How can we operate human societies with the understanding that we are part of nature, not on top of it?
How can we live within the ecological and resource limits of the planet, applying our technological knowledge to
the challenge of an
energy-efficient economy?
How can we build a better relationship between cities and countryside?
How can we guarantee
the rights of non human species?
How can we promote
sustainable agriculture
and respect for self-regulating natural systems?
How can we further biocentric wisdom in all spheres of life?
How can we develop systems that allow and encourage us to control the decisions that affect our lives?
How can we ensure that representatives will be fully accountable to the people who elect them?
How can we develop planning mechanisms that would allow citizens to develop and implement their own
preferences for policies and spending priorities?
How can we encourage and assist the
"mediating institutions"family, neighborhood organization,
church group,
voluntary association, ethnic club,
to recover some of the functions now performed by government?
How can we relearn the best insights from
American traditions
of civic vitality, voluntary action, and community
responsibility?
How can we respond to human suffering
in ways that promote
dignity?
How can we encourage people to commit
themselves to lifestyles that promote their own
health?
How can we have a community-controlled
education system that effectively teaches our children academic skills,
ecological wisdom, social responsibility and personal growth?
How can we
resolve interpersonal and intergroup conflicts without just turning them over to lawyers and judges?
How can we take responsibility to for reducing the crime rate in our neighborhoods?
How can we encourage such values as simplicity and moderation?
How can we, as a society, develop
effective alternatives
to our current patterns of violence, at all levels, from the
family
and the street to nations and the world?
How can we eliminate nuclear weapons from the face of the Earth without being naive about the intentions of
governments?
How can we most constructively use nonviolent methods to oppose practices and policies with which we disagree
and in the process reduce the atmosphere of polarization and selfishness that is itself a source of violence?
How can we restore power and responsibility to individuals, institutions, communities, and regions?
How can we encourage the flourishing of regionally-based culture rather than a dominant monoculture?
How can we have a decentralized, democratic society with our political, economic and social institutions locating
power on the smallest scale(closest to home) that is efficient and practical?
How can we redesign our institutions so that fewer decisions and less regulation over money are granted as one
moves from the community toward the national level?
How can we reconcile the need for community and regional self-determination with the need for appropriate
centralized regulation in certain matters?
How can we replace the
cultural ethics of dominance and control
with more cooperative ways of interacting?
How can we encourage people to care about
persons outside their own group? How can we promote the building of respectful, positive and responsible relationships across the lines of gender
and other divisions?
How can we encourage a rich, diverse political culture that respects feelings as well as rationalists approaches?
How can we proceed with as much respect for the means as the ends(the process as much as the product of our
efforts)?
How can we learn to respect the
contemplative, inner part of life as much as the outer activities?
How can we be of genuine assistance to the grassroots groups in the Third World?
What can we learn from such groups?
How can we help other countries make the transition to self-sufficiency in food and other basic necessities?
How can we cut our defense budget while maintaining an adequate defense?
How can we promote these ten Green values in the reshaping of global order?
How can we reshape world order without
creating just another enormous nation-state?
How can we induce people and institutions to think in terms of the long-range future and not just in terms of their
short-range selfish interest?
How can we encourage people to develop their own visions of the future and move more effectively toward them?
How can we judge whether new technologies are socially useful and use these judgments to shape our society?
How can we induce our government and other institutions to practice fiscal responsibility?
How can we make the quality of life, rather than open-ended economic growth, the focus of future thinking?
According to Charlene Spretnak in
The Spiritual Dimensions of Green Politics
(1986),
This list of values and questions for
discussion were composed by a diverse group of people who are
working to build a new politics,
which has kinship with
Green movements (and Parties) throughout the
world.
We feel that the issues raised below are
not being addressed adequately by the political left or right.
We invite you to join with us in refining our values,
sharpening our questions-and translating our perspective
into practical and effective political actions.
The Ten Key Values are an elaboration of the original Green Four Pillars
Why would Nader run for President on the Green Party ticket??
--
Interesting short discussion of the 1996 Nader campaign
The "four pillars" of the Greens are: