The Missing Piece

A  new format for public debate by way of the Schematic for Sustainability is what we will be discussing today.   (PDF available at www.holisticsoul.com  and click on “Sustainability.”)  Using it will have several positive effects:  1) It provides a non-traditional process for the discussion of public issues that also educates the public concerning issues of sustainability;  2)  it effectively separates the design process from funding debates;  3)  it moves public issues from polarized “yes-no” funding options to a continuum of options; and, 4) it will provide a check on the influence of lobbies and attendant corporate ethos behind profit making.

This “Missing Piece” is a format that enables public debate to become effective — effective to help move our nation its societies and communities into a sustainable future.  The missing piece is needed to move public bodies around immovable partisan positions and attendant discussions to action plans that move communities and the nation into social sustainability.

By using the Schematic for Sustainability, and  Schematic for Sustainability — Instructions rational, and progressive public debate can be achieved.  The Schematic provides a logical and rational process based upon the fundamental values that are the raison d’etre of this American democracy and all democracies.  Using the Schematic, all discussion pivots on the Intention of Sustainability, with action plans being developed in the Criteria for Fulfillment, both of which are qualified by the primary values of  the sustainability:  Life (qualified as “the quality of life”), Equality, and Growth.  These values are not arbitrary.  No civilization is sustainable without all three values being in place operationally, in societies.

Most traditional public debates has been “my plan is better than your plan” without having a qualifying standard for comparison.   Using the format for sustainability, debaters must be able to qualify their points of argument/discussion by showing how the points contribute to social sustainability, and support the fundamental values of a sustainable society.  Whether it is funding for a new school, a weather station outpost, or a voluntary program for immunization, debaters must validate their answers by qualifying them through the Schematic.

Conclusion:  If you compare this process of public debate to traditional public debate that has been going on between the bitter partisan camps in this early part of the 21st century in the United States, you will see that what is being proposed has far more potential for social progress.  Traditional bi-partisan debate is competitive, divisive, and position-held that contributes to the grid-lock of public issues from moving from proposals to action through Congress and state legislatures.  If our democracy is to evolve and become more mature and productive, new processes of public debate must be explored so that the business of the public is engaged and fulfilled.  //Daniel Raphael

Sustainability Schematic Ctd (2)

Let us continue from the last post, “Health Care – Using the ‘Schematic for Sustainability’”

Again, the first elemental question needs to be asked again, “Do you have a vision for a sustainable society, nation(s), and civilization?”  Without asking this question, what you are reading is simply an academic exercise for pleasure or information.  But if you are reading this to learn how to design sustainable social institutions (family, community, health care, educational services, criminal justice, religion, etc), whether in your own family, community, neighborhood, or the world, you have taken a step toward becoming co-responsible for your and their survival and sustainability.   // Now let us pick up where we left off, with writing the Global Statement of the Project.

Column 4, CRITERIA FOR FULFILLMENT (Global Statement of Project):   “A national health care system that provides health care services from pre-conception to death.”  Again, this statement is very general, but more defined than the STATEMENT OF INTENTION.  Beneath this statement, we will list the various criteria that will define this project.  // The process of generating a design does not argue points of the design from positions.  Rather the work is to develop a complete continuum — in this case, health care services from pre-conception to death.  Our primary interest and focus is to build a design that fulfills the Intention and Global Statement.   Position-taking can be done later in different venues.

In this example I will not attempt to design a fully developed continuum of services.  The example is being developed to give you enough information to help you work this process on your own.  I will mark each new criterion with a “+”.  Again, this is not a fully developed continuum, but only a cursory example of its parts.

CRITERIA OF FULFILLMENT:  + Birth control education;  + Pre-natal care (diet, nutrition, abstinence from drug use, education for post-natal care) including food support and supplements;  + Natal care for mother and child; + family social education; + preventive care; + emergency services; + health care education (continuing through life); …. + elder care involving diet/nutrition, self-care and self-observation, emergency contact procedures, elder health education, elder networking, etc; + end of life choices; + hospice; ….

As you write each criterion in the fourth column do so considering columns 1-3, asking “the question” that each column asks of each criterion.  e.g., Does this criterion support the value of Life?  This question is further qualified by “the quality of life.”  When considering public debate about health care as a social issue, know that this qualifier has its origins in the phrase from the Declaration of Independence, “…that they are endowed by the Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among them are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”   These last four words are directly related to the quality of life.  King George VIII granted life, but it was the quality of life that was contested by our nation’s Revolutionary and Constitutional founders.   This single factor, and the right of political self-determination, have been the political turning points for generations of Americans and other democracies around the world.

Let’s now turn to “the question” for Beliefs, and then next to Expectations.  For Beliefs, the question becomes, “What are our beliefs for sustainability of the quality of Life, Equality, and Growth, regarding public health care?”  Here are only a few examples of beliefs that emanate from the value of Life and contribute to the sustainability of our societies:  “We believe that,*a sustainable public health care continuum is intrinsic to the general health of our nation and the quality of life of each citizen;  * that this quality of life begins  with the health of future citizens before they are born in the healthy environment of their mother, father, and family; * and when pregnancies are wanted; * that good nutrition is essential to enable the greatest endowment of genetic potential both before birth, after, and continuing into adolescence; ….”  And more.

