactive morality, or not. The
Schematic proactively encourages individuals and organizations to seek options,
make decisions, and take actions that are validated by each value and their
combination as being moral and ethical.
The Team and the Schematic. When the Schematic is used in a team environment
many of the mysteries for the failure of social policies will be revealed. The Schematic is essentially a learning device. [8] The Team structure and team member roles
working with the Schematic and the seven values provide a learning environment
and antidote to the “fragmentation” that David Bohm writes about in his book, On
Dialogue. Fragmentation occurs
because of the misunderstandings about the beliefs and expectations people have
for any topic. Dialogue, as Bohm defines
it, exposes beliefs and assumptions in a healthy process.
When
assumptions are not exposed, misunderstandings occur leading to fragmentation
in the dialogue. Because fragmentation
can occur very easily, the methodology of the Schematic requires the team to
diligently examine their beliefs and hidden assumptions. The Schematic answers that most pragmatic of
all questions, “What works?” [9] to support functional relationships and social
stability. The Schematic is capable of
revealing the presence of unproductive beliefs and their underlying assumptions.
Peter
Senge writes, “The discipline of team learning starts with ‘dialogue,’ the
capacity of members of a team to suspend assumptions and enter into a genuine
‘thinking together.’” And, “Team learning is vital because teams, not
individuals, are the fundamental learning unit in modern organizations. This [is] where ‘the rubber meets the road’;
unless teams can learn, the organization cannot learn.” (Senge, 1994).
Exposing assumptions is a vital
process of the Team. If
Team member’s assumptions are not exposed but simply included in the Team’s designs,
then it is very likely the designs will be flawed and eventually fail.
Discovering Peace
The mischief of assumptions. To say “values” is to also say “beliefs”
because if we value something then we believe those
values must be expressed in our lives. And
to say “beliefs” is to say “assumptions.”
Assumptions rarely if ever cross anyone’s lips.
They are silent, spoken sotto voce
under our breath and inaudible to your listener and even to the speaker. Because of unexposed, underlying assumptions,
personal choices and decisions will vary from one person to the next and from
one society to another, even though they hold the same beliefs.
When
you see inexplicable differences in beliefs and expectations, look for
unexposed assumptions. Then it becomes
time to ask that all important and revealing question, “If we hold the same
values, why are our beliefs and expectations for fulfilling those values so
different?” That is the time for
engaging effective dialogue techniques to uncover the assumptions of each
person.
What tips us off to underlying
assumptions is our emotional reaction to differences as this. They are the evidence that challenges our
relationships with the other people.
When we thought that everything was smooth sailing with our friends, suddenly
we find a “disturbance in the force” of our relationship with the other
person. To get the relationship back on
track it is necessary to engage in some helpful dialogue techniques that reveal
the hidden assumptions made related to the subject of discussion.
When we have the same values, we expect those
who have the same values as us will also have the same beliefs as we have. Although the seven values are well accepted,
the reasons our beliefs and expectations can diverge so much arises because of
the differences of what we learned from our culture, family, and our own
personal conclusions about values.
The
final test for both parties is to validate their individual beliefs and
expectations by looking for unexposed and unrevealed assumptions. The Schematic is very helpful in the dialogue
process. When each of you fill in your
own copy of the Schematic, work backwards from Column #6, Criteria of
Fulfillment, to Column #7, Expectations, and then to Column #8, Beliefs, and
then to Column #9, Interpreted Values, you will have a record of what you
believe and why.
Now
compare your individual Schematics. Look
over each other’s material in the same column.
Begin to discuss their validity using the 7 Organic Values in Column
#10. You will quickly see for yourself
what is not consistent, and what is.
Then you can compare those inconsistencies and where, when, and from
whom you learned them. The seven values provide
the final validation.
The Process of Achieving
Peace
The difficulty of achieving peace
arises because people of different cultures and ethnicity have different
ingrained interpreted values, beliefs, hidden assumptions, and
expectations.
The
process discussed above can be replicated in a Team environment with two
parties, (labor and management, city gangs, two parties with different agendas
but similar goals, and many others), who are in opposition but willing to
negotiate. To make the process of
achieving peace possible, it is necessary that each member of the team has the
same intention, confidence, and courage to engage and challenge their own
beliefs, and those of the other members.
