Hi there,
I think that the Stewards Planetary House, a new just-being-born social
movement, institution, and way-of-life-in-the-making, will be of special
interest to participants in the World Systems mailing list. I am therefore
appending to this brief note a copy of our draft summary program. As a
general program, this document is necessarily skeletal - and somewhat
general - in its presentation of the various facets of our approach. You
will, however, find a list, approximately 2/3 of the way through the program
document, of works which set out various aspects of the SPH in some detail.
Most of these documents are available free by e-mail. Please feel free to
request any which interest you. Also, in keeping with our committment to
inquiry, openness, and dialogue, please feel free to voice any suggestions,
criticisms, or other points you wish to make regarding our approach. As one
of our Steward's sayings goes, "We learn from everyone!"
The Stewards Planetary House: Proposed Draft Summary Program.
"Whenever you are in doubt...apply the first test. Recall the face of the
poorest and the weakest man whom you may have seen, and ask yourself if the
step you contemplate is going to be any use to him. Will he gain anything
from it? Will it restore him to a control over his own life and destiny?
True development puts first those that society puts last". - Mahatma Gandhi.
Dear People,
The Stewards Planetary House is now seeking associates to establish itself
as a new way of life for `underclass' or poor people throughout the planet.
We are particularly interested at this time in connecting with interested
people in the Vancouver, B.C. Canada area, and in North America generally,
although inquiries from interested people anywhere are welcomed. (Our
internet address is: esommer@direct.ca)
The Stewards Planetary House (SPH) is a new inquiry-based way of life,
social movement, and planetary institution which we refer to as `the other
way to live'.
A central purpose of the SPH is to organize the planetary underclass - which
includes ourselves - as the `Stewards' or caretakers of the world.
Stewards will work together to build the Stewards Planetary House as their
`organized planetary intelligence' - a planet-wide `house of the
underclass' which is: a) planetarily-networked ; b)
informationally-integrated; c) locally land-based, and d) available to, and
at the service of, unemployed people, working poor people, members of the
`non-traditional' highly-educated underclass, and all others throughout the
planet who may be won over to Stewardship or caring for the earth.
Stewards will work together through the SPH to meet one another's material,
self-esteem, and higher-level spiritual and creative needs, while
simultaneously caring for the world and its beings.
The elements of the Stewards `household intelligence' include the following:
A) `The Stewards Code' This is a code of conduct and communication
designed to enable Stewards to inquiringly work together to discover - and
to enact - patterns of interaction through which they can best promote one
another's being, together with that of the planet. This code is built, and
amended as needed, by the Stewards themselves. All members of the Stewards
Planetary House are distinguished by their adherence to this code, which
serves them as a `planetary linking language' for `communication,
collaboration, and co-ordination' with one another and with the world.
B) The socio-political organization of poor or underclass people - beginning
with ourselves - into local `Steward's Houses'. These houses are the local
`instantiation' of the Stewards Planetary house. They are not primarily
physical structures. They are rather informationally-integrated,
extended-family-like `social units of co-operation' which in certain
respects resemble the traditional `noble houses' such as `The House of
Windsor' found in Europe. Members of SPH houses live `in community', but
not necessarily communally
C) Acquisition of local land in each area as geographic `bases' for the
Planetary Stewards House. The Stewards strategy may be paraphrased as
`converge locally; connect globally'. The land basis of Stewardship
supports the Stewards' houses in achieving stable life, subsistence or
livelihood, Stewardship management of the land, contact with the natural
world, and space to build planetary information linkages.
D) The informational networking together of the entire Steward's Planetary
House. The emerging `planetary information system' is an integral part of
the Stewards Planetary House. In-depth informational networking, advanced
data-basing, CSCW (computer-supported co-operative work), and CSCL
(computer-supported co-operative learning) are key features of the Stewards
Planetary House. Network and other informational technologies will be used
to connect Stewards for `communication,
collaboration, and co-operation', in their joint planetary endeavor to
become increasingly able to care for and promote one another's being
together with that of the land and the planet.
This `informationing' together of the Stewards forms a key part in:
1) Connecting all members of each local Stewards house;
2) Connecting all members of all houses within the planetary house;
3) Connecting all members of all houses with the entire planetary
underclass, and with all other people,
beings, resources, and potentialities of the planet as a whole.
