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Summary

We want to make the world a better place: by talking with, listening to - and potentially working with - people who see the world differently.

Vision

Our vision is to make the world a better place.

We want to make the world a better place. This is not the same as, although it may include, solving problems and changing things which are currently wrong: it is often fairly easy to fix one problem by creating another problem, or to address one injustice by creating another. Making the world a better place is more difficult than just fixing a few specific wrongs.

We may want to make the world a better place, but this will only happen if we are sufficiently motivated, and if we work together. The challenges we face are serious: they deserve to be met with our best efforts; so we seek to work together, and to work with all the passion and energy we can manage, so our actions must be an authentic expression of our most important beliefs and values.

We cannot tell you what to do - and we would not want to, anyway. But we can share with each other the best ways we have found to make the world a better place, both locally and globally. We can't solve the world's problems but, equally well, we can't just sit back and hope someone else does it for us: we choose to play the part we are each capable of. We seek to be constantly learning, so that we may become well informed, about both the challenges we face and the best ways of responding to them.

Purpose

Our purpose, is to create a community where people can thrive, so they are better able to make the world a better place.

We can unpack what we mean by this in a little more detail.

Create. We want to attract the participation of people who:

are seeking to build a better world;
are seeking to belong to a meaningful community; and
are seeking to grow as individuals.

Community. We offer a community where:

you can explore the questions which are important to you and seek to deepen your understanding of yourself, of society and of reality in general;
you can share any views you like; and
you can have your ideas explored and tested by people who see the world differently but, like you, want to understand it better so they can live better.

Thrive. We believe that we thrive:

when we belong to a community where we are known, where we are loved, and where we care for and support each other;
when our actions connect with our beliefs; and
when our beliefs connect with reality.

Strategy

Our strategy is to use the wisdom of the community to help us focus on the most important things we can do so we can act in constructive and creative ways.

Community

At present, we listen to one another by participating in online discussions, and writing (and responding to) articles and blogs. In these two ways, we are seeking to learn how we can most effectively act, as individuals and in groups, and in line with our values, to make the world a better place.

Important

Everything is connected, but

all objects are not equally valuable,
all people are not equally powerful and
all ideas are not equally useful.

So everything matters, but everything does not matter the same amount; when we have the choice, we seek to concentrate on the important stuff. (But note that while we want to concentrate on the important stuff, we don't fixate on it: relaxation, recreation, play and humour are also important.)

Constructive

We celebrate difference.

We need to to learn from as diverse a range of people as possible, so you are important: we need to gain from your unique insight, experience and expertise, and to understand your perspective as best we can - partly because it is important, and partly because it might help us to discover and (as best we can) adjust for our personal and corporate blind spots.

It is often the case that people identify themselves with groups which define themselves in opposition to other groups, creating an environment in which conflict and violence flourish. These groups often seek to win by defeating - and maybe destroying - the other groups. We try to practice a different strategy:

we understand that variety is healthy - a body and an ecosystem both need many different parts, each acting differently and (sometimes) in opposition to the other parts;
we recognize that there is something good at the core of every group (even if the way it is understood and expressed is unhealthy), so we need to understand, appreciate and learn from the groups we disagree with; and
we believe that our common humanity unites us in a more fundamental way than our differences can divide us.

Notes

Okay, we are using some ambiguous language here. For the purpose of this discussion, please understand these terms in this way.

Vision: our core motivation.
Purpose: the reason why we exist, what we seek to do in pursuit of the vision.
Strategy: how we intend to achieve our purpose, given our values and real world constraints.

These terms are described in more detail in Developing a Persuasive Vision.