Douglass Community
Community Guidelines and Policy for all Douglass Technology, Products, and Initiatives
Douglass Community
Beloved Community Pledge
For Peace, Love and Purpose
At Douglass we are committed to a world where Peace, Love and Purpose replace hatred, exploitation, and violence. Now is the time to create technology for: Peace, Love and Purpose in order to bring about a new Modern Future of Joy and Abundance for all.
The Beloved Community Pledge
- I recognize the humanity of the multitudes that are oppressed, persecuted, incarcerated, and in struggle.
- I declare that violence, poverty, racism, sexism, incarceration, surveillance, militarism and environmental destruction cannot persist.
- I recognize that reparations and atonement are part of a needed community healing process.
- I recognize that Housing, Food, Health Care and Education are Human Rights that will be provide to all.
- I pursue a world of Peace, Love, Purpose and abundance for all.
- I make change through nonviolence and radical love for all and for our sacred planet.
- I commit to the inspired change needed to create a more humanely just and coherent future.
- I commit to becoming aware of those forces that seek to undermine the Beloved Community.
- Whenever possible I will use (and create) technology that is aligned with Peace, Love and Purpose.
Take the Pledge
Douglass Community Economics
The illusion is broken
We are currently witnessing the unfettered and unapologetic violence of institutions and systems that create oppressive artificial sacristy, genocidal nationalist ideologies, cults of individuality that smother the light of interconnectedness, and a faux secularism that renders the earth and all life as commodities easily disposed of and replaced.
The illusions of normality projected by antiquated systems of oppression have only recently been broken by the reality that the earth and all life are in a death spiral.
The death knell is a time of awakening from all illusions that create violence and suffering as a means of capturing the collective emancipatory freedom dreams of the multitudes.
In this moment of awakening, we are called to abandon all oppressive systems of power, so that we may free the capacity of our collective dreams to create modern realities of new emancipatory political and economic spaces that are grounded in the ideals of the Beloved Community that recognizes the interconnectedness of all.
Douglass Community Economics
Douglass Community Economics breaks the illusory constraints of artificial zero sum driven scarcity that has for too long hindered our ability to imagine modern transformational emancipatory alternatives.
Recognition of the fundamental dignity of the 8 billion plus who make up humanity requires that we no longer agree to relegate some to a life of drudgery so that others may be free. It means we must share out the work that remains to be done in a technologically advanced society, so that everyone has the right and the power to decide what to do with their time.
Douglass Community Economics argues that we must meet a systems crisis with systemic change, spanning every sphere of the economy, from state to market, household to commons. In place of the economics of enclosure and extraction, a 21st century commons founded on stewardship; in place of concentrated ownership and economic power, a new ecosystem of democratic ownership, governance and control to reshape how we create and distribute wealth; against austerity, an ambitious mission-oriented state, new models of public ownership and a reimagined household economy that challenges the social and economic inequalities of the fossil fuel age.
FreedomTrain and Douglass are the first decentralized Technologies intentionally aligned with Beloved Community Economics, and Douglass Community Policy, enabling the creation of new emancipatory political and economic spaces.
To live in a world of Douglass Community Economic abundance, means to live in a world of peace, love and purpose, where everyone is guaranteed free or low cost access to housing, food, clothing, sanitation, water, energy, healthcare, education, child and elder care, as well as means of communication and transportation, and the assurance of safety and human rights, Without exception.
The steadfast material security of Douglass Community Economics is what allows people to ask “How can I help the suffering and oppressed?” rather than “How am I going to live?”
Douglass Community Economics recognizes, that people are interdependent with one another and with nature, so each person’s well-being is measured by how well everyone and the environment are functioning with the goal of minimizing suffering for people and the planet. A communities well-being is measured by the aggregation of the well-being of all residents and the health of the ecosystem.
Douglass Community Economics strives for a holistic optimal outcome and evaluates a policy by how much it minimizes suffering. By reducing the suffering of people living impoverished and bleak lives, we improve the well-being of everyone.
Douglass Community Economics takes into consideration the protection of the environment, the state of the human spirit, and the quality of life of all people.
What if everyone suddenly had access to enough healthcare, education, and welfare to reach their full potential? A world of fully capacitated individuals would be one in which every single person could look forward to developing their interests and abilities with full community support.
Interdependence
Douglass Community Economics recognizes that we are all one, and that our interdependence extends to Nature and all beings. Interdependence provides the path for leading happy lives as individuals, as well as for creating policies to support a prosperous and sustainable life for everyone.
