Action Program for the EU for 5 years |
Introduction
This Program consists of 20 theses and is addressed first of all to active citizens and politicians who wish to make the World more peaceful and harmonious. The Program is aimed primarily at the EU countries, but can be used for any other regions of the Planet. Having a relatively small amount of text, this Program covers many aspects of modern economy and life of citizens. Due to the implementation of the theses listed below, the EU economy will become significantly more efficient, and the energy and material intensity of GDP will decrease. At the same time, the social standards of the society will increase and the EU will become a pronounced World Center of Positive Influence. The first priority here is to meet the criteria of sustainable development of society and, in particular, to eliminate the negative human impact on the environment.
It is obvious that in the era of post-industrial society, on the threshold of the fourth industrial revolution, technically literate people, visionaries who have a deep enough understanding of modern technological aspects, who clearly see new opportunities to optimize processes and the long overdue need to modernize society and the economy, should enter politics. Frankly speaking, the EU looks like it has lost its long-term orientations. The current state of affairs resembles a saturation of consumption, immersion in a pile of imposed problems, and following the lobbies of some large sectors of the economy.
If we go back in time and compare this Program with Plato's "State" (360 BC) [ 1 ], who believed that the state should be governed by philosophers who are able to contemplate ideas that are eternally identical to themselves, then I note that a modern politician should be able not only to "contemplate ideas", but also to successfully implement this "contemplation" in reality. So, for example, the genius of our time Steve Jobs perfectly realized the ideas of "universal simplicity" and "universal beauty" into reality through the creation of revolutionary gadgets that gained recognition all over the world. I am referring to products such as the iPhone and iPad. I won't deny that Steve Jobs' personality inspires me too. But not only him, here is a list of people I would like to mention: Steve Jobs, Ilon Musk, Jimmy Wales, Mikhail Lomonosov, Pavel Durov.
Let me explain what motivated me to write this Program. The point is that it is a kind of life summary. I am exactly forty years old, ten of which I live in Germany, having moved here in 2009 from Russia. Being a curious and interested person, I have periodically expressed my thoughts and ideas either through scattered posts on the Internet or just writing them down somewhere for myself. Obviously, many of the good ideas are forgotten with time, as if dissolved in time. So after writing another post in social network, in early 2019, unexpectedly for me, came the idea to unite all the previous mental conclusions in the form of a series of slender and completed theses. I wanted to gather all my life experiences in one place. This is how this Program of Action was born.
Be free, dream boldly!
Notes:
The text of this Program contains many references to Internet sources (more than 100). Because web pages may not be available at some times and their content may change over time, a graphical copy (PNG replica) of each source, created at the time of writing the Program text, is available.
Of the many sources cited, Wikipedia is one of them. There is an opinion that "references to Wikipedia are not trusted in the scientific community". Blind adherence to such a generalization (and any generalization in general) is already a sign of an unscientific approach. Obviously, we should distinguish at least two types of Wikipedia articles: the first is historical and political topics, which may indeed be distorted due to the subjectivity of the presenter or other external circumstances (and not only in Wikipedia, but also in any other sources). The second type are articles of a scientific nature, describing objective data and facts, statistics, scientific research, mere disclosure of concepts, and so on. Articles of this kind on Wikipedia are in the vast majority of cases objective and of high quality. They are as good as, and often even better than, similar articles in the world's leading encyclopedias [ 2 ]. The sources in this Program belong to the latter type of information.
Further, due to the fact that the EU is a multi-lingual entity, where people communicate in at least 24 foreign languages, the links to sources are presented both in the original and in Google's machine translation for convenience. It is realized in the form of a pop-up window with the possibility to select a link to the source. At the same time, most of the sources as well as the original of this Program are written in Russian, as it is my native language. For Youtube videos in a foreign language it is necessary to enable automatic generation and automatic translation of subtitles.
The authors of the articles referred to by the author of this Program are not indicated due to the low importance of this type of information.
Copying of materials from this site is permitted only with a link to this site.
It is obvious that in the era of post-industrial society, on the threshold of the fourth industrial revolution, technically literate people, visionaries who have a deep enough understanding of modern technological aspects, who clearly see new opportunities to optimize processes and the long overdue need to modernize society and the economy, should enter politics. Frankly speaking, the EU looks like it has lost its long-term orientations. The current state of affairs resembles a saturation of consumption, immersion in a pile of imposed problems, and following the lobbies of some large sectors of the economy.
