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Promotion of conscious and consistent application and optimization of the concept of Three Basic Synergies (physical, mental, spiritual) in healthy organizations

Development of collective morale and efficiency as functions of leadership

Organizations as embodiments and mechanisms of the members' individual and collective empowerment through synergy

Repudiation of personality-centered organizational practices with 'superman'-type, superstar, 'infallible' or dictatorial leaders, on the one hand, and nominal, fans-club-type or slave-type members, on the other.

  1. Total Human Development and Harmony Through Synergism

  2. Holistic Health Care and Medicine

  3. Deep Ecology and Harmony with Nature 

  4. Sense of History and Sense of Mission

  5. Civics and Democratic Governance

  6. Culture as Community Creativity

  7. Light-Seeking and Light-Sharing Education

  8. Gender Sensitivity, Equality & Harmony

  9. Reconstructive/Restor-ative Justice

10. Associative Economics, Social Capital and Sustainable Development

11. Synergetic Leadership and Organizations

12. Appropriate/Adaptive Technology

13. Mutual Enrichment of Families and Friendships

14. Human Dignity and Human Harmony: Human Rights and Peace

15. Aesthetics Without Boundaries: 'Art from the Heart'   

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Be an Empowered Member

By Ed Aurelio C. Reyes

Prof. Reyes is one of the foremost champions in the Philippines of the serious study and conscious application of the synergism principle on various fields of human concern.  He taught synergism-oriented subjects of Applied Cosmic Anthropology, the doctoral program of Asian Social Institute (ASI) in Manila.

This article as rewritten in 2004, is based on the author's "Notes and Outlines for Discussion, Application and Evaluation" first written as part of the author's The PSE (People's Self-Empowerment) Chal-lenge, which came out in 1996 in a pilot edition with a very limited number of copies.

EFFECTIVE ASSERTION of every citizen’s basic human right to freedom of association is practically as important as the right itself being enshrined in all Constitutions that can validly be claimed to be democratic.

But unlike the constitutionally-asserted right to remain silent during interrogations by arresting agents of the law, the right to freedom of association and the right to peaceably assemble for the redress of grievances are so diluted, or left out altogether, in government information and explanation that they are practically kept secret so they would not be optimally exercised by the sovereign body politic.

Right to Association belongs to Each Individual

The Right to Association belongs to each individual citizen. If it were otherwise, the citizen would be placed between entities that may politically seek to curb it, and those that may politically seek to require it. The right to association has its equally-valid converse, the to choose not to associate.

The citizens must therefore be politically educated enough to know fully where lie their respective stakes of their respective real legitimate interests, and to make informed choices as to which advocacies they would each treat with priority attention and action, and to make informed choices, as well, as to which forms to employ in the active pursuit of their respective chosen advocacy(ies). The last question pertains to whether they see this or that organization or organizations as effective tool or tools for advancing their respective advocacies.

From the foregoing, each citizen has the right to freely choose along the following options:

1. Decide on your personal vision and mission in Life; don’t let others do the deciding for you. What do you want to be your very own gift to society, and towards what purpose?

2. On the basis of your personal capabilities and circumstances, determine how you think you can best implement your own choices in number 1.

3. Choose an organization that can help you de better, easier and more effectively what you determine in numbers 1 & 2. Join that organization and be a good member. Stay in it while it helps you implement those choices. Be honest.

4. If you cannot find an existing organization that meet your requirements, start your own.

Using any physical or psychological force (like emotional blackmail) in the recruitment of members is a violation of the right of each of such conscripts to free and informed choice, a violation as heavy as unduly preventing them from joining.

(It should be added here that organizers should know well how counterproductive it is to conscript "volunteers" and trust these to do members' tasks well if at all. At the same time, honorable citizens are only those who, having exercised to option to join an organization, actually deliver of commitments they clearly declare.)

Right to Peaceful Assembly of the Sovereign Citizen

Enforcers of law and order in states seriously claimed to be democratic have had to be reminded repeatedly that the full exercise of the right to peacefully assemble is not something for them to tolerate, let alone maximally tolerate (as in "maximum tolerance").

In a real working democracy the exercise of the right to peaceful assembly for the redress of grievances, even if it disturbs vehicular traffic, is never supposed to be condescendingly tolerated especially by mere generals or even lower officers of peace and order functionaries. It is supposed to be saluted.

But this also has largely been  kept a secret so the police generals can periodically seek to elicit popular gratefulness to their "generosity" (actually, ignorance!) while they mouth such an undemocratic term as "maximum tolerance" in the face of any of the peaceful assemblies of their sovereign employers.

On their behalf, we can only seek the forgiveness of democracy itself... for they know not what they say.

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