Chapter 41: One Does Not Fit All
This chapter was written when the Transition was imagined as a single, rapid, coordinated event. Passages from that original plan are kept for transparency in marked boxes; the current approach is gradual, voluntary and democratic (how the approach has evolved).
There’s no one and only form for the Transition. Each country and culture has its own unique starting point. Do your best to be clear on where your country lies in the spectum.
Some countries may need only minor adjustments. Some countries are in urgent need of Transition socioeconomically but enjoy democratic governance that will strengthen and come into its own in the new paradigm. Some countries suffer under both socioeconomic and governmental dictatorship and will need both socioeconomic Transition and a nonviolent political Revolution led by their own people.
Countries like the United States, Canada, Australia and similar examples have a democratic Constitutional governmental system paired with an under-regulated, deeply-entrenched parasitic feudalistic socioeconomic oligarchic power structure that undermines and subverts it. Such countries will need full Transition as described in this book, in order to ever become free and democratic societies. The hierarchicial socioeconomic power structure must be decommissioned and replaced with a democratic, symbiotic, peer-based self-governing structure with no concentrations of power or control.
Government must be respected and unmolested, except to whatever extent they respond as enforcers and vassal-agents of the feudal lords attempting to reassert their control and dominance. I that case, government forces must be ignored, defied, or fought against, only as necessary to protect and ensure the Transition and initialization of the new paradigm.
The Transition is committed to nonviolence, honesty, and open, lawful, democratic change. This passage belongs to the original plan and is kept as written, as a record of how the thinking evolved. See the Roadmap.
Once Transition is done and the new paradigm is operating, government will continue unmolested, but will have to adapt to the new socioeconomic environment. All forms of currency will be obsolete and irrelevant. Motivations and means for corruption will be vastly reduced. There will be no parallel feudal power structure, no lobbyists, corporations, or modern feudal lords to lure, pressure, manipulate, bribe or otherwise influence lawmakers, executives, or judges. No time will be wasted wrangling over funding issues. Lack of funding will no longer be a barrier to needed works. Taxation will become unnecessary.
The only voices there for politicians to hear, will be the authentic voices of the people themselves. These voices will often disagree among them, often vehemently. Public discourse will be much more focused on genuine issues and concerns. Discussion and debate will be as challenging as ever, full of give, take, and compromise. The age of “money talks” will end. Political and socioeconomic democracy will thrive hand in hand.
Some social democratic countries, such as Norway, Finland and some others may need little change. In any country, if any, where there is no socioeconomic modern feudal structure of power, wealth and control, only minor adjustments may be needed. Where such structures exist, but are less extreme than in laissez-faire market-driven societies, Transition will be needed but will require a much smaller effort with far fewer complications or conflicts, and with more pathways to effect changes from within existing political mechanisms.
Some countries, such as Vietnam and the People’s Republic of China, are steeped in the rhetoric and cultural myths of communist ideals and may even retain constitutions originally based on democratic and communist principles. In practice, they are state-directed capitalist economies with sharp inequality and one-party rule, where the business elite and the members of government are as intertwined as were the Medieval European Church and royal families.
The myth of equality and a “classless society” in China, and the myth of freedom and “anybody can make it” in the United States, serve a similar purpose: to plant widespread, unquestioned belief in the justice and beneficence of the society. Americans, however, still have free elections, courts and a free press with which to push back.
In such countries as China, Vietnam and North Korea, both the government and the socioeconomic power structure must be overthrown and replaced with the new paradigms. If there is a Constitution with strong humanistic, empowering, synergistic principles which has been long ignored or misinterpreted, along Marxist or other lines, then new government can be formed around its principles, which can be strengthened, clarified, expanded and widely published.
The Transition is committed to nonviolence, honesty, and open, lawful, democratic change. This passage belongs to the original plan and is kept as written, as a record of how the thinking evolved. See the Roadmap.
Some changes will be needed, of course. Religious freedom will need to be specified. The concept of a “revolutionary vanguard” will need to be left behind. State as controller will become state as coordinator. Democratic rule, in one form or another, will need to be encoded if it isn’t already. Just as in “Western” countries, many laws will have to be rethought, rewritten, reinterpreted or stricken and replaced.
Tactics used to achieve both Transition and Revolution in such countries will still succeed best if they follow the same guiding principles as set out for the Transitions in countries such as the U.S. and Canada. Purges, blood baths, and reigns of terror will never lead to a free, democratic, thriving society peopled by free, empowered, fulfilled, symbiotic residents!
Some countries, such as Russia, Saudi Arabia, and Myanmar are pure dictatorships where little or no pretense is given of prioritizing the happiness, well-being, dignity, freedom or will of the people. Some do, and some don’t, have even primitive humanistic foundational ones. Social myths tend to be centered on nationalism and the absolute authority and power of leaders.
Such countries will need a complete overthrow of all political and socioeconomic power structures. There may be weak or no foundational documents, so new ones will need to be crafted and ratified, based on successful existing ones.
This kind of scenario is one of the two most tricky, perilous ones in terms of bringing both Transition and Revolution using purely nonviolent or minimally-violent tactics and strategies. Yet we must always make doing so one of the highest priorities and do the best we can under each circumstance.
Each such country will have to develop the details of its specific tactics, strategies, and methods. In the meantime Transitioned and social democratic countries can put pressure on such countries’ power structures via embargoes, refusing trade, trade agreements, or alliances with them, clearly spelling out the reasons. Their rulers will find themselves increasingly isolated on the world stage.
