The Integrated, Symbiotic Systems of a
Socially Sustainable Democratic Society
I-F = Individual-Family
S-S = Social-Societal
P-G = Political-Governmental
F-E = Financial-Economic
#1.
IF
S-S
F-E
I-F
I-F
P-G
© Copyright Daniel Raphael 2016 USA
C:\Raphael\Social Sustainability\ARTICLES
EXPLANATION
The simple mechanics of the illustration above provides a view of the
stable state of a society that has become socially sustainable and selfsustaining, where all social, political, and economic systems are integrated
into a system of stable societal systems.
I-F = Individual-Family. The individual-family is source that sustains
our species; and is the foundation of civilization.
S-S
= Social-Societal
P-G
= Political-Governmental
F-E
= Financial-Economic
These organizations of these three functions provide the three
pillars that support a functional society. If any one pillar
does not do its part the society will eventually fail. When two
are failing as is the case for the United States, concerning its
F-E and P-G pillars, societal collapse is imminent within 50
years or less.
The interaction of these 4 elements provides the basis for a functioning
society, which exists in all mature democratic nations. But to create a
self-sustaining and socially sustainable society requires that each of these
4 interacting elements act as a proactive cause to support the
functioning of each of the others. What develops is a synergistic and
symbiotic interaction that creates a self-sustaining and socially
sustainable society with the longevity of centuries and millennia.
Decision-Making. The criteria used for decision-making that supports
these interactions are the six values that have sustained the human
species for approximately 250,000 years, shown in the illustration below.
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#2.
THE SIX VALUES THAT HAVE SUSTAINED OUR SPECIES
The Three Primary Values
Quality of Life
The Three Secondary
Value-Emotions
that make us human — humane:
Growth
Equality
EMPATHY
COMPASSION
“LOVE”
NOTE: “Love” is in quotation marks because love is the primary value-emotion that
the secondary values point to:
Honesty, truthfulness, respect, loyalty, devotion,
faithfulness, recognition, acceptance, appreciation, validation, discretion, patience,
forbearance, forgiveness, authenticity, vulnerability, genuineness, listening, supporting,
sharing, consulting, confiding, caring, tenderness and many more. (Source: Sacred
Relationships, A Guide to Authentic Loving, Daniel Raphael, 1999)
#3.
What is missing from the illustration above is the prioritization for making
those decisions — provided in the illustration below.
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WHAT WAS NECESSARY FOR THAT SOCIETY TO ACHIEVE THIS STATE?
 The unseen, subtle element that is not evident is the unity of
action of the four elements within that society that brings about an
at-oneness of purpose(s).
 That oneness was achieved beginning with a consensus decision
in the past by the public to move its societies toward peace, social
stability, and social sustainability.
The public had chosen to move toward social stability with the
intention of consciously creating a unified nation-society that would
become self-sustaining into the centuries and millennia.

The public had also chosen to implement conscious social
evolution as an ongoing process to implement their intentions.

WHAT ARE THE NECESSARY ELEMENTS THAT SUPPORT THE PROCESS OF
INTENTIONAL CONSCIOUS SOCIAL EVOLUTION?
 Values. It begins with the adoption of the 3 primary and 3
secondary values that have sustained our species for tens of
thousands of years: quality of life, growth, equality  empathy,
compassion, and a generalized “love of humanity.” These values
provide the criteria for decision-making to provide outcomes that
emulate the longevity of our species. These values act as the
criteria for right option-development, choice-making, decision-making,
and action-implementation.

The Family.
The family is the foundation of civilization.
* The family is the primary social institution that socializes
and enculturates next generations.

