Conception

Concept and main points 

The modern world is on the verge of the most dangerous global crisis in the history of mankind. 

 The most compelling and comprehensive article on this subject is the report by The Club of Rome “Come On! Capitalism, myopia, population and the destruction of the planet”, written by two presidents of the Club — Ernst von Weizsäcker and Anders Wijkman, with the participation of 34 other club members made for the 50th anniversary of the Club. 

 The report consists of 3 parts: the first is intended to demonstrate the full depth of the current crisis and the tendency to aggravate it; the second is devoted to criticisms of the dominant worldview, and the presentation of the alternative philosophy of “The New Enlightenment “; and the third — to the practical solutions. 

 The expression “Come On” has two meanings – “don’t try to deceive me” and “join us” 

 The main points of the report:  

 1. The planet is decaying, authoritarianism and fundamentalism are on the rise, speculative capitalism is prevailing. Today’s crisis “is not cyclical, but intensifying. It is not limited to nature around us, but it includes a social, political, cultural, and moral crisis, a crisis of democracy, ideologies and the capitalist system”. 

 2. We live in an Anthropocene – a geological epoch, when human activity is becoming decisive for the planet. Мы живём в Антропоцен, геологическую эпоху, когда деятельность человека становится определяющей для планеты. As an illustration: 97% of the mass of all vertebrates on the Earth accounts for humans and livestock; everything else, from bats to elephants, accounts for 3%. 

 3. There is an ongoing disruption in food distribution. 800 million people continue to starve, meanwhile 2 billion are overweight. But the question is not only how to produce enough food for a growing population, but also how not to destroy the planet in the process. The greatest environmental damage is caused by stock raising; it is a luxury that is not permissible in a “crowded world.”  

 4. There is an overabundance of capital in the fictitious, but profitable areas, meanwhile the areas, on which the future of the planet depends, do not receive enough funding. Scientists and economists aren’t able to see the problem as they are still prone to consider ecological, financial and industrial capital as equivalents: “as long as the financial capital is increasing – everything is fine”. 

 5. The future of humanity is connected with cities. Two hundred years ago there was just one city with a population of more than one million – London, and now there are three hundred of them, including 22 with a population exceeding ten million. By moving to cities people begin to consume four times as many resources. Cities create a much larger ecological footprint relative to the space they occupy; an average American city with a population of 650 thousand has a footprint of 30 thousand square kilometres (an Indian city of the same size has one a tenth the size). 

 The main reasons for the crisis are: 

 Throughout history, the development of civilization has been directed towards technological advancement and “conquering” the environment, instead of our advancement as a species, developing in harmony with our planetary ecosystem.  

The global economy uses a fundamentally wrong model, which is based on currency, and uses GDP growth to measure successful development, rather than well-being and quality of life experienced by the general population.

Our current system of social values is based on false ideas of success, both on the individual level (career, material success, public acceptance), and that of society as a whole (the struggle for resources, competition, imposition of ideologies, the desire for domination, the opposition of the interests of small groups and those of humanity).

The legalization of violence against living beings, which began with the killing of fish, birds and animals and later became a dominant ideology- carnism. This led to the normalization of violence against other humans.

The absence of unity and of a common goal for the entire human community of our planet. 

The assessment of current situation: 

The main problem in the current situation is a lack of awareness of the majority of the global population on the part of the political and financial elite in developed countries.
This ignorant elite controls the majority of media which affect public conscious and, mostly unintentionally, manipulate public thinking to their own advantage.
The process of deterioration of humanity is now extremely close to a “point of no return”
The existing socio-political formations and mechanisms of modern civilisation serve the needs and interests of capitalistic monopolies and the “majority” of the population which is in a state of non-awareness.

 And the main point: there is no single, international community, movement, or organization based simultaneously on the three fundamental postulates: 

 1. The ideology of non-violence. 

 2. Ecological development of society. 

 3. Socially oriented resource economy and the policy of social progress. 

 Ecological organisations are not based on a non-violence principle, although they consider the environmental aspects of livestock industry. 

Environmental problems are also issues for non-violence supporters, such as vegetarian movements, but these supporters often fail to take into account global economic infrastructure and socio-psychological aspects.

Movements and organisations engaged in socially beneficial activity, and contributing to social progress in general, pay attention to the environmental problems, but they are not addressing the root of escalations of violence in society, such as the violation of the basic principle of non-violence, i.e. legalising the killing of living beings.  

