A happy world would imply justice and opportunities for all people, people living in harmony with each other and with nature.
People would have social structures to fall back on, like family or friends, a life partner or more then one, for who chooses that, but with the freedom of choice in these matters.
A happy world would give children a place where they are loved and cared for.
It would be a place for everyone to feel save, without the threat of violence, war or destruction.
People would feel respected in their differences; have a decent place to live, food on the table and access to free good medical care.
In this world people would have the right to education and can find a way of living by using and developing ones interests and talents.
People would feel free and appreciate and respect this freedom, so that they understand that they should also respect the freedom of their fellow man.
People would be friends instead of enemies.
This world is still a utopia. Is it possible to make this a reality?
We have some suggestions to how this could be done.
See are our aims http://www.geocities.com/lichtendeweg/aims.htm
Question: All people happy? Is that possible?
Answer: There are a lot of occasions, like national holidays were groups of people could be happy together, why shouldn’t we be able to maintain this on a large scale?
Can arch-enemies become reconciled ?
Question:
Is happiness in fact not a vague idea, with no practical value?
Answer:
Most people know how important it is how they feel; if you feel well, just fine or bad?
But there is also another aspect: the way you are feeling can also be a refection of the circumstances you’re in at the moment.
When there is no relation at all between your feelings and your circumstances, this could be a sign of a mental disorder, maybe caused by a biochemical imbalance, braindamage or negative spiritual influences:
Normally if you feel unhappy, this is a sign that you are in bad circumstances.
Normally if you feel happy, this is a sign that you are in good circumstances.
Happiness can be a sign that you are in harmony with your environment.
Your personal circumstances therefore can influence how you perceive happiness.
To be happy would mean that you are a harmonious part of a larger whole. Being harmonious implies that your own identity is recognized as being different from that of the other parts, and therefore appropriate.
If this is not the case, you need to leave the bigger unity of which you are member and look for a new larger whole in which you fit better.
And if that is not available then you have to take the initiative yourself to a larger whole to become part of a new unity: that could be a relationship, work, contact in the neighbourhood, politics, world view, and so on.
Recognize yourself in the other person
Historic wise men have said: desire to do unto all men, as we desire all men should do unto us. So let’s make other people feel good.
We can make things worse for each other, but we could also make things better.
Making the world happy also means that the conditions for life on this earth should be improved, especially for those ones who are most deprived.
So we should promote peace instead of war. The same principle applies also to this subject: parties at war with each other can achieve a lasting peace as soon as they face their common interests and also when they become part of a larger whole.
Question: This to most people would seem all good ideas, but what can we do practically?
Answer:
For a start we have to prevent unnecessary misery. For example, the arise of the AIDS epidemic: how did this happen? Through thoughtlessness, negligence or was it deliberate genocide?
The consequences of this disaster should be made undone, as far as possible. Everyone who is infected, particularly in Africa, should receive free medication.
In the future disasters of this extent should be prevented.
Other unnecessary misery is created when a non-realistic utopia became the basis of our actions, especially if there is not thought about the effects on traditional cultures and the environment. Social experiments on a planned economy, based on examples from other failed undemocratic economies can cause a real disaster despite all the good intentions, as we can see with Nyerere of Mugabe.
Charities encounter the same problem, which can make situations often only worse, as was the case with the Nile perch in Lake Victoria in Tanzania. So we should not make these mistakes: True development should take a different way.
Question: What then are your practical plans?
Answer:
Society is only partly manufacturable.
There is still much misery in the world. Particularly in the developing countries, a large proportion of the population is below the poverty line, and often cannot pay for daily necessaries.
What we want to do is try to change a mentality.
We can teach people that even in the worst situation they can do something to improve the situation.
We want to show a way to increase happiness for individuals and their communities. What we can do is try to introduce new clean technologies.
To eliminate and prevent big tragedies we need politics for durable change.
In general however politics and diplomatic ways are slow.
Charities will often not come or are often not well adapted to the local situation, so this can mean that the situations are maintained or won’t be improved in the long run. In some cases it can even worsen the situation.
We believe in taking initiative, this you can do on your own but you also can unite with your friends, family or your community.
You can empower yourself by refusing to remain a victim.
You can find many solutions to your problems and to the problems of the world.
The important thing is: Cope with the difficulties, cope with the problems and first think what solutions would be the best and what are the most practical.
What can YOU do? What can the people close to you do?