E) Stewards work together through the SPH to build a new kind of `Networked
Wholistic Service Economy' - an economy which replaces the traditional
socialist `labour theory of value' , and the western capitalist `utility
theory of value', with the collaborative endeavor to discover, create, and
deliver `being values' to one another. Stewards work together through the
SPH to meet one another's material, self-esteem, and higher-level spiritual
and creative needs, while simultaneously caring for the world and its beings.
F) A flexible inquiry-based program of `Total Human Development' for all
Stewards. This program involves the total physical, mental, emotional and
spiritual development of human beings. It is an inquiry-based endeavor,
whose essential goal is that of discovering - and enacting - methods which
optimally enhance the functioning of individual Stewards, while
simultaneously amplifying their ability to interact
or work together to care for - and to promote - one another's being,
together with that of the planet. Network technology, advanced data-basing,
CSCL (computer-supported co-operative learning), and other information
technologies will all eventually be used to support both research and
delivery in this area. Traditional as well as new `leading-edge' methods of
personal development will be made available.
G) Political action in support of all legitimate poor people's rights.
These rights include subsistence or survival rights to adequate food,
shelter, clothing, transportation, as well as sufficient access to
information and social institutions to allow normal participation in
cultural life. A key means to these ends is enactment of legislation - and
securing of government and popular support - for the formation of
`communal property associations' or `co-operative property associations'.
Such associations, which have already been legislated into law in South
Africa, are a kind of `juristic person' through which members of
disadvantaged communities may progressivly acquire, hold, and manage
whatever kinds of property they wish to, including land, on a common
stewardship basis. Such associations differ from traditional co-ops in
their flexible ability to pragmatically accomodate any and all types of
property - whether material, intellectual, or land - which a group of
Stewards wish to acquire, hold, and manage in common.
The SPH aims to enable all poor people, wherever they may be on the planet,
to interconnect with one another on the basis of Stewardship. We aim to
enable poor people to work together to care for one another together with
the planet - through their own local organizations including local
`Stewards Houses', and through planetary organizations including the
Stewards Planetary House. The ultimate purpose of the SPH is to assist
poor and underclass people in forming the organized, planetary intelligence
of Underclass Stewardship.
HOW TO CONNECT WITH US
We expect to have a website operating within 60 days. Meanwhile, if you
would like to join us, or if you would like to enter into dialogue with us,
or if you would like to request literature, we can be reached at
esommer@direct.ca We particularly need people with information
technology-related capabilities such as computer programming skills; people
with land access/land management skills; people with
participatory-democratic management skills; and people with skills related
to education and total human development. However, all people, regardless
of their skills, are welcome to inquire about our
planet-wide-house-in-the-making.
Detailed works on the central role of openness and inquiry in Stewardship,
and on the philosophical, economic, political, spiritual, communicative,
informational, and other aspects of Stewardship are available free in
paper-based format or by e-mail to interested people. If you would like
to receive any of these works, just ask us:
1. `The Stewards Planetary House: Proposed Draft Summary Program', 7 pages.
2. `The Stewards Manifesto: Putting Our Lives and Our Planet Back Together
Again'. (Subtitled: `Organizing the Planetary Underclass As The Ste/wards
of The World: Spiritual Politics for the 21st. Century'. ), by Eric Sommer,
75 pages.
3. `The Mind of The Steward: Inquiry-Based Philosophy for a New World', by
Eric Sommer, 200 pages.
4. `The Steward's Theory of Wholistic Economics: The Discovery, Creation,
and Delivery of `Being Values', by Eric Sommer, 40 pages.
5. `The Oikome: A Concept for Unifying Ecology, Economics, Economic
Anthropology, and Cultural Ecology, by Stewart Piddocke, 103 pages.
6. `The Terrestre: Notes on a unit of agricultual production for
ecologically Sound Self-subsistence and Terrestrial Stewardship', by Stuart
Piddocke, 63 pages.
6. `The Seven Paths of Liberation: Foundation of Future Progress', by Eric
Sommer, 25 pages.
7. `The Center For Total Human Development: A Proposal', by Eric Sommer, 12
pages.
8. `The World As Interaction: Foundations for the Theory of Knowledge,
Action, and Economics', by Stuart Piddocke., 1200 pages.
9. `The Theory of Synergy: A Mindframe for Grasping Complexity', by Stuart
Piddocke, 350 pages. A manuscript being revised, may be available for comment.
10. `The Steward's Code: An Operational System for Caring, Communication,
Co-operation, Co-ordination, and Inquiry.' (in preperation)' 40 pages.
