How to Unite Human Society

by Prabhat Sarkar, Founder of PROUT  

While trying to bring about the development and prosperity of individuals and society, we should encourage the common points only among different communities – not the points of difference.  It is natural that there are differences in society concerning dress, customs, cultural expressions, food habits, language, etc.  Though, if these points of difference are given undue importance, social problems will only be aggravated, and as a result the unity and very existence of society will be jeopardized.  If nothing is done immediately to check the deterioration of contemporary society, then as a result of different factors, in due course society will automatically evolve some common principles.  So the points of difference should never be encouraged in any way.  

Social and political leaders should refrain from harping on the points of difference in society.  Rather, they should continually emphasize that it is not the appropriate time to bring up complicated divisive issues.  For example, take the case of Indian languages.  There are many people in India who unnecessarily fight over the issue of language, but is now the proper time to raise this issue when there are so many people suffering from hunger, famine, disease, educational backwardness, economic distress, etc.?  Can the people of India afford to waste their valuable time over the comparatively unimportant issue of language?  On the contrary, they should immediately launch a campaign against exploitation, as this will keep the divisive forces under control.  If this is not done, the fissiparous forces will create impediments and dissension in society, and the important burning issues confronting the people will remain unsolved.  

Points of Unity  

The progress of a country depends on unity, so emphasis should be placed only on unifying factors.  To eliminate fissiparous forces, we will have to fight a relentless war against disunity in the following three spheres.  

Socio-Economic Sphere  

While some people are enormously rich, a large percentage of the population is languishing in poverty.  Naturally, to build up a strong society, socio-economic disparity must be completely eradicated.  

With the eradication of socio-economic disparity, the collective wealth of society will have to be increased progressively.  Only then can the growing demands of the population be successfully met.  Let us take the example of Orissa.  Agricultural production, particularly in the rainy season, depends almost entirely on the monsoons.  But if the irrigation system was properly developed, the total agricultural production in the state would increase 300 percent, and an additional 40 million people could be fed.  Today only 15 million people are being fed with the present levels of production.  Orissa is also rich in mineral resources.  Abundant coal, bauxite, manganese and other minerals are readily available in the state, but many of these minerals are being exported to other countries.  If these raw materials were properly utilized to manufacture finished goods in the state, Orissa could establish at least four large-scale steel plants.  This would substantially increased the purchasing power of the people.  Unfortunately, the incompetent political leaders of the country do not think in a rational way.  On the contrary, they formulate plans that neither remove socio-economic disparity nor increase collective wealth.  These leaders have committed a major blunder by placing the cart before the horse.  

In all countries of the world, economically deprived people can be united through a common programme of socio-economic struggle and by fighting against cruel capitalist exploitation on the one hand, and by implementing developmental programmes to enhance the amount of collective wealth on the other.  By undertaking extensive irrigation, mining, agriculture and industrial development, the collective wealth of a country can be easily increased.  

Self-sufficient socio-economic zones should be established throughout the world to smoothly eliminate social disparity and increase collective wealth.  The formation of states on political grounds should be carefully avoided.  In one political unit there may be several socio-economic zones which can live unitedly together with their respective problems.  For example, the state of Bihar is a political unit but while the Chotanagpur Hills are confronted with the problem of irrigation, the plains of North Bihar are suffering from the problem of drainage.  In Royalseema, Srikulam and Telengana areas of Andhra Pradesh are situated in the political unit of Andhra Pradesh, but their socio-economic potentialities are quite different.  To derive the maximum benefit from these areas, distinct socio-economic zones should be formed, regardless of whether or not they remain in the same political unit.  It is a great mistake to form states on the basis of politics or language.  If a capitalist and a labourer speaks the same language, who will think that they are friends because of their linguistic affinity?  

Psycho-Sentimental Sphere  

In the psychic sphere, there are certain factors that serve to unite different linguistic groups of people.  For example, all North Indian languages and a few South Indian languages originated and developed from Sańskrta.  These languages have been greatly influenced by Saḿskrta.  In such circumstances, the study of Saḿskrta should not be opposed by anybody.  This may appear to be a trivial matter, but if it is encouraged it will be a great unifying factor in Indian society.  

In social traditions also, some common points may be developed.  Research and archaeological excavation on glorious past civilizations and great personalities will help arouse a strong national sentiment.  For example, the excavation of the Mahenzodaro and Harappa civilizations highlighted the accomplishments of ancient Indian culture.

The study of history should also be encouraged.  Itihása is not synonymous with the Saḿskrta word itikathá which means “history” and is the chronological record of past events.  The word itihása means that part of history which has great educative value.  The study of itihása or the cultural history of a country arouses a sense of unity amongst the members of society, and they become aware of their impact on cultural legacy.  For example, the study of the historical epic Mahábhárata creates a sense of pride and inspiration in the minds of the people, and this fosters the spirit of collective unity.  

The memory of illustrious saints and sages also binds people together with common bonds of affinity.  When people cherish their past leaders and saints, it creates a strong foundation for collective unity.  

