If John Lennon were living today, he might have written one more verse for his song “Imagine” …
. . .
Imagine there’s no market
It’s not hard if you try
No advertisements, no commercials
Nothing to sell or buy
Imagine all the people
Helping others, in each and every way
. . .
You may say I’m a dreamer,
But I’m not the only one
I hope some day you’ll join us
And the world will live as one
. . .
Timothy Wilken
Imagine a community where the members freely help each other by gifting Goods, Services, Knowledge and Compassion. Where they help each other unconditionally just because they want too.
There are no exchanges. No bartering. No haggling. Just people helping people. The market roles of sellers and buyers have been transformed into the co-operative roles of GIFTors and GIFTees. Imagine a new system where every member is both a giver and a receiver of help. As a GIFTor, you meet the needs of other members with your gifts. As GIFTee, your needs are met by receiving the gifts of other members.
Our members understand that we humans are an INTERdependent species —that we depend on each other —that sometimes I will need your help, and sometimes you will need mine.
Imagine the community has a website that displays all the available gifts and all the current needs of its members for browsing and searching. It serves to connect those with gifts to those with needs, and those with needs to those with gifts.
Whenever a gift is given or a need is met, the gifting event is rated by both the GIFTor and the GIFTee. These ratings from one to five stars as well as optional written comments become a permanent part of our member profiles, and serve to inform all members in future gifting events. Within our imagined community, helping others is an open and transparent process.
When you request a gift from another member, they have the opportunity to view your membership history, profile, and read the comments made about your previous gifting events. They may or may not offer the gift to you. All gifting is voluntary.
When you are offered a gift from another member, you have the same opportunity to view their membership history, profile, and read the comments made about their previous gifting events. You may or may not accept the offered gift. All receiving of gifts is voluntary.
When both a GIFTor and GIFTee agree to a gifting event they are provided with contact information so they can meet in the real world.
This gifting process is a move from Market to Co-operation. Our relationships with each other are naturally personal, supportive, and caring. We do best when we treat each other as loving family.
Within gifting community, you will soon discover that the best strategy is to Be Love and to Do Good. Your goodness will be of such value to gifting community, that you can trust the gifting community to insure that you Have Everything you need.
WE-ness
Timothy Wilken
If we are to move beyond adversity and conflict – if we are to move beyond neutrality and anonymity, then we must get to know each other. The secret of creating synergic relationship is WE-ness. Synergic relationship is close and personal. It requires trust, caring and commitment. It requires honesty and openness.
Trust is not a new word for humanity. It was coined long ago when the world was first dominated by the adversary way.
Synergic Trust is more that Trust.
As children we all taught that it is better to give than to receive. Certainly, that seems like an excellent philosophy for making close relationships and living in the social world. Jesus of Nazareth is credited with saying: “It is Better To Give Than To Receive.”
My focus as a synergic scientist is on understanding how humans can relate together using structures and mechanisms that will insure that all parties to a relationship win. That means that all parties to the relationship feel they are better off with the relationship than they would be without the relationship. Each participant determines for himself whether a relationship is synergic, adversary or neutral. This is determined from his point of view, and he cannot be fooled.
We are either more happy, more effective, more productive because of the relationship; or we are less happy, less effective, less productive because of the relationship, or our happiness, effectiveness and productivity is unchanged by the relationship.
The truth is in the eye of the beholder. We can’t be fooled. However, the effect can be partial. There may be relationships that are partially synergic, and/or partially adversary, and/or partially neutral.
True synergy exists when all the participants of a relationship are more happy, more effective, and more productive. True synergy is WIN-WIN-WIN-WIN. I win, you win, others win and the Earth wins.
In today’s world, most humans use monetary exchange and the fair market to meet their needs. In this paper, I will propose a radically different mechanism that humans could use to meet their needs. I will show that our present system of monetary exchange and fair market while important in the history of our human species is now obsolete.
The mechanism of the Gift Tensegrity is derived from a number of new and old discoveries in synergic science. Synergy means working together – operating together as in Co-Operation – laboring together as in Co-Laboration – acting together as in Co-Action. The goal of synergic union is to accomplish a larger or more difficult task than can be accomplished by individuals working separately. These new and old discoveries include:
1) The Golden Rule – Help others as you would have them help you. And, do not hurt others as you would have them not hurt you.
2) Human INTERdependence – The human condition of INTERdependence means all humans need help. This is important enough that it can not be said too often. All humans need help unless they wish to live at the level of animal subsistence. INTERdependence means sometimes I depend on others and sometimes others depend on me.
Sometimes self is a giver of help. Sometimes self is a receiver of help. Sometimes other is a giver of help. Sometimes other is a receiver of help. Sometimes my actions help others meet their needs. Sometimes other’s actions help me meet my needs.
3) Tensegrity – A tensegrity is a balanced system composed of two elements – a continuous pulling balanced by discontinuous pushes. When these two forces – continuous pulling and discontinuous pushes – are in balance, a stabilized system results that is maximally strong. The larger the system the stronger the system.
The Gift Tensegrity is a new mechanism for the human exchange of goods and services. This new mechanism is radically different from the way we do things today. Nothing really effects our lives more than the way we exchange goods and services. That makes this discovery of potential interest to all humans.
“Give, and it will be given to you.” “This is a law of life. And the more lavishingly we show kindness and concern, the richer is our life. In what manner we get back what we have given is of minor importance. The only thing that Life promises is that Life pays back all its debts to us.”
Synergic Trust means that while I can rely on you not to hurt me, I can further rely on you to help me. And, while it is safe to assume that you are not my enemy, it is further safe to assume that you are my friend. Synergic trust is much more than simply the ability to rely on the absence of a negative. It is that plus the ability to rely on the presence of a positive. Synergic trust means that I can rely on you, not only to not hurt me, but also to help me.
In the future, we humans can use co-Operation to attract help from others by insuring that those who help us are also helped.
When we co-Operate, others will seek to invest their action with ours for a share of the co-Operators’ surplus. They will understand that when we win, they will win, and they will support and celebrate our every success.
If we humans choose a synergic future, we will trust each other. We will care about each other. We will help each other. Our relationships will be loving positive experiences. We will all win. We will be more together than we can ever be apart.
We humans can create a future based on synergic trust. We can build it by working together. We can heal ourselves and our world by co-Operating. The choice is ours.
GIFTegrity Defined Read the Scientific Basis for the GIFTegrity Specifications for a GIFTegrity More about Gift Economy
If you are new to synergic science, the basics are covered here: We Can All Win!(PDF) See in html: 1) Understanding Life, 2) Three Ways of Relating, 3) The Relationship Continuum, 4) Three Classes of Life, 5) Human Neutrality, 6) INTERdependence is the Human Condition, 7) What is Wealth?