Fundamental Design Principles of PROUT
The Progressive Utilization Theory (PROUT) offers a new paradigm of development
that is guided by several core design principles. These design principles are based on
cardinal human values that call for a fundamental respect for all living beings, and a
concern for the welfare and development of all people. The design principles are
universal and durable. They achieve these qualities by reflecting, in the
socioeconomic realm, the deep design patterning of nature.
- Diversity, not sameness, is the law of nature.
Diversity is the innate characteristic of nature. Social policy should not strive
to create social equality, but to bring unity and equity amidst human diversity.
Social unity should be based on coordinated cooperation between peoples, not
subordinated cooperation.
The objective of equity should be to give all people access to their due share
of the resources required for their healthy existence and for the balanced
development of their potentialities.
- The minimum requirements of a time and place should be guaranteed to all.
Earth
s resources are the common inheritance of all humanity, so all people
have a fundamental right to the basic necessities required to maintain their existence
and support their development.
This right to guaranteed basic necessities should be constitutionally
established.
Basic necessities include food, shelter, clothing, education, and medical care.
The standard of minimum requirements should be established according to the
age and place in which people live. This standard should be progressively adjusted
with changing conditions.
Access to basic necessities should come through providing adequate purchasing
capacity to all. For those able to work, purchasing capacity should be acquired
through meaningful and dignified labor. Those not able to work should receive it
through family or social assistance.
- The minimum requirements of a time and place should be guaranteed to all.
Earth
In addition to the guarantee of the basic necessities, society should also see
that all its members can acquire the common amenities - the commodities and
services - of the time and place in which they live.
Not only should these common amenities be available to all, but they should
become available in increasing measure. So amenities that are considered special goods only available to a few should over time come to be within the standard of
living accessible to all.
The purpose of increasing access to amenities is not to promote consumption
or clutter people's lives with material possessions. It is increase social equity and to
give all people the material base for their all round development.
- Incentives should be distributed to meritorious people according to the degree
of their merit to the society.
The prosperity of society depends on the productivity and creativity of its
individual members. Incentives are essential to motivate people to fully develop and
utilize their capacities. Without adequate incentives, the standard of living of the
society as a whole suffers, and the least well-off suffer the most.
A portion of the wealth created by society should be allocated for incentives to
meritorious people, so that these people may have greater opportunity and
motivation to serve the society.
The amount of incentives given to meritorious individuals should depend on the
value of their work to society, whether through their hard labor or their special
talents.
While the reward of talent is essential for the well-being of the society,
incentives should not be so large as to disrupt social unity. So constant effort should
be made to lesson the difference between minimum and maximum incomes, while
insuring that incentives are sufficient to motivate those who are industrious or have
special abilities.
- Increase in the quality of living is the indication of the vitality of a society.
Growth of per capita income is not an adequate indicator of social vitality.
Money may lose value through inflation; taxation may rise disproportionately with rise
in income; or people may become burdened by expenditures that do not benefit
them.
A proper measure of social vitality is increase in people's standard of living.
Increase in the standard of living is not the same as an increase in mindless
consumption. Improved standard of living results in an improvement in the quality of
people's lives. This may be reflected in an advances in the quality of goods and
services, improved access to skill acquisition and human development, and
refinement in the aesthetic milieu of their existence.
Addictive consumption occur when people's spiritual development is not wellsupported.
In a society that promotes the balanced development of its members,
material consumption will naturally be directed toward human maintenance,
development and upliftment.
A society's standard of living cannot increase in a genuine and enduring way if
economic development is not sustainably managed.
- There should be no accumulation of physical wealth by individuals that is in
excess of their needs without special permission from the society.
The excess accumulation of physical wealth by a few results in deprivation for
many. A healthy society can not allow this to occur.
All have a right to the physical wealth that they need for their necessities and
their development. But they have no legitimate right to accumulate in excess, unless
they are given special permission by the society for a legitimate cause.
This principle only applies to forms of wealth in which excess accumulation by
one will take from others. So there should be no restriction on the accumulating
spiritual wealth, or on accumulating knowledge. However, acquisition of social status
or power at the expense of others should be curtailed.