Spirituo-Sentimental Sphere  

The sentiments of a common spiritual heritage and a common spiritual goal are the only sentiments which can bind people together permanently.  Socio-economic and psycho-sentimental issues are extremely useful for creating social unity and cohesion, but the sentiments arising out of these issues are temporary.  Cosmic sentiments are permanent.  By inculcating universal sentiments, socio-economic unity and fraternity will be based on a strong fundament.  People will think in terms of cosmic paternity and universal fraternity.  My firm conviction that we have all come from the same Entity and we will all merge in the same Entity will generate a unique unifying sentiment.  All people will feel united by the ties of universal love and friendship, which will ultimately pave the way for a universal society.  The poet Satyendra Dutta, the great universalist, has eloquently expressed this sentiment in the following poem:  

Ráge anuráge nidrita jáge ásal mánuś prakat́ hay
Varńe varńe náhika visheś nikhil bhuvan Brahmamay!
Nivir aekye yáy mishe’ yáy sakal bhágya sab hrday
Mánuśe mánuśe náiko prabhed nikhil mánava Brahmamay.  

[When love awakens in sleeping souls, then true human beings will emerge.
There is no difference between one person, one race, and another, for the entire universe is pervaded by one Infinite Consciousness!]  

Wherever there is a common point among people it should be encouraged, while the points of difference have to be discouraged and eliminated.  For fostering unity and enhancing the prosperity of the people, this must be the fundamental approach.  We should always remember:  

Jagat juŕiyá ek ját áche
Se játir nám mánuś játi
Eki prthiviir stanye pálita
Eki ravi shashi moder sáthii.  

[There is only one race in the entire world,
And the name of that race is the human race.
We are bound together with the same breast milk of mother Earth,
And the same sun and moon are our common companions.]  

Points of Difference  

There are conspicuous variations in four main areas of human society – food, dress, language and religion.  

Essential Factors for Existence of Society

Find more about PROUT Study Guide Here

The Existence Of Human Society


Human society provides the framework for the collective movement and growth of all individuals -- for the expansion and development of the individual and collective potentialities.  As such, society does not indicate merely an aggregate of individuals; rather it implies a degree of collective consciousness and social cohesion.  The factors necessary for the existence of human society, asti in Sanskrit, are based upon the strengths of social unity, security and peace.   


Social Unity

The degree of social unity in a system is created by, and depends upon, the existence and strength of certain key factors:  common ideals, an absence of social stratification (a classless society), collective social functions, and an absence of capital punishment.

Common Ideals:  Inspired by common ideals, people move together overcoming all hardships and obstacles.  Without the inspiration of a common ideal, their movement becomes thwarted and haphazard.  Historical groupings -- whether ancient clans, medieval empires or modern nation-states –- have all been based upon common ideals and sentiments to achieve social unity.  While common ideals are positive, the various ”isms” based on these ideals have often divided humanity into mutually belligerent groups.  In modern days, for example, the patriotism of nation states have often given rise to national chauvinism, racism and imperialism.  Such value systems are fast becoming outdated.  Two World Wars, the excesses of imperialism, and the exploitation of global capitalism, demonstrate the need to develop global common ideals and realize that this mother Earth is populated by a single human society.  The narrow groupist sentiments of the past, including racism, nationalism, and class elitism must to be overcome to realize greater social unity.

Philosophically, the only ideal which is all-inclusive and synthetic, is to merge one's identity with all of life.  Only by offering each of our actions to the Divine Entity are we able to developing feelings of true universalism beyond narrow self interest.  This is the required sentiment to inspire people to move toward greater unity.

Classless Society:  Human beings have a natural bond of love and affection towards each other and this tender thread should be strengthened.  The idea of the basic equality of all human beings is known in Sanskrit as sama samaja tattva:  the principle of social equality.  This principle of social equality should be the basis for human society.  It is essential for the promotion of unity.

Even in an ideal social structure there would be infinite differences of outlook, occupation and opinion insofar as diversity is the law of nature.  But this apparent diversity, which accounts for the beauty and strength of human culture, should not be used as a pretext for the creation of a social structure undermining the basic rights, unity, and oneness of human beings.  Stressing the apparent differences and dividing people by injecting or promoting irrational divisive sentiments is detrimental to the growth of society, weakening its unity and strength.  Ideas of division based on gender, race, class, religion, etc., are the products of self-serving leaders who want to inculcate them into the social psychology in order to divide and conquer.  People have to be educated and mentally strengthened to overcome such sentiments.

Social Functions:  It is in our common social functions, festivals, gatherings, etc., that the social fabric is woven and where people learn to appreciate each other.  Social functions inspire the sense of community that is necessary to collectively face our everyday difficulties.  They also give us a chance to express our higher forms of art and culture.

