Worldview

Systemic 

Holistic and Systemic Reform

Our social system inflames the desire to dominate and the willingness to submit for personal gain. The systemic reform movement proposed here would address this problem with new, egalitarian social structures. It would replace the Top-Down System with a Bottom-Up System.

Interpersonal conflicts weaken activist organizations, social service providers, spiritual communities, families, schools, workplaces, and other organizations. Disrespect, arrogance, egoism, assumptions of moral superiority, elitism, dogmatism, lack of internal democracy, weak mutual support, scapegoating, demonizing, resentments, power struggles, inner turmoil, and other dilemmas are widespread. These issues don’t plague every group, but many afflict most, and they have the same solution: cultivate compassionate cooperation throughout society. 

Our society weaves together our institutions, cultures, and ourselves as individuals into a single self-perpetuating social system — the Top-Down System. This system programs people to selfishly climb social ladders and look down on, dominate, and exploit those below — and submit to those above. Whether you call it meritocracy, rankism, elitism, or technocracy, this Top-Down System assumes that a select few with superior abilities should rule society. 

Justified domination and submission, as with red lights, are means to a higher end: to promote the general welfare. However, when domination and submission become the goal (as is the current pattern), reform is needed to establish a Bottom-Up System rooted in compassionate cooperation that holds leaders accountable to those they serve.

Many individuals and organizations relieve and prevent suffering, and many movements challenge the elitist, top-down concentration of power and promote compassion and democracy. However, these efforts generally focus on particular issues in isolation, and campaigns tend to fade after they peak. 

Suppose these change agents affirm their common ground, unite, more fully support each other, and sustain campaigns over time. They increase their effectiveness and help shift the System from Top-Down to Bottom-Up.

Members commit to the same mission — serve humanity, the environment, and life itself — and use the same two tools: at least once a month, they open meetings with a moment of silence and a holistic check-in during which they report on their efforts to unlearn or control dominate-and-submit impulses.

In these ways, reformers democratize society and cultivate mutual empowerment, self-improvement, and egalitarian communities. This systemic reform movement affirms everyone’s common humanity and equal worth and builds democratic hierarchies with representative democracies.

This holistic and systemic reform directs attention to the whole person and the whole society. Gains reinforce each other in a synergistic upward spiral, leading to a more harmonious society in every arena: social, personal, cultural, economic, environmental, and political.

Affirming that the System is our common problem unifies the movement and reduces scapegoating, a divisive distraction that undermines unity. Top-level administrators are replaceable. No one individual or group is in control. Everyone is a pawn in the game, and everyone is responsible. Everyone supports the System with their daily actions. 

Wealth, power, and status are end goals in the Top-Down System. People seek self-serving top-down power and consider life a zero-sum struggle with winners and losers. 

As we restructure society, power becomes a means to a greater end: to “promote the general welfare.” We humanize ourselves, communities, cultures, workplaces, and governments and establish harmony with Mother Nature. We shift from the Top-Down System to a Bottom-Up System.

This scenario imagines a massive, grassroots, multi-national movement based on shared principles and two simple tools: a moment of silence and a holistic check-in. This systemic reform movement cultivates a national community based on a coordinated network of autonomous local teams. The movement models the egalitarian society it seeks — grounded in mutual aid and respect for everyone’s equal value.

The hope is that individuals and organizations will engage in the actions recommended here to prepare the ground for this movement, and a strong, diverse group of community leaders will convene a conference to launch it.

We present these proposed principles and tools for the sake of discussion. As they get involved, the assumption is that members will consider modifying and supplementing them.

If enough people commit to a vision like this, we can advance holistic and systemic change throughout society while retaining the Top-Down System’s positive qualities. Society can become new in some ways — and remain the same in others.  

Underneath our multiple identities, we’re all members of the human family. We’re interdependent, which requires us to aid each other. This perspective helps us to avoid both selfishness and self-sacrifice. Gains ripple through society with win-win solutions that benefit everyone. These positive-sum strategies reform the Top-Down System into a Bottom-Up System rooted in egalitarian mutual empowerment.

These reforms nurture holistic democracy, democratic equality, practical idealism,democratic leadership, mutual empowerment, and synergistic, holistic, systemic change committed to serving humanity, the environment, and life itself.