The Thwink.org paradigm in a nutshell

A sustainable world requires all three pillars of sustainability to be strong. Weakness in any one pillar will cause weakness in the others and determines a system's overall sustainability, just as a chain is only as strong as its weakest link.

Let's consider a simple argument. It consists of three premises and a single conclusion:

Premise 1 - Too many areas of the world have these problems:
- Environmental unsustainability (Environmental Sus Pillar)
- Recurring large recessions or depressions (Economic Sus Pillar)
- Excessive unemployment (Economic Sus Pillar)
- Excessive income inequality (Social Sus Pillar)
- Excessive poverty (Social Sus Pillar)
- Recurring wars (Social Sus Pillar)
- Political corruption (Social Sus Pillar)

Premise 2 - Millions of dedicated activists, scholars, community leaders, politicians, and concerned citizens have worked on the above problems for generations or longer. Despite that effort, no solution is in sight for any of the above problems.

Premise 3 - All problems arise from their root causes.

Conclusion - It follows that the only possible reason these problems remain unsolved is that popular solutions do not resolve the root causes. Therefore the above problems are not a permanent part of the human condition. They are solvable. They are just as solvable as the autocratic ruler problem, the slavery problem, the universal suffrage problem, and the civil rights problem.

If this argument makes sense to you then you will find Thwink.org to be an educationally rich website, chock full of useful insights and tools designed to help you and your organization solve problems whose solution would benefit the common good.

SPECIAL NOTE - The new website design is almost done. If you start to dig into Thwink, try the new website. It's a complete redesign in order to better focus and convey the message. On the big blue arrow menubar everything is done except for Publications, General, and The Goal. The foundation of the new website is the Glossary.

A Little Story

Can an analytical "resolve the root cause" approach help the Occupy Movement solve its problem? Find out in A Little Story about Corporate Dominance and the Occupy Movement. The story begins with the fact that the corporate life form's goal is the short term maximization of profits. It's an important story, because one of the symptoms of corporate dominance is all of the common good problems listed above in premise 1.

Common Property Rights

The Common Property Rights book is done! This book summarizes the research findings of Thwink.org over the last ten years.

The central message of the book is that difficult social system problems can be systematically analyzed to find their root causes, which can then be resolved by informed reengineering of the system's structure. This requires a problem solving process that any dedicated activist, scholar, or organization can learn and apply. The one used in the book is the System Improvement Process.

The book also presents its flagship solution element, Common Property Rights, in elaborate detail. Common Property Rights resolves the root cause of improper coupling between the economic and environmental systems by making a fundamental but simple change to property rights law.

The highlight of the book is the Summary of Analysis Results. This represents the future of environmentalism.

The Dualistic Nature of the Sustainability Problem

The essence of the Thwink.org paradigm has been summarized into one page. A single diagram is used, as shown.

The idea is that difficult social problems have an inherently dualistic nature: the obvious side of the problem and the hidden side. Traditional viewpoints like Classic Activism see only the obvious side, which is the green portion of the upper layers. An analytical viewpoint is required to see the rest of the layers, all the way down to the root causes and their fundamental solutions.

 

New Tools for Activists

This pamphlet presents three new tools for activists and shows how beneficial they can be, because they fill enormous holes in traditional activism.

The pamphlet was written especially for the Sierra Club. Its message, however, applies to all activist organizations as shown in this passage:

"In difficult social problems, change resistance is the crux. It must be solved first because until change resistance is overcome proper coupling is impossible."

"This is an important insight that once fully accepted will have deep ramifications. The Sierra Club’s many campaigns will have little effect on the overall sustainability problem until the change resistance subproblem is solved. This implies a refocus of how the club is organized. Currently there is no significant analysis function of the problems the club is working on. That void can be filled the same way business handles its own analysis problem: by creation of a well staffed, well funded, process driven R&D department. The output of R&D becomes the input for the club’s main departments of conservation and communications—just as the output of R&D feeds manufacturing and marketing in the business world."