Absence of Capital Punishment:  It is morally wrong for society to sanction murder by law as a punishment.  It legitimizes killing and creates a psychic imbalance in people.  From the social point of view, every executed member of the society will leave behind a husband or wife, sons and daughters, parents, friends, etc., who become alienated and disgruntled by this measurement.  Their resentment and pain (with or without any wrongdoing on their part) undermines the unity of society. The situation worsens when racism or class dominance come into play.  Similarly, social ostracism (the creation of ”outcasts” or permanently rejected individuals) is a sort of capital punishment on the psychological rather than physical level, and also causes negative effects.  As such PROUT advocates that education and rehabilitation, rather than punishment, should provide the basis of a criminal justice system.   


Security

For the existence of human beings and for the development of their full physical, psychic, and spiritual potential, economic and social security is required.  This security primarily depends upon two factors:  social justice and discipline.   


Social Justice

Many of the insecurities of life can be removed by recognizing the need for social unity despite the world's apparent diversity.  When this recognition is linked to a greater effort to ensure everyone the opportunity to meet their basic necessities, according to rational and human considerations, we have the basis for PROUT’s system of social justice.  Proutists will make a strong effort to remove all exploitative and unjust practices from the social fabric.  This will greatly strengthen the well being, creativity and productivity of the individual, making society much stronger as a whole.  The economic system of PROUT is based on this idea of social justice.  


Discipline

A well balanced and agreeable code of conduct is highly necessary in both individual and collective life because it lessens conflicts due to self interest.  All societies have social codes, such as standards for courteous behavior as well as regulations and laws.  These help create an environment and attitude conducive to mutual respect and interaction.  They give scope for freedom of expression up to the point at which one's behavior creates interference with the basic rights of others.  Lack of discipline in individual and social life bring about social deterioration, as unrestrained self-interest, greed, and immorality erode unity.  The rich and powerful puff up their own lifestyles by preying on the weak.  Poverty spreads in similar proportion to the concentration of wealth into the hands of a few.  The Earth's resources are limited, but selfish desires and greed are unlimited.  Without a strong common code of discipline, based upon universal values, society degenerates into a pack of wolves. Social Darwinism legitimizes the exploitation of the weak and the poor by the rich and the powerful.

An overly repressive or permissive code of conduct that does not take into account human psychology inevitably has disastrous results.  Discipline must be in tune with the nature and subtle aspirations of human beings.  The mechanical discipline of the military or discipline based on the repression of human nature will never serve the whole.  The repressive manners and beliefs of the Victorian age resulted in modern days' hedonism.  In the former Soviet Union, only the omnipresence of the secret police assured socially acceptable behavior -- making individual life a repressive nightmare and ultimately leading to the destruction of that social system from within.  Discipline in social life must develop from a code of conduct which is in tune with the physico-psycho-spiritual nature of human beings, and be adjusted to the needs of different age-groups and cultures.  Children will have to be educated with a love for self discipline.  Only by such means can freedom in the social and individual sphere be realized.  For the utilization of the higher faculties of the mind, self discipline is especially of great importance.   


Peace

War is a great blight on human history.  Human society thrives in peace and is destroyed by war.  War throws human beings back into the animalistic fight for survival and brings out all base instincts, creating untold sufferings.

Peace is of two kinds.  Sentient peace indicates the predominance of the forces of unity, justice, and the light of rationality.  Static peace, on the other hand, indicates that oppression, suppression and the forces of ignorance and exploitation are dominant.  To establish sentient peace in human society, the well-wishers of humanity can not shy away from struggle.  Only by struggling against the forces of ignorance and exploitation can lasting sentient peace be established.

For establishing lasting sentient peace, two factors are important:  scientific spiritual practices and the fight for the removal of all dogmas.  Through spiritual practices (proper diet, asanas, morality, selfless service, meditation and devotion), selfishness and physical longings are converted into higher mental and spiritual propensities, and the clash on the material level for limited goods can be minimized.  Sentiments are broadened as people accelerate the unfolding of their innate potential. By fighting against irrational superstitions and dogmas, human beings establish themselves in rationality.  Various dogmas have been the root cause in the past for much bloodshed.  Take for example the clash between two different schools of Christianity that plunged most of central Europe into thirty years of utter destruction; or the dogma of racial superiority which gave the European settlers in America the scope to enslave Africans and eradicate Native Americans.  And all this took place under a Constitution professing the liberty and equality of all men.  Rationality encourages ideological discussion and conflict, but abhors the cruelties of war and destruction.  To establish sentient peace, broad-mindedness must be encouraged and universalism must inspire the hearts of all.  To do this, the following factors are necessary.

We must strive to develop and adopt a common philosophy of life.  This does not mean the adoption of a set of dogmas or limiting of ideological differences.  Rather it means the acceptance of universal values built upon a strong foundation of rationality.

We must develop a common constitution for all people and nations, especially a bill of human rights.  This constitution should take the best of all experiences from different constitutions and blend them into one, to be ratified by all national governments.  This will help protect the rights of minorities, and will be the first step toward establishing a world governing body with legislative powers.

We must create a common penal code for all nations, to be based primarily upon accepted human rights rather than local notions of vice and virtue.

