Visionary Society

Visionary CitiesSocietyWhat is evil?BusinessArtificial IntelligenceAgeVisionary societyVisionary citizenGive back the nightWar in UkraineConventional travelFreedom in societyPovertyWorkGovernment (plenty of content)ArtThe economyWhat is the self?SelfSpiritualityEntertainmentArt as it is at presentCreativityWhat is your Life Path?How to seeVisionary economyJiddu Krishnamurti on UnderstandingUnderstandingVisionary governmentDemocracy as it is nowWhat is democracy?Professionalism (Organization Man)LonelinessThe PandemicThe Great NoCultureThe purpose of artShould Pebble Mine be built?SufferingAlaskaThe slow-moving revolution in VenezuelaIllegal ImmigrationImmigrationRequests for BanksTransform Security Guards into Security GuidesEducation at presentRequests for ReligionHealing, not just curingPolice PledgeSoldiers can fight for the goodEducationEducation ChallengesPoliticsThe American MilitaryWhat is a deep, lasting solution to the conflict in Afghanistan?What is the nature of the conflict in Afghanistan?The War in AfghanistanIs the war in Afghanistan winnable?The Iraq WarPoliceAnchorageOfferings for travelersTravel (and Experience)Conflict at Gaza Fence: The Great March of Return (Spring 2018)Love in the libraryLoveRelationshipDonald TrumpWhat is a just, decent prison? (Requests)Causes of homelessnessHomelessnessMuseumsSongs about Israel and PalestineSupport other local religious organizationsThe economic system as it is nowMoneyWhat is war?Modern CultureMass CultureIsrael-Palestine ConflictFair trade is not fairSpaces for reflection, discussion, peace and quietCafesReligionVisionary religion: Is there a religion for the modern man?Industrial religion (Religion as it is)PeaceAre vaccinations safe?The Brothers Karamazov, by Feodor DostoyevskyWhat can you do about global warming?Who am I?What can we do about homelessness?FreedomAnimals we eatBeautyCulture PledgeVisionary cultureRequests for Businesses

See complete Topic

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What is the most you can imagine for your community?

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We flounder in a sea of superficiality. Our passivity binds us to the existing order. We sought happiness, but received vacuity. An insight became a policy. A position was assumed, a relationship was defined. A dream turned into a bureaucracy.

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Is man wolf or sheep? Do we have the freedom to choose good rather than evil, life rather than death? What can we do in the face of great evil?

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What is artificial intelligence? Will it be able to think and feel? Can it replace human beings?
Can it assist in things of real importance?

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What is transitory and what is permanent? Do our lives retreat or advance? What happens when our powers decline? Are our hopes and dreams lost forever? Or is there a culmination of all we have seen and done?

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What is false and what is real in your life? Is there a place for goodness in the world? For the soul?

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Visionary citizen means becoming the person for whom visionary society is possible. Is that possible?

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Can we make night safe for women? Can violence be ended before it begins?

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What is the cause of the war in Ukraine? What is our responsibility as citizens of a country actively supporting Ukraine against Russia?

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How can we neglect our own brothers and sisters so badly? Can we re-estabish our true humanity? Can we grasp the poverty in the eyes of a single person?

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What are just economic relationships?

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What should we do with our time, money, skills, talents? How can we maintain our integrity in a world where power, success and money are valued above all else?
Can spirituality reform the acquisitive spirit? Is anything sacred anymore?

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Is there something greater than we ourselves? Does truth, good and beauty exist?
Can spirituality reform the acquisitive spirit? Can it exist without dogma, authority or belief? Is anything sacred anymore?

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Is it possible to create anything really new? What does it take to be a person capable of creativity? How can we help each other jumpstart creativity? What is ‘explosive’ creativity?

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What can we do with our time, money, skills, talents? What is the unique gift we can offer the world?

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Is money a damaging power in your life? If not money, what can galvanize people to work? Can work be meaningful? Can you surpass the utilitarian, egotistical self? What is real wealth, and what is worth working for?

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Is it possible to overcome our biases? Is it possible to find the truth of a perspective or person? What is truly important to know?

