A world worth living for all

A largely equitable and secure world in harmony with nature instead of the consumer society dividing people in poor and rich, destroying the resources for the future through depletion and continously producing garbage mountains and lies for the purpose of fueling targeted conflicts thus is no longer a positive utopia! Because humanity has for some time now the necessary knowledge and all the parts needed for building a new society without hunger, exploitation, oppression, destruction, wars and without many of the common diseases. However, huge economic interests prevent the necessary changes. Too much is at stake for the powerful of this world and the escalating greed for profit and power is affecting more and more people. This rampant greed promotes corruption, leads to the exploitation of many defenseless and to destruction of the environment, motivates the accomplices necessary for these as well as for other evils and seduces many citizens with a penchant for hedonism. It blinds many people to the plight of others as well as to the ongoing destruction of endangered communities of diverse species with their natural habitats and to the needs of future generations.
With your help, LIFE UNION wants to heal as many as possible of this momentous blindness in order to direct their views to the most burning problems and realistic solutions. Intensive engagement with these problems as well as the conjointly development of solutions for their earliest possible implementation are therefore given the highest priority. Every human being has the right to sufficient clean drinking water, enough uncontaminated food, education, basic medical care and appropriate protection against weather and violence. Also animals are entitled to a species-appropriate life without unnecessary torments and persecutions by humans. Even plants should be saved from any arbitrary destruction. In particular, trees and other perennial or rare species of wild plants are not only living beings with their own rights of existence, but also carriers of ecological functions indispensable for the survival of an immense variety of species including humans. Due to dependencies of all these creatures on their natural habitats, these biotopes should be protected as well as possible. The conservation of natural ecosystems and the protection of animals and plants of endangered species will benefit those living now and in the future. This alone is reason enough for a responsible dealing with our environment!

Fair income and distribution of wealth!

The unjust distribution of wealth is explosive for society and the source of many of its aberrations. Unused assets are preferably invested at a profit, thus creating debts to investors. Debts often cause problems to the debtors, including their distress and despair. The resulting financial pressure often leads to looting and destruction of other living beings and natural habitats, but also in attacks on fellow human beings with property violations as well as to suicides by those overwhelmed by too much of this pressure. The redistribution of wealth and fair incomes that serve the survival of poverty-stricken people are indispensable prerequisites both for the lasting protection of social peace and for the preservation of natural ecosystems!
One cause of the extremely unequal distribution of wealth is the increasingly divergent income gap. In many countries, the wage for one hour of work of the best earner, including special allowances, now exceeds one thousand times the hourly wage of the minimum earner! This unfairness shouting to heaven continues beyond the end of working life. For example, luxury pensions in many places exceed 100 times the minimum pensions, thereby contributing significantly to poverty in old age. Particularly affected by it are people in poor countries, which do not provide any old-age pensions or other forms of support to their neediest compatriots. The injustices of the existing pension systems are exacerbated again indirectly. Because often only the recipients of higher pensions have access to good medical care and the knowledge necessary for the prevention of some diseases, accidents, poisoning, wrong nutrition and other risks and the possibilities for enough relaxation and beneficial physical exercise. All this, as well as the elimination of existential concerns and the associated stress usually give the economically privileged people a longer life. In wealthy industrialized nations, their spouses usually benefit from generous widow’s pensions. Since wives in the upper classes are often unemployed, correspondingly unused, and often much younger than their husbands, many of them later enjoy generous widow’s pensions that can last for decades. The immense costs of such long-term pensions are financed via the work of the low earners and of younger generations in these countries. All these asocial distortions attributable to human greed must be stopped as soon as possible!