Education and Training Sources.
* Because the family’s base of social and cultural “data” for
socializing and enculturating children can easily erode after
only a few generations, it becomes necessary for society to
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re-inforce that data base in every generation with the “data”
of “what works” 1
* “What works” is what contributes to and supports both the
ability of parents to socialize and enculturate their children,
as well as what is taught to their children.
* “What works” is validated by the six core values of social
sustainability.
* “What works” provides the socialization skills and
enculturation data for the children-becoming-adult and parent
to make decisions that contribute to and support the social
sustainability of their society; and, provides them with the
skills and “data” to teach their own children how to become
socialized and enculturated contributors to their own children,
and community. A society becomes self-sustaining by
regenerating the basic, necessary information, “data,” that
supports healthy, functional families in each new generation.
 Historically, there was rarely any thought given to teaching
children parenting skills. It was assumed that children would
learn how to become parents. History also is a witness to
how this assumption has led to endemic family dysfunctions
spreading to societies that are disintegrating.
 Organizations. Societies are not identifiable entities; and only
come into existence because of the interaction of the public and
organizations. Because of the amorphous nature of societies,
societies are unable to make decisions, making their functionality
and existence totally dependent upon the decisions of individuals
and organizations.
A society will be not be able to achieve the stable state of social
sustainability until the organizations within it begin to emulate the
longevity of our species by using the criteria of the six core values
in their decision-making.
1
Wright, Kurt. 1998. Breaking the Rules, CPM Publishing, Boise, ID
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ISBN: 0-9614383-3-9
“Organizations” include all organized and unorganized groups of
people whether they are government entities, corporations, fire
departments, justice organizations, neighborhood home owners
associations, or a chess club.
 Ideology. Because values provide the criteria for all decisionmaking, when we engage all of our existence with these values in
mind, we have created an ideology of social sustainability. Just as
money in all its forms provides a universal ideology of valuation for
almost everything, values provide a subtle, assumed ideology for
decision-making. But because there has never existed an integrated
set of values (ideology/morality) for sustaining individuals, families,
organizations, and societies into the centuries and millennia, we are
left with a confused, inaccurate, and faulty means of decisionmaking that “makes us happy” sometimes, but often leaves us
floundering trying to figure out why our life and our purposes are
not more successful.
Our old object-quantity ideologies have caused immense, societywide separation between people, and isolation of those who do not
fit the ideological mold. It is the cause of intense competition as
we compare our self, our lives, lifestyles, and material
accomplishments to others, and others to us, whether impoverished
or humongously wealthy. The old ideologies are the cause of
social problems, social instability, and social dysfunction, rather
than social evolution and the self-generation of social solutions.
 Morality. When an ideology of unified, integrated, and systemsgenerating set of universal begins to be used as the central criterial
for decision-making, it then takes on the nature of a morality. In
the case of using the values of our species, then society,
organizations, will provide the decision-making support for societies
that can reasonably become socially sustainable into the centuries
and millennia.
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THE 1ST ILLUSTRATION —
The first illustration provides a the well evolved state of a society that
has chosen to become socially sustainable where all social-societal,
political-governmental, and financial-economic systems provide the
wholism of a self-sustaining system. The discussions developing from the
2nd and 3rd Illustrations provide us with the major elements that are
needed for those systems to work together into future centuries.
What, then, were the primal cause and originating causes that brought
such a sustaining system of systems into existence? What we see is the
clean and pristine model of a sustaining democratic society. What we
are not seeing are the messy processes that brought that into existence.
And surely, someone and many others somewhere began to move
democratic societies in that direction.
Every ideal that has ever become a practical reality began with an idea,
a set of values, someone, or some group that felt self-empowered, and
who willed to initiate the practical steps that started the ball rolling.
SELF-EMPOWERMENT, THE WILL TO INITIATE —
As I sit before my monitor, working the keys on the keyboard, my mind
continues to go to the present time in the United States. It is now June
14, 2016 with the Republican and Democratic primaries behind us. Their
respective candidate nominating conventions have yet to occur with
Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton most likely to be the nominated
choices for the presidential elections in November.
With prescience, see the next five months before the elections as an era
of historic, pivotal importance.
 The Republican Party has virtually imploded with respected and
nationally prominent republicans distancing themselves from their
party’s candidate.
 The Democratic Party’s candidate, though the first female
presidential candidate, represents, to many tens of millions of
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Americans another one of the “good ol’ boys” of many decades
past who manipulate positions of authority, control, and power.
With their success in the election, it will remain “business as usual”
with little or no change in the status and empowerment of the
average citizen.
The motive force for permanently obliterating the Republican Party would
be the rise of another political party —
— one that is more “liberal” than the Democrats;
— one that has a value system that empowers all citizens equally,
and that empowers the remnants of Bernie Sander’s following;
— one that would provide the break from our historic 1 st Paradigm
of Democracy, and initiate the future of the 2nd Paradigm of
Democracy. 2 In essence, the 1st Paradigm of Democracy that the
founders initiated in the Constitutional Convention of 1789-91 has
come full term. It has fulfilled its design and stands ready to
support its redesign in the form of the 2nd Paradigm of Democracy.
Such an initiation must bring with it a value system that fully
includes all of the values of democracy, and expands them.
Without an integrated value system, any new political party will simply
become another iteration of the traditional political parties with their
traditional, male-dominated, linear process of politics. It seems obvious
that it is time for a new political party to come into existence, one that
is based on an integrated values system, one that resonates with the
public, and is firmly grounded in the values that made democracies the
foundation of a maturing civilization. There is great evidence that there
is great disappointment that Bernie Sanders did not become the chosen
candidate of the Democratic Party. Perhaps this offers his energetic,
young followers the rare opportunity to initiate a new party, with a new
candidate selection process. Certainly the times is very ripe for this to
occur.
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Raphael, Daniel 2016. The Progressive’s Handbook for Reframing Democratic Values. (Unpublished,
178 p., 40k words.) Available as a PDF from the author: [email protected]
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