Understanding the individual
As problems are not problems unless a human says so, we see a human dimension to world problems. People, or individuals, are part of the problem. While we exist, there will always be some kind of problem created by us. Therefore, it is important to look at ourselves to understand how we become part of the problem.
If we look more closely, there is a common theme running through much of the people involved in various kinds of world problems throughout history and in modern times:
- People need to survive
Individuals cannot live without food and water. Everyone at some point is going to need food and clean water, and enough of it to meet certain minimum daily physical and mental energy and other nutritional resource requirements (e.g., to prop up our immune response). This brings us to the problem of hunger and thirst. This is a remarkable common problem even by today's standards despite all our technology and available numbers of people. It would be extremely hard pressed to find one individual in the world who believes this problem does not exist somewhere in the world. The solution, of course, is to grow enough food and acquire adequate fresh water and distribute it at very low cost (or ideally for free, which should be the aim of society in producing this essential commodity). Foods produced and given is always seen as a form of love to others, and it helps others to achieve great and worthwhile goals for the rest of society when they know what it is they are here for.
Food and water must be the healthiest, nutritionally-dense, and in proper abundance worldwide as needed for proper human development. And it should be the cheapest it can possibly be (or preferably free) to ensure everyone can afford it in reasonable quantities. Do not be stingy on the food and water. Produce it in abundance and give it to everyone. At the very least it should be what the people need, and even a little extra to grow.
- The thoughts we create about ourselves and others
The next common source of problems are the thoughts people create all day about themselves and/or other people. For example, individuals may not realise how important they are to society and how they fit into the big picture with everyone else, so they tend to lose sight of where they are going, what to do, and eventually evaporate their sense of hope and a positive view of the future, let alone what amazing contributions they can provide to society. They start to think nobody loves them and they accept the belief that they are not worthy members of society. Eventually they begin to live on the fringes of society and in places where they can meet up with other like-minded individuals experiencing the same problem (only to reinforce the original views generated about themselves and so stay in a kind of mental rut, unless one can somehow associate oneself with different people who think differently). And if they can't get the same opportunities as the rest of society to survive, let alone achieve things in life or just be happy, there is a heightened risk of creating new social problems, such as getting involved in criminal activity, setting up and running fake businesses and not offering anything of benefit to others in an attempt to run off with other people's money (also called scams), or just wanting to cause chaos in society (e.g., terrorists). When we are faced with this situation, it is easy to try quick "bandaid" solutions, such as beefing up law enforcement and raising the penalties both financially and in jail time thinking this will solve the problem. But in reality, most people don't see this as helping. Rather, they will resent the system even more and choose to get mre cunning and find other ways to survive and get what they want, only to make it more expensive to handle the new problems. The solution here is to ensure individuals, especially at a young age although anyone who is open to the idea of doing something different can be helped, feel important and a worthy member of society. It means showing love by making each one of us feel happy being a part of society. Assuming they can easily afford the things they need to survive, ask yourself, "Are these people happy about why they are here?" If they are not, ask why? And what are we doing to ensure the problems other people see are being solved permanently and properly? Forget the emphasis on Gross Domestic Product (GDP) or other economic terms. It is more than just money. In fact, in many cases, money may be the last thing people need. Rather, people may just need to be listened to and to see people actually understanding and doing something to solve the problems. Forget GDP. Rather, the focus should be on gross national happiness. Make sure everyone is happy. And part of that happiness is to give everyone the freedom to try different things and let them find their niche and contribute in their own unique and potentially original way. Perhaps they will cover new solutions that no one has ever considered before.