Validating Our Beliefs. For the good working order of the team, it is
important to examine beliefs without judging them as good or bad, or the
individual from whom they came! Further,
this can be done easily in a team where you feel safe emotionally and socially
to ask questions that will help reveal assumptions. For example, “When did you first begin to
hold this belief/opinion/assumption?
From whom did you hear this belief/opinion/assumption? And so on.
Within
the Team, when differences of beliefs are discovered, it will become necessary
for its good working order to examine those beliefs to determine how they morally,
ethically, and proactively contribute to the sustainability of our
civilization, national societies, communities, family, and ultimately the
individual — not just for this year, but as they contribute to the development
of sustainability 50 to 250, and 1,000 years ahead. Yes, 1,000 years is not too much to
contemplate. That is why when you think
of sustainability, think at two levels, the ideal envisioned future outcome,
and the developmental steps that must be implemented to attain that ideal
outcome.
Validating
Assumptions. We tend to live our lives minute-by-minute
and day-by-day with incredible lists of beliefs in mind, never thinking of the
unexposed assumptions that support those beliefs. Most of us simply accept the beliefs, assumptions,
and expectations that were tacitly attached to our conversations with our
parents and other authority figures when they were given to us as
children. It is essential for the
development of sustainable organizations and the possibility of peace that
their fundamental beliefs and assumptions are exposed and validated.
“Everything
is Fine.” On a societal level, assumptions are the soft
sand that is quickly eroded when tragedies wash across communities and
nations. David Bohm tells us,
“When things are
going smoothly there is no way to know that there’s any thing wrong — we have
already made the assumption that what’s going on is independent of
thought. When things are represented,
and then presented in that way, there is no way for you to see what is
happening — it’s already excluded. You
cannot pay attention to what is outside the representation. There’s tremendous pressure not to; it’s very
hard. The only time you can pay
attention to it is when you see there is trouble — when a surprise comes, when
there’s a contradiction, when things don’t quite work.
“However, we don’t
want to view this process as a ‘problem,’ because we have no idea how to solve it — we can’t project a solution.”
[10]
The biggest assumption that amounts
to a grand societal lie is that “Everything is fine.” The Social
Sustainability Design and Validation Schematic has an uncanny knack for
exposing assumptions of our traditional morality and ethics, and the
assumptions and beliefs of our culture and larger societies, nationally and
internationally. But it takes courage to
begin. Perhaps the biggest untested
assumption I’ve made is that the citizens of democratic nations are concerned
about the survival of their way of life, and will become engaged in designing a
sustainable future for their children and grandchildren. But then, perhaps they only see that
“everything is fine.”
As God-believers it is vital for each
of us to challenge the assumptions of our beliefs and expectations. When we read new material, as an example of
this book, if any part of it causes you to have an emotional reaction, perhaps
you may even say, “That’s not possible, I don’t believe it!” then it is time to
examine your beliefs and expectations against The Values God Gave Us.
Summary
Never before has any society,
culture, or civilization been challenged with the capability of designing its
own sustainable and moral destiny. We
have learned only so slowly that when citizens are sustained, their nation is
sustained. The work of Jared Diamond in Guns, Germs and Steel, and his later
book, Collapse, points clearly to the
necessity of public and organizational policies that intentionally support the
social sustainability of all citizens, families, communities, and the larger
society. Who better to lead the way than
those people who believe in God and who want to live lives that are moral,
ethical, and humane — the living expression of their belief that God created
everyone as equals of each other.
Relying upon traditional top-down
social and political management and governance practices using the traditional
morality, values, and beliefs are no longer sufficient to solve social problems
or even delay the inevitable. They are
no longer sufficient to lead our people and move our communities and nations
into a sustainable future. Further, the
traditional model of democracy that uses the easily manipulated traditional
morality is too slow and too stubbornly invested in established positions,
rather than being adaptive and flexible.
Because
the seven values are universal to all people, the synergism of those values,
the Schematic, and Design Team Members can make a moral contribution anywhere
in the world and share their designs with all democratic societies and
governments. The moral and ethical influence of
God-believers now can make a more peaceful world for everyone for believers and
non-believers. No central authority or
control is needed to begin because the people already have the power, and God
gave it to you.
f
Social Sustainability Design and Validation
Schematic ~
Project: _____________________________________
p. ___
1. GLOBAL
STATEMENT OF PROJECT _____________________________________________________________________________________________
2. STATEMENT OF INTENTION (briefly):
___________________________________________________________________________________________.
3. AREA OF SUSTAINABILITY: a. Social or
b. Material ? (Circle one)
4.