There must be a guarantee of the production, supply and necessary purchasing capacity for the minimum requirements of life.  This will assure everyone’s security on the existential level and free up the tremendous psychic energy presently bound up in fear, insecurity, and the struggle for the basic necessities.  This mental energy can be harnessed for the welfare and development of individuals in all spheres of life, and a quantum leap in the quality of social life can be achieved.

A Comprehensive Guide to the Study of PROUT
By The Proutist Writers Group, New York Sector
© Proutist Universal, Inc.  1998
This edition published by Proutist Universal Global Office, March 2010
P.U.  Global Office
Platanvej 30
DK 1810 Frederiksberg C

Denmark

Political Democracy can and will be fortuitous when Economic Democracy is established.   Explore this and other articles covering alternative economics, ethical leadership, economic democracy, and a society without the weal and woe of social and economic vicissitudes HERE   How does PROUT compare or contrast with capitalism or communism?  Explore the answers HERE What are essential ingredients assuring progressive sustainability bereft of the vicissitudes of economic or political predation, privation or disparity?  Learn more HERE   http://gplus.to/ProgressiveSustainability

Sadvipras: PROUT’s Paradigm of Enlightened Leaders

Guest article

Explore this and other articles covering alternative economics, ethical leadership, economic democracy, and a society without economic vicissitudes HERE

by Jody Wright, PROUT activist for 35 years.

[Excerpted from a presentation at the First Global PROUT Conference in Venezuela, "Building a Solidarity Economy based on Ethics and Ecology", July 7-9, 2011, Caracas]

I’d like to talk today about the concept of leadership in PROUT. Sometimes I think of leadership as the magnet that makes all the iron filings on a piece of paper face the same direction. Leadership is what helps us to organize ourselves so that we get where we want to go.

I think it’s important to start by looking at mediocre leaders. Where do leaders fail us? Some leaders want power for personal gain and they feel that they’re better when they’re the leader. They feel that they want something for their own selves out of it. They want the recognition, the adulation that comes from it.

Some mediocre leaders aren’t clear about where they’re going. They may take people in one direction, and then in another direction. They don’t have the ability to look at what they’re doing from a bigger perspective. They may lose their direction, and take people to the wrong place.

Some leaders can be bought out by other people, they’re very influenced by other people. If their basic desire in being a leader is to be recognized and to be looked up to by others, it may be easy for them to be bought out by others. Or if their desire is for personal gain, to have more money in their pocket, they can be bought financially.

Some leaders lack skills to organize groups. They are in a leadership position, yet they don’t pull the whole group together. They may not know the balance between structure and direction that’s needed by the group.

Social change and real revolution requires excellent leadership. Not just leadership that is mediocre, that doesn’t know the direction, that gets lost, that’s for personal gain, but truly excellent leadership. So I’d like to spend some time talking about what that excellent leadership looks like.

According to PROUT founder P.R. Sarkar: “Those spiritual revolutionaries who work to achieve progressive changes for human elevation on a well-thought, pre-planned basis, whether in the physical, metaphysical or spiritual sphere, by adhering to the moral principles of Yama and Niyama, are Sadvipras.”

So, let’s look at that together. Some qualities of excellent leaders is that they’re physically fit, their body is in good shape to do the kind of leadership that is necessary, to do whatever is necessary: to carry to handle hard situations – it really helps to be physically fit. They’re mentally developed: they have the capacity to look at things from a number of different perspectives, to take the information that is around them and put it together in ways that makes sense. They have this capacity in an exceptional way. And they’re spiritually elevated. When we understand things from a spiritual perspective, we have a bigger picture of things. We understand things from the point of view of the universe and not just the point of view of our own selves.  

Excellent leaders, sadvipras, as P.R. Sarkar calls them, are well-rounded in their development. They’re not just intellectually very bright and good at looking at facts, but they’re also good at putting those together and making them work into something. They have control of their emotions, and yet they feel very much for the people around them. They are capable of both doing things themselves and of leading others in doing them. They’re able to physically work hard, a lot of leadership requires rolling up your sleeves and doing it, and no amount of telling other people to do it does the job. You need to demonstrate, you need to lead, you need to show that you are part of all the other people and willing to work hard and do the work yourself, too.

It’s important to people be able to protect family and community and knowing the skills of protection, the skills of caring for others. It’s an important part of leadership, because if we don’t care for each other, if we don’t protect each other, we won’t have people to lead. It’s important that all the needs get met.

To be intellectually knowledgeable is an important part of being a good leader. We need to have the knowledge and the understanding. We need to really be able to think as leaders in order to give directions to others that make sense. Things are so complex in our society today that it requires a very settled and active mind.

It helps to be entrepreneurial and organized. Somebody who is entrepreneurial has a lot of new ideas, they can look at things from a new perspective, they can come up with the idea to meet the conditions of the moment. If you are organized, you are able to direct other people, to guide people, and to know when to sit back and listen, and when to step forward and speak. You can look ahead if you’re organized and see what the needs are going to be in the future, and not just in the present. And when people look to you as leaders, that’s what they’re looking for.