Coexistence and compassion instead of violence

The current state of our society and the environment are primarily the result of an eternal succession of exploitation, destruction, robbery, murder and other forms of human violence and counter-violence! Probably since time immemorial, aggressive behavior of power hungry people determined much of the local events. It is likely that this almost uninterrupted series of violent acts was largely fueled by manipulation by leaders and opinion makers. Furthermore, historians have proved with innumerable examples the subsequent glorification of bloody violence of frightening proportions. As a rule, the victors of enormous conflicts wrote and retouched the story for posterity, dictated the course of the future to those who were at a loss in the war and motivated many imitators to use violence and exploit the weaker. In principle, hardly anything has changed in this old way of proceeding, as the current wars prove.

On the other hand, the destructive potential of modern weapons technologies has increased exponentially and could destroy all life on the surface of the earth. Also, the objects of desires have changed in part and the contents of the propaganda preceding and accompanying the wars were adapted to current times and circumstances.
Typical of all conflicts is the lack of respect for the opponents and the artificial highlighting of differences to them. In contrast, respect, the concentrated search for similarities and their recognition, as well as a natural solidarity and connection to other people are the keys to a peaceful and, in the long run, successful coexistence. Without such respect and solidarity, the door is open to exclusion, persecution and excessive force. Massive deployments of organized violence against fellow human beings are the darkest aspects of human existence and continue to proliferate. According to recent estimates, more than two hundred million people were killed by genocide and wars in the last century alone, and such insanity due to lack of respect continues unhindered!
Similarly, the lack of respect for other creatures prevents an end to the unnecessary violence that is used against them by people worldwide. Only respect and understanding of other living beings and natural attachment to them can ensure a sustainable coexistence of humans with them without such violence. Thus, environmental problems in the broadest sense often involve arbitrary violence against parts of nature. Animal suffering is often caused by violence. Similar to violence among humans, their use of violence against animals and plants is largely due to human greed. The more greedy people are, the faster grow the risks that they become violent against other species.
Due to the fundamental rejection of oppression and the desire for justice and sustainability, LIFE UNION aims for a largely non-violent society. Any form of human violence that does not serve the protection of threatened life or that of property created solely by diligence, is to be strictly rejected! Because violence has always been learned from others, it often engenders counter-violence, gets around very quickly and can continue for generations without interruption. LIFE UNION aims to do as much as possible to break this fatal spiral and to prevent any unnecessary human violence through all non-violent means.

It needs global environmental protection laws!

The devastation of the environment, which is raging in many places, gives the humanity totally focused on itself little time to act. Modern industrial and consumer society lives well beyond its means and consumes a large part of the Earth’s reserves of energy and raw materials, although it supplies only a privileged minority of the world’s population with them. Naturally, their apparent wealth is also sought-after by many people in emerging and developing countries. However, the largely limited resources and production areas as well as the continuously increasing world population prevent a lasting extension of the high standard of living in wealthy industrial nations to the poorer countries. Because the rich North is rather unwilling to give up anything and share the available resources fairly with the poor South on the one hand, while on the other hand, the emerging economies will not relinquish their aspirations to a decent standard of living in favor of the rich industrialized nations, the final plundering of resources, the pollution of many still clean waters and soils and the destruction of the last major forests in the southern hemisphere seem inevitable. In the face of these terrifying prospects, environmental protection nowadays is by no means a luxury, but a global necessity. Without a quick turnaround in this direction, increase the risks of maximum credible accidents in our environment, large-scale chaos and thus, an emergence of new dictatorships.
The value systems of successful religions and politics, which dominate civilisation for more than two thousand years, were not able to offer universally valid and acceptable rules for a sustainable coexistence. Because both these value systems always pursued only the interests of specific groups of the population. On the one hand, they bring consolation to many suffering people by arousing hopes for redemption after death or for justice in the future. On the other hand, these hitherto dominant “moral” regulations continue to bring exclusion, persecution and wars to people who think differently. Religions as well as politics tolerate indeed countless destructions and atrocities over other species. In contrast to these two very differently interpreted, often intolerant value systems which are also torn internally by sometimes fatal hostilities, environmental protection relies on an exact natural science, namely ecology. This science aims at exploring the relationships of diverse life forms among themselves as well as with their habitats and recognized the impenetrability of the innumerable dependencies within the biosphere. For these reasons and because environmental problems overcome national boundaries and are inevitably linked to social problems, environmental protection in the broadest sense deserves the highest priority worldwide! Added to this is our responsibility to future generations, which prohibits us from ruthlessly plundering their vital resources. The objective of protecting the environment as best as possible from harmful human activities can only be achieved through a globally applicable environmental law.