EXPECTATIONS:  “We expect that:  * a continuum of health care options is available for all citizens; (We expect that) * health care information, training, and education is available for all citizens; (We…) * health care information, training, and education is more than adequately developed to help citizens of child bearing age to make informed and responsible decisions to beget children, or not; …;  (continuing); * health care services are provided for the various care needs of all age groups of citizens until death.

Finally, back to column four, CRITERIA FOR FULFILLMENT:  Fund, design, build, and operate local health care educational services, clinics, preventive services, emergency facilities, hospitals, aftercare, (continuing)… and hospice services.  As you might guess, the Criteria would become line items in budgets.  The criteria are written in a manner that are measurable, definable and fulfill the VALUE(S), BELIEF(S), and EXPECTATIONS given for each criterion.

Yet there is one more Criterion that is essential — the quality of service that is so directly related to the quality of life of citizens.  Considering the sustainability of a healthy nation, not only that measurable criteria of fulfillment include, for example, the number of citizens per clinic, but also the quality of those services.  Those measures must be written into the CRITERIA FOR FULFILLMENT.  For example:  number of teen pregnancies, number of infections incurred during hospitalization, number of deaths while in hospital … per 1,000 patients, and so on.

The Schematic for Sustainability is holistic in its application(s), for public health care and all other designs for social sustainability.  The functioning of sustainable social institutions requires a much different mindset for the relationship of governmental agencies and citizens — a move from overt paternalistic policies to co-responsible policies.  This movement produces a much more responsible citizenry, with the educational processes behind, that support a population that thinks in terms of social sustainability.  //Daniel Raphael

Health Care – Using the “Schematic for Sustainability”

Today we begin a new series of posts using the Schematic for Sustainability and Schematic for Sustainability — Instructions. These two documents are available at my personal website  www.holisticsoul.com  then click on Sustainability. A full discussion for using the Schematic will take several posts to train you in the basics of the Schematic and Instructions.

A number of readers have contacted me saying that the Schematic and Instructions are so “out of the box” and unfamiliar to their thinking that they are not able to use them, even though they are very intrigued with the idea of actually designing socially sustainable social institutions.   So, let us begin with a current and highly visible public issue “public health care.”  Keep in mind that health care is not limited to only public health care, but private health care as well.  Sustainable health care is actually a continuum of health services.

First, an elemental question needs to be answered, “Do you have a vision for a sustainable society, nation(s), and civilization?”  A vision for a sustainable future is an essential personal investment to begin this process.

Here is the INTRODUCTION to the Instructions:  “INTRODUCTION — Working the Schematic is a straightforward process that produces exceptional results.  Team environments seem to produce results quickly.  Rules of order: Participants agree that they will qualify their arguments to support social sustainability; and use the Schematic as the framework for developing actions plans.   Developing designs of sustainability sets an ideal that will require progressive stages of designing, planning, and then fulfilling programs that lead to sustainability.”

The Schematic presents us with a series of questions that lead us into a sustainable future.  One of the primary elements of the Schematic is to ask questions that help us design a consistent set of public policies that lead to sustainable social systems.  As this has never been done before, I am sure most of you have more than a wee bit of skepticism!  So, let’s begin.

1.  Beginning at the top of the Schematic, answer the question, “Is the issue being designed for sustainability Social or Material?  Circle One.”   //  Circle “Social.”

2.  (Circle One:)  Global — Global Region — National — National Region — Community — Family — Individual.  //  Better refer to the instructions:  “All to the right of the selected area becomes included.”   // If you circle “Global” then you are designing a sustainable global health care system.  Obviously, our world is not at that stage of development so circle the area (National?) that you want to design a sustainable health care system.  Just for example, let’s circle “National.”  Because our form of government is a federal democratic republic, that means that the 50 states would come under this design.

3.  STATEMENT of INTENTION (briefly):   [Instructions:  Answering the question, 'What is our intention for developing action plans for sustainability for this topic/issue?' will help focus your efforts in using the Schematic. ...."]  And it will guide the detailed development of the fourth column, “Criteria for Fulfillment.”   //  Write out your intention.

Here is my example, your example may be different.  “The intention for designing a sustainable national health care system is to provide all citizens with options for health care.”  If this statement of intention seems awfully general, think of public health care as an option much as public educational services are an available option to the public.   In the case of public education, parents have a choice of private or public educational services from pre-school all the way through post graduate programs.

Before we move ahead to #4 Criteria for Fulfillment, let us discuss VALUES.  As you can see, the three primary values that are the foundation for a sustainable society and civilization are:  LIFE, EQUALITY, and GROWTH.  Without any one of these values, a society or a civilization will decline, collapse, and eventually disappear.   See my 4-part YouTube video presentation:  http://www.youtube.com/user/Gabriel071659#p/u/3/HxAqbSsUv5U for a discussion of the decline of civilizations.

Concerning VALUES, only processes of governance that incorporate these values into their founding, organization, and operation have a real chance to become sustainable.  The founding of the United States of America began with,”We hold these truths [values] to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with the certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”  Two of the primary values of social sustainability are directly stated, (equality, life), while the value of  “growth” is alluded to in the phrase, “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness,” that leads to an improving quality of life.

We are already at over 800 words, so before we close today’s post regarding public health care, consider that public education emanates from the value of “growth,” which is a fundamental value supporting sustainability society.  Then, would not the fundamental value of a sustainable society, LIFE, have the same foundation for the establishment of public health care?

In the next post, we will continue our discussion beginning with 4.  CRITERIA for FULFILLMENT.  //Daniel Raphael