Conscious Living/Love Ethic
Human Agenda believes that we should live our lives with heart and conscience. We need to live the world we wish to see, to rephrase Gandhi. Too often have we seen change agents focus only on reform (mainstream activists) or structural change (“leftists”) without role modeling in their daily lives the transformation we would ultimately like to live: a world where the human needs of all are met within an ethic of love without exploitation, patriarchy, discrimination, authoritarianism, or unsustainable practices.
Human relations are of particular concern to the members of Human Agenda. If our goal is to control others or if we denigrate others even without knowing it, we cannot create the good will or the movement necessary for larger programmatic and policy changes.
By conscious living Human Agenda means that we have a responsibility to live a fun and fair and fighting life whereby we integrate personal, programmatic, policy, and political transformation into our souls and lives on a daily basis. For example, we cannot believe in sustainability and drive a Hummer; we cannot believe in health and never take a vacation, if we have the option; we cannot allow women and not men to partake in the responsibility and joy of home and family care; we cannot over-consume for the glory of control or accumulation; we cannot permit an organization to exclude women, or people of color, or the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community; we cannot ignore those human activities that make us responsible members of society and that also make us full and joyous as human beings.
Human Agenda believes in the love ethic as espoused by Eric Fromm and developed by bell hooks: a personal choice to live a life of caring, commitment, trust, respect, responsibility, and knowledge.