Some people, mainly nurses and doctors, have been saying I should do something  like this, explaining part of this charity movement with reference to some things that have happened to me, like my time in hospital, for quite a few years, and now that various charities are encouraging people to do this kind of thing about the charity work we do, I can see that there could be more of a point in doing it.

I suppose there’ve been a few things that have happened to me that have had much more effect than others in setting me on the route to where I am now; like, my Mum died when I was about 10 years old, and I was diagnosed with brain cancer shortly afterwards, and had to spend quite a long time in hospital, having chemotherapy, radiotherapy and surgery and all that; and I know I haven’t suffered nearly as much as far too many people in the world, especially people in the poorest parts of the world, but going through a bit of suffering due to these things and others, made me think that there’s nothing more important than fighting the suffering and injustice in the world, and that it had to be the main purpose of my life to do all I can to fight the suffering of others.

When I had got better I tried to help out with as much as possible of the charity work that I came across, and volunteered for charities fighting causes of suffering ranging from cancer to poverty.  So for a few years I raised around £10,000 a year for various charities just though street collecting with a bucket, and helped organize lots of charity gigs and events, or spent quite a long time just getting charity petitions signed on the streets, or helping out homeless people, and taking a bit more direct action here and there.  I was incredibly depressed about how much suffering there was in the world, and about how little effect it seemed just one person could have in fighting all of this, as there are so many different causes of it, and you just don’t where to start, and what course of action to take in order to end as much suffering as possible?

I’d been thinking for a long time about how as long as only such small minorities of us are motivated into sufficient action to fight the suffering and injustice, or are able to take enough action, and as long as we’re not eliminating the underlying ideological, economic and political structural causes of the problems, humankind may never be able to end such massive causes of suffering as poverty and climate change, or to do enough to fight causes of suffering that currently affect people more in the West such as cancer, and would never get far enough in fighting all the of suffering and injustice in the world.

And I realised that, we also would never get far enough in the long run in fighting the human suffering, unless we end the irreversible destruction that people cause of ecosystems and the environment, as we cannot survive without these ecosystems and the environment, and this destruction of them in itself, like climate change, will cause so much human suffering all round the world including in the West, that it will make it pretty much impossible to fight effectively any causes of suffering that are affect people more in the West now, like illnesses such as Cancer, especially within the current structuring of society.

Because of all the suffering in hospitals, when I first had to go into hospital with cancer, I thought that hospitals would only be incredibly sad places, but I found that they could also be incredibly uplifting and inspiring, as although people there had to cope with such terrible pain, they were still so happy, and positive, and also so kind, caring and compassionate.

And those people in hospitals, and for that matter, pretty much all people who I’ve heard of who have been through a lot of pain, who are so kind and compassionate, all say that going through those things made them realize that being there for each other, and doing all we can for others is what matters most, or is all that really matters, and that all the things that had filled their lives before, like the competition and the consumerism, don’t really matter. Again I know I’ve hardly suffered at all compared to too many people in the world, mainly in the poorest parts of the world, but going through certain things like the brain cancer I had, and the death of my Mum when I was 10, definitely contributed to making me think not only that there’s nothing more important or beautiful than people acting out of kindness and compassion for others, but also that there’s nothing more fulfilling than acting out of kindness and compassion for others.

You can’t deny that there are obscene amounts of suffering and injustice in the world, and we all have to face some pain in our lives, though obviously some have to face a lot more than others, and it would obviously make things a lot easier for everyone if we could all do more to help each other out.  There’re so many amazing people who do so much for the good of others and the world, but of all the resources, human energy and time in the world, such a small a minority of that goes into fighting suffering of others in any effective ways.  Due to the current structuring of society, so many people have to put so much energy and time into doing jobs which they don’t find fulfilling, and which have nothing to do with effectively fight the suffering of others, or even actively reinforce the structures and systems that cause so much suffering of others, (even if that’s because they don’t challenge the structures), just to provide for themselves and their families.

