Big Picture Overview

We are lighting tiny fires of warm renewal through building flourishing communities, one courageous and compassionate connection at a time.

Darkness is rising up, connection down.

Our communities are awash with increasing levels of loneliness, anxiety and distress. Increasing uncertainty, disagreement and violence. Increasing cost of living and everyday struggle. There’s a disturbing sense that something is seriously going wrong around us. Our world is growing dark, hope is flickering out, people are looking for answers.

Unfortunately, the disconnection and social disintegration we experience in our modern world can too often have us looking for answers in the wrong places – authoritarian leaders and extremist politics. These ‘strong men’ authoritarian leaders promise to fix our problems for us.

It’s tempting ’cause we can be experiencing persistent anxiety, self-doubt, and a loss of personal significance. That they are lying to us big time can take a while for us to realise. But in the mean time we experience growing chaos.

Result being, from this calamity and strife arises increasing polarisation and even hatred. Bitter and divisive argument over what is going wrong and what needs to change. Friendships, families and communities falling apart. Disputes based on different perspectives on politics, religion, race and how to sustainably care for the planet and its people.

The authoritarian lie of blaming the powerless

And in the midst of this existential crisis, one key fact is remarkably clear – the voices which are the loudest and most powerful tend to spin stories which put the blame on individuals and groups of minorities. They lie to distract and control us.

“Young people are lazy.”

“Empathy is killing civilisation.”

“Homeless people are losers.”

“People suffering depression are weak.”

The list goes on . . . .

When ‘scapegoating’ is increasing, like now, it warns of significant social decline. It signals that a society is failing to solve its core problems. Instead of dealing with the real roots of an issue, people blame a weaker target. That’s how authoritarian leaders work.

Economic systems boosting up the rich

Another key fact is also remarkably clear – the growth of inequality is on steroids. The wealth of the ultra-rich goes up like a rocket. That the many are getting pushed down and the few are getting pushed up is no coincidence. They are two sides of the same authoritarian coin.

Research over decades reveals how inequality harms the many and favours the few. History paints a picture of the human ‘journey’ as being a cycle with the rise and fall of the ruling few accumulating wealth and power to the detriment of the many.

At this moment, the wealthy, powerful few are up; inequality is high; the many are sinking into poverty and despair. History tells us this does not last. Humpty Dumpty up on his wall always falls. The big economic crash is coming.

Standing together, making change, flourishing

Historically, when inequality starts to fall and equality starts to rise, it has not been due to the exercising of conscience in the ruling few. It has not been those living their careless lives of comfort and opulence suddenly coming good. We see this portrayed with Tom and Daisy in The Great Gatsby who smash up things, retreat into their money and let other people clean up the mess.

No. The rise of equality comes from the rise of courage, compassion and the collaborative standing-together of the many. They connect in mutual support and in resistance against the inequality and its immoral nature. It’s the many who make the difference. The many connecting.

The power of the working class generated through uniting and self-organising for community problem solving is too often dismissed by the powerful few as something dysfunctional and dark. History and the science of evolutionary biology and cultural evolution tell a contrasting and compelling story. One filled with hope for the many.

The science is clear. Human flourishing and problem solving is based on fundamental human relationships of equality and collaboration in groups. Courageous and compassionate mutual support, not just to one-another but for the greater web-of-life, is the foundation for human prospering. This contrasts sharply with the inequality and extractive goals of those who seek to lord it over others through the hierarchy of empire whether it be political, religious or corporate.

The Project is about community renewal

Our Project is a grassroots community movement dedicated to restoring the type of authentic human connection which values equality over inequality, collaboration over competition, building community health over letting elites build an unequal society of division, competition and rule by the few.

In connecting in this way, the many generate flourishing for the peoples and sustainability for our planet.

Our Project has a simple strategy. Build a small group of connected, collaborative people and facilitate experiences of relational belonging, empowering purpose, and affirmed identity. Learn from it. And repeat. Ad infinitum.

Strong people, strongly connected and strongly collaborating who exercise equality and democracy, are the ultimate community problem-solvers, bringers about of healthy reforms, and lights in the darkness. It’s not rocket science; it’s simply being authentically human like the darkness of this age tries to prevent. We humans are made for banding together and driving out the darkness. The darkness fears the rise of this natural human, democratic and collaborative connection. Because then, it loses.

We stand together, we stand strong, we have hope. This website lays it out; we encourage you to dive in and consider joining or networking with us. Let’s stand together in the fire’s warm companionship and reweave a fairer and more sustainable flourishing future for all of us.