If we go back in time and compare this Program with Plato's "State" (360 BC) [ 1 ], who believed that the state should be governed by philosophers who are able to contemplate ideas that are eternally identical to themselves, then I note that a modern politician should be able not only to "contemplate ideas", but also to successfully implement this "contemplation" in reality. So, for example, the genius of our time Steve Jobs perfectly realized the ideas of "universal simplicity" and "universal beauty" into reality through the creation of revolutionary gadgets that gained recognition all over the world. I am referring to products such as the iPhone and iPad. I won't deny that Steve Jobs' personality inspires me too. But not only him, here is a list of people I would like to mention: Steve Jobs, Ilon Musk, Jimmy Wales, Mikhail Lomonosov, Pavel Durov.
Let me explain what motivated me to write this Program. The point is that it is a kind of life summary. I am exactly forty years old, ten of which I live in Germany, having moved here in 2009 from Russia. Being a curious and interested person, I have periodically expressed my thoughts and ideas either through scattered posts on the Internet or just writing them down somewhere for myself. Obviously, many of the good ideas are forgotten with time, as if dissolved in time. So after writing another post in social network, in early 2019, unexpectedly for me, came the idea to unite all the previous mental conclusions in the form of a series of slender and completed theses. I wanted to gather all my life experiences in one place. This is how this Program of Action was born.
Be free, dream boldly!
Notes:
The text of this Program contains many references to Internet sources (more than 100). Because web pages may not be available at some times and their content may change over time, a graphical copy (PNG replica) of each source, created at the time of writing the Program text, is available.
Of the many sources cited, Wikipedia is one of them. There is an opinion that "references to Wikipedia are not trusted in the scientific community". Blind adherence to such a generalization (and any generalization in general) is already a sign of an unscientific approach. Obviously, we should distinguish at least two types of Wikipedia articles: the first is historical and political topics, which may indeed be distorted due to the subjectivity of the presenter or other external circumstances (and not only in Wikipedia, but also in any other sources). The second type are articles of a scientific nature, describing objective data and facts, statistics, scientific research, mere disclosure of concepts, and so on. Articles of this kind on Wikipedia are in the vast majority of cases objective and of high quality. They are as good as, and often even better than, similar articles in the world's leading encyclopedias [ 2 ]. The sources in this Program belong to the latter type of information.
Further, due to the fact that the EU is a multi-lingual entity, where people communicate in at least 24 foreign languages, the links to sources are presented both in the original and in Google's machine translation for convenience. It is realized in the form of a pop-up window with the possibility to select a link to the source. At the same time, most of the sources as well as the original of this Program are written in Russian, as it is my native language. For Youtube videos in a foreign language it is necessary to enable automatic generation and automatic translation of subtitles.
The authors of the articles referred to by the author of this Program are not indicated due to the low importance of this type of information.
Copying of materials from this site is permitted only with a link to this site.
Program in abstracts
700€ per month for the third and fourth child: addressing the demographic challenge in the EU;
The goal is to create a demographically sustainable Union of European countries, and subsequently the World.
At present, such socially important work as bringing up children in families is not considered real work, but is done "for nothing", almost for free. But in fact it is the most important work on which the future of the European Union depends. The essence of the reform is that spouses bringing up more than two children should be considered as people with additional employment and receive a salary from the state. In monetary terms, this can be realized as an additional payment of 700€ net per month for the third and fourth child until the age of majority. At the same time from these amounts are calculated and deductions are made to the pension fund, health insurance, etc. It is also assumed that the full child benefit for each child will be maintained.
Such a measure will encourage families to decide to have a third and fourth child, which will make the demographic situation in the EU long-term manageable and stable. It is important to note that stable demography is also a guarantee of a stable pension system based on the continuity of generations, as in Germany, for example. In other words, there will be no need to systematically raise the retirement age.
It means that in the European Union only EU citizens and labor migrants, i.e. people who do not live on welfare, can count on the above-mentioned assistance from the state.
With the above reform, parents (at least one of the parents, usually a woman) will have the opportunity to devote themselves fully to raising their children by quitting their jobs. In such cases, as the children grow up and payments cease, such people need to be reinstated. This can be accomplished either through direct reinstatement or through state-funded reinstatement/refresher courses.
A little bit of theory:
A clear picture of fertility both in the World as a whole and for individual countries can be obtained by looking at the population counter of the Earth [ 3 ]. One can see how the population counter for the whole planet is increasing rapidly, but at the same time the population is decreasing in many EU countries. Childbearing should keep the EU population constant or lead to a manageable increase. The table [ 4 ], which the author of this Program compiled on the basis of open sources, reflects the demographic situation in the EU countries at the beginning of 2020. It can be seen that for about half of the EU countries the mortality rate exceeds the birth rate.
