The Goodwillies:

“What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his soul?” - Mark 8:36

"Popular philosophy is now molded by the writers of advertising copy, whose one idea is to convince everybody to be as extroverted and uninhibitedly greedy as possible, since of course it is only the possesive, the restless, the distracted, who spend money on the things that advertisers want to sell."
-- Aldous Huxley

Use the Goodwill Revolution to :

· Replace our love and addiction to money and materialism.
· Create goodwill to all
· Improve all relationships including family and personal
· Fight enmity, hostility and belligerence
· Collect friends instead of just material goods
· Save the world instead of just money
· Save our soul
--From Michael Phillips' Boycott Money & Save Your Soul::Launching The Goodwill Revolution

LINKS:
A Taste of M. Phillip's Optimistic Philosophy:: "Goodness of Man": (A whistle in the hurricane or a Path to Justice & Sanity??)
www.hotcalaloo.com/Chapter%20VII%20Goodness.pdf

The Goodwill Revolution is a systematic comprehensive realistic plan to devalue money and revalue people and relationships. Of course, goodwill to all people means we oppose the exploitation of all people. We propose new strategies for positive change, but without hostility and rancor because goodwill is not only our goal but also our means.
www.goodwillie.org/

To Ponder::The Co-operative way: A Compelling Socio-economic Paradigm

The Truth about Selfishness:
It is generally believed that all humans are selfish beings, and therefore for practicality, our best plans should be designed around this sensible reality. This notion of universal and absolute selfishness is now proven to be incorrect and it has been established that humans are more co-operative and less selfish than is widely accepted.

The successful adoption of co-operative systems in many fields has triggered interest in the mechanism and behaviour that underpins co-operation. In doing this, evolutionary biologists and psychologists have found neural and genetic evidence of humans' predisposition to co-operate. In studies on co-operative behaviour, workers have discovered that 50 per cent of persons systematically and predictably behave co-operatively with some at substantial personal costs.

Only approximately 30 per cent behave as though they were selfish. The remainder, 20 per cent, moved from unselfishness to selfishness depending on the circumstances. In no society studied have the majority of people consistently behaved selfishly.

It would appear then that we can build better socio-economic and political systems by relying on our better selves.
Several studies suggest that personality traits are partly heritable. Traits, such as extraversion, neuroticism, agreeableness and openness, were on average between 42 per cent and 57 per cent heritable.
But importantly, shared environmental factors, such as the home, did not correlate with personality. So many of us are — by a combination of nature, nurture and interactions — more altruistic and less selfish than the prevailing beliefs indicated.
Most people care about doing the right things, so clearly defined values are crucial to co-operation. Discussing, explaining and re-enforcing critical norms which encourage co-operation, provide the ethos where more people are imbued with confidence to act in less selfish fashions.
Given a chance most people will elect to co-operate because scientifically it has also been shown that reward circuits are triggered in our brains when we co-operate, that is, co-operation feels good.

It is clear from these bits of scientific findings that co-operatives can contribute substantially more to socio-economic development if we drop the old beliefs and give our caring motives a chance.

Diversity of Co-operatives
The flexibility of co-ops is manifest in that, apart from being instrumental in productive, retail and financial and legal services as well as supermarkets, agriculture and health care enterprises, these arrangements are ideal in providing responsible approaches to nutrition, the environment, tackling poverty and targeting help for disadvantaged people, such as physically and mentally disabled and drug and alcohol addicts...

Co-operative Principles Pivots of Progress
The great civilising power of co-ops lies in the voluntary nature of their formation to meet common, social and cultural needs. This gives greater meaning and credence to democracy and equity. All citizens are welcomed to participate, irrespective of colour, creed, gender, religion or ideology.

It gives deep meaning to rewarding work and fulfilment to be part of organisations which have true socio-economic development as their goals, and not the failed notions of profits at any cost, or power for a few. People are at the centre of their missions, motives and their successes.
Co-ops are not hindered by governments or social cliques, although they work with them. They maintain autonomy and independence and are less prone to corruption and nepotism.

In underdeveloped countries, like Jamaica, they are poised to become effective providers of education and training matched to domestic needs as they are ready to contribute effectively to social concerns and anticipations.
Furthermore, in Jamaica, there are no current answers to our many problems, especially those of injustice, inequalities, unfulfilled labour and unemployment, large debts, inefficient use of social and financial capital, dwindling production and productivity, as well as anomie, among a host of other ills, caused by the type of rampant and insensitive capitalism we have pursued since independence...

It is now abundantly clear that the market and mere growth are not enough to reduce poverty and inequality.
Both of which are at the heart of social upheavals, hopelessness and crime in many countries. The quality of growth must be such that larger numbers of workers participate in all aspects of this growth, from top to the bottom of enterprises and production systems. This is what co-ops help to do. At the same time, co-operative philosophy acts as a brake on excessive greed and consumption by its stress on moderation and sharing.

Essentially, a well-developed co-operative economy offers a new direction for humanity. Here the idea of endless growth, or cancerous economies, can be put to rest and the challenge of integrating communities, getting the best out of the workforce and care for life and the environment, become quite reasonable and sustainable possible.--PROFESSOR ARNOLDO VENTURA

LINK:
www.jamaicaobserver.com/columns/The-co-operative-way--A-compelling-socio-economi c-paradigm_9728715