Now that we have the tools to create positive, conscious evolutionary social change, rather than being the victims of social change, we also need to know something about the process of “problem” solving and decision-making.  It begins by having a different mind-set about “problems.”  Rather than seeing problems as situations that need to be “fixed,” they are really opportunities for creating solutions.  As an aside, fixing problems locks us into the existent paradigm.  Paradigms represent a stage or plateau of social evolution with an arc of existence:  a beginning, a rise in effectiveness and an eventual loss of functionality.  The First Paradigm of Democracy in the United States is now well into its final development and is largely no longer effective to resolve social, political or economic and financial problems.  A new democratic paradigm is needed, and it must be created rather than developed as a “fix” to the old paradigm.  Creating change as this must occur peacefully, without violence to be effective.

Fortunately, the three values that have sustained our species offer a totally new method of option-development, choice-making and decision-making concerning social issues.  It begins with our intention:  To create a sustainable future by fulfilling human needs that develop from those values.**  Those three values offer the capability to create a systemic integration of the three pillars of society:  social, political, and economic-financial systems.  This allows social action planners and everyone to see quite clearly what a conscious plan for evolutionary social change would look like.

Planning as this was previously not possible because planners could not agree upon the values that were important for everyone.  Designing institutions and organizations for the three pillars of society using the three core values ensures that individual citizens and the public collectively can progress as they determine:   As everyone progresses, society progresses.  As individuals, families, society, politics and economics embrace the three core values, whole societies will become stable and sustainable. 

Embracing the three values of sustainability  generates sustainable options by asking,
a) “Does this option improve the quality of life of those who are affected by this option?”;
b) “Does this option encourage and allow those affected to grow into their potential, equally as most any other person?” 

The process of assuring sustainability may seem tedious, but it far surpasses the time taken to repeat the “trial-and-error” method of gaining experience, which also locks planners into a cycle of “fixing” problems repeatedly, rather than creating long term solutions.  

** My thanks to Dr. Michael O. McCray, M.D., for his suggestions.