Another quality of a sadvipra is living a moral life. It’s vitally important as leaders that people be able to look to us and say, I totally trust that person, I truly know that they will do what’s right and correct in this situation. And when people see that you are not following moral principles, that you are doing things that are different from what you say, that there is a disconnect between the two of those, then they’ll lose respect for you and it’ll be harder for people to follow you.

In our history of leaders, there are people who have concentrated so much on their moral life and their moral responsibilities to each other, that they have gained a tremendous amount of respect from the people who have followed them or who have worked with them.

Following a spiritual path can be a wonderful way to feel a sense of unity with the universe. And when you have that sense of unity, then you know more clearly where you’re going, and you know why you’re going there. And if you know why you’re doing what you’re doing, you’re going to be much more likely to get there.

Following a spiritual path also gives us a method for dealing with the stress that comes up when we are working with social change. It’s very easy for people to get burnt out if they don’t have a way to go back and recharge themselves. Sometimes I think of my meditation as a recharging process. Just as I have to plug in my cell phone at the end of the day to make sure that it will be fully recharged for the next day, I also have to plug in myself to that divine universe and recharge myself.

Leaders need to be balanced and clear in their thinking. If we are muddled in our thinking, if we are not balanced, if we are quick to anger, if we are easily depressed, it would be hard for us to be good leaders.

Of course, meditation helps with this. Any kind of spiritual practice helps us to be balanced and clear in our thinking, because it helps to clean out our minds on a daily basis. Our practice makes us clear with that, too. The more that we work at having a clear perspective, dealing with the ways that we feel we have not done things correctly in our lives, the more balanced and clear we become.

Living a life of service is important for leaders. When we serve other people all the time, we gain a feeling of what their needs are, we gain more respect in the community and we feel as individuals like we are truly contributing to society. This helps us to be better leaders. Of course, living a life of service is itself leadership.

How do sadvipras lead society? A sadvipra is a person who has all-round development, who thinks ahead, who watches what’s happening around and reaches out and influences things at just the right time. Not somebody that elbows other people down so that they can stand on the top themselves, but somebody who watches with satisfaction when leaders emerge from society, and helps and supports them in growing because their ultimate care is for the progress of human society.

Some of the ways that sadvipras lead is that they’re actively involved in social change. They’re always at the cutting edge of change, looking for the ways that society needs to move in order to become more progressive, to become more successful, to lead more humans towards their rightful way of expressing themselves in society.

P.R. Sarkar says: “The spirit to fight against all odds alone can solve the problems confronting human beings. March ahead and wage war against all difficulties, every impediment. Victory is sure to embrace you. Difficulties and encumbrances cannot be more powerful than your capacity to solve them. You are the children of the great Cosmic Entity. Be a Sadvipra and make others Sadvipra also.”

I wanted to talk about two people who are favorite leaders of mine. As I put together the photos for this power point presentation, I ran into several people that I thought were really great leaders. The first one I am going to introduce you to is Dada Daneshananda. He works in Ghana, Burkina Faso and Nigeria. The picture here is a water reservoir. He developed the plans for it, dug it out and filled it up with rain water with a dam. Then it is filtered and piped to provide pure drinking water to dozens of villages where people used to have to walk. The women used to have to walk with their jars on their head very far in order to get muddy water and bring it back to their families. And the water was infested with a worm that caused intestinal problems for people and eventually killed many people. So this has been a really great thing for the villages in the area of Ghana in the Volta area.

He works in Nigeria now organizing medical clinics. He has set up traditional birth attendant training programs in Ghana, has worked with villages who elect a health educator in their village. The health educators come monthly and learn more things about caring for the health of their villages, then go back and educate their fellow sisters in the village.

The other person I wanted to introduce you to was a woman that I knew in India. I met her one day at the home that she runs where she has about 60 children. Here you have pictures of about 11 or 12 of the children in the home. Here I am holding a baby that she has rescued. This baby is maybe 4 to 6 months old, and she told me the story of this baby. The baby was brought to her by the local police department, and they often bring children to her that have been abandoned in the street. This baby was found in the river floating, and had marks around its neck where somebody tried to suffocate it before finally throwing it into the river. The baby was rescued from the river alive and she took the baby in. She said her parents came and helped her run the children’s home, she has other women there who help her with the home, and they helped to take care of the home so she could devote herself to the baby. I think she is just an amazing woman who does this without any pay; she runs this home for 60 children in India.

Thank you very much. I hope this has been helpful for you and you’ll do some thinking about how to become the kind of leader that you want to be. Thank you.