True democracy is still a distant goal!

Because of the intrinsic interests of influential oligarchies, true democracy will probably remain a beautiful dream for some time to come. In truth, democracy has never been achieved, not even during the first attempts to do so in ancient Greece, when significant perts of the population were excluded from participation. In the best case, we live in socially inspired mock democracies with some freedom and some co-determination. Even their supposedly representative character leaves much to be desired. Questionable practices of the so-called “representative democracies” erode their most important values ​​and goals and serve less to their populations, as the preservation of established power structures and the further concentration of fortune in favor of installed oligarchies. Among the shortcomings of current mock democracies besides the neglect of the interests of many citizens who feel that they are not represented by any of the parties, exist frequent anti-democratic censorship, restrictions on voting, biased election campaigns and promotions, false promises, undemocratic mandate distributions, trading of positions, secret negotiations and pacts, obligatory constraints of political parties, privatizations of elementary utility companies at dumping prices as well as other highly questionable representations of interests by politicians who regularly deceive their own electorate. In practice, the alleged democracies turn out to be a form of government, in which voters manipulated by the mass media elect those politicians, who will decide for them during the ensuing years without consulting them and who regularly disregard the interests of voters and their own electoral promises.
Outside their state borders, the economic activities of such “democracies” are primarily causing the endangerment and impoverishment of countless people and entire nations, systematic exploitation of diverse resources and accompanying environmental degradation in poor countries. In addition comes their active support for dictators who forcibly suppress and persecute local citizens as well as tortures of foreigners on their behalf, which for political reasons are secretly carried out in prisons of friendly states. It almost seems as if a number of mock democracies renounce the last vestiges of decency and morality outside their national territories and far from the looks of their peoples, and at the same time bring out their ugliest side. Nonetheless, these mock democracies like to present themselves to the rest of the world in a brazen and instructive way as exemplary models!
Moreover, modern “democracies” are all too often involved in international conflicts over coveted commodities. If their own troops do not participate actively, they will send there counselors, weapons and other technology, as well as capital, drugs and other warfare-related resources. Mock democracies are responsible for the greatest wars and violations of international law of our time and for many environmental crimes! As if all this was not enough of evil, mock democracies create and export the vast majority of weapons worldwide. They even supply bloodthirsty dictators with many weapons and war material, which are primarily intended for the persecution of political opponents and the oppression of their subjects and of people in neighboring countries.
With your support, LIFE UNION seeks to expose the political sanctimoniousness and to give a chance to real democracy worthy of that name, because it leaves all important decisions to its own people as only sovereign, and not to international oligarchies. Otherwise, the expansion of the dictatorship of capital that is already prevalent in many places at the expense of weak people as well as the natural environment and thus many living beings, will multiply unnecessary suffering and death!

