I see a lot of dissatisation online, people dissatisified with the way the world works.

I asked "what does the world need?" to a futurist friend.

Her answer may seem obvious, and I know the answer has surfaced in culture many times, but I thought some people may like to hear her thoughts from this year.

Here is what she wrote:

The ultimate answer is: Love.

Seems in very short supply everywhere. Led by our power brokers.,

The single greatest reason for mass dissatisfaction, IMHO, is the lack of moral and professional competence by our political and business leaders around the world; people have no other leadership options; the systems we use to establish the status quo are now morally corrupt. The bad guys are in control. (Until we say and act otherwise).

With morally corrupt leadership, the systems have become self fulfilling, continuing the immorality. People do not see any way of breaking the chain, hence dissatisfaction with the status quo.

Rule of thumb: how the leader behaves, so follows those down the hierarchy.    Nowadays, the higher up the hierarchy, the greater the lack of morality – in all our previously moral institutions that genuinely cared about the common good: education, governance, justice system, health and welfare.

The single force that needs to change: Greed.

How to switch from Greed to Love is a ginormous leap but quite possible in today’s highly connected and bountiful world.

Aim: everyone to live love to their ability and circumstances. Live kindness, respect, honesty, generosity, cooperativeness, compassion, and positivity. For all people and our planet. Always.

This minute. Tomorrow. Next week.

If we all consciously behaved daily with these values in mind, doing the best we can (being realistic here, we don’t have unlimited options ourselves), the world would instantly be a better more satisfying place to be. Not perfect, we aren’t perfect, but thriving happy functioning societies.

The status quo operates on the premise that Greed is Good, greed leads to wealth which leads to happiness. Having more means being happy. These are lies perpetuated by the hierarchy that requires the majority of people in the world to continue to operate on the belief they are true, keeping the status quo of the Haves getting more and the Have nots getting less relatively.

The only exception I’ve found is with first nations peoples living their cultures around the world. They know less is more. Happiness is feeling good about contributing to a kind, sharing, caring, respectful, diligent, and honourable world.

What can we non-first-nations people do?

First we decide to be Love in our present circumstances. Every little instance adds to the bigger change. Think small. Think easy. Think enjoyment. Think feel good. Love being kind and generous. Love sharing. Love doing kind acts anonymously. (No ego, just feel good about yourself).  

Look for opportunities to Do Nice. Eg: Pick up that piece of litter on the footpath and dispose of it properly. Smile and as you walk by them, thank the cleaner sweeping the floor in the shopping mall for doing a good job. Smile and thank the supermarket checkout clerk for stacking your shopping bag well. Smile at every opportunity that is non-threatening to others. Say hi or nod to passersby in your neighbourhood. Be ready to offer assistance, respectfully! to someone who seems struggling .

Note: They may not want your help, and even be insulted by your offer. If so, say :“Great that you don’t need my help, have a wonderful day” or some such positive statement.  Do not say “only trying to help” or  ”just asking”, or any other comment that is about you & your reaction.  Make it a positive encouragement for them. 

And then move on, feeling good about offering and being a positive moment in their lives even if they seem miserable and grumpy.  We don’t know what pain they live with or expect next.  Be the example of positive in all situations.  You will feel good even if they choose to feel miserable.

End of speech.

Shine your light brightly; share your love unconditionally with all others, spreading inner peace and love around the world.

Doing so, you may help awaken in others their light within as well, beginning them on a journey to discover inner peace and love in their life as well.

What is your current status in Humanism?
(A) identifying as a Humanist only to yourself,
(B) individually acknowledging your Humanist values when in discussions with friends and family, or
(C) a member of "organized Humanism," i.e., a member of a local, regional, or national group.

Also explain a few of the pros and cons of where you stand, and if you're possibly in transition from one to another. (I'll add my own perspectives in the comments.)

I don’t like defining myself by what I don’t believe rather than by what I do believe. I also think it surrenders the narrative to theists, letting him be the default.

It’s easy to get caught up in our own problems and everything we’re dealing with. But doing something for someone else without expecting anything in return can shift our perspective. Even a small act of kindness can remind us that life isn’t just about our own problems.

To truly know another, listen intently to the silence in between our racing thoughts.

This is who we truly are, not the pretense fostered by the façade we created to protect us from the world.

The meaning of life is not difficult to understand.