Political Democracy can and will be fortuitous when Economic Democracy is established.   Explore this and other articles covering alternative economics, ethical leadership, economic democracy, and a society without the weal and woe of social and economic vicissitudes HERE   How does PROUT compare or contrast with capitalism or communism?  Explore the answers HERE What are essential ingredients assuring progressive sustainability bereft of the vicissitudes of economic or political predation, privation or disparity?  Learn more HERE   http://gplus.to/ProgressiveSustainability

Purposeful Solutions Offered by the Venus Project

While PROUT organizations have not specifically subscribed to the Venus Project concepts and precepts, I can say that much of what Jacque Fresco has to convey is germane to PROUT concerns, both of exploitation and lasting solutions, other than specificity of city design, of which PROUT gives maximum flexibility within the parameters of its fundamental principles in the contexts of time, place and persons, explorable from the column on your right.  

American Dream 2.0: Can Worker-Owned Coops End Poverty?

Cooperatives

by Monique Hairston at Rebuild the Dream

This month, Rebuild the Dream is taking a look at a few of the amazing ways people in our communities are coming together to create local economies that empower the 99%. 

We call these initiatives the American Dream 2.0 because they are providing a totally revamped way to look at our values as a nation as well as our role in creating the world we want to live in.  

In part 2 of the American Dream 2.0 series, we take a closer look at worker-owned cooperatives — businesses owned and operated by the workers.  While there are several models for ownership and management of worker cooperatives, the essential question is whether they can prove to be a viable solution to joblessness and economic disparity. 

It’s not so far-fetched.  In fact, it’s already happened. 

The Mondragon Cooperative Corporation in the Basque region of Spain did just that in the 50s.  After the Spanish Civil War, Father Jose Maria Arizmendiarriata organized impoverished Basque peasants into a coop that manufactured paraffin stoves.  Mondragon has since grown to include 120 workplaces, a bank, a chain of supermarkets and a university – all cooperatively owned and run by employees. 

Member-Owners of the Mondragon Cooperative Corporation.  Photo by Comercio y Justicia.

The MCC is now considered the most successful example of worker-owned enterprise in the world and is mentoring projects like the Evergreen Cooperative Laundry in Cleveland, Ohio.  The laundry co-op is 100%-owned by 50 workers who, after seven years on the job, will have each built an ownership stake of as much as $65,000. 

Tracie Marsh, right, and Derrick Davis feed clean sheets into a pressing machine at Evergreen Cooperative Laundry.  Photo by John Kuntz/The Plain Dealer

The Evergreen Laundry Cooperative and similar projects are all part of a growing effort to transform the quality of life for low- and moderate-income communities across the country. 

It’s the reason Omar Freilla returned to his old neighborhood in the South Bronx in the 90s.  He wanted to create a South Bronx that is greener, healthier and more economically empowered than the South Bronx he grew up in. 

Omar Freilla, founder and coordinator of Green Worker Cooperatives, Bronx, New York.

To do that, he established Green Worker Cooperatives – an organization that provides training and support to residents starting worker-owned green businesses. 

The South Bronx, in addition to being one of New York’s working class communities, has also become a dumping ground for all types of dirty industry and infrastructure — coal plants, landfills and hazardous waste treatment facilities.  Because it is located along a heavily trafficked highway, asthma rates in the South Bronx are twelve times the national average.  Moreover, access to healthy food, quality education and affordable health care is limited. 

The Green Worker Cooperatives model says that if you establish more worker-owned green businesses in areas like the South Bronx, then you can build a strong local economy and break the cycle of poverty by keeping community money within the community.  And by establishing worker-owned health co-ops or businesses that do things like turning trash into valuable compost for resale, you create wealth and wellness that doesn’t depend on resources from outside of the community. 

But if worker-owned cooperatives can create jobs and pave the way to a truly democratic economy, why aren’t there more of them? 

According to Quentin Sankofa of the Mandela Food Cooperative it comes down to money. 

“It is not an easy thing for low income people of color to start a business, let alone a cooperative.” Sankofa says, “No banks or credit unions wanted to lend us money.” 

Sankofa is one of seven members of the Mandela Food Cooperative which is the only grocery store in West Oakland, CA.  Because of the lack of access to fresh food and produce, West Oakland is classified as an urban food desert.  But thanks to funding and support from the non-profit Mandela Marketplace, the co-op is now providing fresh fruit and vegetables which are delivered daily by youth to small grocery and liquor stores in the area. 

But are grants from foundations and non-profits a truly sustainable resource for people seeking funding? They can help some, but can they provide enough capital to transform communities which have suffered socially and economically for centuries? 

While we can’t provide all the answers in a blog, we can say that there are some groups that are finding some pretty innovative ways to raise money for their cooperatives without bank loans.  The Alchemy Co-op in Melrose, MA raised over $10,000 to start their organic food co-op through online crowd-funding. 

Have an interest in starting your own worker-owned coop? Here are a few resources we’ve put together to help you get started: 

 

Crowd-Sourced Fundraising

Kickstarter.com – online crowd-sourced fundraising site which uses an all-or-nothing model to raise money for projects — if you set your fundraising goal at $10,000 and raise $9,999, you don’t get any of it 

Indiegogo.com – online crowd-sourced fundraising site where you pay a fee but keep all the money you raise 

Funding

Worker Cooperative Federal Credit Union – a credit union in its start-up phase whose sole purpose is financing worker cooperatives. 

