Inverted Sphere

I often hear the subject come up of whether it is ethical to pursue things like spending money to make self-driven art, or take the time to discover distant galaxies, all while people elsewhere are chasing down rumors of water just so their families can have something to drink.

The ethics surrounding the situation are defined by the needs and intentions of everyone involved. So yes, the idea is ethical, but not necessarily how it is applied.

Those of us who have things like piped-in water, high-speed transportation, and many other fruits of humanity so easily accessible to us, have the responsibility to take advantage of them for our convenience and explore the ever-greater opportunities made open to us. We also have the responsibility to share our bounty with those who need it. We could stop concerning ourselves with things that seem far less necessary than clean drinking water, and devote our energy to fixing everyone else’s problems in an attempt to raise them up to our level of comfort, but we would then be doing humanity a disfavor.

In a small group of people, it may be necessary to halt many of our more lofty desires for the sake of not leaving others behind in the dust, but a community of six billion people has a lot more power to solve problems. Take dragging a house-sized boulder up a hill by a rope for example: if only a few people hold the rope, they will have to stop several times on their way up the hill to dig their heels into the ground and pull the boulder up to them; on the other hand, if a whole village of people hold the rope, then everyone can walk at a steady pace while dragging the boulder up the hill.

To turn our backs on what lies ahead of us is to turn our backs on the opportunities for a successful future. Bringing people up to our current level of accessibility to opportunities is not enough by itself because time continues moving forward and the world continues to change, constantly creating the need to learn, adapt to, and express what is new. If we expect to do good in a way that sustains humanity into the future, we need to help make opportunities available to those who don’t have them while we enjoy the opportunities only available to us, and create more.

Of course, we have to be careful with our unique opportunities, because amongst them there are many that can work against our abilities and efforts to help others. For example, our restaurants throw food into the dumpster (and pay to have it hauled away) because our tax system calls for it, while people just down the street have to skip a meal because they can’t afford it. Certainly, some of the people down the street could examine their budgets, spend more wisely, and afford plenty of food. Likewise, we could change our tax system to make it legal for restaurants to give their extra food directly to people who need it. If both things happen, however, then we will meet in the middle with great success, allowing us enough energy to help those who are truly in need while striving for our dreams because we’re not stepping on our own feet.

In order for humanity to sustain itself into the future, we have to reach for the stars in a way that sustains our feet still standing on the ground. If we neglect those less fortunate than us, then their condition will ultimately lead to us being less fortunate as well. Similarly, if we completely abandon our fortunes to help others, then we will lose sight of where we are going and have no direction by the time everyone gets caught up to speed, if they ever do. If we want others to have the opportunities we have now, we need to continue taking advantage of new opportunities, raising our standards of living, and creating a higher lowest-common-denominator of comfort for everyone. As those who are less fortunate continue receiving access to greater and greater opportunities, they may in time catch up with those more fortunate because their abilities will grow exponentially.

If we want to reach the light at the end of the tunnel, our leaders must keep going towards the light, but they must not lead everyone over a path that will guarantee failure for the masses, otherwise there will be nobody left to lead, and the leader will be no more.

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I encourage copy and distribution of this letter. Download a printer-friendly copy of this letter in PDF format here.

To all who are required by the law to attend school:

Do the policies in your school demand that you ask permission to be allowed to use the restroom? If so, you are working under tyranny. It is time for change.

The power is in your hands to change what surrounds you. The school system has no control over you because the choice to obey is always yours. If you want to make lasting changes, though, you need to work together in large numbers. If you and only a few other people choose not to obey, the faculty will try to intimidate you and your family until you obey or get expelled while the policies remain. However, if you and many other people choose not to obey, the faculty will change their behavior and the policies so that the school doesn’t fall apart. The school cannot afford to stay open without the support of many of its students because your participation represents money.

The most effective thing you can do to change the restroom policies is to never ask permission. You don’t ask to sneeze, blink, or scratch an itch — why would you ask to empty your bladder and bowels? The policies demand you to ask permission so that you don’t miss an important part of the lesson, and so that you don’t disrupt the class. There is a fundamental problem with these policies: they don’t trust you to be a human capable of making educated, respectful choices. Instead, they assume that you are ignorant, disrespectful, and unchanging. Security may also be a reason, but your school is not nearly as secure as many people have been lead to believe.

