by Dieter Duhm, 1992
The worldwide violence against animals, children and nations demands a new concept of human civilization. The inner and outer crises are two aspects of the same problem–a problem that can only be understood or resolved if both aspects are considered. For several years, Project Meiga – Experiment for a Humane Earth – formed in Germany, has been working to form an international cooperative for a human existence free of fear and violence. The following 12 theses emphasize the direction of this effort.
1. A Home for Children
In a nonviolent world, children will grow up with confidence and trust. The future of humankind is dependent on the fate of our children and their children. A childhood filled with distrust and violence will not produce a humane adult. We must give children a home where they can trust their parents.
2. Love and Trust
Nonviolent action and humane thinking both result from love. Love results from trust. Trust results from truth. We must create spaces where human beings no longer have reasons for lies and fear. We must create the social and ecological conditions for love. Confidence and love are the powers fundamental to all creation.
3. Sexuality
Sexuality is an elementary force in life and in the joy of existence. Sexuality is free. It can neither be regulated by marriage contracts nor by tight moral limits; it needs truth and trust. We must create the moral and social conditions for free sexuality.
4. Partnership
Partnership occupies a high place in the relationship between the sexes. It has its roots in a common mental basis. It is in no way in opposition to free sexuality, because it is free of jealousy. True partnership is the most radical model for a nonviolent and fearless relationship between human beings. We must create the mental basis for partnerships free of jealousy.
5. Community
Organically, the lap of man is the community. Natural values like truth, trust, solidarity, responsible and caring participation without jesuitical subtleties can only be realized within organically grown communities. Nonviolent human society will consist of a network of communitarian systems (groups). Only when this has been taken into account will the original humanistic socialist impulse be put into practice. We must create functioning communities.
6. Freedom and Autonomy of the Individual
A free world consists of individuals who say what they think and demonstrate what moves them. They are not subordinate to anyone or anything except their own knowledge and their own consciousness. The mature community is a grass roots democracy of free individuals. It is a human collective, but it is not collectively led by a leader or in the name of an ideology. The individual and the community are equal and complementary forces in a nonviolent world.
7. Thinking
The reflecting intellect is a young and powerful fruit on the tree of evolution. Free and creative thinking will mean the dissolution of all rigid ideologies. The secrets of existence are beyond all scientific or religious nomenclature. Individual autonomy is a direct result of fearless thinking. We must outgrow all scientific and political creeds. We must create universities to foster the potential for growth inherent in free thinking.
8. Religion/Spirituality
Just like Eros and thinking, religion/spirituality is one of the elementary powers in human existence. We live in an endless radiant universe. Everything we are and everything surrounding us has its roots in this cosmos. Spiritual love is connectedness with the whole. Therefore we do not need a religious creed or rigid answers. Our answers will grow out of spiritually opening our minds. We must create a free spiritual consciousness without law and without dogma.
9. Nature
Nature is our binding link with creation. We are its offspring as the child is the offspring of its mother’s womb. The secret of human existence is part of the secret of nature. Whatever we do to nature we do to ourselves. Outer and inner environments are two aspects of the same world. We must take care of nature and develop our attention to the natural growth process with its rhythms and interconnections. Cooperation with all vital energies and respect for life are the conditions for a nonviolent and humane civilization.
10. Animals
We must stop cruelty against animals. Like us, they are living organisms in this biosphere. Like us, they are animated beings–just at different levels of evolution. In a nonviolent culture, there will be neither killing of whales, nor keeping of animals for slaughter, nor fur farming. We must create space for a peaceful coexistence of humans and animals. Animals do not exist for us to slaughter them, but for themselves and their own consciousness.
11. Biotopes (Environments) for Healing
All of the above-mentioned ideas combine into a new healing biotope. Such a biotope contains the holistic information for nonviolent existence on planet Earth. We must create pilot models integrating this holistic information. We must create information centers where these social, technical, ecological, and mental concepts are presented in such a way that the healing powers of life–trust, Eros, Logos, and symbiosis–are set free to the maximum extent.
12. Human Networks
Today, in all countries and cultures, there are people who undeniably understand the necessity of a positive inner and outer revolution. They all add a certain thought, a certain conviction, a certain aspect into the total view of the necessary tasks. They must create the possibility amongst themselves for understanding, sharing, and cooperation beyond all existing systems and mechanisms. It is not systems and mechanisms but people who will make the decisions necessary to create a future worth living. We invite you to join us in this initiative to create a nonviolent Earth.