If you would like to join us, or if you would like to enter into dialogue
with us, we can be reached at esommer@direct.ca
Glossary and Addenda:
A number of novel and little-known terms and concepts have been introduced
in this document. The following brief discussions are intended to clarify a
number of these terms and concepts:
1. Question: You state that the Stewards Planetary House is composed of
`the organized planetary intelligence of the Stewards'. What is meant by
this phrase `organized planetary intelligence'?
Answer: The `organized planetary intelligence of the stewards' is
made-up of: 1) the individual Stewards, together with 2) all of the means
which they employ to increase their ability to hear and see and know one
another and to work with one another, as well as the other beings of the
world, in order to care for and promote one another's being together with
that of the other beings of the world.
Every means, instrument, method, arrangement, practice, or measure which
stewards use to increase their ability to work together to meet one
another's needs - together with the needs of our planet - increases our
planetary intelligence and builds our planetary house. This conceptionFrom
???@??? Wed May 08 12:04:52 1996
To:
From: esommer@direct.ca (eric steven sommer)
Subject: Introduction to Stewards Planetary House.
Bcc:
Hi there,
Thanks for your interest in the SPH. I am appending to this brief note a
copy of the draft summary program of the Stewards Planetary House. As a
general program, this document is necessarily skeletal - and somewhat
general - in its presentation of the various facets of our approach. You
will, however, find a list, approximately 2/3 of the way through the program
document, of works which set out various aspects of the SPH in some detail.
Most of these documents are available free by e-mail. Please feel free to
request any which interest you. Also, in keeping with our committment to
inquiry, openness, and dialogue, please feel free to voice any suggestions,
criticisms, or other points you wish to make regarding our approach. As one
of our Steward's sayings goes, "We learn from everyone!"
The Stewards Planetary House: Proposed Draft Summary Program.
"Whenever you are in doubt...apply the first test. Recall the face of the
poorest and the weakest man whom you may have seen, and ask yourself if the
step you contemplate is going to be any use to him. Will he gain anything
from it? Will it restore him to a control over his own life and destiny?
True development puts first those that society puts last". - Mahatma Gandhi.
Dear People,
The Stewards Planetary House is now seeking associates to establish itself
as a new way of life for `underclass' or poor people throughout the planet.
We are particularly interested at this time in connecting with interested
people in the Vancouver, B.C. Canada area, and in North America generally,
although inquiries from interested people anywhere are welcomed. (Our
internet address is: esommer@direct.ca)
The Stewards Planetary House (SPH) is a new inquiry-based way of life,
social movement, and planetary institution which we refer to as `the other
way to live'.
A central purpose of the SPH is to organize the planetary underclass - which
includes ourselves - as the `Stewards' or caretakers of the world.
Stewards will work together to build the Stewards Planetary House as their
`organized planetary intelligence' - a planet-wide `house of the
underclass' which is: a) planetarily-networked ; b)
informationally-integrated; c) locally land-based, and d) available to, and
at the service of, unemployed people, working poor people, members of the
`non-traditional' highly-educated underclass, and all others throughout the
planet who may be won over to Stewardship or caring for the earth.
Stewards will work together through the SPH to meet one another's material,
self-esteem, and higher-level spiritual and creative needs, while
simultaneously caring for the world and its beings.
The elements of the Stewards `household intelligence' include the following:
A) `The Stewards Code' This is a code of conduct and communication
designed to enable Stewards to inquiringly work together to discover - and
to enact - patterns of interaction through which they can best promote one
another's being, together with that of the planet. This code is built, and
amended as needed, by the Stewards themselves. All members of the Stewards
Planetary House are distinguished by their adherence to this code, which
serves them as a `planetary linking language' for `communication,
collaboration, and co-ordination' with one another and with the world.
B) The socio-political organization of poor or underclass people - beginning
with ourselves - into local `Steward's Houses'. These houses are the local
`instantiation' of the Stewards Planetary house. They are not primarily
physical structures. They are rather informationally-integrated,
extended-family-like `social units of co-operation' which in certain
respects resemble the traditional `noble houses' such as `The House of
Windsor' found in Europe. Members of SPH houses live `in community', but
not necessarily communally
C) Acquisition of local land in each area as geographic `bases' for the
Planetary Stewards House. The Stewards strategy may be paraphrased as
`converge locally; connect globally'. The land basis of Stewardship
supports the Stewards' houses in achieving stable life, subsistence or
livelihood, Stewardship management of the land, contact with the natural
world, and space to build planetary information linkages.