You are fully capable of understanding what is important to you in the lesson, and you likely know how to respectfully leave the classroom. You are the only person who truly knows when you need to use the restroom. If the faculty tries to “punish” you, then they are being disrespectful to the fact that your body doesn’t run on a clock. Also, they are ignoring that you don’t need their lessons to be a successful human being. Enforced, systemized education usually holds you back from your true potential. The current school system is an industry designed to standardize you, but there are no standard people.

If you want, you can eventually destroy the school system as we know it and replace it with something you want. Education is very important because it empowers you. The present school system cannot fully empower you because you are demanded to attend whether you want to or not. By working on a simple matter — restroom policies — it will be easy for you and many people to agree on the same thing and act on it quickly. After you organize, don’t worry about being one of just a few people courageous enough to start the change. Once others see you do it, they will follow. There are leaders for every cause.

Non-violent non-cooperation is the key. No matter what anybody tells you, do not give in. Ignore them if you have to. If you are asked where you’re going, tell the truth. If you are told to stop, keep going. If your family punishes you for it, you still don’t have to obey. If your family is physically violent towards you, find somewhere you can be safe. Don’t worry. As this movement grows, you will find more support. You might have to push hard in the beginning, but many hands will make light work.

Talk to each other. Set a particular day or week to start. Spread the word as much as you can. Stick to your goals. Never stop.

Respectfully Yours,
Brandon R. Farmer

I encourage copy and distribution of this letter. Download a printer-friendly copy of this letter in PDF format here.

Check out the Restroom Laws Home Page for more

The way we communicate is largely based on our personal experience of the culture we come from, making every person culturally diverse, and creating the need for everything we communicate to be translated in order to be understood. Considering that people are able to translate and understand the same information across cultural differences, it is evident that there is a fundamental way we all understand information; a common thread of understanding.

There is one thing we are all motivated by: surviving without unnecessary stress. Essentially, we are constantly seeking for our experiences to result in a sense of love. The common thread of understanding can be found in this pursuit. Regardless of the outcome, even the most hateful of acts are committed in an attempt to experience the same sense of love we are all seeking. We can only actually achieve a true sense of love, however, if we observe love as we make our decisions, rather than hate, no matter how major or minor the incident. Hate is an illusion created by not observing love as the driving force of our actions.

Love is the common thread, and by observing it, communication is possible in a way that enables us all to understand and serve the common necessities of the community in a way that can satisfy the unique, subjective needs of all individuals. Imagine love as the thread being used to weave the fabric we call life. When we don’t observe the thread, it usually weaves in ways that make the fabric more difficult to work with. When we do observe the thread, it weaves in the way we truly intend, making the fabric as easy as possible to work with.

If we translate through our differences and realize that we are all creating our own subjective desires based on the same, objective, fundamental needs we all share, we can grow past biased attitudes that hinder our ability to observe love as the driving force of our actions. If we stay tuned to the love we are all seeking as we make all decisions, we can communicate in a way that fosters the development of sustainable culture.

There are no exact duplicates of conscious human beings. Diversity is a fact of being human. There are many things that multitudes of people have in common, and these things are typically the basis for forming community because the people are able to understand each other through what they share. There are also many things that multitudes of people don’t have in common, and these things are typically the basis for dividing community because the people do not share the same interests.

The forming and dividing of community is not inherently synonymous with good and bad effects on the community, respectively. Community organization happens through forming and dividing, so the way we carry out these acts is what determines the sustainability of our prosperity. The key to sustainable cultural prosperity is to form and divide community in a way that honors the individual as a member of our extremely diverse global community of people who all share a common value.

For a moment, imagine that the prosperity of community is a giant steel ball. The way the ball moves depends on how people communicate. If everyone honors only what makes us different, we won’t push on the ball, and it will be free to move unattended. If everyone honors only what we have in common, we will all push on the ball in different directions, and its direction will become chaotic. In either case, the ball will crush anyone in its path, killing some and wounding others, while moving out of reach or becoming too difficult to push for anyone else. We can, however, sustain the movement of the ball without it crushing people or leaving anyone behind if we work together with what we share in a way that honors our differences.

Communication is how we consciously work together, which is how culture is able to exist at all. How we work together is based on why we choose to do so. Surviving without unnecessary stress is the one thing we are all motivated by. If our communication respects this fact, then with our diverse perspectives we can affect people in a way that shares a common goal of sustaining the community’s prosperity through sustaining the prosperity of the individuals who make the community.