The most important reason we propose a radically new system to replace the current System is that the inherent workings of the current System encourage people to do things that are harmful and destructive. It is my hope to replace this inherent workings of the current System with AVOFT, which we hope has the inherent workings to encourage people to be more empathic, loving, productive and happier.
The AVOFT System
#1 Awareness
First of all, we must recognise that there are problems and better if we can pinpoint the problems. With awareness, we will then be able to tailor our actions to tackle them. The article on The Problems is a rough overview of the problems that are plaguing us. There are a lot more to it as it is hard to summarise so many problems into a systematic article.
#2 Realising the possibilities
Is there enough food for everyone? Is there enough water for everyone? Is there enough basic resources for everyone? The answer is yes! The way capitalism works distributed these resources in a very selective manner, creating scarcity. This effect can be reversed. It is possible to reclaim the resources and redistribute them properly. A lot of effort and education will be required, but it is possible. And it is necessary, as change is much needed at this stage.
#3 Creating abundance
A few concepts need to be applied in order for this to happen.
Open Source Economy – free sharing of knowledge and technology, allowing for whoever with interest to learn and possibly improve on the knowledge or technology. The starting point of open source is, of course, the software industry. However, it is overflowing into other industries. One of them is Open Source Ecology, working on Global Village Community Set (GVCS). Their website is http://opensourceecology.org/
Social Enterprising – a “business” model which allows for people to pursue their dreams and passions for the benefits of society with less threat of ending up totally broke. By using social enterprise model, one can apply for grants and mentor guidance to create values for the society.
Autonomous Leaders – people with ideas can freely pitch their ideas, start up a group to work out the practical plans for the ideas. They are free to associate and/or work with any groups they like.
Chasing Passion – people are encouraged to work on things they have passion in. If you love it, it is not mundane work. One can contribute in various aspects to the society based on their passions.
Skills Audit – a simple database recording supports of this proposed solution will be created. Every participant will have access to this database to gain access to the talents of the pool of participants. This will allow for leverage of knowledge and skills to faster create abundance.
Sharing & Caring – people are seen as ends, not the means to some ends. People are real and they have feelings. We have to keep on focusing on this and work toward this direction, for it is the service to our fellow humans that we can all prosper.
#4 The paradigm shift
If we all keep working on disseminating knowledge and creating abundance, we will definitely come to a point when a local community is producing in excess of various of resources and necessities. At this point, the community is encouraged to make a paradigm shift, from a money based society to a moneyless society. Everyone involved in the community is encouraged to contribute freely to the society, creating a mutual guarantee and support system.
For example, Fred is a farmer and Larry is a doctor. Fred will freely distribute his produce to the community members, including Larry. Then whenever Fred or any member is sick, they can go to Larry for free consultation and treatment. No tally is taken, everything given for free, as charity or goodwill. Each person will then guarantee the well being of all the other people.
In order for this to happen, of course, we need abundance in resources, as well as a very basic understanding among the members that it is unreasonable to expect to live off the system without putting anything back. It will always be a cycle. Hence, everyone has an obligation to feed back into the system. The only difference now is that people get to choose the things they are passionate about to contribute, apart from doing the necessary things to make living possible (such as waste management).
In this system, people are localised and connected deeply with their own communities. This will greatly reduced the environmental impact, as people will more aware of the feed cycle in the system. People will live lives with better quality and relationships will be repaired.
Criticism
#1, This is communism!
No, this is not communism. Communism dictates that everything must be equally distributed. AVOFT dictates that each person has the autonomy to decide who to distribute whatever they produce or offer. People are, of course, encouraged to give as freely as possible.
Imagine a class room whereby the scores of all students are averaged out and everyone gets the same score and grade. This is communism. Imagine a class room whereby the students have the right to give out the scores they've earned as they choose apt. This is AVOFT.
Communism encourage lazy people and discourage hardworking people because there is no control over how the scores are distributed. AVOFT, on the other hand, allows the students to all decide to not help students who are lazy and doing nothing. And students with good scores tend to feel happy and good when they are helping hardworking students who might be facing problem coping with a particular subject. Therefore, this system encourage people to be empathic, caring and hardworking.
#2, Dangerous, dirty & skilled jobs, who's gonna take them?
Let me tackle the skilled jobs first. Some people have very strong passion in things, such as programming, carpentry, growing food, building machines & so on. Some of these can be very skilled things. When people do it for passion, they do better and they are happy. We want to encourage people to be productive in areas where they love most and can do their best.
As for dirty jobs, some things need to be done because it is imperative to our survival. Imagine a mother who cleans the poo of her children! It's such a yucky job yet she will not hesitate to do it because it affects the health of the children. So, sometimes, we just need to get dirty to get things done.
Similarly, for dangerous jobs, some can be very important to our survival. So, we will need people to do it. Some people who love adrenaline rush can definitely be helpful. In AVOFT, everyone needs to have the heart to contribute to the society. I believe there will be people who are willing to take the risk for people, just like how we have firefighters and policemen, doing the dangerous work for us.
#3, What about people who are in for the free rides?
The people have the right to refrain from giving help! But of course, they will keep encouraging the free riders to buckle up and become a great person, contributing in something they are good in. Maybe paint something nice? Write some interesting novels? Tell interesting/moral stories to children? There must be something they feel happy doing that can be useful to the society! So, we have to find those things out and encourage those useful and good aspects.
This can work because of the abundance assumption. When we are producing more than enough food and other things we need, we don't need more people going into these basic things and we can let these people focus on less tangible things like entertainment, education and so on, which are very important to the continuity of our emotional and societal well being.
How to implement?
This is a very important aspect that we have to look into. At this moment, we need to find more people who have come to conclusion that the System is no longer working and hence need an alternative. By having more people involved, we can critically work on the AVOFT system to make it a viable plan.
Once we reach a certain threshold number of people, I'd say AVOFT system will automatically kick in and people will be implementing it freely.
Conclusion
We do hope everyone to contribute their constructive criticisms to AVOFT system so that we can improve on it and make it work. Also, we encourage people to take the liberty to become leaders to bring forth abundance in various industries, which is one of the most important aspects to implementing AVOFT system.
As a conclusion, AVOFT system encourages focusing less on the products and services but more on humans. Products and services are only the means to building happy, satisfied and appreciative humans.
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