The Plan

The upstander actively confronts the choice of whether to defy immorality or keep quiet and accept things the way they are. As Hannah Arendt has powerfully said about humanity: “It is always possible to say ‘yes’ or ‘no,’” and upstanders are exactly those who want to make decisions about when to say “no” to evil. The civil courage that characterizes the upstander is, in the words of the founder and first president of Oxford University’s Templeton College, Uwe Kitzinger, “the courage of the non-conformist.” It is the courage that risks social disapproval, the capacity to resist by thinking critically with one’s own mind, and the will to be an active participant in life, not a passive bystander. Regardless of their differences in age, gender, literacy, religious affiliation, ethnic identity, or wartime roles, upstanders share the bravery to risk their lives rather than commit or be complicit in a crime. When so many other people choose to comprise their morals in order to survive, the upstander’s actions suggest that we must not allow ourselves to be debased by circumstance: To retain our dignity, we must sometimes refuse to live life at any cost.

I seeks to develop a complete and stand alone culture, from basics of language( like the “Four Books and Five Classics” of China) to a social institutions that encourage the development and admiration of upstanders.

The next level down is a P2P virtual world system called Alfredo Metatopia, It's purpose is to connect people of different cultures and promote empathy for the 'other'. More about Alfredo Metatopia(AM here after) http://toohna.ourproject.org/crap/kickstarter_desc.html

The first step in making AM is WoMon. A research prototype to figure out the reequipments of AM the tech needed meet them. For more about WoMon http://toohna.ourproject.org/RPG/index.php?title=YMO_desc

Our activities:
1 Create a culture that produces Upstanders(active)
1.1 Create institutions that encourage upstandership.(actice)
1.1.1 Create The Order of Her Noodly Appendage(active)
1.1.2 Help Stateless persons create their own nationality so they don't have to wait for one of the current nationalities to let them join.(dormant) We call this Mukokusekistan http://toohna.ourproject.org/stuff/mukokusekistan.draft2.html
1.2 education(active)
1.2.1 Alfredo Metatopia(active)“Give me a boner big enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world. ”
1.2.1.1 design a compelling and research based serious game to educate people.(active)
1.2.1.1.1 WoMon "Learn how to have a good marriage and HOW TO NOT DATE RAPE PEOPLE, because apparently you need to be explicitly taught that." "Pokemon with Sexy Monster Girls"
1.2.2 Open Source Art Fund. give money to people for creating AGPL compatible art and Open source tools useful to make it. (I'm note sure in the legel terms but colloquially commissions/grants/awards)(active)
1.2.3 create an International Auxiliary Language(dorment)
1.2.3.1 develop grammar(proposed)
1.23.2 develop lexicon(proposed)
1.2.3.3 set up a disglossia so that the IAL is a prestige "high" language so that future generations will be able to read the works of previous generation(proposed)
1.2.3.4 develop auto translator to and from the IAL 'high' language to the native 'low' languages(proposed)
1.2.3.4.1 adapt Ian Douglas Horswill's MKULTRA(proposed)
1.2.3.4.2 integrate the tech from adapting MKULTRA into AM(proposed)
1.2.4 Stumpers!(crowd source the answer to questions that have you stumped by turning into into a quiz contest)(active)
1.2.5 Work with Safe conversations (or develop our own equivalent) and develop MOOCs that empowers people to talk without criticism, listen without judgment, and connect beyond differences.(proposed)
2. get people to put the skills we teach into action(proposed)
2.1 recreate 'Deutschland spricht' in the global scale(proposed)
2.1.1 arrange meetings with people with different views(both explicitly matching and implicitly in other match making services) (proposed)
2.1.1 Max Tegmark's Improve the News but for social networks(proposed)
2.2 develop serous games to get people to practice the skills(when all to have is a hammer everything looks like a nail)(proposed)

The Wholly Marines

courage

Army, Air Force, and Marine Generals are standing in front of a rappelling tower with a Navy Admiral. The Air Force General says to the others, "My men are the most courageous of the Armed Forces."

"Ha!" says the Army General, "My men are the most courageous and I'll prove it."

The Army General calls a Private over from the tower. He tells the Private, "I want you to jump off that tower - no rope, no parachute."

"Yes, Sir!!!" the Private yells and proceeds to climb the tower. The Private walks to the edge, yells "Hoo-ahh!" and jumps off the tower. He is killed instantly upon impact.

"That's nothing," the Air Force General says. He calls a Senior Airman over. â€oeSon, I want you to jump off that tower - no rope, no parachute and I want you to do it with style."

"Yes, Sir!!!" the Senior Airman yells. He climbs to the top of the tower, walks to the edge and jumps. He executes a swan dive that would make Greg Louganis proud, hits the ground and dies on impact.

"Hmmph," the Marine growls. "Ya'll obviously forgot the Marine Corps are here."

He calls a Lance Corporal over. "Marine, I want you to jump off that tower and make the Corps proud!"

The Corporal yells, "Ooh-rah!", by way of response and runs to the tower. He grabs an M-60 and ammunition belt on the way and wraps the belt around himself in the Poncho Villa style. He climbs the tower and walks to the edge. Upon reaching the edge, he throws two grenades into the air, yells "Semper Fi Do or Die!" and jumps off. He starts shooting the M-60 in mid-air, clipping tree tops and yelling the entire way down. His impact is obscured by the two exploding grenades. When the smoke clears, only little pieces of the Marine are left.

The others are impressed and nod their heads in admiration. Then the Admiral says, "That's nothing." The others turn to face the Admiral, their faces in disbelief. The Admiral calls a Seaman over who was cleaning latrines. "Son, I want you to jump off that tower - no rope, no parachute."

The Seaman looks the Admiral in the face and says, "Why don't you kiss my *** and jump yourself!" and walks off. The Admiral turns to the others and says, "Now THAT'S courage!"

Why the seaman disobeyed

It's Damage Control is one of the first thins that drill into you and they drill it in hard.

Darden ethics professor Bobby Parmar reviewed Stanley Milgram's famous experiments on authority and obedience. and found out what separated those the obeyed and those that disobeyed.

"When we looked at the data, particularly at what people said during the course of the experiment, we saw that the real issue that comes out of the Milgram experiments is whether participants perceived that they had a choice or the right to end the experiment, not whether they wanted to stop. Most people knew that something immoral or unethical was going on, but they assumed that it was the authority's responsibility to end the experiment. For example, participants said things like do you want me to stop and don't you think we should do something about that man in there? Some participants tried to get the experimenter to change his choice by pleading or begging him to look in on the learner. Others however, figured out that they didn't have to continue with this experiment if they didn't want to. These people simply left, they made statements such as I don't want to do this anymore or I don't think that this is right. Disobedient participant said things that exhibited more personal agency and they illustrated that they saw the option of leaving the experiment. Whereas most of the obedient participants didn't see the option of leaving, even though they were uncomfortable with the experiment. In addition, disobedient participants were significantly more likely to explore the effects of their actions. They would ask questions, like what happens if I get all the way to the top? Or how do you know that he'll be okay? This helped them figure out and articulate reasons to stop the experiment. "