Interdependence in Douglass Community Economics is expressed in three ways.
1.Sustainably sharing resources to enhance the quality of life for ourselves and for others.
2.Integrating the caring for Nature and our environment into all activities
3.Reducing suffering and practicing compassion, both locally and globally.
Our interdependence with Nature leads us to measure the value of all the resources we use, as well as any damage we do to the environment, both right now and into the future. We harm ourselves when we harm our environment. In Douglass Community Economics, pollution is no longer considered a “free good” as it is in free market economics, where people and companies do not have to pay to pollute the air or water or land.
Being interconnected with our environment provides a different economic valuation than does traditional cost-benefit analysis for policies that reduce carbon dioxide emissions, protect endangered species, or preserve rivers, lakes, and groundwater.
Douglass Community Economics connects the suffering of one person to the suffering of all people. This circle of suffering includes people you have never met, even though you may wear the clothes, eat the food, or play on the devices they made.
Douglass Community Economics integration of interdependence provides us with powerful mandates. We no longer see ourselves as separate beings and no longer strive to maximize our own well-being. We find freedom from our own suffering, and we help to relieve the suffering of others. The personal is connected to the local, to the national, and to the global. Individual and community goals merge into the one goal of promoting the well-being of all.
Post Scarcity
For a post-scarcity Beloved Community to come into being, a literal cornucopia is not required. It is only necessary that scarcity and its accompanying mentality be overcome, so people can live, as Thomas More said, “with a joyful and tranquil frame of mind, with no worries about making a living.” According to this perspective, abundance is not a technological threshold to be crossed. Instead, abundance is a social relationship, based on the principle that the means of one’s existence will never be at stake in any of one’s relationships.
With Douglass Community Economics, creative minds and scientific aptitudes will no longer be wasted due to accidents of birthplace, the bad luck of challenging circumstances, or the necessity to survive. Funding for research or art would also no longer be determined by the profit motive. What we call “capital” in the society of scarcity would, in post-scarcity Douglass Community Economics, be recognized for what it is: our common social inheritance.
All Douglass products are aligned with Douglass Community Economics, Douglass Community Policy, The Beloved Community Pledge and The Beloved Community License.
Douglass Community Policy
FreedomTrain and Douglass' principles and policies are based on the ideals and aspirations of Dr. Martin Luther Kings “Beloved Community”, The Beloved Community License and The Beloved Community Pledge. Dr. King’s Beloved Community is a global vision, in which all people can share in the wealth of the earth.
In the Beloved Community, poverty, hunger and homelessness will not be tolerated because international standards of human decency will not allow it. Racism and all forms of discrimination, bigotry and prejudice will be replaced by an all-inclusive spirit of sisterhood and brotherhood.
As an ambitious Emancipatory Organization Douglass seeks to construct a new future-oriented policy framework that is capable of challenging current violent and extractive systems at the largest scales. Douglass will unmask the pseudo-universality of the scarcity illusions social relations and recapture the meaning of the future.
FreedomTrain and Douglass are Technologies for intentional emancipatory futures that empower: local and global communities, returns economic value, funds public goods, and creates the possibility for new models of governance centered in the ideals of Martin Luther Kings “Beloved Community”.
Through the development of Douglass and FreedomTrain we have come to realize that technology cannot be divorced from policy. Policy acts as the pseudocode of implemented technology. In order to have culture shift and system change, we must focus on embodying code with policies that are socially reparative, economically pre-distributive, and ecologically regenerative.
Douglass and FreedomTrain will empower intentional communities, organizations, cooperatives, creatives, and technologist that are attentive to the needs of regenerating the earth and empowering the broadest possible cross-section of humanity. FreedomTrain and Douglass have been created with the understanding that to develop new technologies, or take existing technologies in new directions, we must be explicit and ardent about embedding mechanisms into the protocol for: new definitions of currency, governance, and work.
The policy flowing through Douglass and FreedomTrain stands on the idea that humanity and the earth are interconnected. It draws on the visions of our collective Freedom Dreams to create modern realities of new emancipatory political and economic spaces that are grounded in a radical Love that recognizes the mutuality and interdependence of all.
All Douglass products are aligned with Douglass Community Economics, Douglass Community Policy, The Beloved Community Pledge and The Beloved Community License.