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What is the place of money in your life? Should you set a limit to prosperity? Can the use of money be a force for good? If so, what are just economic relationships? How much time should you spend getting and spending money? How much should you sacrifice for material success?

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Are we essentially alone in the world? Why is it that social activity makes us more isolated?
What is the difference between loneliness and solitude? Can true solitude bring loneliness to an end?

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Are we ignorant and selfish (the Left)?
Are we cowardly and subservient (the Right)?
Or is there a response that transcends politics?

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What is superficial and false in your life? Can we tear off the veils that keep us asleep?

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What is explosive creativity?
Can we combat mass culture? Are there objective standards for culture? What is the purpose of art? What is the difference between outer and inner beauty?

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Can art address all aspects of life, not just established art forms? Can it be available to anyone, not just specialists, to create and use? Can art and creativity be a part of everyday life? Can it help produce a more meaningful society? Can it help us feel intensely the beauty of the earth and sky?

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Why is there so much suffering in the world? Is suffering necessary for spiritual growth? Can we turn suffering into a song?

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How can Alaska reclaim its legacy of freedom? Anyway, what is freedom?

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What is true or insightful about each Request? Can they help produce a bank that improves the well-being of customers, the community, and the world?

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Enforcing the law is important, but so is responding to the living human being in front of you.

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Are soldiers responsible for what they do in war? Can they fight for good, not just victory?

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Are you fed up with politics, but still want to be involved in the issues of the day? Is government that recognizes heart and soul possible? Can the citizen make a difference? Are you worthy of democracy? Does politics have to be adversarial? What does it mean to vote with your life?

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People continue to die in Afghanistan, in a war that seemingly has no end in sight. In fact, Afghanistan has been at war for decades. When will it end? How will it end? The goal of this session is to find the answers to peace in this war-torn land.

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This goal of this session is to help a person understand why there is a war in Afghanistan and what it's about.

Add this automatically to all conflicts:
– Understand the grievances of the opposing side.
– Understand the suffering of the opposing side.
– Understand your own role in aggression.

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Alexander the Great, the British, the Soviet Union; all have tried to conquer this ancient land, and none have succeeded, so why do US government officials think they can? It this war being waged simply to financially bolster the military industrial complex?

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The goal of this Visionary Topic is to help a person understand why the US government chose to start a costly war that would claim thousands of American lives, and hundreds of thousands, possibly as many as 1.5 million Iraqi deaths, according to sources. The complex war began with weapons of mass destruction which were never found, and culminated in the US paying Iraqi insurgents to switch sides and fight with the Americans.

Add this automatically to all conflicts:
– Understand the grievances of the opposing side.
– Understand the suffering of the opposing side.
– Understand your own role in aggression.

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Are experiences more than a distraction? Can travel be more than the search for experience and enjoyment? How can we stop contributing to mass tourism? Can we do something significant on our travels?

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Find what is true or insightful about each perspective. The goal is not to determine which side is right, or even to find a solution that satisfies the interests of each side.

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What is the purpose of the library?
Is it possible for love to exist in institutions?
What does it mean to ‘learn’?

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Good Morning, Dear Beloved
Why is it we all so desperately want to be loved? Is true friendship possible?

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What is true and relevant about each perspective, and how can we bring these together to understand Donald Trump's Presidency?

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See what is true or insightful about each perspective. Begin to envision a prison that addresses the problems in a deep, lasting way.

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Why is there so much misery on the streets, with people living in filth? With such great wealth, why is there homelessness at all? Why do we ignore our own brothers and sisters?

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What is real nature of museums? What is true and relevant about each perspective, and how can we bring these together to find the essential nature of this topic?

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Simply listen to the songs, listen deeply, hear the truth of the singer, and compare this with your exploration of the topic as a whole.

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Decide whether the Request addresses underlying issues, not just external ones, and can lead to a lasting resolution.

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What is the place of money in your life? How much should you sacrifice for material success? Does it limit or free you to do what needs to be done? What is real wealth, true riches?

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What is modern culture? What is true and relevant about each perspective, and how can we bring these together to find the essential nature of this topic?