 Opportunities for overcoming the crisis:  

 — Association and cooperation of all positively oriented people, organisations, and other communities with the common aim: to change the current situation at the international, national, or religious level based on 3 main principles: Non-violence, Ecology, Social progress 

 — integration of all resources (intellectual, material, political, etc.) and their focus resolving the main problem with changes to our current erroneous social paradigm on a global scale. 

 — creating a working practical model of an alternative socio-economical structure for the development of human civilisation in the form of an international fraternity of eco-cities, where compliance with the 3 main principles will be implemented in the everyday life of project participants.  

 Practical methods, projects and programs: 

 Creating all around the world a new kind of human community: eco-towns, united in a singe fraternity. The eco-towns system, as a positive and practical example, will be the main argument to attract people’s attention and to change their current lifestyle and worldview towards ethical ecology, resources economy and non-violence. 

 Creation of innovative instruments to govern world economy, which are aimed not at monetary benefits, but the development of the most important aspects of civilisation (from the point of view of common human interests), and the resolution of current problems both at global and regional levels (some of these instruments have already been developed by the initiator of the community and are ready for implementation). 

 Creating a unified world system of alternative education, aimed to obtain not professional skills, but an ethical humanistic education (the first project has already launched in Russia and Ukraine in a transitional experimental and combined form). 

 Creating a unified global system of alternative media channels to better inform the world’s population about the opportunities for improvement to the quality of their internal and external lives.  

 Creating a unified international structure of scientific-research organizations and groups to develop ecological technologies in all spheres of life which supply both human communities and single individuals.  

 The maximal integration of this project into all existing projects, structures and organizations with similar purposes and principles. 

 Cooperation with all organizations at the international and national levels, which support and share basic principles and goals of the project.

 The principle plan for implementation of the program: 

 Create a primary initiative group for the project 

 Create a resource base for the project (personnel, finance, informational structure). As an instrument to form this resource base and an experimental organizing platform, the initiator has developed a sub project: “The Civilization” international forum-festival. 

 Run an informational campaign about the project at an international level  

 Create an international organizing structure of regional departments 

 Create a primary financial material base of the project through fundraising, social entrepreneurship, and participants contributions.  

 Form an international organizational team for the project 

 Form international organisational teams, expert groups and volunteers working on all directions of section 5. 

 Create an international fund for investments and charity to attract a sufficient amount of financial resources. 

 Implement the projects from section 5, on the basis of formed organisational teams, expert groups and volunteers and with the help of outside donations and investments. 

Underlying principles and values of the project: 

 The priority of ethical values above any others, including economical. 

 The priority of mankind’s interests above the interests of any single country, organisation or community. 

 The priority of awareness development above material development. 

 The priority of ecology above technology. 

 The principle of reasonable sufficiency in life support, regardless of the level of economic development of a particular community or country. 

 The removal of any form of enforcement and violence both within communities and at an international level. 

 Using practical example as the best argument in favour of correctness of the concepts, values, methods and opportunities proposed in framework of the project. 

 Unconditional personal compliance with all the asserted principles and rules by every project member. 

 Confirmation by every project member of his/her beliefs and principles in everyday life. 

 The resources base for launch: 

 Finance 

 Sources of finance: 

 The first preliminary stage: donations, grants, subsidies, social entrepreneurship 

 The second basic stage: contributions of members residents for the infrastructure, own economic activity

 You can also assist the project by offering any material or non-material resources at your disposal. 

 Social and Human Resources.  

 To create a basis for the project and to expand the circle of socio-professional interaction, the initiator of the community has developed and started phased realisation of several pilot projects, focused on different reference groups, which could become direct participants of the main project (residents of eco-cities) in the future: 

 adherents to a healthy lifestyle  
 entrepreneurs focused on personal development and social responsibility 
 parents, interested in a safe future for their children 
 women, as they are primarily psychologically oriented in their basic request to safety and quality of life 
 everyone who is principally oriented towards alternative formats of life and development, and does not share the values of modern consumer society

 Partnership.

Any organisation or community, which shares the principles of the project and support its concept 

 How to participate in the project or contribute towards it: 

 To provide an intellectual contribution to the project by written feedback on this description or by proposing your own ideas, concepts and solutions about formation and development of the project. 

To join the organisational team of the project or any other of its structures and with any degree of employment possible for you: 

 — permanent member of organisational team 

 — part-time member of organisational team  

 — assistant of member of organisational team 

 — expert 

 — expert assistant  

 — volunteer 

 — fundraiser 

 — fundraiser assistant 

 — ambassador of the project

— project financial sponsor 

 — project investor 