The Beloved Community License
The Beloved Community License is a Non Violent Software, Hardware and Product License that has been created for: Peace, Love and Purpose.
Douglass is named in honor of Frederick Douglass
Frederick Douglass is an African American icon who stood for the equality of all peoples and the possibility of a better tomorrow. A self emancipated slave before the Civil War, Frederick Douglass was an abolitionist, human rights activist, entrepreneur, orator, supporter of women’s suffrage, and bridge between communities.
All Douglass Products and Technologies are developed for: Peace, Love, and Purpose.
To support our mission of Culture Change and System Shift, we have created the Beloved Community License.
The Beloved Community License has been created out of Peace, Love, and Purpose.
BELOVED COMMUNITY LICENSE (BCL)
This Beloved Community License has been created for: Peace, Love, and Purpose.
BELOVED COMMUNITY LICENSE (BCL)
The BCL is a Non Violent Software, Hardware and Product License that has been created for: Peace, Love and Purpose.
The BCL is based on an understanding and recognition of: Martin Luther King’s “Beloved Community”, and a Social Activism that pursues a future of Peace, Love and Purpose for all.
Recognition and Possibilities
- When possible Software, Hardware and Products issued under the BCL will be used to improve the lives of the Multitudes of the World that are oppressed and in struggle.
- When possible Software, Hardware and Products issued under the BCL will be used to foster the development of equitable and inclusive political and economic spaces.
- When possible Software, Hardware and Products issued under the BCL will be used to enable the enfranchisement of the incarcerated into the daily activities of our communities.
- By using Software, Hardware and Products Issued under the BCL you recognize the Preciousness of all with special attention to the hungry, the homeless and the oppressed.
- By using Software, Hardware and Products Issued under the BCL you recognize that reparations and atonement are a part of a needed community healing process.
- By using Software, Hardware and Products issued under the BCL you recognize the Preciousness of the earth.
- By using Software, Hardware and Products Issued under the BCL you recognize the humanity of the incarcerated.
- By using Software, Hardware and Products Issued under the BCL you recognize that Housing, Food,Health Care and Education are Human Rights that should be provide to all.
Usage Restrictions
- Software, Hardware and Products issued under the BCL cannot be used for any violent purpose.
- Software or Hardware issued under the BCL License cannot be used for surveillance of any kind.
- Software or Hardware issued under the BCL License cannot be used by the Police.
- Software, Hardware and Products issued under the BCL cannot be used for War.
- Software, Hardware and Products issued under the BCL cannot be used to support Military activities.
- Software, Hardware and Products issued under the BCL cannot be used to inflict violence upon the Earth.
- Software or Hardware issued under the BCL License cannot be be used by institutions of incarceration.
- Software, Hardware and Products issued under the BCL cannot be used to support the activities of Institutions of Incarceration.
- Software or Hardware issued under the BCL License cannot be sub licensed.
The Douglass Community does not support judicial and legal systems that enforce corporal punishment, or retributive justice.
As a first measure disputes concerning the terms of the BCL will be adjudicated through a community driven Non-violent communication process.
Douglass Community Guidelines
Douglass Community Guidelines
Douglass is an intentional Community centered in Peace, Love and Purpose.
The Douglass Community honors and seeks to brings into reality our Ancestors Freedom Dreams.
Douglass is named in Honor of Frederick Douglass
Frederick Douglass is an African American icon who stood for the equality of all peoples and the possibility of a better tomorrow. A self emancipated slave before the Civil War. Frederick Douglass was an abolitionist, human rights activist, entrepreneur, orator, supporter of women’s suffrage, and bridge between communities.
The Douglass Community is aligned with the Beloved Community Pledge and The Beloved Community License.
Douglass is a community where anyone that is centered in Peace, Love and Purposed is welcome to participate.
Douglass Community Members come from different countries, speak different languages, and represent different races, gender identities, sexualities, nationalities, cultures, religions, abilities, ages, incomes, immigration statuses, levels of education, and life experiences. We’re all here together trying to foster positive conversations, and build a community centered in Peace, Love and Purposed,
By being a member of the Douglass Community , you agree to model the behavior you hope to see from others and follow the guidelines below as well as the ideals of the Beloved Community Pledge and the Beloved Community License.
No promotional posting, no spam
The Douglass Community is not a site for self-promotion, SEO, PR, marketing, or advertising. There are extremely limited circumstances under which it is acceptable to link to your own work, your company’s work, or any work you’ve been hired to promote. Posting outside of these circumstances is grounds for an immediate ban. If you’re joining specifically for any of these purposes, stop now and save us both some time.