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What is mass culture? What is true and relevant about each perspective, and how can we bring these together to find the essential nature of this topic?

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A political solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict is not very likely. So let’s go deeper. How can Israel and Palestine come to love each other?

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Explore the resources, vote on the perspectives, and think about what is really fair trade.

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Can religion exist without superstition, authority, and belief, or the offer of rewards such as life after death? Is religion capable of responding to materialism? Can it reform the acquisitive spirit?

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Why do we fight our own brothers and sisters? Can conflict be resolved at the root? Is understanding between strangers, political parties, and nations, even possible? Can we put an end to war in ourselves?

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We act at a level so much lower than we are capable. We are more than we conceive. Who should we become? What we can become capable of?

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Personal and political freedom is a good start, but doesn't go far enough. Freedom includes freedom from our confused idea about what we want and who we are. Is that possible?

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Why are beautiful things so terribly attractive? Can you see through the masquerade of outer beauty? What is the relationship between outer and inner beauty? Can they be reunited?

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What is true and relevant about each perspective, and how can we bring these together to find our what is meaningful culture?

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What is true or insightful about each Request? Can they help produce culture that improves the well-being of customers, the community, and the world?

Perspectives. Turn all boxes green to complete this task.

J. Krishnamurti

"Success is mediocrity"

“Even when we do feel strongly, it’s generally about such petty things: about personal and family security, about the flag, about some religious or political leader. Our feeling is always for or against something; it isn’t like a fire that burns brightly, without smoke.”

Ralph Nader, March 19,...

"Democrats Ushered in an Era of Corporate Fascism"

Resource: LINK

Ralph Nader

"Democrats are on an infinite journey towards cowardliness"

We are at a stage that I would call a corporate state, that is exactly the definition of fascism conveyed by Franklin Delano Roosevelt in a 1938 message to the U.S. Congress. He said when private power takes over government, that is fascism. And it keeps getting deeper and more dominant with every four years of presidential election, and every two years of Congressional election…

Reflect. Turn all boxes green to complete this task

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What do you care about most? Personal security Accumulate money Your own happiness Recognition, status, fame Social justice Being a decent person Bring good into the world

What do you find humorous? Do you derive pleasure from the suffering of others? Watch yourself and see if you have this feeling. It may not be obvious, but if it is there you will find that it expresses itself in the impulse to laugh when somebody falls. You want those who are high to be pulled down; you criticize and gossip thoughtlessly about others.

What is the condition of your psyche? Do you judge others by their age, gender, race, attractiveness? Are you quick to anger? Jealous and envious? Lazy and ignorant? Bigoted and self-righteous?

How do you react when someone attacks you? Do you fight back? Are you at peace with yourself? Are you seeking status, position, money, relationship?

What are the principles of modern society? Science and technology? Materialism, growth, market forces? Pleasure-seeking, lust, greed?

What are the biggest problems we face? Climate change, artificial intelligence, nuclear war? Inequality, injustice, poverty, disease? Loneliness, addiction, meaninglessness?

What is your experience of living in bureaucratic, centralized, organized, technological, materialistic society? Do you accept the ideologies of work, entertainment, politics? Do you accept your life with it and in it?

What problem are you unable to solve? What are the peripheral and core elements of the problem? Are your intentions genuine? What are your secret motives? What are you evading? Gently, patiently, humbly and courageously enter into the problem and locate its heart.

What do you know? Give an example of something obvious, undeniable, certain. Is it a fact, an idea, a feeling? How do you know it is true? What evidence do you have? Is it worth believing in?

Are you able to think? Are you able to listen to views you disagree with? Are you able to see the truths of those you oppose? Are you able to locate the heart of the issue?

How actively do you participate in culture? Are you looking for stimulation and pleasure? Do you try to understand the purpose and effect of what you see and hear? Do you seek the good, true and beautiful?

What is your culture IQ?
How much time do you spend watching television, on the Internet, on your phone, or listening to music? How much do you engage in creative work or challenging thought?

