What Defines a Good Society?

 What is a Good Society?  

This question represents an important topic to study because we all live in the context of the systems around us, and how well-connected we are with each other is paramount importance to literally any branch of service we bring to others.

What differentiates mammals from humans is a much-researched area of interest humans had for centuries. All observations lead to the conclusion that animals like primates and elephants, do live in social systems, groups we can call colonies, members even bond in an emotional connection, yet we cannot talk about societies in their case, because they don't operate on the level of shared values, beliefs or goals.

I the case of human societies the different subgroups of people, or tribes, hold the same or similar values, which organizes them into these chosen colonies. Value based societies also mark their territories to protect those values and live an authentic life based on the criteria within the defined cultural domain. This later piece is perhaps rare, because integrity, that is to do what we believe in is exceptionally rare.

So, if we now have defined what differentiates animal social systems from human society formations, we also can deduct what makes a society a society as such. It is SHARED VALUES and their practices that unite members by supporting criteria, laws, customs, futuristic systems to preserve or evolve into the image of the ideal culture its members desire to produce.  

In my understanding the 30 points of Declaration of Universal Human Rights made a profound effort to clarify the universal, globally shared values of the human community, and instantaneously was approved by the original 48 countries of the world in 1948 where each sovereignty individually signed the declaration. Today this same number is 193 countries, with still much room for growth. The underlaying message behind the signing of the 30 points is based on the principal value of RESPECTING THE INHERENT DIGINITY OF THE HUMAN INDIVIDUAL. Societies are made of individuals, and the ultimate measure of a good society is how much respect it has for the life of its individual members, how much responsibility it demonstrates in practical response to inequalities and mitigating injustice, but also how much care and compassion is extended towards the vulnerable, victimized, neglected members. All this work requires investment, solid scientific and professional preparation, and strong individuals who have the capacity to join forces without compromising their own values, lifestyle balance, and personal safety.

We recognize other universal societal values as well, like environmental concerns, a right for fresh air and nutritious food, family values, friendship and love, creative self-expression by the cultivation of arts, a desire to live in a society according to your definition of peace, historical cultural loyalty, access to equal chance for an excellent scholarship, but those perceived rights aren’t basic human rights, they are rights earnt by personal merit, hard work performed in the pursuit of happiness, and no government can guarantee to ensure it for you. Often passionate, expert, committed involvements of the individual in local communities are fundamentally rooted in personal values that join up with societal values to produce a powerfully fortified united front.....ideally.

Values that influence my decisions are based in intense research, unending chain of questions that clarify ever-expansive perception fields that lead to amazing innovative accomplishments. Protecting such initiatives on a community organizational level is my highest understanding of the social arts and radical future building.

I highly value living in a society of ever evolving and improving justice system, being involved in a timeless, intermedia level, international, and intellectual dialogue with historical masterminds about significant topics, financial security, relationships and a sense of belonging, community dynamics, personal growth and education, loyalty, religion, respect of basic needs and human dignity, harmony, safety, and perseverance for a worthy cause, a milestone legacy.  

Core values are the most significant values of a person, group, and society. Core values are defined by the commitment of members to its preservation. Yes, it is possible to attain at least a few words and capture the core values highlighted among the shared values of a general population, which is pre-dominantly characteristic of intentional community building. Much of intentional community building on a large scale is done by political and governmental organizations. Core values are values we are committed to, but they don't have to be government initiated and executed for the population. Grassroot movements can be just as powerful if not more highly principled, more invested, more committed and action-oriented, mostly volunteer based work. Well composed and thought-through legal grassroot movements deserve public supports and a status of respected authority to learn from.

The challenges for grassroot societies to overcome is to overcome the limitations of conservative traditionalism and build on its honorable strengths. And other challenge is insufficient desire for academic and organized education, career planning, qualifications for influential office role that is strongly discouraged in our Hawaiian local attitude. Four those sub-groups the same concept of a good society is limited to a tribal consciousness, or family-ohana involvement only.

Doctor Martin Luther King talks about obeying a just law is just, but obeying an unjust law is unjust, and on the other hand disobeying an unjust law is just, therefore lawful.

While I fully agree with his statements, yet I hope we are at this stage of history at a place by now, when we can be proactive and not disobey an unjust law but change it for the better.

In Hawaii we adopt a cultural law, that is called Ho'opono'pono. Meaning know what is right and do what is right. It is the definition of a righteous path, and the first teaching is forgiveness. It is a value I learnt from the native Hawaiians, this is their cultural value to forgive others, and build a society based on doing the right thing at all times.

The Hawaiian culture had its dark side to it too, and many of those cultural activities accepted by them traditionally have been unlawful for almost two centuries by now, yet they are happening. Is incest criminal? We know it used to be natural to Hawaiians, it is outlawed today, and how many of us feels appalled by it just by considering justifying incest in families today? Does it feel very wrong? Are we holding the same values? So, when Dr King talks about disobeying an unjust law is just, how do we feel about the controversy of incest in native families just keeps rising increasing value related issues in the community. Some feel courts go too easy on punishment for this form of child abuse, and others think it shouldn't even be a crime. In this particular matter I would not use the Dr King quote without explaining that he talks about an unjust law broken is just, and not about an unpopular law broken by criminals looking to justify their actions before a moral audience.

The opposing ideas of locals and new-comers are felt in areas of incest, street-drug use, the aiding of unlimited alcohol consumption by minors, childcare/neglect in the form of deprivation from nutrition in school age, the necessity to encourage youth to enter further education and earn accredited diplomas enabling them to enter a specialized career field.

And other important value for my personal moral attitude is hospitality. By hospitality I mean also feeding kids at home by their parents. I live alone now, but used live in big intentional family settings where I was a lot in the kitchen feeding people. It is unacceptable for me to hear that during the pandemic a gross number of children starved because schools were closed, and often that was their only meal of the day what they received at school. It is unacceptable for me to see that well-to-do families a numbers of mammoth-trucks in their yard neglect feeding their children. My personal value conflicts a great deal with the local community values over that. It literally deprives children from a right to life, and education. Nobody can function as their best if they don't have anything to eat. While hospitality is mostly used in the context of newcomers to the land, heole, but the little children are also newcomers to life, they stay with us for a time before they step out into the world to start their own life. Starving children at home used for incest and other form of abuse, are being trafficked, their enslavement by their own caregivers is just as resentment-worthy as the segregation era in the deep South in the lifetime of Dr. King. How do I act today to free enslaved children from their own ohana (blood relations and other close friends under the same roof)?

Shared values are impressively endorsed by both parties in traditional arts and craft appreciation, cultural education of the local kids in the form of weekend Kamehameha workshops to learn Hawaiian language, attitude toward hospitality and entertainment, Malama, or the protective and respectful payback to Mother Nature and environmental consciousness.

I delight in our shared ideas with the local native communities and intend to work to improve on the challenging aspects of our unresolved discrepancies. I hope the dialogues of the future will improve for all members of society the quality of life we find moral and promising.

Mahalo

and may your day set with a forgiving heart, because according to Hawaiian values, only a forgiving heart is righteous.

See you next week. Aloha