D) The informational networking together of the entire Steward's Planetary
House. The emerging `planetary information system' is an integral part of
the Stewards Planetary House. In-depth informational networking, advanced
data-basing, CSCW (computer-supported co-operative work), and CSCL
(computer-supported co-operative learning) are key features of the Stewards
Planetary House. Network and other informational technologies will be used
to connect Stewards for `communication,
collaboration, and co-operation', in their joint planetary endeavor to
become increasingly able to care for and promote one another's being
together with that of the land and the planet.
This `informationing' together of the Stewards forms a key part in:
1) Connecting all members of each local Stewards house;
2) Connecting all members of all houses within the planetary house;
3) Connecting all members of all houses with the entire planetary
underclass, and with all other people,
beings, resources, and potentialities of the planet as a whole.
E) Stewards work together through the SPH to build a new kind of `Networked
Wholistic Service Economy' - an economy which replaces the traditional
socialist `labour theory of value' , and the western capitalist `utility
theory of value', with the collaborative endeavor to discover, create, and
deliver `being values' to one another. Stewards work together through the
SPH to meet one another's material, self-esteem, and higher-level spiritual
and creative needs, while simultaneously caring for the world and its beings.
F) A flexible inquiry-based program of `Total Human Development' for all
Stewards. This program involves the total physical, mental, emotional and
spiritual development of human beings. It is an inquiry-based endeavor,
whose essential goal is that of discovering - and enacting - methods which
optimally enhance the functioning of individual Stewards, while
simultaneously amplifying their ability to interact
or work together to care for - and to promote - one another's being,
together with that of the planet. Network technology, advanced data-basing,
CSCL (computer-supported co-operative learning), and other information
technologies will all eventually be used to support both research and
delivery in this area. Traditional as well as new `leading-edge' methods of
personal development will be made available.
G) Political action in support of all legitimate poor people's rights.
These rights include subsistence or survival rights to adequate food,
shelter, clothing, transportation, as well as sufficient access to
information and social institutions to allow normal participation in
cultural life. A key means to these ends is enactment of legislation - and
securing of government and popular support - for the formation of
`communal property associations' or `co-operative property associations'.
Such associations, which have already been legislated into law in South
Africa, are a kind of `juristic person' through which members of
disadvantaged communities may progressivly acquire, hold, and manage
whatever kinds of property they wish to, including land, on a common
stewardship basis. Such associations differ from traditional co-ops in
their flexible ability to pragmatically accomodate any and all types of
property - whether material, intellectual, or land - which a group of
Stewards wish to acquire, hold, and manage in common.
The SPH aims to enable all poor people, wherever they may be on the planet,
to interconnect with one another on the basis of Stewardship. We aim to
enable poor people to work together to care for one another together with
the planet - through their own local organizations including local
`Stewards Houses', and through planetary organizations including the
Stewards Planetary House. The ultimate purpose of the SPH is to assist
poor and underclass people in forming the organized, planetary intelligence
of Underclass Stewardship.
HOW TO CONNECT WITH US
We expect to have a website operating within 60 days. Meanwhile, if you
would like to join us, or if you would like to enter into dialogue with us,
or if you would like to request literature, we can be reached at
esommer@direct.ca We particularly need people with information
technology-related capabilities such as computer programming skills; people
with land access/land management skills; people with
participatory-democratic management skills; and people with skills related
to education and total human development. However, all people, regardless
of their skills, are welcome to inquire about our
planet-wide-house-in-the-making.
Detailed works on the central role of openness and inquiry in Stewardship,
and on the philosophical, economic, political, spiritual, communicative,
informational, and other aspects of Stewardship are available free in
paper-based format or by e-mail to interested people. If you would like
to receive any of these works, just ask us:
1. `The Stewards Planetary House: Proposed Draft Summary Program', 7 pages.
2. `The Stewards Manifesto: Putting Our Lives and Our Planet Back Together
Again'. (Subtitled: `Organizing the Planetary Underclass As The Ste/wards
of The World: Spiritual Politics for the 21st. Century'. ), by Eric Sommer,
75 pages.
3. `The Mind of The Steward: Inquiry-Based Philosophy for a New World', by
Eric Sommer, 200 pages.
4. `The Steward's Theory of Wholistic Economics: The Discovery, Creation,
and Delivery of `Being Values', by Eric Sommer, 40 pages.
5. `The Oikome: A Concept for Unifying Ecology, Economics, Economic
Anthropology, and Cultural Ecology, by Stewart Piddocke, 103 pages.