If it isn't to be listened properly, for others, it may simply be to give them a hug, or a pat on the back for something they have done and achieved. Sometimes, some people just wnt to be believed in what they are achieving will be possible and will make a difference in the world from their perspective. And when they achieve it. Just give them what they require to achieve goals and survive. For example, to minimise impact on the environment and keep costs down, provide the very low-cost or free 3D software tools and a powerful enough computer that is easy to use and can render things quickly and realistically with the right laws of physics applied so it becomes easier to see whether something is likely to work. Let people be creative and rational as they determine for themselves what works. Then let them show other people the ideas to see what they think and whether it will help them or others. Or go ahead and make it happen if one is confident of the benefits and know it will work. But only be there to guide them on their path to achieving greatness in their own unique way. Show at every step of the way that they are worthy members of society who can contribute great things, and you will be showing your support and love to them when you do. Let individuals be original and creative. Enjoy the variety of new perspectives on life and ways of doing things that come from their solutions (which could result in something amazing that other people haven't thought of before and could help to solve other problems). Alternatively, if individuals are still seeking their life's work, find something the individuals will be comfortable in trying out, or with basic training can achieve, with ease. Give them a great sense of pride when they finally achieve it. Let the individual decide if this is an area that interests them and can learn greater things. Let them find creative ways of doing things in the area they wish to explore. Let them turn work into play or a hobby. Work should be seen as a dirty word, but play should be the aim of life. Make it fun and interesting. Let people find ways to enjoy what they do. Make sure it does not feel like a chore or something one must do. People must want to do it, not be forced into it. And let them find the best solutions and implement them for the good of all. Who knows? Perhaps they will come up with better solutions that will improve society in the long term. And if so, reward them and show how great their contributions are to society. Then the individuals cannot help themselves but feel important and worthy members of society. Then they will be happy, and they will start to believe in themselves and their abilities to achieve anything they want in their own minds (the next crucial step). Of course, to get that feeling of importance and belief, all individuals must be treated equally and with respect (irrespective of how much or how little money or education levels people may have, or how they look). It doesn't matter if you are a carer for an old or sick person, or an astronaut preparing to go to Mars in the next NASA mission. Each person is equally important in their contributions to the betterment of humankind no matter how small it may seem. Never think one person is anything less or more than someone else. We are all important people in society. In a nutshell, you must treat others as you would want others to treat you. This view rings true throughout history.
- Be happy with who you are and what you have got
We cannot stress enough the importance of having happy people in society. It can potentially make the difference between whether humanity becomes extinct, or survives. In the short-term, it may be hard to see this, but in the long-term, the result of unhappy people can determine how many problems are created. Indeed, the problems can expand and multiply until they eventually affect everyone. Basically, the more unhappy people you have, the more problems you are likely to create in society. And the longer you let people remain unhappy, the more problems you will encounter. For example, when people are happy, they do not create the problem of discriminating or treating other people badly. Why would they? They simply can't. They are already happy so there is no need to make others unhappy. Also, make sure people feel a part of the community and able to fit in in doing something that the community values as important, or can be shown to be valuable depending on the originality of the solution and what kind of problem it solves. You need to make sure everyone is happy. And that means showing your support for what people want to do to make this world a better place. Support should go well beyond simply covering the basic cost of having what we need to survive — often people need to grow in order to achieve certain things. Give people access to the tools that will help them realise their dream. Or else give people adequate money for them to buy or create the tools they need so they may grow and reach the goals more quickly. Do this and people will have no choice but to be happy doing the thing they believe and think is possible and is, or will be, valuable to society. - Acknowledge our uniqueness
Part of this process of feeling important to society is realising every individual's uniqueness in terms of his/her special contributions, ideas, physical appearance and other aspects that can help towards building a brighter and more balanced future for everyone. While we are all the same in terms of what we need to survive, we are different in the personal views, insights and ways to approaching various problems to show our uniqueness. - Make people feel important
Those individuals who don't understand the importance of other people in the whole scheme of life are probably themselves lacking in an understanding of their own importance to society and, therefore, are not being loved. Whether this is because society has not shown to these individuals the necessary love (e.g., access to food, someone to guide them in a positive direction or whatever_ to make them believe they are worthy and important through their contributions, or something has got into their heads that they are not the same as others (thinking that they are less valuable for whatever reason), it is important to tackle this issue head on. Otherwise, these individuals will cause extra problems for themselves and for the rest of society through their actions, which could potentially harm others in their ability to survive or achieve things. We see this in dictators who have once lived in tough times and lacking in love and they have decided to apply action that forced their way to become a ruthless and fearful leader of a nation just to fill that void of not feeling important enough. Then using fear, the dictator thinks he is important when others are careful to give that impression to the leader in order to avoid being killed or sent to lengthy prison sentences.