State the area of examination for social sustainability (e.g., family,
childrearing, community, education, health care, economy,
commerce and trade, governance, or other)
:
_____________________________________________________________________________________
OR
State the question relating to material sustainability:
________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
5. VENUE: ¦ Individual/Family ¦Community ¦State/Region ¦National ¦Global Region ¦Global
- -
- - -
- - -
- - -
- - -
- - -
- - -
- - -
- - -
- - -
- - -
- - -
- - -
- - - -
- -
- - -
- -- -
- -
10. 9. 8. 7. 6.
ORGANIC INTERPRETED BELIEFS EXPECTATIONS CRITERIA FOR
FULFILLMENT
VALUES VALUES
(And assumptions) (This
involves planning) (This should be measurable) [We
value] [We believe] [We expect] [We
observe]
Life _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Quality
of Life _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Growth _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Equality _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Empathy _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Compassion _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
“Love”
of _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Humanity
© Copyright Daniel Raphael 2018 USA.
Reproduction
is authorized when © Copyright is intact.
Conclusions
After
having worked with the seven values for the last 12 years, I continue to be in
humble awe with the Creator’s care for us to include the seven values in our creation. The very roots of our creation are grounded
in our capability to grow into the infinite potential of our mind – with the
capability to choose good options for living, kind words to share with others,
and decisions thoughtfully formed to guide our children to grow into their
potential as Children of God.
God’s
care is not only personal but social.
The same values that give each of us personal integrity
also give us social integrity
when we practice using those values.
That same care for our personal and social peace can be extended to
peace between nations, political parties, churches, neighborhoods, neighbors,
and our own family. The only way that
future generations of our children will become sustainable is if we, today,
begin to thoroughly understand the logic of God’s work in us.
It
is obvious the logic that develops from those seven values is meant for the
least of us to fully know what is good and what is not, what is moral and what
is not, and what is ethical and what is not.
God made us with the simple tools that are more than fully capable of
aiding us to fill our soul with the goodness that will carry us into the
embrace of our Creator in Paradise.
That
same logic gives all people of all nations the capability to now embed those values
into the decision-making processes of every organization to move whole
societies toward social stability, peace, and functional families. Knowing and understanding the simple logic of
those values, morality, and ethics, it would be illogical and perhaps immoral
to maintain the status quo of organizations to remain unchanged, and unaffected
by these values. Who will guide those
organizations to become moral and ethical?
Who better than the 3 billion people who recognize God as their
creator?
Knowing the moral mandate that was
embedded in our DNA by the Creator, we cannot morally justify sitting back and
not applying them in our lives and in the decision-making of
organizations. When we do begin to share
these values and ethics, we must do so with the same care, patience, and
tolerance as the Expressed Ethics.
Social stability and peace in our societies, communities, and families
will not be generated by aggressive behavior on our part, but by the patient
investment of our time and thoughtful ingenuity to “bend the culture” of our
organizations and societies toward social, political, and economic stability by
using the logic of these values — beginning with our children.
Never before has any society,
culture, or civilization been challenged with the capability of designing its
own sustainable and moral destiny. We
have learned only so slowly that when citizens are sustained, their nation is
sustained. And we are all sustained by
the generosity and grace of God. Relying
upon traditional top-down social and political management and governance
practices using the traditional morality, values, and beliefs are no longer
sufficient to solve social problems or even delay the inevitable. They are no longer sufficient to lead our
people and move our communities and nations into a sustainable future.
Further, those in positions of
authority, power, and control are not likely to give that over in their
lifetimes. The responsibility for
sustaining the future generations of our children lies with us. It is our responsibility to prepare ourselves
and our children to create families and organizations that do make decisions
that support a future of sustained peace and social stability.
Because the seven values are
universal to all people the synergism of the seven values and the Schematic can
empower local Design Teams anywhere in the world to make a bottom-up moral
contribution of their designs to their local community and to democratic
societies and governments worldwide. No
central authority or control is needed to begin because you already have the
power. The only necessity is to keep our
focus on the Source that has so beneficently invested Its wisdom in each of
us.