What is beautiful or ugly, moral or immoral, in your community? In public spaces? In politics and the media? Among strangers and friends?

Think of a song, film or work of art you hae enjoyed. How does it make you feel? Does it inflame your ego? Does it reinforce stereotypes? Does it make you compare yourself to others? Or did it recognize the part of you that you admire? Did it make you feel more human? Did it address what is best in you?

“I shall never stop practicing philosophy and exhorting you and elucidating the truth for everyone that I meet. I shall go on saying…Are you not ashamed that you give your attention to acquiring as much money as possible, and similarly with reputation and honor and give no attention to truth and understanding and the perfection of your soul?

What kind of work do you do? – Dysfunctional work, such as military, advertising. – Work that limits choice, such as banking. – Areas of obscene profit, such as education and healthcare. – Work that compensates for dysfunction, such as police, therapy. – Creative functions, such as design, writing, art. – Service providers, such as teachers, health care. – Vital functions, such as food.

What danger does money have for you? "There are some callings where [the ambition to get rich] is a dangerous impediment; among these I would include ministers, teachers, lawyers and physicians." Abraham Heschel

What is the meaning of a product or service you have purchased? What is its true cost? "The cost of a thing is the amount of what I will call life which is required to be exchanged for it, immediately or in the long run." Henry David Thoreau

Think of any issue that you have a stake in, in which you are committed to one side. What is good or true about the side that you oppose? What are their grievances? How are they suffering?

Do you vote? Why or why not?

Repeat the pledge of allegiance:
"I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."
How does this make you feel?

What is the closest thing to love you have ever experienced? What was universal about that – not tied to the particular person or experience?

Give an example of illusory love. Have you fallen in love with or been infatuated with someone for reasons that you later realized were false?

What are you willing to do for a friend? What are willing to sacrifice? What would you never give or sacrifice?

How are you the same as others? What do you have in common with other human beings? With all of life, animals and plants? With inanimate things, like rocks and air?

How peaceful are you? How much peace is there in your life? And how much conflict? When you are in conflict, do you use force or love?

Are you at war with yourself? Do you sometimes act with cruelty or brutality? In what ways are you narrow, superficial, fragmented? In what ways? Are you responsible for wars? What share do you have in the world’s confusion and wickedness?’

How do you get along with your parents, siblings, partners? How do you feel waiting in a supermarket line when there is an unexp

How do you lead your life? Do you participate in violent cultural activities, use respectful language? What would it mean to lea

What was the most sacred experience in your life? “Was it a moment of love? A moment of beholding the awe of nature’s beauty or being moved by a stirring song, the birth of a child or being in the presence of a wise person?”

In what ways are you devoted to a false god?
Another person? A country, religion, race, idea? How do you identify with it? How have you made it sacred, holy? Is it through fear of being inadequate yourself?

What is sacred to you? The sacred is reality, purpose, being. What is most real to you? What lies in the secret chambers of your heart, in your unconscious? Money? Family? Success? Happiness?

Look for the good. Think of the worst person you know. Do you say bad things about them? Do you treat them with contempt? Can you say one good thing about them?

Without its working middle class (some still remain, but very few), Haiti has become a land of millions of the virtually homeless living in shantytowns built with their own hands,

In Haiti, the unrest continues unabated. Only this morning, Haitian street protesters planned to meet up in a vast group, and march on Toussaint L’ouverture International Airport in Port-au-Prince.

Excerpted from The Nation. See full article.

Peace is not the product of terror or fear.
Peace is not the silence of cemeteries.
Peace is not the silent result of violent repression.
Peace is the generous, tranquil contribution of all to the good of all.
Peace is dynamism. Peace is generosity.
It is right and it is duty.
– Oscar Romero

Goals of the Peace Brigade
Understand the grievances of the opposing side.
Understand the suffering of the opposing side.
Understand one's own role in aggression.
Look for the flaws, but focus on the good.
Active collaboration with any and all people and organizations.

Profound peace is resolving conflict before it arises. It is a direct, personal, collaborative response to personal and global conflict, with the goal of resolving conflict at the root level, through introspection and direct collaborative action.