Consideration instead of exploitation

For a long time, animist religions ensured the survival of people organized in small tribal societies and integrated in the natural communities of their habitats. This was achieved through balanced and sustainable relationships with various species, whose continued existence was essential to them. The increasing prevalence of humans, increased conflict with neighboring tribes and, above all, growth thanks to innovative agriculture and the prospect of more power in larger societies, may have led particularly ambitious leaders to new faith and therefore to a coup against the well-established animist religions. The widespread extinction of the animist religions was probably possible because the new faith leaders motivated their followers with the promise of additional privileges to overthrow the ancient religions. The tantalizing prerogatives that had been promised to them for the first time, were derived from the inviolate special status that the emerging religions had assigned to the people, or rather the men, at the head of the newly created hierarchy of life. This self-serving enthronement of humanity as the crown of creation, with unrestricted rights on all other beings, considered from then on as subjects without rights, has survived to this day as the prevailing world view. Since then, this anthropocentric view has, in the first place, tempted men who seem to understand themselves to be something like the most important parts of this crown, in many places to attacks against women, other species and the environment. The megalomania, which stems more from the male desire for domination, which places our species above all life and into the center of the cosmos, is the basis for the exploitation and destruction of other species as well as for pollution of the environment and therefore also the greatest danger to the survival of humanity on this planet. Since this megalomania spreads among people based on the absolute confidence in the power of their mental abilities, there is the seemingly paradoxical dilemma, according to which it is the intelligence of Homo sapiens, which also threatens its own future because of its delusion and detachment from the non-human nature. It has made possible the instrumentalization of all things, which has produced destructive technologies, exploitative economic concepts, political repression and other threats. Obviously, it takes more than human intelligence alone to master the challenges it poses, to solve the great problems of our society and to preserve the livelihoods of humanity and the world around us. Looking through recent human history for sustainable forms of society, one finds only indigenous cultures that managed to survive for several thousand years. Those of these people who survived at least until the nineteenth century, before falling victim to the greed for land and diseases imported by white settlers, transmitted the lore of the most successful human survival strategies. Above all, they survived so long, because they saw themselves as a natural part of a larger whole and cultivated respect for their environment and for the resources they needed. This sensitive approach was backed up by a careful attitude and age-old natural religions created by intuition. A glimpse into the past on cultures surviving over thousands of years in relative harmony with other living beings, reveals the approximate direction for a reliable strategy for a sustainable future.

It is high time to give up the human claim to dominance and merely rational access to other living beings and to replace it by the recognition of their intrinsic rights and a spiritually enriched approach to them guided also by intuition. Because human intelligence requires wise guidance and control through disinterested and global ethics to contain its rapidly growing destructive potential and its susceptibility to abuses!

A radical change of values

A significant portion of all human endeavors and the majority of investments made in our primarily materially-oriented society ultimately serve to drive competition. They are aimed primarily at personal, predominantly economic benefits. Where egoism and avarice are more and more frequently setting the tone and where career and wealth are considered to be the most important goals in life, there is hardly room for solidarity and compassion towards weaker, suffering and endangered creatures. For this reason, more and more people are suffering hunger, thirst, poverty, oppression and easily preventable diseases and poisoning. The almost global spread of the pursuit of personal profits and other benefits is also the catalyst of almost all senseless suffering of animals and the endangerment of countless species and natural habitats. Not least, greed for profit is the main cause of environmental damages caused by humans. Thus, the eternal run of countless individuals for more wealth and power is the cause of most evils on this planet. This momentous and unhindered greed is in dire need of effective countermeasures to contain and prevent it. A radical shift in values, ​​away from personal enrichment and selfishness towards global welfare, more harmony, empathy and altruism, today appears to be an indispensable prerequisite for the sustainable survival of human life on Earth. However, the concept of global welfare proposed by LIFE UNION breaks through the boundaries built up purposely between humans and other species, and includes the fauna and flora into a reckless coexistence in the sense of a global community of life.
In their relationships with fellow human beings and with other forms of life, people usually seek the differences first, thereby creating opposites, dividing lines and potential sources of conflicts. The shift from our society divided at all levels, to a global and cross-species cohabitation that seeks common ground, admires natural diversity and wholeheartedly considers the needs of succeeding generations, would be kind of a cultural quantum leap in human evolution! Such a change, however, presupposes the ethical renewal of our society, which must include all relevant institutions and is dependent on adequate legal support. Without the introduction of holistic ethics, which emphasize the interdependencies within the biosphere in the crucial systems of education, research, economics, politics and jurisprudence, a sustainable coexistence of people with a diverse natural environment is unthinkable. The timely updating of these societal systems according to the actual state of knowledge, as well as the current challenges and dangers, in turn require a holistic, ethical renewal of the most important religions and sciences.