These are our suggestions for eliminating some of the biggest problems of our times:
1. In all cities in the world, but especially where there is hunger and where there are many homeless people, we would like to start Community Centres, where there is free food and accommodation. The people who make use of these services should in return work for this community centre as soon as they are physically capable.
3. We would like to set up a system where family-members or community-members can adopt AIDS orphans. These adoption-families then should receive financial support. The communities should also be supported with facilities such as schools or wells.
4. We want to implement some plant- and animal-friendly measures
A. Stop the cutting down and burning of forests in the tropics and elsewhere.
B. Stop discharges of toxic waste into rivers and seas.
C. Change the bio-industry in biologically healthy animal husbandry and agriculture.
5. We would like to stop the spread of AIDS in developing countries through dirty needles used in mass-vaccination campaigns. This is at the moment a big part of the reason AIDS is spreading so widely.
6. We would like to actively resolve military conflicts and armed violence and we will suggest practical solutions to it.
7. In principle we want real solutions for as well small as world problems that could work, not symbolic actions or utopias that are not feasible.
8. We want to implement a plan that within the shortest possible time all cars will become equipped with engines with 0% poisonous emissions.
9. We want to eliminate all weapons of mass destruction in all countries and ultimately of all lethal weapons in the world. Also here fore we want to implement a plan.
Question: Is there only gloomy news about the environment?
Answer: No, as we now change political goals towards investing in the environment, perhaps the tide can be reversed. The beauty of it is that the technology is there to prevent further deterioration of the environment.
Not only well-known techniques such as wind-, solar-, geothermal-, tidal-energy producers, etc., but also by new inventions of inventors and engineers.
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Question What is the relation between cars with 0% emissions and happiness?
Answer: The current cars pollute the air, create noise and contribute to warming of the climate. This is very damaging to the nature and therefore for us, because humans depend on nature and nature does not depend on humans.
Happiness relates to our well-being and survival, and if our survival is in danger by the destruction of nature, we endanger our happiness and well-being.
Question: Do you have you any practical example that people can be liberated from dictatorship without military force?
Answer:
An example is the fall of the Berlin Wall
These are plans for the world.
And how can we make things better in our life?
See the abundance of tips (maybe too much?) for good health and good life. In addition to all this advice, it is important that you make yourself happy by taking good care of your needs. Your mood radiates to others. Your smile may make others also feel better.
We also think that society should be able to adapt to the characteristics of the individual and the characteristics of the physical development of the child instead of the other way around.
This means: More flexible working hours for parents so that their child does not to have to go to day-care.
We recommend strong decrease of homework and school hours and much more leisure time.
We promote a more natural way of life:
In schools: less sitting and more moving.
More flexible working hours for parents so that their child does not to have to creche. Strong decrease of homework and schoolhours.
Much more leisure time.
Nudity is not something to be ashamed of: even if your body does not comply with the fashion ideal. We would like people to feel free not to wear unnatural clothing, such as a bra and pinching clothing.
Adolescents should have a greater autonomy; in generation conflicts often they should have the freedom to leave the parental house and move to a kind liberal mixed boarding school.
Teenage (single) mothers should be supported and given free care and the opportunity to study in flexible hours.
Gallup: Scientific evidence of the positive effects of happiness on health, peace and the economy:
So a happy world is as well about you personally what you can do in your immediate vicinity . That is in the tips
It is also about changes in culture, politics and society.
This implies broad- mindedness: A cleaner environment arises not because you have not thrown a piece of paper on the street or because you take the bike to go to your work. There are political and societal measures necessary for example, to stop the burning of waste that puffs out dioxin into the air, and so on.
Question: Yes, all well and good, but I miss something.
What is missing?
What is the role of the cosmos in this all?
Answer: You miss the esoteric whole, which these plans are part of. Everything and everyone in the big bang (that is the Creation) was a whole: that we all came from the same energy.
The connecting element is love.
That love we must recognize for each other, especially if we want to be part of this new movement.
The commitment and love with everything in it is the essence of it all. Members should try to become real friends; each one should accept the other one.
Our starting point is: Hate or other negative feelings are the source of unhappiness and death; love is the source of life and happiness.
That does not mean that from now on all is hand in glove. Starting from love, we have to correct unjust situations, denounce them and try to transform them.
Therefore, the people who do so, the so-called "whistle-blowers", are our heroes.
But all efforts are ultimately aimed at a peaceful and happy world, in balance with nature, and rich in different cultures, a world in which everyone matters.