This brings us back to the "feeling of importance" issue, or just feeling the love from society. Anyone who does not understand the importance of others are themselves in need to feel important in society (i.e., are lacking in love). Even a friendly "Good morning!" to these people may be all that is needed to make them feel important.
Part of the problem of not showing how important other people are is because of how many people in society are too focussed on making money. We tend to lose sight of the importance of others when we ourselves are needing to feel important by getting what we need and perhaps later what we want.
To solve this lack of importance problem within the individual, we must understand why we have differences and how those differences in the individual and in others can be a good thing. Show how diversity can be a powerful source of finding solutions, especially unique and original ones. If necessary, people need to experience some of the benefits of those differences, such as trying out different foods, joining in some dance activities, going out and trying different fun things, or talking with them and seeing how they see the world and solve problems in their own ways. Or why not do or experience the same things other people go through. In that way, you start to appreciate how important they are. For example, to appreciate a cleaner's job and its importance in society, you may have to experience this job yourself. Certainly in this era of pandemics and severe flus, you will quickly learn the importance of cleaners in society when you realise you can reduce the chances of being exposed to viruses.
When people start to see these differences in action and how those differences can solve problems in a better and more permanent way, everyone starts to quickly realise that while we are different and have the power to find new solutions through our differences, we are also all essentially the same. We all seek the same things at a deeper level. And we are all achieving something in our own unique way. But in the end, we all want to be loved and to achieve something great that helps us believe we are important in society, to understand why we are here, and to know our true place in the universe. Therefore, we need to feel important in what we do. That is a sign that we are showing our love to everyone around us.
- Give people a purpose and a reason to feel good about themselves
Certain individuals may not feel sufficiently confident about themselves and what they can do for society or on their own (caused by a lack of love for themselves as well as limited education resulting from an unsolved problem within the environment they are or have lived in or have perceived in their minds — perhaps there has been a lack of love from a certain family member, or other people, or have not found a way to solve a common environmental stuation). The solution is to get to those people who are still alive to help them understand why they did it or are doing it. What is keeping them in the situation they are in.Then, when the person sees what is happening, you can introduce another solution. But don't just choose one solution. Provide a range of different solutions that will solve the original problem. Let the person decide which solution to try out and see what happens.
Are you the one trying to solve the problem for yourself? If you can solve the problem, great. Otherwise, focus on yourself. You are the future. You have the power to change yourself. Don't follow in the footsteps of those who do not understand love and could be keeping you from growing and doing something different. You create the future, and you create it with love as you understand it and should have been done once you know the reasons why other people could not. Anyone else who does not understand it or chooses to affect others through their lack of love need their own help even if they do not understand it or need the help. If they cannot see the problem they are creating, it is important to make sure they experience or see what it is like to be in the other person's shoes. Experiencing what happens when you don't receive love, is often the greatest teacher in changing your behaviour. As for the person who has already experienced this situation before and lost confidence because of the actions of others, it is time to help him/her develop confidence. Or for you having that problem to make the choice of trying something different. It can be scary. But sometimes you have to break through the fear berrier and it is a mental thing that is holding you back. Nothing else should be stopping you. You can choose when and where to try something different without those who might be holding you back. You make the decision to find out.
For the rest of society, we need to show this person never to be afraid to try something new or different, and to always tackle problems head on (nothing is intractably difficult or impossible to achieve if you set your mind to the task of solving it). Make sure this person is able to face the thing that is making him/her feel less confident. Give the person what he/she needs by way of tools to help tackle the issue and solve it permanently. If it is a problem of not having the education, we should provide it. If it is not having the right skill, we must teach it. If the confidence is simply a feeling of not being sure he/she can do something great for society, show the person how great he/she is by getting the person to regularly participate in many different activities within society (especially with an outcome that they can see and say to themselves, "Yes, I did that myself!"), or to provide the person with whatever he/she needs or requires to contribute in their own unique way. Then, as the person achieve those things on his/her own, no matter how small, we must acknowledge and applaud the effort and ultimate contribution and achievement at every step of the way, right up to reaching the goal. Make the person feel great. Give him/her a hug. Kiss the person on the forehead for someone who is the opposite gender (this depends on the nature of society and whether other people think this is appropriate). Or show the special handshake move. We must make everyone feel more important until they can see they are just as important as the rest of us.
