NATURAL HUMAN RIGHTS and ECOLOGICAL and SOCIAL SUSTAINABILITY.

[hearthstone]

NATURAL HUMAN RIGHTS
and
ECOLOGICAL and SOCIAL SUSTAINABILITY.


The attributes of ecological and social sustainability include
simplicity and transparency. In simpler situations fewer things can go
wrong, and simpler situations are easier to monitor by more members of
the society.

The transition to an ecologically and socially sustainable society
would be greatly helped by enabling people to live more simply if and
whenever they would want to do so. It would not be necessary to
further complicate the already existing complexity by creating of yet
more laws that would try to regulate the making of our lives more
simple and more sustainable--this could hardly be achieved by such means.

The end of making our human existence more ecologically sustainable
and socially sustainable could be helped along by recognizing of some
basic "natural human rights" that already exist, that stem from being
human, and that are being neglected in our present day society to a
great detriment of us all.

"Natural human rights" are rights that enable the fulfillment of the
very basic and natural needs that a living entity might have, such
as--the need to sleep, to rest, to nourish itself, to rid the body of
body wastes, to keep clean, etc.

Since natural human rights are not recognized in our society, not only
there are people (the homeless) who are subjected to living in
conditions that would be unacceptable to allow to exist for most
animals that people care about, but also that other people who,
although still able to manage to maintain conditions suitable for
sustaining life, live in a dread of eventually, perhaps, being
prevented from doing so. This persistent anxiety is a stress that
causes a great number of problems for our society.

Should natural human rights be recognized and guaranteed, this fact
alone would engender some very basic and lasting benefits for the
sanity of the entire society. Honoring of the natural rights would
mean in effect that every individual of the society would have a right
to a very basic, if only a humble habitat that would exist independent
of any considerations of the commodity market. One would not
necessarily have to "own" this fundamental, rudimentary, for one's
well-functioning within the society vitally necessary place, but one
would "own" the inalienable right to it.

Being able to exercise the natural human rights is a foremost
condition for the well-being of the whole society and a foundation for
establishing of a socially sustainable society. People who are
prevented from the exercise of their natural human rights become
stressed, their physical and mental health suffers, and they are less
able to contribute to the common weal of the society meaningfully.
They, instead, become liabilities. Most of social ills and many health
problems (both--physical and mental) can be directly attributed to the
inability of people to exercises their natural human rights.

The recognition, assurance, and defense of natural human rights would
make the transition to a true ecological and social sustainability
easier--a socially sustainable society would eventually eliminate
processes that are harmful to the environment, because such processes
are possible to exist generally only in a society where
"transparency", the ability to see the consequences of such
harmful-to-the-environment processes is absent--people who lead
stressful lives don't have the leisure to observe the consequences of
their actions, they are busy trying to cope with stress; Such
transparency is possible only in a society that is socially
sustainable, where people have more leisure, and therefore they are
able to exercise a greater control over their lives. A society that
self-abuses itself cannot be expected to take care of its environment
in a sustainable way.

Concerns with "social sustainability" started arising only
very recently, and the definitions of the term are still very vague.
Till the world filled up with humans, social misfits were disposed of,
unless those managed to move to still of "civilization" devoid parts
of the globe, and thus they spread the very same "civilization"
globally. Today's conditions in the world are without a precedent in
human history. Although the the traditional mechanisms of solving
social problems are still in effect, social misfits have no place to
go anymore. We have to find ways how to make our society socially
sustainable. To recognize and guarantee natural human rights would be
a good start.

Thank you, Mr. Jan Hearthstone - ModelEarth.Org .