Worker Ownership Fund – national organization to increase access to funding for start-up and existing worker-owned cooperatives 

Training

Green Worker Cooperatives’ Coop Academy — an intensive 16-week training and support program that helps teams of aspiring entrepreneurs develop worker-owned green businesses. 

Do It Yourself Resources

Converting your Business to a Coop

Steps to Starting a Worker Coop

Worker Cooperative Toolbox

American Worker Coops Startup Guides  

Political Democracy can and will be fortuitous when Economic Democracy is established.   Explore this and other articles covering alternative economics, ethical leadership, economic democracy, and a society without the weal and woe of social and economic vicissitudes HERE   How does PROUT compare or contrast with capitalism or communism?  Explore the answers HERE What are essential ingredients assuring progressive sustainability bereft of the vicissitudes of economic or political predation, privation or disparity?  Learn more HERE   http://gplus.to/ProgressiveSustainability

NeoHumanism: A More Progressive, Evolved Approach

Geo-Sentiment, Socio-Sentiment, and Humanistic Sentiment Versus NeoHumanism

Sentimental feelings without the support of rationality lead to narrowness of mind and dogma.  The collective psychology today is manipulated by three basic sentiments - geo-sentiment, socio-sentiment and human sentiment.  The first of these centers around a particular geographic region, thus the term "geo-sentiment." Geo-sentiments can express themselves in the political, religious, economic or other spheres.  Many religions, for example, are fueled by the idea that their land is the land of God.  Religious leaders manipulate geo-sentiments by saying that one place is "holy," one direction is best for prayer; that pilgrimages are to be made to "sacred" places, while not acknowledging the "sacred places" of others.  This feeds irrationality.

Geo-sentiments also underlie material exploitation.  Imperialism and colonialism are partially expressions of geo-sentiment.  One may have great compassion for fellow countrymen, but will not hesitate to starve and bleed the people of another area.  Such groupist sentiment supports all kinds of injustices toward others.  This kind of narrow thinking is a serious mental weakness often fueled by clever politicians and vested economic interests to maintain their power.

Socio-sentiments are even more dangerous.  These sentiments pertain to the placement of one's own society above those of others.  The belief that one's nation, race, religion or lifestyle is superior and needs to be imposed on others, leads to the oppression of the weak by the strong.  It leads to the suppression of minorities everywhere.  Cultural superiority is one of the main expressions of socio-sentiment expressed as an imposition of a culture's art, literature, language, etc.  on others.  Without making an attempt to understand or appreciate another culture, socio-sentiment dubs it inferior, strange, etc.  One can easily observe this in the attitude of westerners toward the cultures of third world countries and peoples.  The languages of various peoples are termed vulgar, inferior to the colonist language and not permitted to be used in local schools.  Socio-religion declares one people as God's people and their scriptures are the true word of God.  One can see that the effects of socio-sentiment can be far more disastrous than geo-sentiment.

The third category of sentiment is the so-called human sentiment, or Humanism.  In an attempt to overcome the limited outlook embodied in the above sentiments, the idea of humanism blossomed. "All humans are deserving of equal fundamental rights, having similar minds, feelings, etc." The only defect in this is that the same person, after having given a high-blown speech on humanism, may not have any regard for other living beings.  In eating meat, wearing furs or buying other products of endangered species, this humanist has a sentiment for human equality, but he or she does not see that animals also suffer.  And should we not also have a responsibility to plants and even inanimate matter?

When we are able to extend the spirit of humanism to all living beings, and we begin to take responsibility for the inanimate world as well, we begin to adopt a universal sentiment which can be called NeoHumanism.  NeoHumanism has spirituality as its source of inspiration.  One who seeks true inner knowledge will be filled with love for the entire creation, and will certainly have innate love for living beings and a sense of responsibility toward the environment.

In order to make progress today it is a dire necessity to overcome these limited geo, socio, and even humanistic sentiments.  The dissemination of unbiased knowledge is an absolute necessity.  In order to free our minds from these dogmatic sentiments, the spirit of social equality must be widely held. The only way to accomplish this is for intellectually developed people to engage themselves for the welfare of others and to take active roles in mass education.  So many intellectually developed people are not interested in involving themselves in the upliftment of humanity.  Many are solely interested in maintaining their elitist positions.  Others, although actively engaged in social service of various types are forced to work for the capital gain of exploitive interests.  

There is a need to develop "benevolent intellect" - intellect used for service and upliftment.  People with developed minds should consider the impact of their work and use their discriminating power to help people overcome their irrational sentiments.  They should help expose exploitation in the social, political and economic spheres.  A small number of intellectuals today have created considerable positive influence with their benevolent intellects.  One who has developed the spirit of NeoHumanism along with benevolent intellect is an incredible asset to human society.  PROUT seeks to create such people, and to help them occupy leadership positions.

