Preface
For 60 years, I helped organize egalitarian communities whose members enjoyed each other’s company, supported each other in becoming better human beings, and engaged in political action to improve public policies. Over the years, these efforts to pursue Truth, Justice, and Beauty by integrating the personal and the political tackled many specific problems. Now, I sum up what I’ve learned.
My main goal has always been to relieve suffering and promote justice by empowering people and controlling the powerful. Over time, my methods have changed, but this central thrust has remained the same.
In recent decades, to explore how we activists might be more effective, I’ve conducted strategy workshops, engaged in extensive research, shared drafts of proposals, interviewed individuals, circulated online surveys, published three books, and experimented with specific methods to help bring about fundamental and comprehensive reform.
On this website, I present a unique holistic worldview. I use extensive resources to document my case and suggest concrete methods for engaging in meaningful action. I engage in ongoing dialogues with associates and continue participating in two horizontal support groups initiated by a fellow resident in my building,
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Self-development can serve a greater end beyond the self. We can care for ourselves so we can better care for others. We can find a balance between selfishness and self-sacrifice. We can build strong communities and strong individuals. We can find solutions where everyone wins. We can prevent suffering by correcting root causes. We can shift from society’s self-centered focus to other-centeredness.
Countless individuals and organizations in the compassionate humanity community work for justice and help people in need, but this community is fragmented and fails to consistently unite in large numbers to fight urgent issues.
Ego, arrogance, the desire to dominate, and the willingness to submit get in the way. Bitter power struggles divide organizations. People assume leaders are those who can get followers to do what they want, which undermines mutual empowerment.
I have these issues myself. I know it’s better to work with others as equals to solve problems, but I struggle to live up to this ideal. I’m prone to form strong opinions about the right action and preach top-down to persuade, convert, and recruit. I’ve been too focused on proving myself and gaining recognition. I’ve become too vulnerable to hostility, criticism, and disappointment.
I’m not alone. Most people who engage in compassionate action have similar flaws, but few focus on overcoming them. I know of no political organization that sets aside time for its members to support each other with efforts to undo or control the desire to dominate and the willingness to submit for personal gain.
Valor Collegiate Academy Circles, Twelve-Step support groups, and many other projects have demonstrated that peer support can help people reach their goals. Social service and political organizations can learn from these efforts.
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This website promotes holistic and systemic change. It’s holistic because it involves the whole person and the whole society. It’s systemic because it proposes the development of a new primary purpose for our society and new structures to serve that purpose — while preserving healthy traditions.
We’ve experimented with and confirmed methods to cultivate a shift from self-centeredness to other-centeredness. Many of these practical, easy-to-use tools are posted on the site in the Actions sections. These tools could help build a powerful grassroots holistic reform movement that fundamentally improves our society, our culture, and ourselves as individuals.
We can celebrate our unique identities while also seeing ourselves as part of the human family. As global citizens, we can work together for our shared interests, live in harmony with nature, and appreciate the invisible spirit that animates life.
Greater fairness and compassion throughout society are an urgent necessity. Every part of life — social, personal, cultural, economic, environmental, and political — matters. Each is equally important. Improvements in one impact the others. If these changes move in the same direction, they can reinforce each other in a positive upward spiral.
This constantly updated website is dedicated to this goal. The proposals presented here aren’t a blueprint. The focus is on articulating a general worldview that might serve as a foundation for lasting unity. Specific policy proposals are presented for the sake of discussion to clarify possibilities.
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Support for my efforts has been substantial, which has heartened me, but it’s been lukewarm, I feel like I’m swimming upstream. James Baldwin declared, “I really do believe that we can all become better than we are. I know we can. But the price is enormous, and people are not yet willing to pay it.”
L. M. Sacasas, wrote:
Human beings will naturally seek distractions rather than confront their thoughts in moments of solitude and quiet because those thoughts will eventually lead them to consider unpleasant matters such as their mortality, the vanity of their endeavors, and the general frailty of the human condition.
We are all of us kings now surrounded by devices [that] prevent us from thinking about ourselves.
Nevertheless, I persist, with valuable support from close colleagues. I’ll continue researching questions that puzzle me, discuss my results, and put reports on the website. To see changes to the site, you can visit What’s New.
When readers post or email me comments, I discuss them. I’ll continue to try to learn , share my discoveries, and listen to and learn from others.
I’d like to see large numbers of people engage in deep self-examination and mutual support to reduce suffering and promote justice. Regardless, however, my efforts reward me intrinsically.
Many people have helped with this project, but I assume responsibility for the final edits. I invite you, dear reader, to share your thoughts, experiences, and suggested resources to help us improve this website.
—Wade Lee Hudson
4/25/24