- Give people access to education and skills
Also, part of the problem of why individuals feel uncertain and do not know how to solve certain problems is simply because they have not been aware of the existence of other solutions, or how to create their own unique solutions. In this circumstance, providing education and skills has to be one of the first steps to finding these new solutions. All forms of education must be provided. It should be delivered at the lowest cost (or virtually for free), easily accessible to everyone, and in a form that is easy to learn. Education is the key to developing greater confidence, self-resilience, and knowing how to solve problems by giving people the power to decide how best to solve their own and all other world problems. - Have faith and give adequate time for people to achieve great things
The capitalist system often focuses on how much money is involved for the time we spend to achieve something. We want things to be done now and completed yesterday preferably, or else it costs society money. Well, forget this idea. Rome wasn't built in a day, and nor should you. Individuals may not be given adequate time to get the education and skills needed to think through the problems for there to be a proper and permanent solution.But if we are to find permanent and best solutions, it requires time to gather sufficient information from a wide range of sources (whether through life's experiences, to read enough books, or simply to talk to enough people from all walks of life) before a solution is found. Good quality education using the principles of accelerated learning can assist in the process of assimilating more knowledge quickly. The education also needs to be broad enough to show the greater range of solutions. And for indepth knowledge, the right information presented in the simplest way is essential when people need to focus on specific areas so they can develop the solution they need for a particular problem. But ultimately, people just need more free time away from work, school and anywhere else to gather this information and find the solutions. This is perfectly normal. - Understand the benefits of having differences in people, and in having them in numbers to solve big problems
One of the greatest sources of solutions are in the differences we find in people. They include those who live in different nations and have different ways of thinking and doing things. Differences are there to help us hone in on more balanced solutions. If we don't have those differences, our range of different and original solutions are diminished. Then we are relying on existing solutions that we think are the best and balanced ones when, in reality, they may not be at all. So when we see things like the refugees left in limbo in detention centres and not given proper support by way of quality education and opportunities to work and achieve goals, it shows the failure of the current economic system and the unimaginative nature of the leaders of the system in solving problems. There is a lack of differences in the ideas and make-up of the people in a position of power. Then the leaders will make excuses for not finding new solutions what they say things like, "We cannot afford to support so many extra people". If these leaders have even one iota of imagination or ability to talk to diverse range of people for ideas, they will see that there are solutions. Providing employment would be one of them, but what kind of employment? Also, in places such as Indonesia, refugees are not allowed to be employed, have a bank account, or receive any other support because of how the legislation has been set up by their leaders. In other countries, the number of paid jobs are limited and the cost to buy the needy things with that money is too limited. Already there is a freeze on wages which is not keeping up with the costs of living because some people want to be greedy in selling things, or renting them out to those who can pay the "market rate". So naturally, as more and more people come to accept these costs as normal, these costs will go up over time and the vicious circle of paying more and more continues. And all the while, economic leaders think this is all examples of good growth in the economy. Maybe so for the people who have certain things that other people need to have and so grow a fatter pockets filled with cash. But it really isn't necessarily growth to the people who must pay a large amount of money for the things they need. They will be stifled by the costs and unable to grow any more other than to ensure the money is there to pay these things on a regular basis. However, it does not have to be this way. If cost is such a major issue and there is not enough employment, why not implement an alternative system? Try a non-economic system where money is not the prime motivation for doing things and getting things done. Rather focus on food, freedom to think and solve problems creatively, more social interaction to play and relax, be given free access to education using the available technology, and let others pass on the knowledge to their family and friends. Furthermore, if our contribution is valuable, we should be able to help one another to build quality housing from the resources developed on the land, and so on. And in return for improving, say, the land and making it productive and pristine in the natural environment, let them receive low- or no-cost quality foods. For everyone elese living in the cities, they can benefit from low-cost foods by building and donating the tools and items people need while working and living on the land who are helping to make it productive and protect the environment. Make sure the whole system is self-sufficient and sustaining. Then they can sell what they make back to the economic system at a reduced price in return for certain useful tools etc. At the end of the day, all refugees should be welcome into this new system. So why do we need detention centres?