The educational system should be re-cast to promote NeoHumanism.  Education should be society's highest priority.  It should be available to all free of charge.  Educators in a Proutist system would have status as high as judges, for they, along with the parents, are the true social foundation.  It is indicative of society's neglect that in some parts of the USA, teachers receive less income than sanitation workers (not to belittle the importance of sanitation workers).  Child care workers earn from $2 to $7 an hour which puts them in the category of the working poor.  Needless to say, under such conditions, only the most dedicated become child care providers and school teachers nowadays.

Education must free people from the bondage of narrow sentiments and promote universalism.  It must focus on developing all-round human potential - cognitive skills, sensory-motor skills, the creative and analytical faculties, social-emotional maturity, universal morality, practical skills, and all branches of knowledge.  The main purport of NeoHumanist education is the inculcation of respect and love for all living beings in the universe in which we exist.  Intellectual growth without such a base becomes used for selfish or destructive purposes.  Therefore, let education first create moral human beings.  Such educated people will easily follow the path of universal spirituality and be a great asset to society.      

You can always explore further the meaningful alternative PROUT provides at our website, https://bit.ly/IntroducingPROUT

Why This Blog

      For centuries spiritual and religious leaders have been teaching humanity how to realize the Truth within themselves.  Some have instructed their followers to shun the world and its temptations; others have preached simply that individuals must lead moral lives in society to attain eternal spiritual happiness.  But very few have ever discussed in detail the mundane spheres of government, politics, and economics.  Development in these realms, so it seemed, was not important for the spiritual journey of the individual soul.  

      PROUT and NeoHumanism are substantially synthetic, and their propounder, P R Sarkar, is a most unusual guide.  He espouses, through PROUT and NeoHumanism, that this physical, material world is neither an illusion nor a great temptation, but the starting point of our spiritual journey; thus we must develop it even as we develop ourselves to make it a perfect base for spiritual effort, transpersonal growth.  This effort is not the struggle of a few isolated individuals but the task of humanity as a whole.  Human society and its institutions should not impede our progress; rather they should be carefully planned and designed to accelerate our progressive march toward perfection.

      We are living in a most unusual time.  Governmental corruption is becoming more and more painfully evident all over the world; the over-indulgence of a small segment of humanity and the resultant poverty of the majority is creating an imbalance that is upsetting the world's economy.  Today people, even in wealthy nations, are beginning to learn what it means to do without.  At this crucial moment in world history, proper leadership is essential.  PROUT speaks of a new kind of leader, a sadvipra or "true spiritual leader."  Instead of the most spiritually evolved members of society renouncing the world and seeking their own enlightenment in caves and monasteries and thus leaving the guidance of society to the corrupt politicians, spiritually developed individuals should take on the leadership of society.  Since their goal, developed by regular meditation and uncompromising morality, is only the realization of the Supreme Consciousness -- not any mundane wealth, power or fame -- there will be no chance of their corruption.  Inspired and guided by them, mankind will accelerate its march toward Absolute Truth and reach new heights of spiritual and material perfection.

      Slander, jealousy, party politics, lethargy, grandiloquence and so on are the various kinds of social evils which, if given scope, make great criminals of people.  These evils are very evident in the modern world, and the reason for this is sectarian bias.  The loathsome race for political status will not relax its grip over society unless the human mind is freed from the lust for power.  It is time for people to be very cautious lest this political tendency continue to shape them into criminals.  If the nature of the entire human race becomes infected with criminality, if people become intolerant of others' opinions and beliefs, if they become corrupt and sell all their good judgment and talent for the sake of status, then humanity's age-old civilization will end in smoke.  

      These postings discusses all the problems that beset modern mankind -- governmental corruption, economic injustice, overpopulation, crime -- and offer practical solutions for them.  Our first step is to realize that the true goal of humanity, the ultimate goal of evolution, is not the amassing of more and more material wealth, rather it's the expansion of consciousness.  Through proper education and practical techniques of psychic expansion, humanity will come to realize that the hoarding of wealth and all the ills of corruption and scarcity it creates, are nothing but the misdirected longing of the human soul for infinite happiness -- a longing which cannot be satisfied by money but only by internal bliss, optimizing psycho-spiritual parallelism.  

      PROUT offers balance between the physical, psychic and spiritual realms of existence in a progressive manner, furthering human evolution towards its desideratum.  Thus as human attention and activity are directed ever more toward subtler pursuits such as artistic endeavor and spiritual practice, the selfishness and greed which dominate people's minds today will be supplanted by new dispositions of love and familia.  As we expand our minds toward the Infinite and learn to share our mundane treasures, we will realize substantially that we are all indeed one humanity, that we are all the children of one Infinite Intelligent singularity guiding us all toward perfection.  Instead of being based on competition and mutual hostility, society will be operated through mutual cooperation and love, a force of nature throughout the Universe.

"I want every person to be guaranteed the minimum physical requirements of life; every person to get scope for the full exploitation of their psychic potentiality; every person to get equal opportunity to attain absolute truth; and, endowed with all the glories and achievements of the world, to march toward the Absolute. In and through this movement humanity should be made conscious of the purpose and meaning of life."