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Ecological Wisdom
- How can we operate human societies with the
understanding that we are part of nature, not on top of it?
- How can we live within the ecological and resource
limits of the planet, applying our technological knowledge to
the challenge of an energy efficient economy?
- How can we build a better relationship between
cities and countryside?
- How can we guarantee the rights of non-human
species?
- How can we promote sustainable agriculture and
respect for self-regulating natural systems?
- How can we further biocentric wisdom in all spheres
of life?
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Nonviolence
- How can we develop effective alternatives to our
current patterns of violence at all levels, from the family and
the street to nations and the world?
- How can we eliminate nuclear weapons from the face
of the Earth without being naive about the intentions of other
governments?
- How can we most constructively use nonviolent
methods to oppose practices and policies with which we
disagree, and in the process reduce the atmosphere of
polarization and selfishness that is itself a source of
violence?
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Social Justice
- How can we respond to human suffering in ways that
promote dignity?
- How can we encourage people to commit themselves to
lifestyles that promote their own health?
- How can we have a community controlled education
system that effectively teaches our children academic skills,
ecological wisdom, social responsibility and personal
growth?
- How can we resolve personal and intergroup conflicts
without just turning them over to lawyers and judges?
- How can we take responsibility for reducing the crime
rate in our neighborhoods?
- How can we encourage such values as simplicity and
moderation?
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Grassroots Democracy
- How can we develop systems that allow and encourage
us to control the decisions that affect our lives?
- How can we ensure that representatives will be
fully accountable to the people who elected them?
- How can we develop planning mechanisms that would
allow citizens to develop and implement their own preferences
for policies and spending priorities?
- How can we encourage and assist the "mediating
institutions"--family, neighborhood organization, church
group, voluntary association, ethnic club--to recover some of
the functions now performed by the government?
- How can we relearn the best insights from American
traditions of civic vitality, voluntary action and community
responsibility?
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Decentralization
- How can we reduce power and responsibility to
individuals, institutions, communities and regions?
- How can we encourage the flourishing of
regionally-based culture, rather than a dominant
mono-culture?
- How can we have a decentralized, democratic society
with our political, economic and social institutions locating
power on the smallest scale (closest to home) that is efficient
and practical?
- How can we redesign our institutions so that fewer
decisions and less regulation over money are granted as one
moves from the community to the national level?
- How can we reconcile the need for community and
regional self-determination with the need for appropriate
centralized regulation in certain matters?
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Community-Based Economics
- How can we redesign our work structures to encourage
employee ownership and workplace democracy?
- How can we develop new economic activities and
institutions that will allow us to use our new technologies
in ways that are humane, freeing, ecological and accountable,
and responsive to communities?
- How can we establish some form of basic economic
security, open to all?
- How can we move beyond the narrow "job
ethic" to new definitions of "work," jobs"
and "income" that reflect the changing economy?
- How can we restructure our patterns of income
distribution to reflect the wealth created by those outside
the formal monetary economy: those who take responsibility for
parenting, housekeeping, home gardens, community volunteer
work, etc.?
- How can we restrict the size and concentrated
power of corporations without discouraging superior efficiency
or technological innovation?
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Feminism
- How can we replace the cultural ethics of dominance
and control with more cooperative ways of interacting?
- How can we encourage people to care about persons
outside their own group?
- How can we promote the building of respectful,
positive and responsible relationships across the lines of
gender and other divisions?
- How can we encourage a rich, diverse political
culture that respects feelings as well as rationalist
approaches?
- How can we proceed with as much respect for the
means as the end (the process as much as the product of our
efforts)?
- How can we learn to respect the contemplative,
inner part of life as much as the outer activities?
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Respect for Diversity
- How can we honor cultural, ethnic, racial, sexual,
religious and spiritual diversity within the context of
individual responsibility toward all beings?
- How can we reclaim our country's finest shared
ideals: the dignity of the individual, democratic participation,
and liberty and justice for all?
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Personal & Global Responsibility
- How can we be of genuine assistance to the
grassroots groups in the Third World? What can we learn from
such groups?
- How can we help other countries make the transition
to self-sufficiency in food and other basic necessities?
- How can we cut our defense budget while maintaining
an adequate defense?
- How can we promote these ten Green values in the
reshaping of our global order?
- How can we reshape the world order without creating
just another enormous nation-state?
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Sustainability
- How can we induce people and institutions to think
in terms of the long range future, and not just in terms of
their short range selfish interest?
- How can we encourage people to develop their own
visions of the future and move more effectively toward them?
- How can we judge whether new technologies are
socially useful, and use these judgements to shape our
society?
- How can we induce our government and other
institutions to practice fiscal responsibility?
- How can we make the quality of life, rather than
open-ended economic growth, the focus of future thinking?
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