“War is the spectacular and bloody projection of our everyday life.”

What is thunderous, not lukewarm, peace? It is a transformative response to conflict, one which changes the conflict situation at the root. To find it we must raise ourselves to the highest possible pitch of our nature.

I’m fighting for my life against this mine. It is not just a mine. It’s going to destroy everything. It’s a death note, and it’s addressed directly to Bristol Bay. It’s disgusting that I have to live everyday with the constant that my forever home will be destroyed by Pebble Mine.

“Is it possible to totally end every form of violence in ourselves and still live in this monstrously brutal world?” J. Krishnamurti

Begin with the impossible question: Why do we fight our own brothers?
In a competitive society, is force necessary? Can we find what is good and true in our adversaries? Can we resolve conflict before it starts? Can we put an end to war in ourselves? Can we make war unnecessary?

Do you have your own ideas for dissolving conflict? Use Proposals to ask for support from your brothers and sisters.

Because of the coronavirus everything has become expensive and we don’t have food for them. The orphanage is going to have to stop operations unless we can find additional help.

In 2012, two years after the great earthquake, I met a lady from Cite Soleil, Yolande Depoorter, while researching her biological family. She had been adopted by a Belgian woman when she was 6 years old, and was then about 44 years old. She asked, “How can I help Haiti?” I suggested that she could help some of the street children in Haiti, those who lost their parents in the earthquake.

Look for Tysea Orphanage in Facebook to see more.

I would like to repair my house if I can find some help. That would be a dream come true. I don't see how I can do it with my poor salary, which I am not receiving since the virus arrived.

Life was already difficult because of various political crises in Haiti. But Coronavirus has made things much worse. People can't go out to take care of their business. School are closed.

1. Brothers and sisters know something about each other. They try to learn what the other really cares for and needs.
2. They express care toward each other. A sibling is someone you can count on.
Anyone can have a brother or sister!

It is a miracle enough when one human being reaches out to another. Can communities do the same, even though they are separated by nationality, language, culture and history? Can they break through provincialism and share what is essential? If so, they will have to become sisters.

Understanding is a beautiful mystery. It breaks down illusion. It resolves perplexities. It puts an end to the misery of isolation. It is the deepest prayer, the ultimate happiness.

Understanding is a miracle. In spite of all ignorance in the world it is still possible. But we need a little help. The purpose of Visionary Society Topics is to provide some of that help.

A unique Haitian feature is what we call the konbit. The konbit is a group of people coming together to carry out a project in their community.

Haiti has a variety of dance styles that enrich our culture. It includes a mix of African, European and Indian dance. Each dance is associated with a specific rhythm. But the real origin is from Benin.

We’d like to introduce another response, one founded on non-adversarial relationships: on actual concern for the well-being of each other. There are a number of step we can take to reduce aggressive narrow-mindedness. Give Back the Night is a forum to cultivate, support and publicize these steps.

In most American cities women are not free to walk alone at night. Liberty to walk at night is an essential part of freedom, needed for self-knowledge and personal development. Women should be free to jog in remote places, to let their children play in parks or on our streets. To deny this is a crime against the human spirit that’s almost as bad as the physical threat itself.

What can you do? Begin by entering your thoughts or steps you are taking in the comments below.

“In most of our lives there is a lack of sensitivity to beauty. You may see a beautiful face, a lovely painting, a marvelous temple and the sculptured hills, but never feel intensely or passionately the beauty of the earth and the sky. One wonders why.” J. Krishnamurti

The goal of Visionary Society is to envision new ways of thinking and acting. Topics is the first step. Topics is a process of uncovering the truth of perspectives we misunderstand.

Understanding puts an end to the misery of isolation. It is the deepest prayer, the ultimate happiness. A Topic is a way to resolve a problem by finding its origin in a worldview that has been misunderstood. Begin by voting on each point of view.

What is popular culture?
What is the purpose of art?

Customers like you are the lifeblood of the businesses they use. We have the power to bring a business to consciousness. A purpose of Visionary Society is to show how this is possible. Here are some suggestions about first steps businesses can take, and how you can encourage them to do so.

