Projects, Governance with Heart

Trent Larson

— 3 min read

Part 2 of 3 of the Time Safari path (AKA Why Time Safari?)

Now for the full vision.

Mass media constantly advertises insurance and cell phone services. Those decisions are such a small part of our life, but if you watch much TV you'll get the impression that humans, in their spare time, worry that the belongings in their second storage unit are adequately insured, or they make calendar appointments to switch to a different cell service as soon as their current contract is up. That's not real life.

Know what else takes up way too much of our attention?

Money.

"Money makes the world go round." Venture funds are needed to get a business off the ground. Non-profits need wealthy benefactors to support them. Taxes are the way to get infrastructure built.

It's poppycock.

Oh, I don't deny that money has brought us (in America) a lot of convenience and infrastructure. The accomplishments are amazing. But the speed and the centralization of power are unsustainable – and unnecessary. All these accomplishments could have been done at a slower pace, without these high levels of national and personal debt. So we'll keep talking about good governance and hope that those with political positions will listen, but we can build rationally in the meantime.

Let's coordinate based on aligned goals and authentic relationships, and gradually replace money-based systems.

Coordination Starts Small

The "principle of subsidiarity" says: since all social institutions exist for the individual (present & future), society should not take over what individuals can do, and larger societies should not take over what smaller societies can do. In other words, problems should be solved at the most local level possible.

Small is often correlated with "less power". Let's rephrase that for accuracy: it is "more distributed power". The contribution of many small entities make society strong – and they make it more resilient and flexible than a monolith.

The vast majority of businesses and organizations are built from scratch and are more successful: 80% of startups bootstrap themselves rather than go for outside funding, and 90% of startup failures come from companies that have not bootstrapped. You'll find many recognizable names in the list of companies that have grown this way. Even in the non-profit world, 64% of the half-trillion-dollars of charitable giving was from individuals, showing how people really are the main source of this kind of work.

Let's align interests and take over even more non-profits and government services.

Starting

How do organizations come into existence? It starts with small efforts, so let's make those small efforts more obvious, rewarding, and powerful. We can grow such a society from the ground up. (In fact, I believe that's the ONLY way to grow a society based on loving-kindness, but that's a topic for another time.)

That's right: not just non-governmental organizations, but organizations that tackle any service you can imagine: food, security, mental health, housing, roads. As evidence, see how these are handled by government in some area but they're just part of the culture in other areas. It just goes to show that anything – including governance – can be addressed outside government taxes. It's a dream... but isn't it a dream that is pointed at by all our best moral teachers?

Thus Time Safari.

Time Safari aims to highlight the interests from your friend group. It is simple to announce a project on there, so announce many ideas. Then let your friends know, and see which ones they're willing to make offers to. That's how you'll know what is worth trying, even just for an experiment.

Now For The Full Vision

Better coordination and governance is a worthy goal, but success means we'll accomplish something that's even more grand: exposing to every person their power, starting with children.

I don't need to emphasize modern epidemics of loneliness, broken families, antidepressants, and suicide. All these are symptoms of a world without strong relationships and with decreasing individual power over our lives. Connection is a major part, but what if everyone learns their strength in this world? Children who are enabled to create and teach themselves and show fantastic examples to others – they are the most powerful forces in the universe. That is what will bring more heaven to this earth, for their lives and for future generations.

That's the ultimate goal.

Let's empower everyone around us, one by one, year by year, and grow greatness.

Further Activities

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