Principle 1:
Our Principles Are Based On Reality, Not Tailism
The purpose of our organization is to really do things. But we cannot do anything if we are not interacting with the world in the ways with which it allows us to do things. These ways that the world allows for us to interact with it are part of reality. To do things, we must interact with the world as it is, not merely as we would like it to be. First and foremost, we must always be honest with ourselves about the reality with which we are confronted.
We do not proceed from flawed or unproven assumptions. We do not attempt to superimpose false beliefs on the world, even with the best intentions. Doing so is the source of much suffering. These principles should not be formulated or modified to fit other people’s flawed assumptions. There will be other ways and opportunities to convince others to join us, such as by tailoring our messaging, but corrupting our principles should not be considered to be one of the acceptable ways to do this. If we corrupt our principles, we defeat our purpose of improving the world.
Principle 2:
No One Is Individually Responsible For Anything
According to Principle 1, our principles should be based on reality, not what we necessarily think would be appealing to others who have false assumptions about the world. Belief that any one person or group is the sole root cause of suffering, whether theirs or someone else’s, is an unscientific and false assumption that many people have. Using root cause analysis techniques such as Five Whys, it is always possible (as well as beneficial) to work backward from individuals to historical processes as the root cause of harmful events. To pin the sole blame for events on a single person or group is not rooted in reality, but on an emotional response in our brains that makes us feel happy if our preconceived notions are satisfied by certain statements of opinion.
This is not to say that persons and groups are not involved at all in suffering. Everything that a society does is done by individuals. If we find that someone is doing something harmful, we can induce a different set of behaviors by incentivizing or disincentivizing them in various ways. But individual people are only an immediate cause. They are only vessels through which prior historical causes act. First, the world conditions and convinces a person to believe certain things. Then, that person simply acts upon those beliefs. A person does not really have a free choice to act contrary to whatever beliefs they already have at the moment they are acting.
Therefore, to really change someone’s behavior, we must change the things that they are conditioned and convinced to believe. The principles in this document are understood to be part of that process.
The scientifically observable process through which a person consciously decides to do anything is based on the above conditioning and access to information. Recall that Principle 1 demands that we not succumb to hocus pocus beliefs that do not conform to reality. Belief in absolute free will has no basis in fact — it is merely an opinion and must be discarded.
One might ask why this deserves to be a separate principle in this document, if it can simply be obtained by adherence to Principle 1. From past experience, this principle is observed to be so fundamental to a correct interpretation of human behavior, and lack of adherence to it such a common pitfall, that it must be given its own principle in this list. Many ideological false starts, hatreds, and harms have been caused by believing that others freely chose from the beginning (from birth!) to harm others and are therefore “evil people”. In order to change how society functions, we need to change how people behave, which in turn requires us to change people’s beliefs and conditioning.
Principle 3:
Mutual Respect
None of us is more or less valuable than anyone else. We recognize that what knowledge or abilities we have are the result of pure chance. We did not choose our parents or the experiences we were subjected to in the formation of our talents and knowledge. Even if we caused harm to others in the past, we did not freely choose that either, as discussed in Principle 2. The past harms we’ve caused others do not make us less valuable people, and the past happiness we’ve given others do not make us more valuable people.
Because of this, we are obligated to treat others with respect regardless of who they are or their physical, mental, or historical characteristics. This does not mean that we hold all people’s ideas and beliefs in equal regard. Respect for others should not be interpreted to mean tolerance of harmful opinions. But we should understand that other people’s harmful opinions are not the result of their free choice, but the result of historical processes acting upon them.
All leadership positions within the organization are based on a desire and capacity to serve others. Holding a leadership position does not confer a sense of being better than others. All leaders of our organization must answer to the members of our organization.
Principle 4:
We Are Always Learning, Always Teaching
In the course of acting in the world, we come to discover many truths. These truths help to improve our perspective or to teach us a better way of doing things. Where possible, we should seek to incorporate the lessons learned from these experiences to avoid making harmful or time-wasting mistakes. Nevertheless, it should be understood that learning as well as teaching anything takes a finite amount of time. We should be prepared to take the time to teach others, where feasible, in the ways that will be most effective for them to learn.
We understand that we too are part of nature and do not dominate it but instead represent a movement within it. Our attitude toward nature should be one of respect and humility, since our finite brains cannot capture all of nature’s detail and intricate order all at once. We affect nature, and nature affects us. We should be prepared to adapt our beliefs, even our principles if needed, in response to new information.
Principle 5:
We Do Our Best
We recognize our own role as makers of change. Time we spend not making things better is time spent allowing others to needlessly suffer. We recognize that we are always making choices about what things to do next, and that we do not have a choice not to make this choice. Every moment we are prioritizing some actions over others. The authority forcing us to do some type of work at all times is nature itself, and nature is never disobeyed.
We should not think of the work we do as “work” in the sense of something we are being made to do but prefer not to do. At all times, we should strive to do the best we can do to make things better and to keep in mind why we should want to do this work. If we do not want to do this work, it needs to be examined whether this is really the best thing that we can be doing at the present moment. If we examine this work honestly and determine that it is the best thing we can do based on the principles in this document and the facts at hand, but we still refuse to do it, then we are turning our backs on every principle in this document.
