(Immaterialism)
What we consider to be of importance, comes from the perception that what we can touch and feel with our senses directly is what is of value and importance (only or mostly)....
This is implied in how we communicate...
# Something is without substance/is insubstantial, not as valuable or without value
# What does it matter, things that don't matter are unimportant
# Concrete results...results you can see and touch, depend upon, trust, believe in, etc....all else is suspect....
The immaterial is all that is between things and within them as we experience them and define them in relation to us.
Thoughts, Feelings, Intuitions, Instincts, Religious and Mystical experiences, and all Perceptions, as well as all things that occur internally....minds eye, inner voice, etc..
It is the experience of and response to the material as well as the interplay of all things internal.
The immaterial is of primary importance because it is the means and the source of framing, determining, and defining all that is in the material world, and all that is of importance and of value or is perceived to be...and acted upon.
The things we cannot readily see or hear or smell or taste or touch, these are the things that animate our world.
We continually recreate the world in our minds, and in response we shape the material world perpetually.
And it is this realm to which we need to focus our real world understanding, talents, and concrete efforts, in order to teach people to understand and master the use of it, with less
destructive consequences for us all.
In order to understand self well and ones place in the world of substance, one must first learn to use the immaterial realm.
Put succinctly, it is the non-material realm, the immaterial, that is of greater importance, because it is THE source.
(Social Capitalism) ....SoCap
This idea is generally framed from a welfare state economics perspective. This is not the definition of what I claim to be of importance nor that which I seek to promote or realize.
It is not the mentality of a charity state or entitlements....no one is entitled to anything in life, which we do not define as such.
My definition...
Social capitalism focuses on the capital of the individual and the groups in a society or community. It's purpose is the enrichment of the human being, human social groups, and
all the forms of substance which enhance the interrelations between groups and individuals.
The focus is on investment in understanding and developing the immaterial realm and all those material expressions which serve to enhance the immaterial realm.
Enhancing the persons or groups relationships, experiences and capacities for realization of goals.
It proscribes a competition for immaterial gain, the social and personal which enhances the superlative in humanity and strives to generate the means by which every human being may attain a state of greatest understanding, capacity for achievements of the goals of society, and the fulfilment of ones own personal desires and needs, throughout life.
The greatest gains being those that serve lifes enrichment especially within the immaterial realm.
All that is material is in service to that which enhances the immaterial.
(Shared-Profits)
There are profit making companies and enterprises, which seek to achieve optimal or maximal material gains, and use a process of creative destruction to generate means that are of increasingly superior quality at the expense of what was before....
It is an expression of social darwinism...to get at that which is fittest.
There are not-for-profit companies and enterprises which seek to serve the social interest both material as with homeless shelters, and immaterial as with teaching art or non-violent problem resolution.
This is a counterforce and a compliment to capitalism and social darwinism, which seeks to minimize the excesses, and fill in the blanks of all the things that are not deemed sufficiently profitable to undertake for captilization, or deemed competively unsustainable.
A Shared profit is a hybrid, which utilizes human desire for personal gains, especially the material, to support the advancement of not-for-profit enterprises and to fund their operations.
By design it is encouraging of ownership in not-for-profit enterprise which enhances the social capital of the community which it serves, while providing an outlet for the creative expression of those seeking material gain for their efforts.
It acknowledges the desire for 'ownership' of ideas and material efforts.
It demands responsibility from the individual or groups to the greater community, if not the specific one(s) it serve(s).
By function it favors the not-for-profit elements in terms of material gain, but not at the expense of the for-profit operations..
The leadership of the shared profit determine the destination of the funds, regularly, and maintain the flow of capital to it.
They are required to remit AT LEAST half of profits to the not-for-profit, they may select any amount up to the whole of profit but not less than half.
They are responsible for creating oversight of the funds use and reporting publically on the results.
In selling or trading, half or more of the gains are remitted to the not-for-profit source selected...the rest are the owners/investors to do with as they please.