People are coerced into thinking that in order to satisfy our egoism they need to live in ways which at least instrumentally or unintentionally harm others and the environment, when there is so much evidence that the most effective ways of living a fulfilling life, or of satisfying our egoism, are through benefiting others and each other, living in harmony with the environment, and living in community and solidarity instead of competition; we all want the same underlying things, and we can harness our desire for fulfillment or happiness, or our egoism, to motivate us to take the necessary action to fight the suffering and injustice and benefit others; even if your aim is to satisfy your egoism and live a fulfilling life, playing a necessary part in this fight against the suffering and injustice and making these changes to society, is a far more effective way of achieving that aim and bringing fulfillment or of satisfying egoism, than conforming with the consumerism, competition or other means which harm others, ecosystems and the environment.  All of the arguments that this way society is currently structured is the only way society can be structured, or that this is the only way that humans can behave all rely on premises that cannot be proven empirically or logically, or in any other ways; and there is more evidence to suggest that people only behave like this because the current structuring of society creates an environment that forces them into this unnecessary competition, and that in the right kind of environment, we can strive to satisfy our egoism in ways which do not harm others and the environment; and the current competitive structuring of society does not reflect human nature, but merely reflects one of the ways in which humans can behave (the structuring of society and human behaviour obviously affect each other dialectically, and I talk below about how we can possibly move this dialectic in a direction that can enable us to fight the suffering and injustice and maximize benefit for all).  You can’t prove or disprove the existence of altruism, but as long as we can harness egoism to motivate people to benefit others, due to the benefit people get themselves as a result in so many ways and in so many forms.  There are enough resources in the world to end all this suffering, or at least to fight it far more effectively than we do now, and to maximize well-being of everyone; only a small amount of material resources are needed to maximize well-being, and above a certain point, there is no real increase in the amount of benefit gained from them.  And these excess resources do not satisfy egoism nearly as efficiently as benefiting others and living in community, solidarity, creativity and in harmony with the environment (as well as how it is unjust or wrong to live in any other way; the only way it is justified to satisfy egoism is in ways which don’t obstruct other peoples’ ability to do it).  As the most effective way to satisfy egoism can be to benefit others, and as the most effective ways to fight the suffering and injustice, in terms of ending as much of it as possible, is to do as much as possible to end the underlying ideological, political and economic structural causes of the problems, mobilizing together and playing your part in changing these structures can be seen to be what is most fulfilling and what is the most effective way of satisfying your egoism.

The current ideological, political and economic structures of which poverty and climate change are symptoms, also cause problems that affect people more in the West now, like the recession, or the lack of sufficient resources made available to fight illnesses like cancer. We need to carry on thinking of and taking more creative and imaginative ways of achieving all this, as arguably the current mainstream means of fighting suffering which don’t challenge these structures aren’t working fast enough on their own to end even the current levels of suffering, let alone the irreversible damage to the ecosystems and environment, and the even more obscene amounts of suffering which these will cause.  With this current ideological, political and economic structuring, we cannot even get anywhere near far enough in fighting the current levels of suffering and injustice, and as the irreversible damage to the environment and ecosystems that people currently cause and which we depend on for our lives, will bring so much more human suffering, we won’t stand a chance of effectively fighting those even more obscene amounts of suffering and injustice unless we change these structures – not least because these structures cause it to be only such small minorities to be able to fight the suffering effectively, prevent enough resources from being used to fight the suffering effectively.  If we are to be able to end even the current levels of suffering in the world, and if we are to be able to prevent these even more obscene amounts of suffering from being caused, and to change the ideological, political and economic structures, we need to mobilize together and unite in a way that we maybe never have done before in human history.   The hegemonic, extensive and all-encompassing nature of the structures we need to change, and the massive number, variety and complexity of the interlinked problems they cause, means that we can only make the necessary changes to society and fight the suffering effectively enough through universal action.

If you see some small children who’re about to be hit by a car, hopefully you would obviously run to try and save them.  We’re now at a time in human history when we face a decision which is pretty much exactly like that, only the choice we have now is whether we save millions, if not billions of children in future generations and today.

As we need to change the way we think before we change the way we act, in order for us to mobilize and motivate enough people for us to be able to effectively fight the suffering and injustice, and to make the necessary changes to ideological, political and economic structures, possibly what we need to do most and first is to make massive changes to the ideological structures that make people think that they need to live in ways which harm others and the planet, at least instrumentally or unintentionally, in order to satisfy their egoism, and that they must conform to varying degrees with the competition, consumerism, and the prioritization of profit over people, and with all the other ideological, political and economic structures, instead of criticizing, challenging and changing them; we need to bring about massive changes in our values, aspirations and consciousness,

- so that we can all acknowledge and act on the evidence that the most fulfilling ways of life and the most effective ways of satisfying our egoism can come from benefiting others and each other and living in sustainable ways in harmony with the environment

- so that we can acknowledge, like the people in hospitals I mentioned earlier who are so kind, caring and compassionate, that acting to benefit of others is what matters most, and what is most important

- so that we can make it our absolute priority and the primary aim of society, to fight the suffering and injustice and to maximize the well being of everyone, as this is the only way can get far enough.

