...which might be just as well!
Halcyon's work is centred on values, but as in any other area of life, it's good to get the occasional reminder not to take oneselves too seriously...
Global poverty reduction needs broad support across civil society as much as grand goal-setting, via an international social norm that sees the persistence of extreme poverty in as morally unacceptable.
Theories of a multiverse and nonlocality may go some way towards countering the anthropic principle, but what about down here on Earth? The current rush towards social(ist?) media presupposes that we are biased towards cooperating with one another more and more, a presupposition that certainly feels warm and cosy and toasty during these cold, dark days, and it is certainly how I would like to feel about myself...but is it really true?
Developing explicit statements about organisational values can be fraught with problems.
"If we could agree, as a species, what we wanted, where we were headed, and why, then we would make our future much less dangerous - then we might understand what we can and should relinquish" - Bill Joy
This feels right - idealistic but not utopian, as we have to start somewhere, don't we? Halcyon will look at whether any surveys already exist that ask people around the world what their core values and hopes are, so that we can try and arrive at at least the most basic consensus.
The Association for Living Values Education is an international NGO comprising independent, locally-run organisations committed to promoting values in education.
The European Values Study is an ongoing, cross-national, and longitudinal survey about basic human values, focusing on life, family, work, religion, politics and society.
"Humans have many more options before them than they currently believe, but what to do with too much information is a great riddle of our time", says Theodore Zeldin.
The concept of nudging has been in vogue recently, with its notions of "choice architecture" and gently pushing people towards pro-social behaviours, including ideas as prosaic as painting a fly onto urinals to help men take better aim! (Persuasive technology and captology cover similar themes.)
Is an erosion of wider societal values in the business world one of the primary reasons of the current economic crisis?