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Positive Change as the new "PC"
 We are developing an online course on positive change, one that is adaptable to most any educational level in any society throughout the world.
Here is a working outline for our course, written in this case as a seminar for university-level students. Please send your comments and suggestions to Devon White at peace@humanity.org.
Thank you!
SEMINAR ON POSITIVE CHANGE
Is it an inherent human responsibility for each of us to try to make a
positive difference in the world? How do we each go about doing so? How
can we best measure the results, both for those we would seek to benefit
and within our own lives?
This seminar would investigate positive change, from the most dramatic
and long-term initiatives to the simplest, quietest individual effort
to make life better for someone else.
We will examine the motivations of well-known idealists and dreamers as
well as some of the most respected leaders and organizations of our time.
We will consider what disciplines have perhaps a disproportionate power
for positive change.
Finally, acknowledging the many crises in today's world, we will speculate
on ways in which our societies might foster visionary leadership more
successfully.
This course is proposed as a seminar, with at least one structured debate
at each meeting of the class.
SYLLABUS
(still in development)
"Man is the only animal that laughs and weeps; for he is the only animal
that is struck with the difference between what things are and what they
ought to be."
William Hazlitt
I Is it an inherent responsibility for each of us
to try to make a positive difference in the world?
What do our own ethical and religious traditions tell us? Does participation
depend on financial or social resources? To what degree should we commit?
Does it matter if we do nothing? Are we aware of possible negative influences
on the world? What are the things to change, anyway?
II Self-assessment: a necessary measure of commitment.
Are we born to be idealists or activists? To what degree? How do we withstand
ridicule, censure, isolation, poverty, or imprisonment?
III "If I were king..."
Do our leaders, elected and appointed, seek positive change or power?
Does war ever lead to positive change?
IV What is the range of possibilities?
Historical models, large organizations, governments, individuals, and
small-scale changes.
V Gender, race and religious distinctions
Have they made a difference in history? Do they make a difference now?
VI Money
How is it used? What does giving money actually accomplish? How should
we qualify potential recipients?
VII How do I become more of an activist?
Where do I begin? Whom do I trust? What are my goals?
VIII What is my return on investment?
Spiritual, financial, social, personal...
IX Heroes of positive change, nine case histories
The independent activist, within the system:
Bill Drayton of Ashoka
The independent activist, outside the system:
Albert Schweitzer
Architect: Le Corbusier
Sculptor: Michelangelo
Adventurer: Jacques Cousteau
Politician: Teddy Roosevelt
Photographer: Sebastiao Salgado
Writer: Rachel Carson
Filmmaker: Robert Redford
X The special role of the artist: Leonardo da Vinci
From the caves of Lascaux to digital art of the modern day, what roles
do artists play in positive change?
XI The special role of the inventor: Thomas Edison
Was the wheel invented with good intent? What about gunpowder? Or printing?
Or computers?
XII Would you give up your life?
Karen Silkwood, Gandhi, soldiers
Bibliography
(partial, excerpts from:)
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