Striving towards a good society

Torah teaches that it is our duty to imitate the thirteen Divine qualities of goodness embedded in God's thirteen names, as given in Exodus 34:6-7. They are: productivity, interdependence, reciprocal love, responsibility, sharing joy and pleasure, patience, individualized mercy, honesty, gratitude (loyalty), forgiveness, humility, hopefulness, and justice. The whole of the Torah is the system through which these qualities are to be maximized in the life of the individual and in the character of a society.

2. There is a sense that "both Left and Right have failed to come up with the answers", as witnessed by the mass collapse of communism, and the malaise that has gripped the Western democracies. Her people have become alienated from the political process and to an unhealthy extent from each other. Authoritarian systems: communism, fascism, religious fundamentalism don't work because they control the masses with social engineering. Democratic systems are a big improvement, but they are (currently) flawed because too many of us are not responsible enough with our given freedoms. The reality is that we are bypassing the goal (that all deeply desire) to strive for and live in a good society. Good societies require good people.

What is proposed is an "inside-out/bottom up" approach with oneself as with society, to the "roots" of the matter if you like. "Inside-out/Bottom up" can be summed up by words such as "grassroots action", "communitarianism", "humanitarian", and "environmentalism", among others. It includes: centering oneself upon the basic universal principles of love, honesty, hard work, self-reliance, tolerance, patience, unselfishness, sharing, dignity; becoming less me, me , me and more we, we, we; a responsible attitude and maturity towards one-self and people or situations one comes into contact with, including parenting, volunteering in the community, family members, work colleagues, community members. This should be accomplished voluntarily because people must voluntarily want to be responsible to be truly responsible citizens (without needing control). People must independently choose to become interdependent.