Speak for yourself, not others
Speak from your own experience and perspective. Say things you genuinely mean (rather than playing devil’s advocate, trolling, or saying bad things ironically). Avoid downplaying a problem just because it is not a problem for you. Avoid speaking on behalf of other people and discussing their experience like an academic topic; invite them to speak for themselves instead!
Be considerate and respectful
The Douglass Community is a space for conversations, not a contest; add your own informed perspective and nuance instead of shutting others down. Extend the benefit of the doubt in conversations and earn the benefit of the doubt that others are extending to you. Listen if someone says they’re upset and be willing to apologize and step back.
Be sensitive to context
Read a thread before commenting. Engage with what people are really saying. Respond appropriately to people’s mood and investment in a topic. Refrain from making light jokes in a serious discussion. Avoid analogies or hypotheticals in charged discussions; these often involve ignoring or distorting the actual context of the conversation.
Be aware of your privilege
Recognize your own positioning. Be aware of how much space you are occupying in a discussion and avoid exclusionary or insensitive statements that can harm or alienate other people. In a conversation where you’re in a privileged group, take active care to avoid making it about yourself or diverting the topic (intentionally or accidentally) particularly where systemic power is involved (race, class, gender, etc). Remember that each person has different stakes and direct experience in a conversation.
Be mindful of microaggressions
Use people’s correct name, gender, and pronouns. Be respectful. Do not exoticize or joke about another culture’s touchstones — things like names, food, language, religious concepts. Avoid stereotypes and outdated terms. Believe people about their own experiences.
Accept feedback gracefully
Be willing to listen and apologize if someone says you’ve said something hurtful. If someone criticizes your ideas or statements, or points out harmful impacts, it’s not a personal attack. Remember that you can do harm without intending to. Sometimes it is necessary to take a step back and let the conversation move on.
Douglass Content Policy
Douglass is a community where anyone that is aligned with Peace, Love, and Purpose can participate. We encourage open conversations between members and value the different contributions that make the Douglass Community positive and dynamic.
We have a set of Community Guidelines that we expect all members to follow and staff who provide round-the-clock moderation and support.
In order to keep the discussions in the Douglass Community healthy, we have outlined the policy below to serve as a guide of the types of content and behavior that will be considered inappropriate and may lead to removal of content, warnings or having your account banned.
Inappropriate Content
The following types of content or behavior will not be tolerated:
Hateful content: Posting racial slurs, deliberately misgendering/misnaming, or other racist, misogynist, homophobic, transphobic, or otherwise hateful speech. This includes making hateful statements ironically or sarcastically.
Name calling: Any kind of name calling and/or cursing directed at others in a conversation. (Pointing out that a statement is inappropriate or otherwise problematic is not name-calling.) In general, cursing is fine on the site, but cursing at someone else is not okay.
Trolling: Systematically posting content solely intended to upset or provoke an angry response.
Doxxing: Posting someone else’s personal information without consent. If someone hasn’t explicitly and intentionally brought their personal information into a public discussion, don’t make that decision for them.
Hacking Impersonation Misrepresentation: Compromising or accessing another person’s account or pretending to be somebody else.
Stalking/harassment: Any unwanted and obsessive attention or otherwise creepy behavior making other members or staff. This includes contacting someone after they have said they do not want to be contacted by you.
Discrimination: Any type of discrimination or offensive content based on (but not limited to) age, appearance, body shape, ethnicity, disability, gender identity, race, religion, sexual orientation. This includes demanding members to provide information about their identity within a conversation.
Spamming: Posting or advertising unsolicited commercial/promotional content.
Violence: It can be okay to talk in strongly critical terms about people’s words but don’t cross the line into any threats of violence or wishing violence on other people.
Beloved Community Pledge
At Douglass we are committed to a world where Peace, Love and Purpose replace hatred, exploitation, and violence. Now is the time to create technology for: Peace, Love and Purpose in order to bring about a new Modern Future of Joy and Abundance for all.
- I recognize the humanity of the multitudes that are oppressed, persecuted, incarcerated, and in struggle.
- I declare that violence, poverty, racism, sexism, incarceration, surveillance, militarism and environmental destruction cannot persist.
- I recognize that reparations and atonement are part of a needed community healing process.