The causes of fertility decline in developed countries are well described in the article "Demographic transition" [ 5 ]. The main three of them will be listed below:
- transformation from agrarian to urbanized societies: in agrarian societies, children were seen as an additional workforce and a guarantee of the continuation of the family. With the development of urbanization and industry, this economic sense is lost, leading to a decline in fertility;
- changes in education and child-rearing: in developed countries, children have to study for long periods of time to obtain qualifications, which makes them a burden on parents in terms of time and finances. This leads to a desire to have fewer children;
- increased education and independence of women: educated women with career ambitions often opt for fewer children or abandon motherhood altogether;
This is a natural objective process, and in the long run, if nothing is done, all countries will have to face a decline in fertility and population. The problem is that most couples who have one or two children do not usually think about the fact that it is precisely because of this number of children in their families that the population is rapidly decreasing. The number of people who do not have children for principled reasons, the so-called "childfree", is constantly increasing. Here are two informative articles on this topic [ 6, 7 ]. It should be understood: today more and more people realize that in modern realities having children is a very long-term loss of freedom, nerves and money.
The financial side of the issue using Germany as an example:
In Germany, the birth rate for 2022 was 739.000 new people [ 8 ], while the death rate was recorded at 1.06 million people [ 9 ]. At the same time, the number of families with three or more children for Germany is 1.524.000 [ 10 ]. After the realization of this thesis of stimulating the birth rate, the number of large families may double to 3 million. Unfortunately, the author could not find statistics separately for families with three and four children. But let's simplify the task and imagine that the average payment for a large family will be 1000€ per month. From here it is easy to calculate the required budget as 3.000.000 x 1000€ x 12. The total amount needed is an additional 36 billion €. This is an impressive amount, but everything is relative. In comparison, the spending on migrants for Germany in 2023 will be exactly the same amount [ 11 ] with a budget of more than 400 billion € [ 46 ]. Wouldn't it be better to reallocate funds from migrant spending to doubling the country's own birth rate? But we will discuss this topic in the corresponding thesis of this Program dedicated to migration policy.
accomplished:
Transition to a 4-day work week at the request of citizens;
It is necessary to make it so that citizens have the opportunity to earn good money and at the same time would have enough free time to implement their ideas, projects, or just for a good rest.
As a person who moved to Germany from Russia, I realize that my standard of living in Germany, with a reduction in the number of working days per week to four and a proportional reduction in salary, would be significantly higher than in Russia, and even more so compared to citizens from countries with the lowest GDP per capita. For this reason, I believe that EU citizens should be given the opportunity to choose the length of their working week and, accordingly, a sufficient income. In this case, those citizens who spend less money on life, realizing the meaninglessness of the consumer lifestyle, will be free to conclude a 4-day work week contract with their employer.
Obviously, over time, with consistent growth in the EU economy, people's standard of living under a 4-day work week will equal today's standard of living under a 5-day work week.
Here is a historical reference that gives an idea of the benefits of shortening the working day (work week) [ 12 ]: "... An unexpected step was taken by Henry Ford, founder and owner of Ford Motor Company. on January 5, 1914, he changed the labor agreement with the staff of his company, reducing the workday from 9 to 8 hours and, which was generally unthinkable by the standards of any American industrialist - simultaneously raised wages from $3 to $5 per shift. Automakers raised Ford to laughter, but time proved him right - experienced mechanics from all over the country went to work for Ford Motor Company, allowing him to dramatically increase productivity and double profits in just the next two years ... ".
accomplished:
Migration Policy;
In general, it is necessary to introduce a strict and controlled migration policy oriented towards maintaining economic growth and social stability. At the same time, it is clear that labor migration of specialists contributes to economic growth, while a sharp restriction of the inflow of refugees living on state benefits contributes to social stability.
It is obvious that not all EU citizens are happy with the EU's open-door policy towards refugees. The influx of millions of refugees is causing divisions in society, and the popularity of right-wing parties such as the AFD in Germany and the Rassemblement Nationale in France is increasing significantly. The number of crimes committed by foreigners and the likelihood of terrorist attacks in the EU is also increasing. Thus, in comparison with 2014, when foreigners committed a tenth of rapes, in 2017 statistics (Germany, Thüringen) show a threefold increase in the ratio [ 13 ].
