Reasons to be Cheerful Embodies Investigative Journalism in A Golden Civilization

Reasons to be Cheerful refers to itself as a non-profit editorial project that is tonic for tumultuous times. Using the kind of evidence-based investigative journalism George describes in A Golden Civilization and the Map of Mindfulness, Reasons to be Cheerful spreads the word of institutions living out their visions of a better world, what we know to be A Golden Civilization.

History of Reasons to Be Cheerful

From their website, “Reasons to be Cheerful was founded by artist and musician David Byrne, who believes in the power of approaching the world with curiosity—in art, in music, in collaboration and in life. Under the banner of Byrne’s Arbutus Foundation, Reasons to be Cheerful embodies this sensibility, applying it now to the future of our world. Through stories of hope, rooted in evidence, Reasons to be Cheerful aims to inspire us all to be curious about how the world can be better, and to ask ourselves how we can be part of that change.”

“Reasons” are smart, proven, replicable solutions to the world’s most pressing problems. Sharp investigative reporting balance healthy optimism with journalistic rigor and find cause for hope. The goal for the platform is “part magazine, part therapy session, part blueprint for a better world.”

Investigative Journalism in A Golden Civilization

From A Golden Civilization and The Map of Mindfulness: “The overarching standard for media to be a transparent window on our world must be to model integrity and deliver freedom, all the while seeing into the cutting edge of what is required for civilization to flourish. In a Golden Civilization, all people have access to media, Media embodies the highest standards of truth-telling. Investigative journalists are stars. Scientific discovery, self-knowledge, and great hearts are norms, inspiringly so. The best of journalism approaches works of art. In a Golden Civilization, we think of media as figures or expressions or experiences of wisdom, with authenticity flourishing on all levels.”

With stories about organizations making a difference in Civic Engagement, Climate/Energy Culture, Economics, Education, Health Science/Tech, and Urban/Transportation, Reasons to be Cheerful is impacting their readers with stories meant to inspire and give hope, while also spreading knowledge of the compassionate, wise work of these organizations. Truly an embodiment of great hearts and great minds.

Produced and Directed by Nick Schiarizzi Videography by Jack Pearce Animation by Scott Gelber Music by David Byrne https://reasonstobecheerful.world/

Recent "Unbreaking America" Video Echos A Golden Civilization's Emphasis on Getting Money Out of Politics

As a follow up to their last viral video, Unbreaking America: Solving the Corruption Crisis starring Academy Award winning actor Jennifer Lawrence, RepresentUs has released a new video staring Michael Douglas, Unbreaking America: Divided We Fall to discuss a recent Harvard Business School report on election corruption and Represent Us’s solution to a polarized, party-run America.

In the video, Douglas summarizes the major findings of the study:

• Contradicting public assumption, there is actually no correlation between how well an elected representative serves the people and their chances of getting re-elected.

• Major political parties actually threatened to blacklist the political campaigns of candidates that had strayed from party lines

• 68% Americans want an alternative to the two party system, but third party candidates are viewed as “spoliers.”

• In 86% of house races, we know which party will win the election. Therefore, decisions are made in the primaries, where the turnout tends to be more partisan. Thus, the parties move further and further apart.

• The result of these findings is that bipartisan and humanitarian issues are being left behind as the candidates are less and less able to reach across party lines to pass policy.

RepresentUs has a solution that is based on enacting change in municipal and state elections as a means of influencing federal elections. Landmark voting reform has been achieved this way, a chief example being women’s suffrage.

The American Anti-Corruption Act will:

• Appoint an independent entity to redraw voting districts

• Give everyone a $100 tax credit to support a candidate of their choice

• Ban lobbyists from supporting political campaigns

• Impose reasonable term limits

• Employ a system of rank choice voting so that other parties can run without being in direct competition with the Republican and Democratic parties

• Develop secure voter registration and vote from home ballots to increase voter turn out and representation

Ending on an uplifting note, Douglas notes that there have already been over 100 victories in cities and states across America.

In A Golden Civilization and The Map of Mindfulness, George Kinder writes a similar conviction, “There can be no deliberative democracy, but only obstructionism and polarization, if our politicians are bought. A politician’s constituency becomes one person, their political contributor who is their boss, and the politician is not hired to make the best decision, but to obey. Political boss donors don’t care a lot about your wisdom, your ethics, your morality, as long as you do their bidding.”

He posits 7 Steps We Would Need to Take Money Out of Politics:

• Top level politicians must choose between money in the marketplace and service to all citizens

• Until we get money out of politics, politicians should recuse themselves from voting on their own interests or the interests of primary campaign contributors and other sources of money for themselves or their family members. The top 10 donors for any campaign must be transparently and prominently displayed.