It is to share the unconditional love existing within our heart with all living things.

Life is not meant to be lived in isolation; rather it is meant to be shared with all others.

By sharing our love selflessly, each of us becomes stronger and our journey through life becomes less challenging and more meaningful.

It’s a trial of Cénobites, few could deny, to cling to what’s sacred, yet based on a lie.

For the demons of reason may cling to our souls, making spirits of theories with human-like holes.

In the dream of creation a prodigal son might return to his father a still honoured one.

Yet if we could return to the garden of life, would we give up the trinkets, distractions, and strife?

Was it tricks of a serpent, or self aware fall, that brought man to the brink of destroying it all?

If I go past the void to the nothing beyond, will I find higher heaven, or just cosmic dawn?

Since the start of our history, nothing could rise, without capturing humans in networks of lies.

Where the sun is a god, and his sister the moon, may be swayed by a ritual proper to swoon.

We have groomed and conditioned our madness to fight, for the reign of a god who was never quite right.

While our gods could be dreams, that we purposely set, of a human-first future we might achieve yet.

It’s a dream worth pursuing, if only we can start an age of compassion, a true Age of Man.

Ultimately, humanism must triumph over social ills. And this will be a pure victory of reason. I still believe in people.

Igor Markov

The ego is our self-centered learned beliefs. Its desire is to foster our self-esteem and protect us from pain other people’s words or actions may cause. To do so, it may encourage us to erect a barrier, a wall around our heart, isolating and distancing us from others. We then may carry this wound with us throughout the rest of our life.

We each have frailties; no one goes through life unscathed. If we wish to evolve and develop an understanding about our true purpose in life, we must completely forgive another for their human frailty, understanding it is caused by their ego trying to protect them. Only when we do, unconditionally forgiving them, regardless of the harm they caused or their faults, may we awaken to the genuine possibilities life truly offers.

Is there a group which refutes all manifestos except the original manifesto?

There is never a reason to be cruel or unkind to anyone. We are all here to selflessly help each other. Each person has much to share. Though we may disregard much of what someone is saying if we do not agree with them, it is not a reason to treat them or anyone else without sincere respect, empathy, and gratitude.

Helping each other, regardless of our differences, without motive or benefit, is the reason for our existence. Always be kind to everyone, and perhaps, we may be able to foster a change in consciousness, a spiritual evolution, altering the course of our future.

Doing so, we may then be able to leave our children a world that is truly kind, compassionate, caring; a world of unconditional love.

The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas is a short fiction story by Ursula K. Le Guin published in 1973. The premise of the story is Omelas is a utopian society, yet somehow the happiness of this utopia is dependent upon the suffering of a single child.

The people of Omelas know about this, and they don’t like the fact, those who go to witness the child are disturbed and want to help the child but don’t because if they did do their utopia would collapse. So despite being bothered by it, most people eventually just accept that this is how it is. With the exception of a small few, who after seeing the child leave Omelas, they walk away because they can’t live in this utopia if that is the cost.

While the story doesn’t directly criticize religion, you can definitely use the logic of the story to criticize Christianity. Christians believe that if you accept their God, embrace their messiah as your lord and savior, you will go to Heaven and be rewarded with immortality and paradise. Those who don’t are condemned to an eternity of suffering. While some Christians believe in universal salvation or in the destruction of the unsaved, mainstream Christianity believes in eternal conscience torment.

So Christians, in exchange for their personal happiness, accept the suffering of hundreds of millions to billions of people. I say no. I don’t want to die, but it would be better for us to all cease to cease than for all of us to live forever in exchange for even a single person’s eternal suffering.

How many more innocents must die? How many more must struggle through life, homeless, hungry, afraid? How many more people and other forms of life must we abuse before we wake up and understand none of this is right? We live in a self-centered world, immunized from the innumerable horrors and challenges of others, worried only about our own success and survival, with little concern for others.

We must each make a choice in our life. To continue to ignore the inequities and needless struggles resulting from living in such a world, or to view the world through a different lens, one where we treat everyone, regardless of our differences, with compassion and unconditional love.

In a more compassionate world, we would help everyone in need, understanding every person, regardless of our differences, is equally important and that we are alive to sincerely care and help each other, not to continue to ignore those who are needlessly struggling.

Something that you can’t describe in words, but I‘m gonna make you feel it, in order to understand it.