6. `The Terrestre: Notes on a unit of agricultual production for
ecologically Sound Self-subsistence and Terrestrial Stewardship', by Stuart
Piddocke, 63 pages.
6. `The Seven Paths of Liberation: Foundation of Future Progress', by Eric
Sommer, 25 pages.
7. `The Center For Total Human Development: A Proposal', by Eric Sommer, 12
pages.
8. `The World As Interaction: Foundations for the Theory of Knowledge,
Action, and Economics', by Stuart Piddocke., 1200 pages.
9. `The Theory of Synergy: A Mindframe for Grasping Complexity', by Stuart
Piddocke, 350 pages. A manuscript being revised, may be available for comment.
10. `The Steward's Code: An Operational System for Caring, Communication,
Co-operation, Co-ordination, and Inquiry.' (in preperation)' 40 pages.
If you would like to join us, or if you would like to enter into dialogue
with us, we can be reached at esommer@direct.ca
Glossary and Addenda:
A number of novel and little-known terms and concepts have been introduced
in this document. The following brief discussions are intended to clarify a
number of these terms and concepts:
1. Question: You state that the Stewards Planetary House is composed of
`the organized planetary intelligence of the Stewards'. What is meant by
this phrase `organized planetary intelligence'?
Answer: The `organized planetary intelligence of the stewards' is
made-up of: 1) the individual Stewards, together with 2) all of the means
which they employ to increase their ability to hear and see and know one
another and to work with one another, as well as the other beings of the
world, in order to care for and promote one another's being together with
that of the other beings of the world.
Every means, instrument, method, arrangement, practice, or measure which
stewards use to increase their ability to work together to meet one
another's needs - together with the needs of our planet - increases our
planetary intelligence and builds our planetary house. This conception has
many practical implications - including a powerful new approach to the
nature of economic value and its practical creation.
2. Question: What do you mean by `Underclass people'?
Answer: Underclass people, a category which many of us fit into whether
we like it or not, are a high proportion of the world's population. The
modern underclass is by no means restricted to the `rough people' or `people
of the street'. They are, in fact, by far its smallest part. Rather, the
modern underclass is composed of all of the working poor; of formerly middle
class people being driven down into the base of society; of highly-skilled
and highly-educated people subsisting on part-time or low-paid/low-skill
service sector work; and of all people living on state transfer payments
such as welfare or UIC or old age pensions; of `non-traditional'
highly-educated underclass people in economically marginal postions; and
many others. In addition, the role of women in the underclass should be
emphasized. Women represent 1/2 of the planet's population; provide nearly
2/3 of its work hours; but receive only 1/10th of its income
and own less than 1/100th of its property. Stewardship recognizes that
Underclass people are generally the population sector most in need.
Alongside this `special concern' with underclass people, however, the door
of the Stewards House is also open to all people who sincerely wish to
practice Stewardship.
3. Question: What is the link between the planetary underclass and Stewardship?
Answer: There are several interdependent links between the underclass
and stewardship.
First, the compassionate spirit of the underclass/stewardship link is
exemplified in the quote from Ghandi at the beginning of this document.
Stewardship involves caring for the world, including all of its beings -
human, natural, and divine. Underclass people are a high proportion of the
world's population. Underclass people are also generally the segment of the
population most in need. So compassionate Stewardship requires creation of
a `vehicle' - which we call the Stewards Planetary House - which underclass
people can use to care for and to nurture one another together with the
planet.
A second link between the underclass and Stewardship is a strategic one:
The planetary underclass is rapidly emerging to occupy a key position at
this time on the planet. The modern underclass includes the `working
underclass', the `non-working underclass', and the `non-traditional
underclass' of highly-educated and highly-skilled people in economically
marginal positions. Together with third world peasents and labouring
people, these strata are one of the fastest expanding population sectors on
the Earth. These strata are expanding with breathtaking speed partially
because of
the dis-employment effects of the very information technologies which form,
along with the land, such an integral part of the Steward's Planetary House.
Another factor in the strategic position occupied by underclass people is
that, whether working in `underclass jobs' or surviving without one,
underclass people have the least to loose and the most to gain through
building Stewardship.
A third link between underclass people and stewardship is that it is in
large measure the separation from the land which makes us vulnerable to
underclass status. Restoring that link, through Stewardship, is a key to
restoring our power, dignity, and ability to work together to care for one
another together with the world.