• The American people (the voters) should demand formation of a commission with the power to take money out of politics

• Ban all political advertising

• Vet politicians thoroughly, potentially via investigative journalism (specifically, their finances)

• For the executive and judiciary branches, corruption (as in campaign finance) should be viewed as treason and punished as such

• Impose maximum annual campaign/political contribution amount set for all donors, billionaires included (perhaps 10% of the minimum basic income in society)

RepresentUs is the nation’s leading right-left anti-corruption group, bringing together conservatives, progressives and everyone in between to pass anti-corruption laws in cities and states around the country.

Sidewalk Talk

Traci Ruble has started a grassroots movement to help promote human connection. Coming from a therapy background, Traci was looking for a sense of connection that was missing from her therapeutic work, because of her need to listen in order to help someone. She wanted to create a space where she and others could practice just listening to other people without being utilitarian about it (listening with a purpose in mind, whether it be to get something out of the experience or to help someone), so she created Sidewalk Talk.

Setting up “impromptu offices” on city sidewalks in San Francisco originally and now around the world, volunteers ask people on the street, “Would you like to be listened to?” Traci guides the listening volunteers in workshops, asking that they frame their conversations with two purposes: “I want to know who you are” and “I deeply honor you.”

A majority of the chapter leaders are licensed therapists or coaches, but anyone and everyone is encouraged to participate and learn these listening skills.

Roughly 12,000 people around the country have been impacted by Traci and Sidewalk Talk’s work, and over 400 referrals have been given out to low fee and no fee counselors. Traci hopes that lesson in listening will help create a society where everyone feels heard. She hopes that we can get to a place where “society creates mental health instead of mental illness.”

Tracy also has a podcast, where she hosts weekly interviews about wisdom and human connection. She hopes to spread the idea that when we hear each other we change the world by creating belonging, inclusion, and wellness. We are excited to announce that George has been asked to appear as a guest on an upcoming episode, more information to follow about this exciting news!

Jane Goodall - Mother Earth

“You cannot get through a single day without having an impact on the world around you. What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.”

~Jane Goodall

Backpacks For The Street

Inequality is an obstacle that often shows up in Golden Civilization Conversations. Here’s “a grassroots movement” that’s helping “make the lives of people who are homeless a little bit easier.” With backpacks!

“The first Backpacks For The Street program took place on March 27, 2018, in New York City. With 19 volunteers, lead by Newman and Conner, the crew handed out 75 backpacks, made up of more than 5,000 individual items, to the homeless over a four-hour period.”

Find out more: https://backpacksforthestreet.org/

From Ecocide to Ecolibrium: The Great Turning | Polly Higgins

Click Here to read the Guardian article by George Monbiot

The Most Powerful Activist in America Is Dying

Ady Barkan has a terminal illness and can barely speak. That hasn't stopped him from using his voice—and his ailing body—to fight for a progressive agenda.

By ARTHUR ALLEN

Nancy Pastor for Politico Magazine

Click here to read the full article

"The strongmen strike back"

by Robert Kagan

Authoritarianism has reemerged as the greatest threat to the liberal democratic world — a profound ideological, as well as strategic, challenge. And we have no idea how to confront it.

How the oceans can clean themselves – Boyan Slat on TEDx

"A ‘Disgusting’ Yale Professor Moves On"

Article by Frank Bruni

How a target of students’ ire came to write a book about humanity’s transcendent goodness

Read More of this Story Here

“To accept this belief that human beings are evil or violent or selfish or overly tribal is a kind of moral and intellectual laziness,” he told me. It also excuses that destructiveness. “The way to repair our torn social fabric is to say: Wait a minute, that’s not quite right.”

Rapidly advancing technology and the falling costs of clean energy make the Green New Deal’s goal of transforming the U.S. economy to zero emissions by mid-century eminently achievable

Photograph by Jason Andrew / Redux

“Right now, we have about ninety per cent or ninety-five per cent of the technology we need,” Mark Jacobson, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Stanford, told me. In a series of papers, Jacobson and his colleagues have laid out “roadmaps” to a zero-emissions economy for fifty states, fifty-three towns and cities, and a hundred and thirty-eight other countries, with a completion date of 2050. Just as in the Democrats’ Green New Deal, the central element of these roadmaps (and others) is converting the electric grid to clean energy by shutting down power stations that rely on fossil fuels and making some very large investments in wind, solar, hydroelectric, and geothermal facilities. Jacobson said this could be completed by 2035, which is only five years beyond the target set out in the Green New Deal. At the same time, policymakers would introduce a range of measures to promote energy efficiency, and electrify other sectors of the economy that now rely heavily on burning carbon, such as road and rail transport, home heating, and industrial heating. “We don’t need a technological miracle to solve this problem,” Jacobson reiterated. “‘The bottom line is we just need to deploy, deploy, deploy.”…. Read more of this story on The New Yorker

Life Without Plastic: Pioneer Families Show How It’s Done

We can all take some of these small steps to reside our waste.

Click here to read this article from The Guardian