The Transition is committed to nonviolence, honesty, and open, lawful, democratic change. This passage belongs to the original plan and is kept as written, as a record of how the thinking evolved. See the Roadmap.
Transitioned countries will not supply arms, invade or intervene in the internal workings of such countries as both the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. were fond of doing during the Cold War. We will, however, support aspiring Transitionaries in such countries in a variety of ways.
We will airlift and smuggle in satellite phones, camcorders, miniature data storage, communication equipment and practical manuals on the skills needed for Transition. That will empower Transitionaries in such countries to communicate and livestream events in their country to the whole world, regardless of their rulers’ shutting down of their cellular networks, media, or Internet. We can further support Transitionaries in such countries by providing the supporting bandwidth, cloud storage and other needed infrastructure to ensure that these brave people are not silenced. We will also airlift and otherwise deliver basic resources such as food, clothing, and medicine if needed, without going through the power structure.
The Transition is committed to nonviolence, honesty, and open, lawful, democratic change. This passage belongs to the original plan and is kept as written, as a record of how the thinking evolved. See the Roadmap.
If such situations become humanitarian crises, the U.N. and humanitarian organizations such as the Red Cross and Red Crescent and Doctors Without Borders can step in to mitigate disruption and protect civilians, while the international community isolates and pressures the dictatorship: refusing to recognize or cooperate with it, applying diplomatic pressure, and acting to prevent atrocities against the people. Once their Transition is complete, upon their request, all Transitioned countries will stand ready to recognize their new identity, form alliances and trade agreements, and render material as well as advisory assistance.
Through all of this, it is vital that we maintain our commitment to our principles of nonviolence, with force used only in self-defence against immediate physical assault, and then only the minimum necessary, and of compassion and honoring the dignity of every person.
The biggest challenge will probably be in countries suffering under theocratic dictatorships, for several reasons.
Among the core principles of the Transition and new paradigm are respect for, and honoring of, religious, cultural, and personal identity and expression. Yet when cultural or religious traditions or tenets thwart the empowerment, thriving, freedom, full realization, and well-being of any or all people in them, changes will have to be made, just as in countries where the socioeconomic system is the sticking-point.
Such changes will have to come from within, without negating or invalidating the entire religious or cultural context. As much as possible, Transitionaries within such countries will base such systemic changes on aspects of the same cultural or religious context, rather than drawing upon external or foreign sources. Practices such as ritual mutilation, enslavement, animal cruelty, “honor killings” and even nationalistic “ethnic cleansings”, will all have to be stopped. Fortunately, every culture and religion includes teachings, principles, customs and practices that can be, and often are, used to justify just about everything and its counter-postulate. We will leverage all existing teachings and customs that support the principles of the Transition and new paradigm, to support altering practices and customs when necessary.
Religious persecution is not the failing of any one faith: followers of nearly every religion and ideology have both persecuted others and been persecuted themselves. Wherever it happens, the most effective challenge comes from within the tradition itself. For example, where religion is used in a Christian community to justify persecution of gay people or people of other faiths, such practices can be challenged on the basis of Jesus’ teachings on non-violence and non-judgmentalism. Where Hindus and Muslims are set against each other, Hindus can be reminded that the Muslim they might harm could be the reincarnation of a dear family member or friend, and Muslims of the Quran’s teaching that to kill one innocent person is like killing all of humanity. Such an approach will be much more successful than trying to invalidate the whole native context and saying that “we should be more like” some other culture.
We can take a good example from how the Allies treated the Japanese after World War II. The victorious allies largely respected the Japanese culture and people, even to the point of allowing the Emperor to retain his position, while making fundamental changes to democratize, rebuild and modernize the country in a way that its people would accept.
To invalidate or suppress any culture, ethnicity or religion is an act of brutality and inhumanity that’s completely against the principles of the Transition, besides only serving to trigger covert resistance and backlash, benefiting no one.
Therefore, when approaching Transition where there are cultural or religious beliefs, practices or norms that harm the happiness, well-being, freedom, or thriving of any of its members, the challenge must be met with deep understanding of, and respect for, the overall culture and/or religion. Transitioned countries will send advisers to assist Transitionaries in not-yet-transitioned countries and advise them in planning and preparing their own Transitions. If you are such an adviser, please make sure to study and gain a deep understanding of your host’s culture and religion. Strive to help your local peers to identify aspects of their religion and culture that are in harmony with the principles of the Transition: universal empowerment, the dignity and freedom of all, peer-based rather than hierarchical social structures, and assist them in using those aspects to form the basis for abandoning harmful norms. Think of it as cultural Jiu-Jitsu.
Transition will have a different flavor in each country and culture. Our best results will come from neither blindly retaining, nor blindly discarding, all facets of our cultures, ethnicities, and religions. We must never impose one culture upon another, but learn from one another.
Core principles of the new paradigm includes respect for every person and culture, government and economics of, by and for the people, equity, peer-based rather than hierarchical social structures, distributed rather than centralized production facilities, universal access to all resources, symbiotic rather than conflictive interaction models, and thriving societies of thriving individuals. Our strength and success will flow from our unity in our diversity, and in our ability to implement Transition in adaptation to, and embodiment of, that diversity. Think of a composer adapting a classical piece to rock, country, jazz, and other genres.