- I recognize that Housing, Food, Health Care and Education are Human Rights that should be provide to all.
- I pursue a world of Peace, Love, Purpose and abundance for all.
- I make change through nonviolence and radical love for all and for our sacred planet.
- I commit to the inspired change needed to create a more humanely just and coherent future.
- I commit to becoming aware of those forces that seek to undermine the Beloved Community.
- Whenever possible I will use (and create) technology which is aligned with Peace, Love and Purpose.
The Beloved Community License
This Beloved Community License has been created out of Peace, Love, and Purpose.
BELOVED COMMUNITY LICENSE (BCL)
The BCL is a Non Violent Software, Hardware and Product License that has been created for: Peace, Love and Purpose.
The BCL is based on an understanding and recognition of: Martin Luther King’s “Beloved Community”, and a Social Activism that pursues a future of Peace, Love and Purpose for all.
Recognition and Possibilities
- When possible Software, Hardware and Products issued under the BCL will be used to improve the lives of the Multitudes of the World that are oppressed and in struggle.
- When possible Software, Hardware and Products issued under the BCL will be used to foster the development of equitable and inclusive political and economic spaces.
- When possible Software, Hardware and Products issued under the BCL will be used to enable the enfranchisement of the incarcerated into the daily activities of our communities.
- By using Software, Hardware and Products Issued under the BCL you recognize the Preciousness of all with special attention to the hungry, the homeless and the oppressed.
- By using Software, Hardware and Products Issued under the BCL you recognize that reparations and atonement are a part of a needed community healing process.
- By using Software, Hardware and Products issued under the BCL you recognize the Preciousness of the earth.
- By using Software, Hardware and Products Issued under the BCL you recognize the humanity of the incarcerated.
- By using Software, Hardware and Products Issued under the BCL you recognize that Housing, Food,Health Care and Education are Human Rights that should be provide to all.
Usage Restrictions
- Software, Hardware and Products issued under the BCL cannot be used for any violent purpose.
- Software or Hardware issued under the BCL License cannot be used for surveillance of any kind.
- Software, Hardware and Products issued under the BCL cannot be used for War.
- Software, Hardware and Products issued under the BCL cannot be used to support Military activities.
- Software, Hardware and Products issued under the BCL cannot be used to inflict violence upon the Earth.
- Software or Hardware issued under the BCL cannot be be used by institutions of incarceration.
- Software, Hardware and Products issued under the BCL cannot be used to support the activities of Institutions of Incarceration.
- The Douglass Community does not support judicial and legal systems that enforce corporal punishment, or retributive justice.
As a first measure disputes concerning the terms of the BCL will be adjudicated through a community driven Non-violent communication process.
Towards a Post-Scarcity Future
To find our way toward a post-scarcity future requires not only a break between work and income but also one between profit and income.
In a post-work society, care labour will be given greater value, turning society away from the privileged status bestowed upon profitable labour.
Reductions in the working week will lead to significant reductions in energy consumption and our overall carbon footprint. Increased free time will also mean a reduction in all the products and services purchased to fit into our hectic work schedules. Using productivity improvements for less work, rather than more output, means that energy efficiency improvements will go towards reducing environmental impacts. A reduction in working hours is an essential plank in a Beloved Community response to climate change.
A post work, post scarcity world is not a world of idleness; it is a world in which people are no longer bound to their jobs, but free to create their own lives. Douglass' post work, post scarcity policy draws upon a long line of Creatives, Academics, and Activist, who have rejected the centrality of scarcity and work. These Creatives, Academics, and Activist have sought to liberate humanity from the drudgery of work, the fear of scarcity, the dependence on wage labour, and the submission of our lives to the oppressive illusion of patriarchy. They have struggled to open up the ‘realm of freedom dreams’ from which humanity can continue its project of emancipation.
To live in a world of Douglass Community Economic abundance means to live in a world of peace, love and purpose, where everyone is guaranteed free access to housing, food, clothing, sanitation, water, energy, healthcare, education, child and elder care, as well as means of communication and transportation, without exception.
The steadfast material security of Douglass Community Economics is what allows people to ask “How can I help the suffering and oppressed?” rather than “How am I going to live?”
Douglass Food Security Fund
Through acquisition and investment Douglass will fund the development of a sustainable food system that will guarantee universal free access to healthy food for all. Douglass will seek to overhaul the industrial overproduction of food to support low-carbon farming and small farmers, and eliminate waste of food and resources.