Like a person, a business is a world, not just a private entity with the right to do anything it likes. It has a life of its own and an ethical position. It is responsible for making the community in which it is based better.
We are all (even vast impersonal organizations) in this together , including owners, managers, staff and customers.

It is impossible to be happy without art. But art that you buy at a gallery does not qualify. Art that you see at a theater does not qualify. That is the disease of specialization, cleverness, fame and money, and it changes nothing. Art cannot be presented as an object to be consumed, something to be paid for and then enjoyed. You cannot charge a price for beauty.

“Prior to industrial civilization that made possible the mass production of goods, most things were made by hand and eye and were intrinsically beautiful as well as useful. Beauty was a fundamental and necessary ingredient of life that was considered essential by both rich and poor, craftsperson and artisan alike.” Resurgence Magazine

We don’t need to depend on artists and arts institutions. Every person is capable of creativity, practical creativity in their actual life. Art can recover the power to change society – to break the bonds of the static, to bring institutions to life.

Can we combat the collective mind? Can we bring beauty and creativity to everyday life?

It’s a great resource to have a number of people to rely on if I’m not able to manage a number of things. It’s great to be able to stay in my own own and be in control of my own schedule.

We don’t need another marketplace of anonymous, impersonal, self-interested individuals. Instead, we can share what is important to us with each other. We can show that sensitivity is possible, that money and success are not everything.

Proposals is a new forum for personal community engagement, based on heart-centered care for making the world better.

Learn more about Proposals

What can Haiti do now? Nothing. There are many churches and NGOs in Haiti, but they know little or nothing about these problems. The only response I can think of is that the U.S.A. or Canada should occupy Haiti. The situation problem is a political one. There are too many armed bandits, killing people everyday, and there is no other solution.

The exchange rate with U.S. dollars has increased from day to day . We now need 115 gourdes for $1, up from 45 gourdes. And 80% people are out of work. Before we had about 60% unemployment. They could not eat and survive and what now? It is worse. People are living on $1 a day

Visionary Society is the idea that we can see beyond the hypnotic, conventional, ideological, political dogma that we have been raised in. That we can step aside from the rush of history. And that we can form our own lives and society through nothing other than insight and courage.

APPEAL: Help create a playlist of local artists. We will present this to local café managers.

REQUESTS FOR BANKS
— Fair treatment of poor people or those in trouble.
— Stop predatory practices such as excessive overdraft fees.
— Take into account where money is invested, social justice, and environmental effects.

We are not mere consumers in the miles of aisles. Explore and improve the practices of the big box stores your prosper from. Search for any store to begin.

Request: “Sell snacks and sandwiches made locally and fresh”
Buy locally whenever possible, purchasing from rural, inner-city, and other locally owned companies and producers, protecting local natural resources.

We are simply offering basic principles of meaningful art – not providing a list of works that we condemn or commend. That will always be subjective, and should be entirely up to individuals. Our goal is simply to provide a public forum for the shared attempt at discovering meaningful art.

The purpose of Beautiful Books is to promote and celebrate beautiful art. We want to remind each other that culture can lift and inspire, inform and transform. Goodness, beauty and truth exist. Let’s join together to rediscover what this is.

“At some thoughts one stands perplexed, especially at the sight of men’s sin, and asks oneself whether one should use force or love and humility. Always decide to use humble love. If you resolve on that once and for all, you may subdue the whole world. Loving humility is marvelously strong, the strongest of all things, and there is nothing else like it.”
Feodor Dostoyevsky

No activity can become excellent if the world does not provide a proper space for its exercise.
– Hannah Arendt

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"The greatest evil…is conceived and ordered…in clean, carpeted, warmed, and well-lighted offices, by quiet men with white collars and cut fingernails and smooth-shaven cheeks who do not need to raise their voices."
– C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letter

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“This is going to change everything about how we do everything. I think that it represents mankind’s greatest invention to date. It is qualitatively different — and it will be transformational.”