Naturally regulations would be comparable to business and not-for-profits in their respective functions.
It is literally doing good for others while you do well for yourself.
The particular structures maybe any variant in the for/not-profit systems....sole-proprietorship, partnership, limited-liability, corporation, etc..
A Posit:
Let us say that these structures were common.
Government could transfer functions, especially those with volatile swings in funding needs to shared-profits which would function out of the intrinsic desire for profit of the individuals/groups but which could be married as partners or quasi-governmental organizations (one possible legal status), which would then act both as means of creating new wealth, and securing better efficiencies within the social enterprise, for which it would be equally responsible.
And if one can transfer in part or in whole governing operations to such shared-profits, then why not offer bonds and other securities directly from such business operations, as goverment securities, transforming the dependability AND future prospects of their value.
It means investing in government securities is no longer something that fails to create new value or lead to increases in societal development.
The individual profits, the community profits, the investors profit, and government profits.
(Eupraxophy)
This idea is originally a concept of Paul Kurtz, who wrote a book called Eupraxophy, Living Without Religion (1991)
--Paul uses a combination of three greek words and assembles them into the following definition of a system that is a counterweight to religion.
EU: Good, Well
PRAXIS : Conduct, Practice
SOPHIA : Scientific and Philosophic Wisdom
Kurtz's Definition:
a Set of convictions and practices offering a cosmic outlook (orderly harmonious system), and an ethical guide to life
The book elaborates on what you can see, is not a very stirring or explanatory definition.
In reading the book I got the sense that Paul did not really know how to create a rational couterweight to the Religious indoctrination that stems from particular structures and functions, from churches to prayer, etc....he seemed to be looking for approximate counterparts to what churches and other tools of religion offer as means of attaining a desired and informed path in how to live ones life..rather than working from within the science and philosophy minded.....he included the idea of a eupraxophy center to be a church-counterweight, as an example.
My Definition:
Eupraxophy is a system or constitution of guiding convictions and practices, which are determined by the rational exploration, study, and explanation of human nature, knowledge, and experiences. It is practiced consciously with principled judgement and an ethical commitment to life.
Which I think captures the sentiment he was seeking, but did not addequettly express in his book. I dug into the constituents of the term, explored them, played with them, trying to figure out what felt more closely expressive of the ideal the book tried to convey, and this is what I came up with.
A eupraxophy center ? sure, in the sense that you might have a book club, or a hobby group, to refine your understanding of a thing...this eupraxophy thing...
But as a community outlet/inlet for organizing people...NO....there is no such need.
Eupraxophy is the synthesis of our accumulated philosphical and scientific understanding, expressed as tools of guidance in attaining that life of harmony which is made possible by the accumulated wisdom of these two.
They are tools to be developed by eupraxophers primarily, but not exclusive to them, anymore than knowledge at a unversity is the exclusive territory of professors....everyone develops the means though some are better than others and that which is most effective and well known is that which is used most often by the most...whether theoretical or practical..and the focus of such a system or constitution is to teach everyone, everything that is known....in a way as to guide people through lifes opportunities and decisions, in order to promote a harmonious society and people that are fulfilled with their existence.
It is complete, answering everything.
It is not a cult, there are no levels, or sacrifices demanded.
It doesn't require you to forsake what you believe..........it teaches you, how to think in ways that are verifiable and practical, what you need to know to be a full human being. You choose from there.
It is part of what is already here, it just does not yet have a systemic and integrated whole to draw from as a common source....in other words, there is no bible equivalent YET.
Once an integrated whole exists..it develops with us and our understanding of the world....it is never static as with religion, which can only perpetually argue the limited points of view that are stated as important to it.
It incorporates EVERYTHING, including religious knowledge and experiences for examination, and as sources of inspiration. But the religious is NOT the source of definition for what is of value or important or how to live ones life.