People may argue that this is naïvely idealistic and optimistic, or that it’s not a practical and direct and important step that needs to be taken in order to fight the suffering most effectively?  But surely it’s actually far more naïve to assume that can end such massive causes of suffering as poverty and climate change, or to get far enough in fighting all the suffering and injustice, without making these ideological structural changes of values, aspirations and consciousness, while there are only still such small minorities of people trying to fight the suffering, and while people are still competing and seeking to benefit themselves at others’ expense.  We have no choice whether to make these ideological structural changes of consciousness, values and aspirations if we want to fight the suffering effectively, as we will never get far enough in fighting the suffering and injustice and end the underlying structural causes of the problems, while people still have ways of thinking that make them seek to benefit themselves at others’ expense and in ways which harm others and the environment at least instrumentally or unintentionally, while people are still competing for profit, and while there are only such small minorities taking sufficient action to fight the problems.

And while we can’t make the necessary changes to political and economic structures without making these ideological structural changes, we also possibly can’t make enough ideological change without also changing the political and economic structural changes alongside, as they are all so interlinked and all affect each other dialectically.  But you can’t exaggerate the significance of the ideological structures and how important it is to change the ideological structures in these ways in order to affect the dialectic between them all in a way that enables human society to progress in a direction that will in turn enable us to effectively fight the suffering and injustice and to maximize the well-being of everyone, and we possibly need to start this progressive dialectic between by changing the ideological structures.

And so the changes to ideological, political and economic structures, and to our lives, which we need to make in order to end causes of suffering like climate change and poverty, can also bring so many other benefits to society and to all individuals, such as far more community and solidarity, and can enable us to fight far more effectively other causes of suffering which affect people more in the west, such as cancer, or the recession, as well as all other causes of suffering and injustice.

And making these changes to society that are possibly necessary for us to fight such massive causes of suffering as poverty and climate change will also bring so many other benefits to society and to all individuals by definition, such as far more community and solidarity, as the purpose of these changes is to maximize well-being for everyone, and these changes won’t have happened until we are maximizing well-being for everyone.  These changes will enable us to work out the most effective ways of maximizing well-being for everyone, and even though we have to do this for the good of others and the world, even if your aim is to maximize benefit for your self, it is better to live in ways that benefit others and to take part in making these necessary changes to society to fight the suffering and maximize the well-being of everyone, due to the massive amount of evidence to that most fulfilling ways of life and the most effective ways of satisfying your egoism can come from benefiting others and living in harmony with the environment, than it is to carry on conforming with the competition and consumerism, as while the competition and consumerism may bring some benefit, that is possibly fairly superficial and short-lived, they don’t bring benefit and fulfillment, or satisfy egoism nearly as effectively as living in a society with far more community, solidarity, and outlets for creativity and positive self expression, where everyone strives to maximize well-being for each other. As only a small amount of material resources are needed to maximize well-being for an individual, and above that certain point, no matter how many more material resources people acquire there is no significant or real increase in the amount of benefit that these resources bring, the excessive consumption of so many people in the West does not effectively bring benefit to those people, and does cause so much suffering and injustice for others in other parts of the world and in future generations.

We all have to face some pain in our lives, and it would make it a lot easier for everyone if we did more to help each other out, but our ability to do this is obstructed by the current ideological, political and economic structuring of society; it would make it a lot easier if there was far more community and cooperation, and if we lived in solidarity instead of competition.  And the only way we can create a society in which we can do this effectively, in the way that’s acceptable, is if we mobilize together and unite to change the structuring of society so that it can be our (everyone’s) absolute priority and the primary aim of society to fight the suffering, and maximize well-being for everyone instead of maximizing profit for a few (which doesn’t necessarily even benefit those few as effectively as these other means like benefiting others), and so that all resources are used in the ways which most effectively fight the suffering and injustice and maximize well-being for everyone.  We obviously need to carry on helping people in need around us, in order to help those around us, those that will be around us and around our future generations, most effectively we also need to make these structural changes. There’s so much amazing kindness in the world, and we need to harness and channel this so that we can fight the underlying causes of the suffering and injustice in the most effective ways, and so end as much of the suffering as possible, and maximize well-being for everyone.  Exciting time,