Close your eyes and think of humanity, everyone you know, everyone you never met, every worker out there, as someone you have a connection with. And make yourself imagine a world where everyone is one, if you take off the complex layers of biology and environment.

Close your eyes and convince yourself hardly that while you are relaxing, people out there are advancing humanity, bringing your species step by step forward, without knowing you, yet they do it for you, for your future, and especially for your next generation.

Close your eyes and thank the previous 90 billion humans who made the world as comfortable and beautiful as it is now, just for you.

For you to enjoy the warm food they couldn’t have, for you to enjoy a warm shower in the cold, for you to lay on your bed while it rains and thunders outside.
Enjoy it, at least, do it for them.

Your Humanity did not kneel to mother nature. Rather than adapting biologically through suffering and sacrifice just like every other species did, it overcame it. It bent nature to its will rather than getting bent by it. So you, a being who has the highest consciousness and awareness of all the other creatures out there, can enjoy it.

So tell me, what could possibly be a greater feeling than having billions of your people working for the greater good, some with the goal to become multiplanetary, some to make life even more enjoyable for the next generations, some getting everyone out of poverty which has been successful WHILE everyone is holding each other's hands in some way.

So if I was forced to answer that question in the title, I would go with,

Having the feeling of being bound and united with humanity so, so much, to love everyone for their differences. To love everyone for their different beliefs and especially for their different way of thinking.

The more you learn about us, the more you will realize how close we are to being one and how much more we have in common than what tears us apart.

I love each and every one of you❤

When I close my eyes, I dream of a world of peace, love, and hope. There is no war, hunger, prejudice or greed. Everything is shared equally for the benefit of all. Though this is not reality, it can be.

We have the ability now to feed the hungry, clothe and house the homeless, eliminate climate change and tackle all other man-made problems.

To do so though, when we open our eyes, instead of seeing a world where fear dictates our actions, we see instead a world of love, selflessly shared with others, desiring what is best for everyone, rather than only for just ourselves.

Let's say you have an activist movement you want to spread and you were a roman during the first century roman empire with no political/institutional leverage and you have a very small group of followers. How then would you build, grow and spread your community while condemning slavery under the brutal power of the roman empire who were known to crush any anti-slavery resistance?

What would you actually tell your community regarding slavery?

What would you tell the slaves? Would you tell them to obey their masters while they remained in slavery, or would you tell them to resist? If you tell them to obey, what attitude would you tell them to have toward their masters?

What would you tell slave owners? Could they become members of your movement? If they did, would you require them to free their slaves? If so how do you convince them not to have slaves?

And most importantly: what happens when the Roman authorities discover your movement? When they discovered your teachings, about what you told/taught to your community, to slaves or to slaves masters?

Here are some interesting facts about how “nice” the Roman Empire was toward anti-slavery resistance:

-Spartacus (73–71 BCE): Rome deployed multiple legions to crush the revolt. Around 6,000 captured rebels were crucified along the Appian Way as a public warning.

-Runaway slaves were treated as a serious threat. The state used soldiers, magistrates, guards and professional slave-catchers to recover them.

-Rewards and public notices were used to help identify and capture fugitives.

-Recaptured slaves could be branded or fitted with identifying collars to prevent further escape.

-The Roman state and slaveholders had enormous coercive power, making organised resistance extremely dangerous.

-Under the Senatus Consultum Silanianum, slaves could face collective punishment if their master was murdered, even slaves who weren't directly responsible.

We each follow a different path through life; some are more challenging than others. Our many encounters in life help form the person we become and determine how we react to different situations and people we meet every day.

Due to our distinctive backgrounds, we each make different choices when confronted with the many unique situations we encounter each day.

Despite our differences though, we do not have the right to judge another, for we don’t know the many challenges they have faced in their life living in a self-centered world.

All we may do is be there for them, gently hold their hand, share a warm embrace and our unconditional love with theirs, to help ease their burdens in life.

With every decision we make our primary guiding principle
should be ‘do no harm’. Whether the injury is physical, verbal, or in any other manner, it does not matter.

Every person, regardless of our differences, deserves to be treated with respect and compassion, always considering what our behaviors, words, and actions may cause.

Be thoughtful therefore, before you act or speak, for our actions may not only help others, they may also be the cause of great pain as well.