The Practical Humanist Manifesto

Olek Netzer

Are you a Humanist? - Many people all over the world would say "I am a Humanist" if you asked them. By and large, whether they are religious or not, they believe that all human life is equally sacred. The well-being of each and every living individual on this earth is their supreme value, not any groups, ideas, or institutions. By "well being" they mean freedom and personal growth toward self-actualization more than material wealth.
They value individual freedom and individual rights and strongly insist on democracy as the basis of any government.
They tend to identify themselves and others as humans on this planet more than as members of their respective nations or ethnic groups.
They are nice persons too. You'd find, that they are not aggressive in relating to you, do not devalue you by acting bossy or superior and do not act as if they wanted only to "sell" you something to make profit of you; they even can genuinely listen, more than you'd normally expect.
They are remarkably free of hatred and prejudices against other people and have retained their sense of caring for the oppression, exploitation and suffering, of their fellow human beings. In the developed free countries they tend to believe that modern life should be made more cooperative and harmonious, less competitive and aggressive in relation to other people and to the natural environment.
You'd find that many of them have the best of intentions and wonderful visions embracing the widest spheres, such as "cosmic harmony" and "global peace". You'd find, that they have no practical action plans to get there and feel powerless to change anything.
This Manifesto heralds practical means of Humanistic empowerment. So far we Humanists were facing an impossible dilemma: to be empowered we must organize politically. Organization means a hierarchical power-structure which is incompatible with our Humanistic egalitarian values. Besides, we know that power corrupts. We remember well the terrible or miserable end of idealists and well-wishers who organized in a political Party, such as the Bolsheviks and Communists; or such that rejected organization, as the "New Left" in North America and Western Europe. NEVERMORE OF THAT. We now have an alternative model of organization for social change that could lead us out of this predicament and which gives us practical means to become effectively empowered without compromising our values. It abolishes the Power Pyramid entirely. It gives us chance to become empowered as equals and practice Humanism with our fellow men and women here and now, while making decisions democratically and effectively toward reforming society.
We call this model THAT WAY NEVERMORE: A HUMANISTIC PROGRAM FOR CHANGING OUR POLITICAL EXPERIENCE
How? - The structure of decision making in the Humanistic political organization is based on scientific know-how in the areas of human organization, communication, motivation and behavior, conflict-resolution, decision-making, time-management, and more. Practical emphasis is put on small-group dynamics. We used all available knowledge in designing an organizational environment best suited for practice of Humanistic values and including the strongest safeguards against power-corruption. It includes the widest-range organizational decision-making and the in-group working processes.
The program is free online for the asking. Contact the sender.