– Thomas Friedman, The New York Times

Old age is not a defeat but a victory, not a punishment but a privilege. One ought to enter old age as one enters the senior year at a university, in exciting anticipation of consummation.
– Abraham Heschel

"What is the secret of existence? Wherefore and for whose sake do we live? Only those who have not tasted the terror of life, only those who claim that it is a pleasure to live and that more and only pleasure is in store for the generations to come, can deny the essential necessity of asking: Wherefore? For whose sake?”
– Abraham Heschel, Man is Not Alone

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“Women urged to carry keys between fingers. Women urged to cover their drinks at all times. Women urged to not get drunk around men. Women urged to not walk alone at night. Women urged to carry pepper spray. CAN WE PLEASE URGE MEN TO NOT SEXUALLY ASSAULT WOMEN.” The Internet
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War is out-dated – non-violence is the only way. We need to develop a sense of the oneness of humanity by considering other human beings as brothers and sisters. This is how we will build a more peaceful world.
– The Dalai Lama

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The urgent challenge facing the world is not to give more to the poor, but to take less from the poor; the rich have to get off the backs of the poor and get out of their way so that they can look after themselves.
– Satish Kumar

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"What is called politics is comparatively something so superficial and inhuman, that practically I have never fairly recognized that it concerns me at all…It is as if a thinker submitted himself to be rasped by the great gizzard of creation. Politics is, as it were, the gizzard of society, full of grit and gravel."
– Henry David Thoreau, Life Without Principle

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"Spirituality means aliveness. Spirituality is never a private affair. Grateful living is a building of networks upon networks. It’s a communal affair, and it’s revolutionary."
– Brother David Steindl-Rast

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“What is needed in the world is not more planning, more leaders or spiritual guides, but individuals who are explosively creative – not creative merely in the sense of inventiveness, but who have that strange quality of creation which comes when the mind is free from the traditions, the evaluations, the impositions of a particular society or culture.”

– J. Krishnamurti

There is one thing in this world you must never forget to do. If you forget everything else and not this, there’s nothing to worry about, but if you remember everything else and forget this, then you will have done nothing in your life.
– Jalalludin Rumi

Painting was only one of the ways in which Leonardo tried to express his immense knowledge of the world, acquired, as he said, simply by looking at things. The secret, he said, was saper vedere, ‘to know how to see.’ The exhaustiveness and the intensity of his vision are incomparable.
– Charles Van Doren, A History of Knowledge

“Money is not wealth: it is only a measure of wealth; the real wealth is people, communities, cultures, land, forests and rivers. Accountants therefore need to take all these elements into account. The bottom line has to include social and natural as well as financial loss and gain.” Satish Kumar

“The Sufi opens his hands to the universe
and gives away each instant, free.
Unlike someone who begs on the street for money to survive,
a dervish begs to give you his life.” Jalalludin Rumi
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“When there is love, the problem is simple; when there is no love, the problem becomes complex.”
– J. Krishnamurti, The Book of Life

"Tiger got to hunt, bird got to fly;
Man got to sit and wonder, 'Why, why, why?'
Tiger got to sleep, bird got to land;
Man got to tell himself he understand."
– Kurt Vonnegut, Cat’s Cradle

–

“O let America be America again
The land that never has been yet
And yet must be.”
Langston Hughes
–

–

"Eichmann's answer is probably given five thousand times a day in America alone: I have no responsibility for the human consequences of my decisions. I am only responsible for the efficiency of my part of the bureaucracy." Neil Postman, Technopoly, 87
–

“It is solitude that heals the deepening wound of loneliness.”
– Jiddu Krishnamurti

COVID 19 is an assault on America’s body, and a referendum on the ideas that animate its culture. Recovery is possible, but it demands radical introspection.
– Ed Young, The Atlantic

“To wisely live your life, you don't need to know much
Just remember two main rules for the beginning:
You better starve, than eat whatever
And better be alone, than with whoever.”
– The Rubaiyat of Omar Kayyum

How do we measure culture? “By how much spiritual substance there is in its everyday existence...We gauge culture by the extent to which a whole people, not only individuals, live in accordance with the dictates of an eternal doctrine or strive for spiritual integrity; the extent to which inwardness, compassion, justice and holiness are to be found in the daily life of the masses.”

