25. UNconscious, Conscious, Consciousness

Many of us believe that at the quantum level the universe brings events, people and circumstances together for a greater benefit of all.  One particularly beneficial coincidence occurred when the authors of the Declaration of Independence wrote, “…we hold these truths [values] to be self-evident, that all [people] are created equal, … with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”  Though they were unaware of it, these self-evident “truths” are sufficiently similar, coincidentally, to the three values of social sustainability to establish a functional and potentially sustainable democracy. 

1.  UNconscious social evolution of the United States began with the efforts of those who signed the Declaration of Independence and those who drafted the Articles of Confederation and later those who ratified the Constitution of the United States.  The signers of the Constitution were not aware at the time of the three values that have sustained our species, but hoped that these states would not only survive the vicissitudes of time but learn to thrive over the centuries.  They were unconscious of the three core values of social sustainability, but clearly knew without any doubt that one must have life and the liberty that democracy provides to pursue what makes one happy – to grow into one’s potential and then to strive to fulfill that potential with their life. 

2.  Conscious social evolution described in these Posts deals with the pragmatic efforts of citizens to intentionally and consciously use the three values that have sustained our species to guide the continued social evolution of our societies, democracies and economies.  What is necessary to transform a potentially sustainable democracy into an evolving democracy with ongoing sustainability is the intentional and conscious application of those three values in the decisions and actions of citizens, their public executives and through the public policies of their government. 

Conscious social evolution cannot take place outside of a democracy, and only in democracies that intentionally apply the three values of sustainability within the organizations of the three pillars of a functional society:   the social, political and economic/financial. 

3.  “Conscious evolution” as described by Barbara Marx Hubbard, Ervin Laszlo, Andrew Cohen, the Dali Llama, Wayne Dyer, Deepak Chopra and others involves the efforts of people around the world to generate a change of CONSCIOUSNESS in the world to bring about peace, harmony and the oneness of all people.  A consciousness as this provides a friendly and receptive seedbed for applying the concepts of social sustainability.