- There should be humanistic and rational distribution, and maximum utilization,
of resources in all areas of manifestation.
Humanity has available to it various mundane, supramundane, and spiritual
resources. Mundane resources are the useable materials and goods that come from
nature or are human made. Supramundane resources are ideas, information,
inspiration, and feelings. And spiritual resources include love, compassion, knowledge
of Self, inner peace, and reverence for the sacred.
All of these resources should be properly distributed and utilized for the
welfare of all. Distribution should be rationally undertaken so as to insure the
sustainable development of society and to insure that their equitable distribution
throughout the planet. No one should experience discriminatory restriction on their
access to resources because they belong to a certain social group or live in a certain
region.
Resources should also be maximally utilized. There should be no waste; and
resources should be used for purposes that do not optimize their value.
- The physical, mental, and spiritual capabilities of every person should be allowed
to develop fully; and the potentialities of society should be maximally developed in all
spheres.
Society should neither stress individual welfare nor collective welfare. Instead,
there should be the full development of both individuals and the collective,
recognizing that individual and collective development are interdependent and that
neither can develop fully without having a balanced relationship with the other.
The development of individuals and society should be in physical, mental, and
spiritual spheres of life. There should not be suppression or lack of support for
development in any of these three spheres.
The development of material amenities and services will provide a healthy and
secure base for individuals to engage in subtler pursuits, such as creativity and
spirituality.
The development of mental potentialities must include acquisition of social
and ecological awareness; people should appreciate the value of serving society and
of their interdependence with the greater fabric of life.
The development of spiritual potentialities will establish a strong moral base to
the society and will nurture universal identification with all peoples and all living
beings.
- There should be a well-balanced approach to the distribution and utilization of
physical, mental, and spiritual resources so that there is balanced development in
all spheres.
Resources should be allocated and utilized in a way that provides for the
balanced and holistic development of individuals in physical, mental, and spiritual
spheres. But while supporting balanced development, society should also encourage
greater development and expression of those capacities that are more subtle.
So if an individual has strong intellectual potential, then their mental abilities
should be given greater opportunity for expression than their physical abilities. And if
they are endowed with spiritual wisdom, then their scope for rendering spiritual
service should be given priority.
At the same time that mental and spiritual service is being encouraged on the
part of those well-developed in these capacities, society should also make efforts to
nurture and bring into use the subtler capacities of all its members.
- The utilization of potentialities and resources should be progressively
adjusted according to the time, location, and people involved.
Change is a constant, so social policies and practices must be progressively
adjusted according to changes in time, place, and person. The standard of basic
necessities of an agrarian society will not be that of a post-industrial society. The
customs, social institutions, and governing systems that were suitable when humans
lived in clans will not be well-suited to people living in the information age.
Society must not become stagnant in response to changing conditions, but
should be guided by progressive policies that make use of modern ideas, technologies,
and social structuring.
When seeking progressive adjustments to new conditions, society must
maintain balance and sustainability in all spheres of life.
The ability to make progressive adjustments requires, in part, sensitivity to
local conditions and empowerment at local levels. So a decentralized approach to
socio-economic development is necessary.
- The excellence of the social structure and culture of a community depends on
the degree of balance that community attains in its individual and collective life.
Human society should strive for balance in physical, mental, and spiritual
spheres of life. This balance should be established in both individuals and the
collective. Balance must not be maintained in a static way, but as dynamic
equilibrium.
Within the physical sphere, there should be balance within each sector of
social and economic development; then each of these sectors should be brought into
an overall balance.
In the economic realm, balanced development will ensure sustainable
development. The methodology for obtaining sustainable development must take into
account, among other things, the present and future demand for resources, and the
present and future supply of those resources.
In addition to creating balance in each sphere of life, there should also be an
overall balancing of physical, mental, and spiritual development. Giving excessive
importance to material or psychic or spiritual spheres creates limitations in social
progress.
When there is all-around balance in all spheres, and between all spheres, in
both individual and collective life, and in relationship to the environment, then the
welfare of all can be achieved, progress will be properly directed, peace will be
enduring, humans will live harmoniously with nature, and culture will vitalize the
human spirit.
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