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What utopias do not express is just the overcoming of the economic and social gaps between the North and the South. The collaborators do not admit inequality of the development speed, neither do the members in a very open manner.
This can probably be related to a Southern issue which is especially important so as to understand the imposed or achieved speed in societies: the cultural identities. And it is a knotty problem that faces the understanding of the global economies and communications the same way as the governability and citizenship of the WSSs, because globalization won't come into existence (and much less the universalization) until the nations are able to interact ideologically, communicationally and economically.
In that sense, it is necessary to refer to the action plans thought to be implemented in Southern nations, the South-South collaborations, and the analysis of new citizenships that will necessarily impose these collaborations. So, as Daniel says, "to love means to choose".
"...The choosing factor is gaining more and more importance each day and is translated as an increasing miscegenation (in a context of diversity cult which does not represent for the cultures the risk of becoming extinct, but the other way round...). In this powerful dynamic of belonging, the sense of universality grows in parallel with the accepted importance of diversity. Tell me where do you decide to live and I will tell you who you are..."
"...The relation between nation and citizen is becoming progressively more dynamic. This marks the conditions so as to make the North and South concepts start to loose their meaning" (DP).
In the same way, another less explored word in the seedbed of dreams is sustainability. The social and cultural exclusion, mercantilism, the lack of cooperation and contamination of the environment get into a violent argument regarding this aspect. What we will do with the garbage or the scrap is not clear, but we do know that they sell it to our countries and that has an impact on the environment and increases the informational gap
The evident power gap between North-South relationship is also manifested in the Northern countries where the impoverished and marginalized sectors are growing more and more.
"The North-South gap is a power gap that affects us all, whether we are in the north or in the south, because in the "magnificent" Europe the fourth world also exists (fourth world refers to the marginalized sector of the so-called first world or whatever you want to name it)..."
"Because a utopia of mine is that electronic communication get humanized and interdependence channels created, I support this way of developing an idea considering the one suggested by one of our colleagues. Besides, I agree with the opinion that technology is only another means, a channel... As a channel, it has been used, for example, here in Spain during the anti-globalization and anti-war demonstrations. Many people joined and made use of this means. It was through the mail and part of the virtual press that we were aware of what was really going on, beyond the mass media." (JP).
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From the Yin of the Yin, the perception of women regarding happiness (fully social and universal) is very individualistic and in each case they paint sketches of suspicion regarding full universal happiness.
Nevertheless, social happiness is easily identifiable and it is associated with an
ideal of peace, creativity for society, use of our energy with constructive aims and equality of opportunities, these ideals shared by both women and men (SF, 4.22.03)
Its plausibility is proposed as intrinsic to an
equalitarian environment (equalitarian society) for women and men, overcoming stereotypes that have labeled and tormented these relationships and made us live locked in private jails (H 4.23.03).
Likewise, social happiness is associated with
the eradication of violence, in any of its forms and any of the stages of private and public life; particularly violence against women. The girls who suffer violence today, are the potential women who will suffer violence tomorrow. (BA, 4.22.03).
And it is understood that social happiness starts from the individual happiness and the plurality reflected in the coexistence of happiness and unhappiness.
That individual happiness flows necessarily by the warranty of the full exercise of everyone's rights, in a time-space copula, that is applied to each corner of the earth and every second (interpreting JP, 4.24.03)
"A happy society, which is about individual happiness, consists of pluralistic humans open to life" (JP, 4.24.03)
Although we haven't managed to provide a meaning or content to Net Universal Happiness (NUH)49
we could say that in the WSSs it should be associated with a state of full satisfaction of the human being surrounded by the physical, psycho emotional, intellectual and spiritual terms, this satisfaction associated to the acknowledgement likewise in full recognition, to be an important and unique part of the universe. Feeling like a verse of the unity.
Individual and social happiness are perceived in conflict, maybe because of the existing relationship among happiness, change, pain and growth. The fear of pain in change, the fact of not accepting pain as a part of life, impedes growth, which always means change. And growth is related to happiness.
"Humor is indispensable. We must grant the possibility of generating smiling and smile appealing to those magical springs that are in our minds and that separate us from other animal species." (LG)
"To dream painfully isn't the same as dreaming as an exercise to build wisdom shared by specialists, it is more complex, but it can be more vital... Because every utopia is change and sometimes in changes there is conflict and pain... among those who had little need to change since they weren't excluded and despite their good intentions, they don't need to change the present... what is given... and they even oppose changes..." (IP, 4.12.03)
"And how do we manage to assimilate that utopias and distopias are our reality and that maybe the utopia is to accept what we are, ready to change what we think is humanly unfair... for the collective or the individual, why can we conceive an individual without collective? It is difficult for a sociologist... or a psychiatrist.. an individual who doesn't feel inside the social collective is mad or psychotic... they say... (IP)
"... Maybe I haven't felt moved by half of anything you have said, but I do know about doing your best everyday to do something good for everyone sometimes at the expense of your own life... and I get tired and sometimes stop believing... I feel that is a greater UTOPISTA, that people get up and keep going even when their dreams are blown away, and get tired and don't want anymore... (I am suspicious of the "very" permanent smiles) and besides the fact of being able to share sensations with people who are so far away, but as the movie says they seem so close... I think that is the space of a great utopista, which brings us close to the heart like people who believe in others in order to build a better world... I have really liked reading you... You have cheered me up... (maybe it is because I have a tragic - in the ancient concept - sense of life)... I have felt again that the Utopista is human..." (MC, 5.26.03)
"Since I was very young my daddy filled my mind with utopias. And he keeps doing it, he's so stubborn. Fortunately I fill my children's and I am so happy for being able to do it." (Adri�n)
In this interrelation of causes and effects there is a series of conflicts obstructing the building, even the visualization, of social happiness and individual happiness.
Although in our utopias we can show our doubts and fears, for instance the fear of fragmentation, pain, craziness, etc., the possibility of dreaming is closely related to the search for happiness.
A means to manage the search for happiness is when it is projected in the future of children, versus the adversities of the present. In the process, the planning and action in the perspective of realization of those dreams becomes at the same time a source of happiness of the present! That is still like this! And for many, that is the engine of "almost" everything we do:
"I think of my (10-12-year-old) children and I dream of a IS that makes possible, for them and everyone composing the society in which they live in, the full development of their potentialities, that they can put them to serve their communities in sensible creative processes, allowing them to contribute to the "social happiness" (Roxana Goldstein, 4.8.03).
"Then I can only imagine a beautiful destination if I think I can take a beautiful trip. The society of information, of sharing wisdom, of knowledge, must be put into practice from now, as in MISTICA, y incorporate in its construction science, practice, peace, self-criticism, democracy, participation, certainties, love and red wine, kisses and affection, a lot of affection and a great deal of kisses." (AR)
Senaida Jansen
FUNREDES Associate Consultant
SD / 7.11.03
[47] The reference document for this chapter is the Dragones' Synthesis, the textual excerpts are in blue.
[48] The reference document of this chapter is the "Girasoles' Synthesis"
[49] The idea of NUH [Felicidad Universal Nacional (FUN)] was proposed by Michel Menou (4.12.03) using a pun (in contrast to Gross National Product), which suggests the need to reflect upon the utopists as a possibility to get close to the growing of the NUH, instead of continuing to dig into the information highways of unique thought.
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