– Abraham Heschel, The Earth is the Lord’s

Art is the greatest thing humanity has invented – a chance to scrutinize and celebrate the world through a creative confrontation with reality.
–

–

"There are three ways to respond to grief. You can cry, you can be silent, or you can turn your sorrow into a song."
– Abraham Heschel

–

“For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat. I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in” Matthew 25:35

“I have deep concerns with the proposed path to citizenship. To allow those who came here illegally to be placed on such a path is both inconsistent with rule of law and profoundly unfair to the millions of legal immigrants who waited years, if not decades, to come to America legally.” Senator Ted Cruz
–

–

"Warfare is almost as old as man himself, and reaches into the most secret places of the human heart, places where self dissolves rational purpose, where pride reigns, where emotion is paramount, where instinct is king."
– John Keegan, History of Warfare

–

“In an age of bombs guzzling blood, skylarks merge peace with thought and action.”
― Aberjhani, The River of Winged Dreams
–

May God keep you away from the venom of the cobra, the teeth of the tiger, and the revenge of the Afghans.
- Alexander the Great
–

–

“The violent subjugation of the Palestinians, Iraqis, and Afghans will only ensure that those who oppose us will increasingly speak to us in the language we speak to them—violence.”
― Chris Hedges
–

“The United States of America is a threat to world peace. Because what [America] is saying is that if you are afraid of a veto in the Security Council, you can go outside and take action and violate the sovereignty of other countries. That is the message they are sending to the world. That must be condemned in the strongest terms.”
- Nelson Mandela
–

–

“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.”

– Mark Twain

–

“A great library cannot be entered by one of refinement in thought and aspiration without a certain feeling of awe. Surrounded by the productions of genius, the elegance of art, the delights of the mind, it is but natural that in the quiet, silent library, reverence should possess the soul.”
– Richard Skinner, November 1861

–

"Without any formal scheme or written laws, we have agreed to regard ourselves as one family."
– Oneida Community

–

"Prisons should be places of re-education and re-integration into the community, and the conditions for prisoners should be fitting for human beings."
Pope Francis

Our job is to love others without stopping to inquire whether or not they are worthy. That is not our business and, in fact, it is nobody's business. What we are asked to do is to love, and this love itself will render both ourselves and our neighbors worthy.
― Thomas Merton
–

–

“The Sufi opens his hands to the universe
and gives away each instant, free.
Unlike someone who begs on the street for money to survive,
a dervish begs to give you his life.”

– Jalaluddin Rumi

How do museums reconceive their missions at a time of great societal reckoning around race and gender, and as more diverse audiences demand a voice and a sense of accountability? (Olga Viso)
–

–

“Are you not ashamed that you give your attention to acquiring as much money as possible, and similarly with reputation and honor and give no attention to truth and understanding and the perfection of your soul?”
– Plato, The Apology

“The sword is the pride of man....War is the climax of human ingenuity, the object of supreme efforts.”

– Abraham Heschel, The Prophets

–

"I’ve to make these canastitas my own way and with my own song in them and with bits of my soul woven into them." B. Traven, "Assembly Line"
–

–

“You may not offend anybody; you may not harbor an uncharitable thought, even in connection with one who may consider himself to be your enemy…The objective of satyagraha is to win the victory over the conflict situation.”
– Mohandas Ganhdi

–

“Much on earth is hidden from us, but to make up for that we have been given a precious mystic sense of our living bond with the other world, with the higher heavenly world, and the roots of our thoughts and feelings are not here but in other worlds.”
–

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“You are not an individual; you are part of the vast mind of man. When you realize this fact, you enter into an extraordinary world. You are the entire humanity.” J. Krishnamurti
–

–

Man is tormented by no greater anxiety than to find someone quickly to whom he can hand over that gift of freedom with which the ill-fated creature is born.
– Feodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov

–

The terrible thing is that beauty is not only frightening but a mystery as well. That’s where God and the devil join battle, and their battlefield is the heart of man.
– Feodor Dostoyevsky

–

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