Feel down because you don't know what do with your life....chapter 13....what do the philosphers say...and what practical examples of these philosophies have been tried as examples you can verify to have or not have worked...and why was that so...etc..who can teach me this....etc.. Humanity has accumulated thousands of years of self-knowledge, from experiments in governing, science, and philosophy to mythological stories, to peotry, to actual systemized social experiments of the last 100 years which at the least indicate probabilities and likelihoods which are a real and verifiable means of determining between a course of action that is likely successful and one that is likely miserly.
It is not the creation of something alien or even new, just the synthesis of what has emerged from the eons of human nature, knowledge and experience that have brought us to the here and now.
The work of the eupraxopher is the work of integrating all into one and to create the means of guidance from this one whole for the many, in whatever culture and land it may be thought of as usefull. It is no more a prosletizing force than a course in scientific or philosophic study.
If it replicates, that will be due to it's effectiveness in providing humanity yet another tool with which it may advance it's cause.
Think of a picture with a foreground and a background....belief and knowledge.
To some the foreground is more captivating and compelling, and for some it is the background.
No priests.
No rituals, secret or otherwise.
No hidden knowledge.
Of
....By
and
............For ALL !!!
From Many Into One.
(The Virtuous Path)
For a long time I have been thinking of how to bring about
good works on a global scale.
How to not just do that which is good, but also encourage others to do likewise, to set an example worth following, which does not require prosletizing.
Somewhere around 2000-2001 I was reading one of the Dune Prequel Novels, House Harkonnen. It is a novel that describes how a Saddam Hussein-like tyrant wields his power and it's ugly consequences for ordinary people...it is basically a book with some horrible stuff in it, that you wouldn't wish on yourself or people you care for...
Some of the stuff got to me, and it made me search for some means that might reduce the inclination of this sort of stuff from happening in this world.
In the universe of Dune, the elites who are the aristocracy of civilization function as great houses....families that control the human universe...
They are awarded exclusivities in certain things like the mining of lucrative substances...spice...and this is a means by which the emporer maintains power...through the selection of who gets to reap what...
It occured to me that if you wanted to organize society to reflect the best of humanity you don't focus on material gain, and who gets what...but rather on the promotion of the virtues that you want your civilization to reflect. This is the key organizing principle.
For a long time I was trying to contort the description as variations on house or houses of virtue, which just didn't sound right...though the basic structure...groups dedicated to promotion and safegaurding of a virtue...is roughly equivalent.
Recently I realized that this is really about a chosen PATH in life, a calling to be a particular kind of person, to live ones life in a particular way.
This then is the calling of the virtuous path...
To live ones life in conscious acknowledgement that there are virtues, especially ones worth promoting, and that the surest way of doing so, is to become a model of that virtue in practice.
The sources of the path, houses in the original instance, are not the emphasis.
Some form of orders which operate independent of goverments, business, or any other formal structures that may be compromised are what I envisioned.
Monk-like if you will...though being less about anything remotely ritualistic...and most everything in the realm of deeds.....leading in this realm by example...it is a self-less calling which one continually cultivates.
We cultivate our Fate !
Those who gather into groups do so not for pooling moneys or materials or talents to encourage the ambitions of a few or a one, but act in parallel to one another or commit on a case by case basis that which they can to means of establishing worthy and useful deeds that speak for themselves as with shared-profits or non-profits that do great works reflecting a given virtue. Literally, the virtue is its own reward and best marketing all in one.
From when this all began, my choice was that of Philanthropy, for myself...
The improvement of human welfare.
The uplifting of humanity.
Not in the crudest form, which is by material contribution..any one can write a check, give cash, or click through a page to send money.
But by personal involvement and sharing of ones talents, resources, and time to advance the quality of life for everyone...one person at a time....enriching a neighborhood, a city, a community by whatever title.
This is my calling.
I Cultivate My Fate...
And the Most Important Influence...