The current structuring of society means that pretty much all our energy, agency and resources are used up in ways which don’t benefit ourselves as much as they should, and which cause so much suffering and injustice to others; even if we don’t intend to be harming people, just by going about our day to day lives in the west, and providing for our families and ourselves, and even if we’re not breaking any laws, we can’t really help contributing at least instrumentally to the structures and the processes which harm so many people, from people in future generations, through the destruction of the environment, and people in the poorest parts of the world; most of the avenues that we are told are available to us to benefit ourselves, are ways which don’t effectively bring fulfillment and do harm others, and mean that people can only pursue their egoism at others expense within this structuring.  It’s hard to see how a lot of that is our fault, as it’s just the situation we’ve been born into, however it is our fault if we don’t do our best to change these structures which cause so much suffering. The only way in which we can stop harming people in all these ways even if we don’t intend to, is to find ways to adjust the way human society operates, and change these structures; in order to fight the suffering in the long run, and to do all we can for others, we need to make changes to the current ideological, economic and political structures, as these structures contribute to preventing enough resources and action from being given to helping those in need, like people with terrible illnesses, where we are, and all around the world, and they currently result in or generate so much inequality, injustice, and so many other causes of suffering, including the irreversible damage to the environment, and exploitation of the poorest people in the world.

We can reach a consensus on how to peacefully create such a society if we fully actualize our rational and reflexive potentials and come together in an environment that allows completely free thought and communication.  We must recognize how much we all have in common, and how the underlying things we all strive for are the same. and can get these without harming others (the only way in which egoism is justified) so that we can learn to live as a whole and unite in these goals to fight all the causes of suffering and injustice, and to maximize the well-being of everyone. We need to break down all harmful divisions between people, and the differences between us are superficial enough for us to be able to break them down, so that we can live in harmony and maximize well-being for everyone, and find solutions which benefit all of us, and don’t harm any of us, and still embrace diversity…

The mainstream methods of fighting the causes of suffering and injustice like climate change, poverty and cancer, are not working fast enough on their own, particularly not fast enough to end the damage to the ecosystems and environment and to prevent the even more obscene amounts of suffering that would be caused by that damage; we need to strive for movements which work outside the existing systems and ways of thinking about and solving the problems.  Fighting the suffering and injustice, and in particular, fighting the suffering and injustice in the most effective ways, isn’t part of the mainstream culture, and we need to make it the main part of mainstream culture; we need to change the prevailing consensus and ethical orientation of society so that we can make it our (everyone’s) absolute priority, and the primary aim of society to fight the suffering and injustice and maximize well-being for everyone.  A lot of people in the West see the value in fighting causes of suffering like cancer, but don’t see that the purpose of changing society in these ways and fighting climate change, is also to save lives and to care for people, even if most of those people are in future generations, or are on the other side of the world now, or are our children (but the suffering all round the world that is caused by these things already should not be ignored).  You can’t really put into words the amount of suffering and sadness that will be caused by climate change and the current structuring of society, and all the beauty it will destroy, and how unbelievably sad it would be if we don’t act enough now while we still have some chance of averting the complete catastrophe, or even of just reducing the amount of harm that will be caused; the regret we’ll have if we don’t do this now will be unbearable.  Climate change is already killing over 300,000 people a year in the poorest parts of the world, and will kill far more people every year, eventually also in the west, unless we act now and start taking far more action to fight it and its underlying structural causes.  By the time it starts to affect people in the west, it will be too late to end the problems that cause the suffering, as the damage to the planet will be irreversible.  We have to choose now, whether we save millions if not billions of lives, and save the child from being hit by the car in the analogy, or not.   The only realistic position to take is to strive for movements like this which may seem impossible in our current society, but aren’t, as the only thing that could ever guarantee failure is if we don’t even try.  And even if there’s the smallest possibility that we could achieve this, surely it’s worth trying.

People in past generations have overcome so many causes of suffering and injustice, and we possibly owe it to them as well as to future generations, and to all the people suffering so much today, to carry on this work and unite to fight the remaining causes of suffering and injustice, and to make the necessary changes to the structuring of society, so that we can make it the primary aim of society, and our absolute priority, to fight the suffering and injustice, and to maximize well-being for everyone.

Something that could help would be if everyone to expressed their approval of and commitment to these ideas and this movement by signing the petition at peopleunite.org.uk, so that, in democratic process, the more people who sign it, the more we can demand that all structural and personal influences on human behaviour, and all means of communication, like the media, contribute to facilitating this movement, and so that we can all mobilize together to make these necessary changes to society.

It’s about time in human history we made this happen, and we can do it.