(PS: Feel free to s/right/my_PC_term_of_choice/g ! Clarity good, whilst sidetracking to the point of burying the conversation is subversive to our collective and mutually beneficial intersts ! ) Perhaps this thread might be most useful for summarising/ sifting/ poignantizing the foundations we hold as important, and create separate threads laterwards to discuss any particular foundation, once we have at least a modicum of shared common agreement on the foundations. Here follows a first rough draft for: Foundations for Sanity - collective responsibility: We have a duty of care to one another and to nature, when doing anything in life, to take reasonable steps to avoid and to minimise the likelihood of harm to others and of harm to the environment. - individual responsibility We have a right to make all choices in respect of our own individual safety, health, reproduction and living / survival in general. Examples include the wearing of a bicycle helmet whilst cycling, wearing seat belts, rock climbing and skydiving, and eating takeaway food three times a day. - respect for the freedom, inherent dignity, rights and sovereignty of every human Although we may 'punish' or otherwise un-sanction our fellow society dwellers who enage in activities in ways which fail to demonstrate reasonable consideration for the safety of others, we shall limit our collective enforcement to not include activities which infringe no soul other than the individual soul himself. - the right for individuals to associate, or to not associate, with other individuals, at any and all levels (local, 'state', 'national') - the right to survive / live / thrive ("pursue happiness"), implying and including the following rights (add others as relevant of course): - the right to travel (work, find food, find a mate) (i.e. travel in ways commonly used to travel, e.g. drive a car) - the right to collect rainwater - the right to grow any plant, for any purpose which purpose does not endanger others nor infringe their individual sovereign rights - the right to keep and herd animals - the right to build dwellings and other buildings for our own chosen purposes - the right to think any thought (may become important in the near future) - the right to speak any words - the right to communicate on all political topics * The naming and writing in any foundation statement, and any particular right or foundation, shall not be taken to limit the expression, understanding nor intent of any other stated foundation. (And here we descend into the murky world of qualifications, slippery slopes and endless argument... I do not know how to avoid this part.)