A lot of people are working hard to make the world a better place, but building a better world means different things to different people. The Catholic Church and Planned Parenthood are both built around the idea of going to the people and giving them what they need, but the two organizations have vastly different perceptions of the world, different objectives, and different approaches.
Here are a dozen statements about the world. For each statement, decide whether you agree or disagree.
| # | Statement | Yup/Nope |
| 1 | I believe that using only current technology it is possible to give the whole planet the kind of life-style that the Americans have. | |
| 2 | Money can buy happiness, at least when used with shrewd, practical, common sense. | |
| 3 | I believe the children of the developed nations have a right to more and better food, education, and health care than the children of developing nations. | |
| 4 | Inheritance is an inequitable custom by which rich kids stay rich and poor ones stay poor. All children deserve equal treatment, regardless of their parentage. | |
| 5 | From each according to their abilities. To each according to their needs. | |
| 6 | I believe everyone has the right to an equal chance, without regard to race, sex, nationality, or other attributes of birth. | |
| 7 | I think we should solve our own problems here at home before we try to help people in other countries. | |
| 8 | There are a billion people without enough to eat in the world today. We need to help those people even if it means using up resources and mortgaging the future. | |
| 9 | We must save the environment at all costs, even if it means cutting back on global energy use and allowing some of today's population to die. | |
| 10 | The previous two questions are too negative. We have sufficient resources to protect the environment, take care of today's population, and plan for the future. | |
| 11 | Whatever happens here on the earth, it's imperative that we get off the planet before it's too late. Saving the race is more important than saving the earth. | |
| 12 | It is within my power to change the world-to make it more fair, more safe, and more humane. |
(For those of you who are curious, my own answers to these questions are "yup" on 2, 4, 6, 10, and 12, and "nope" on the rest.)
Each of us has our own world view, our own beliefs, values, priorities and objectives. That's great--it gives us diversity and individuality. So when we set out to change the world we focus on different problems. In this letter I tend to focus on my own priorities, but I also present a great deal of information intended to be useful to people with very different priorities. The following pages present ideas, tools, and techniques which address how we identify and attack problems, regardless of personal objectives.
The first step in any endeavor is to define objectives and priorities. The questions above are examples of questions that can help to identify beliefs, objectives, and priorities. By identifying objectives early on, you free yourself to rationally weigh problems and solutions in terms of your own objectives.
| Exercise | Get a copy of Balance of the Planet, a computer game that uses a mathematical model to reflect a systems viewpoint of the world. After playing the game a couple of times, adjust the scoring constants to reflect your own personal priorities and goals. (See the appendix entry on Balance of the Planet for a brief review of the game and information about how to get it.) |
The Bottom Line
Perceptions and objectives are the foundation of all action, so
strive to declare them explicitly.