Daniel Raphael is an independent and
original thinker who is a Viet Nam veteran; with 18 years experience working in
adult felony criminal corrections; father of three and grandfather of three
children; former volunteer fireman, small business owner, inventor, and manufacturer
of a household sewing machine product; self-taught theologian and ethicist;
holistic life coach and principal of Daniel Raphael Consulting since 2003;
author and publisher of numerous books, papers, and articles. Daniel enjoys public speaking and has taught
social sustainability and spirituality classes and workshops nationally and
internationally and is well prepared to enlighten and entertain you.
Remarkably, he has had a prescient sense of
the future since his early childhood.
This skill and his deep meditation practices have enabled him to become
an effective holistic life coach and spiritual counselor, and have given him
insights into the lives of his clients, and into the macro perspectives of the
world.
Bachelor of Science, With Distinction, (Sociology).
Arizona State
University, Tempe, Arizona.
Master of Science
in Education
(Educationally and
Culturally Disadvantaged),
Western Oregon
University, Monmouth, Oregon.
Doctor of Philosophy (Spiritual Metaphysics),
University of
Metaphysics, Sedona, Arizona.
Masters
Dissertation: A Loving-God Theology
Doctoral
Dissertation: A Pre-Creation Theology
Writer, Author,
Publisher
(1992) The Development
of Public Policy and the Next Step of Democracy for the 21st Century
(1992) Developing A
Personal, Loving-God Theology
(1999)
Sacred Relationships, A Guide to Authentic Loving, Origin Press
(2002) What Was God
Thinking?!, Infinity Press
(2007) Global Sustainability and Planetary
Management
(2014) Healing a Broken World, Origin Press
(2015) Social Sustainability HANDBOOK for
Community-Builders, Infinity Press
(2016) The Progressive’s Handbook for Reframing
Democratic Values ‡
(2016) Organic
Morality: Answering the Critically Important Moral Questions of the 3rd
Millennium ‡
(2017)
Designing Socially Sustainable
Democratic Societies ‡
(2017) A Theology for New Thought Spirituality ‡
(2017) God For All Religions — Re-Inventing
Christianity and the Christian Church —
Creating Socially Sustainable Systems
of Belief and Organization ‡
(2017) God For All Children, and Grandchildren ‡
(2017) Democracy for 2017 — The Political
Empowerment of Local Citizens ‡
(2017) Clinics
for Sustainable Families and the Millennium Families Program ‡
(2017) UNDERSTANDING Social Sustainability ‡
(2018) The Moral and Ethical Decision-Logic of the
Seven Organic and Universal Human Values
‡
(2018) The Values God Gave Us ‡
‡ Available as a PDF document at: https://sites.google.com/view/danielraphael
Contact
Information:
Daniel Raphael,
PhD
Daniel Raphael
Consulting ● Social
Sustainability Leadership Training and Consulting
daniel.raphaelphd@gmail.com ● Cell: + 1 303 641 1115 ● PO Box 2408, Evergreen, CO 80437 USA
[1] Raphael, Daniel. 2015, Social Sustainability HANDBOOK for Community-Builders. p. 28-30.
ISBN: 0-9712663-0-1
[2]
http://ccare.stanford.edu/stanford-Schematicionate-university-project/
[3] Raphael, Daniel 2015 Social Sustainability HANDBOOK for Community-Builders, Infinity Press, Evergreen, Colorado USA p 28-30 ISBN: 978-0-692-41640-2
[4] LRN Corporation, New York, London, Dubai. http://lrn.com/
[5] Raphael, Daniel 2017 Organic Morality, Answering the Critically Important Moral Questions of the 3rd Millennium. p 17-22 Available as a downloadable PDF at https://sites.google.com/view/danielraphael
[7] For a detailed explanation of the
Schematic and how to use it, please see Social Sustainability Design Team Process,
available at https://sites.google.com/view/danielraphael for the downloadable PDF.
[8] Senge, Peter M., The Fifth Discipline, The Art and Performance of the Learning
Organization.
[9] Wright, Kurt 1998. Breaking The Rules, Removing Obstacles to Effortless High Performance.
CPM Publishing, Boise, ID ISBN: 0-9614383-3-9
[10] Bohm, David On
Dialogue (2004): 68.