OTHER POLICIES

Updated 2001 February 18

Any comments or suggested changes in these policies can be sent to the Stewardship Project, project.@.the-stewardship.org.

Civil

― Geographical divisions by administrative dialect only ― fluid cultural zones as the operative provinces of the world.
― Interim government structured according to the parliamentary system, with parliament holding all state power under a written constitution. Elections at large by party list with proportional representation.
― Imprisonment for violent transgressions only; imprisonment as protection, not as punishment (hence no forced labor or corporal punishment). Primary defense against non-violent actions is passive barriers (locks, walls, computer security). At most, non-violent actions which have economic consequences may be sanctioned economically, by fine or loss of privileges.
― Single age of majority recognized by the state, at which all privileges and responsibilities come into effect ― civil independence, voting, standing for office, driving, financial responsibility, criminal liability. No trial or punishment of minors as adults for any crime.
― No revocation of voting rights for any reason.
― Permanent guarantee of the right to personal arms.
― Full subsidy of: basic nutrition; health care; training at all levels; mass transit; communication. Basic support would include shelter allowance of [-] m² for each individual (with combination of allowances for joint households). Each household equipped with communication terminal.
― No expenditure on space exploration or development until poverty is eliminated on Earth.

Social

― End of uncritical belief; each individual autonomous in thought. Elimination of the concept of sanctity.
― Broad-based knowledge and skills encouraged for all individuals, including basic levels in many areas.
― Replacement of legal marriage with domestic partnership, to include familial and non-familial, sexual and non-sexual relationships, of two or more persons, and according children increased status as partners.
― End of sexual taboos, including nudity, homosexuality, incest, masturbation.

Communications

― Local and personal names in native forms whenever possible. Use of Hellenistic alphabet.
― Disuse of eponymy, euphemisms, formal address, titles. Use of single standard name of address.
― Use of metric system.
― A single world time ― prime meridian standard.
― Use of generic names whenever possible.
― Eventual use of hexadecimal system for numbers.

Conservation

― [in]% of land designated wilderness. Designation of tundra, mountain, and desert regions as wilderness. Other land use categories: resource production; resource exploitation; recreation; urban. Eventual elimination of resource-exploitation category.
― Voluntary limitation of two children per parent (no person the biological parent of more than two children) with the goal of rapidly achieving population stability and eventually population decline.
― Immediate, intensive research into solar energy; ultimate use of the sun as primary source of energy.
― Eventual elimination of animal food.
― Eventual elimination of private use of pollution-causing transportation.
― Cities constructed around networks of public transportation and greenways and connected by high-speed mass transit network. Development expanded upwards, not outwards. Return of land to wilderness with population decline.
― Protection of life and habitat for all primates, marine mammals, and elephants.
― Immediate research into organic conservation tillage; ultimate universal implementation. Return of highly-erodable land to permanent vegetation.
― Eventual disuse of non-renewable resources. Eventual recovery of usable materials in landfill. Reduction of overall production of goods. Complete recycling of all recyclable materials. Research into recycling of other materials.
― Designation of all waterway corridors as primarily natural within [in] m of the banks for every m³/s of flow. Encroachment limited to [de]% of the total length of the waterway and [de] m for any continuous length.

Note: [-] represents a fixed number, [in] a number which increases over time, [de] a number which decreases.

© O.T. FORD