With apologies to FromWade subscribers for cross-posting.
I’ve reframed the website as a constantly updated digital book rather than an online encyclopedia. The homepage now features the book’s working title, Systemic Reform, and I’ve changed the “Resources” drop-down menu heading to “Content.” This menu now begins with “Preface” and “Introduction,” followed by the chapter titles.
The “Learn More” links under the chapter images on the homepage continue to summarize the chapters, but soon the drop-down links will lead to more extensive content with essays with links to the Knowledge Base, which will serve as endnotes. The Index will continue to link to the Knowledge Base resources.
Though many people have made valuable contributions to this project, which I appreciate, my efforts to recruit a co-editor or co-authors have failed. Likewise, my discussions with potential partner organizations have not panned out.
So I’m accepting that I’m the editor and lead content author. This approach requires more solitude, so I’m learning how better to be alone and refrain from so frequently asking for feedback.
Rather, I’ll digest the research I’ve conducted and the input I’ve received so far, present my conclusions to the best of my ability, and trust that they’re sensible, unique, and important. Perhaps someday they’ll ring more bells and garner more engagement.
In the meantime, I’ll proceed as if thousands of people read my work, my Daily Reflections and What’s New with great interest, subscribe to the monthly Mutual Empowerment newsletter and the daily Wade’s Wire, and take action to advance a systemic reform movement.
Soon, drawing on three recent generous donations, I’ll hire a part-time administrative assistant to help clean up the Knowledge Base. The latest draft of the job description is here.
My cancer doctor told me, “You beat the odds. Your cancer will not kill you.” I’ve almost recovered from the injuries I suffered from a recent fall, and soon, my apartment should be completely free of bedbugs. These difficulties have hampered my productivity, but with the excitement of a New Year, I look forward to being bug- and bruise-free and getting into a better groove.
Regardless, I appreciate your interest.
For 60 years, I helped organize egalitarian communities whose members supported each other in becoming better persons and more effective activists. Now I sum up what I’ve learned.
Though my methods have changed, more than anything, I’ve wanted a global society that’s fair and kind. This site explores how to move in this direction.
Within institutions and informally, countless individuals and organizations empower the powerless, control the powerful, live in harmony with Mother Nature, promote fairness, relieve suffering, and cultivate positive cultural change.
Unfortunately, however, this compassionate humanity community is fragmented. Its members don’t see how their efforts are interconnected. They fail to unite, address root causes, and support each other.
My goal is to help unify this community and thoroughly and fundamentally reform our society into a compassionate community.
Utopia is impossible, but we can make steady progress. We can make incremental improvements while at the same time building support for deep change.
A good first step is to face and name our primary problem: the System. The roots of our fragmentation lie in the larger social system. Society encourages everyone to climb social ladders and look down on, dominate, and exploit those below — and submit to those above — for personal gain.
Our institutions, our culture, and ourselves as individuals are woven together into a hyper-meritocracy rooted in rugged individualism and winner-take-all competition. The System rewards division with financial incentives, and we reinforce the System with our daily actions. Wealth, power, and status become ends, rather than means to a higher goal.
This hyper-competitive individualism breeds bitter power struggles that undermine solidarity. We must establish new, more compassionate social structures — and reform existing ones — as well as work within them to make incremental gains and nurture individual and collective empowerment.
The inflated quest for upward mobility afflicts almost everyone if not all. Unfortunately, however, few people who engage in compassionate action focus on overcoming these weaknesses. I know of no organization that sets aside time for its members to support each other with unlearning the desire to dominate and the willingness to submit for personal gain.
Twelve-step support groups and many other projects have demonstrated that peer support can help people reach personal goals and thrive more fully. Social service and political activists can learn from these efforts. This website explores how we might do so.
In recent decades, to explore how we activists might be more effective, I’ve conducted strategy workshops, engaged in extensive research, shared drafts of proposals, interviewed individuals, circulated online surveys, and experimented with specific methods to help bring about fundamental and comprehensive reform.
Self-development can serve a greater end. We can care for ourselves so we can better care for others. We can find a balance between being selfish and sacrificing too much. We can build strong communities and strong individuals. We can find solutions where everyone wins. We can prevent suffering by correcting root causes.
Ego, arrogance, the desire to dominate, and the willingness to submit get in the way. Bitter power struggles divide organizations. People assume leaders are those who can get followers to do what they want, which undermines mutual empowerment.
I’ve had this problem and still do. I know it’s better to work with others to solve problems, but I’ve struggled to live up to this ideal, I’ve formed strong opinions about the right action plan and recruited people to support it. I’ve been too focused on proving myself and gaining recognition and become too vulnerable to hostility, criticism, and disappointment. I’m not alone.
This website promotes holistic and systemic change. It’s holistic because it involves the whole person and the whole society. It’s systemic because it proposes that we adopt a new primary purpose for our society and establish new ways of organizing our activities (structures) to serve that purpose — while preserving healthy traditions.
The proposals presented here aren’t a blueprint. The focus is on articulating a worldview that might serve as a foundation for lasting unity. Specific policy proposals that flow from this worldview are presented for the sake of discussion to clarify possibilities. Many people have helped with this project, but I assume responsibility for the final edits.
I know my current audience is small. These big questions are hard and I may be wrong on major points. Nevertheless, the response I’ve received so far has been largely supportive and I still believe that what I’m saying is unique and important.
So I hope that someday, thousands will be engaged with this project and I work AS IF they were. Regardless, many people are on similar wavelengths, and eventually, we may grow in number and come together to change the world.
I invite you, dear reader, to share your thoughts, experiences, and suggested resources to help improve this effort.
—Wade Lee Hudson
1/23/24