It is also obvious that if wars break out, the flow of refugees is inevitable. War causes incredible suffering to people, depriving them of shelter, livelihood, and often life itself. Iraq, Libya, Syria? Who starts these wars? The answer lies on the surface - most of the wars of the last decades were unleashed by the US. When the US decides to start another war, they are supported by some EU countries. It is clear that not all the wars of this century were started because of the US and the EU, but at the moment most of them are. The author of this Program emphasizes that less violence within authoritarian regimes is much preferable to real bloody wars with the intervention of third countries and the deaths of huge numbers of people. If the Western countries have achieved great success in their development, it is possible to use the so-called "soft power", i.e. the ability to achieve desired results on the basis of voluntary participation, sympathy and attractiveness.
Refugees fleeing war should be singled out as a separate group. It is necessary to strive to create conditions for accommodation of such refugees in neighboring countries, creating acceptable housing conditions, thus excluding their mass movement to the EU countries. Such a measure will contribute to social stability within the EU countries.
In 2023, for example, Germany is planning to spend an impressive €36 billion on migrants [ 11 ]. These expenditures cover various aspects including housing, integration programs, health, education and social benefits. The commitment to such expenditure emphasizes the complexity and scale of managing migrant and refugee situations in a large European economy. The author of this Programme believes that the above funds would be much more sensibly directed towards stimulating a doubling of the birth rate in the country itself in order to achieve its excess over mortality and to stabilize demography in the long term.
accomplished:
Introduction of electronic voting and "frequent" referendums;
E-voting systems make it possible to vote quickly and cost-effectively both on the issues of basic elections and on intermediate issues (referendums), freeing up funds spent in the current situation on the organization and material support of regular "paper" voting. E-voting systems are an element of "Direct Democracy" [ 14 ] in which there is no need for protest demonstrations. For example, Switzerland has been living in direct democracy for about 150 years [ 15 ].
The 2017 Bundestag elections cost taxpayers 92 million euros [ 16 ]. We can "order" a corresponding smartphone app on the market for a hundredth of that amount.
To authenticate identity and activate the app, a passport scan with a camera is seen as an option.
Traffic in the system should be encrypted by a modern method that excludes the possibility of obtaining encryption keys by a "man in the middle". To implement this project, it is necessary to use the experience of the developers of the messenger Telegram, which for the first time in the industry used innovative encryption methods that make it fundamentally impossible to intercept and decrypt messages [ 17 ].
It should be possible to reconcile the votes cast through independent channels, which will eliminate the possibility of fraud in case the voting device is hacked and a software or hardware implant is installed in it [ 18, 19 ]. Moreover, the corresponding equipment (for independent verification of the votes cast) should be purchased from an independent manufacturer, since today implants can be embedded in processors at the stage of their design. Reconciliation points could be installed in places where "paper" voting is done today. Note that reconciliation is not a mandatory action. But even those few reconciliations, which will be made by active citizens, will be enough to detect possible fraud. In principle, due to the fact that not all citizens will double-check the votes cast, the number of points for the reconciliation of the votes cast can be significantly smaller than the current number of polling stations.
The program code of the voting system should be open. This makes it possible to identify all vulnerabilities in time with the help of independent security experts (including for a fee).
The e-voting system should support best practices for informing citizens for self-determination. Before each vote, citizens will be provided with a list of topical issues prepared by a commission for direct democracy. Germany has a very good example of such a service "Wahl-O-Mat" [ 20 ]. Once the questions from the list have been answered, the system will calculate your political orientation as a percentage towards each party/candidate. An obligatory event before the voting itself is seen as an open speech by the heads of government and parties. The point of view of the leaders of the country/union should be communicated to the public through all types of media. These speeches should be posted on the centralized web page of the EU e-voting and they should be available through the mobile voting application itself. And it would only be right to conduct e-voting afterwards.
The current results of vote counting in elections/referendums should be displayed online. This will increase voter turnout and confidence in the voting procedure itself.
accomplished:
Reforms in finance: abandoning cash, eliminating opaque financial flows;
List of reforms:
- abandoning cash;
- eliminating opaque financial flows;
- creation of an independent EU payment system;
- waiver of annual tax return;
- introduction of a single tax rate;
Abandoning cash:
Obviously, increased transparency of cash flows will make financial fraud, money laundering and tax evasion more difficult, which is undoubtedly a good thing. Abandoning cash will help in the fight against terrorism and organized crime, as well as improve labor efficiency and reduce environmental footprints.
There will need to be special safeguards to ensure the safety of capital for rich people. When cash is converted into digital form, there should be no investigations into the origin of the funds. There should also be no deductions, "legalization taxes" and the like. For such people, everything will start from scratch, with the transfer of all capital into the visible realm. It should be clarified that we are not talking about protecting criminals, we are talking about the fact that because of the current possibility of hiding illegal capital through cash and offshore zones that allow anonymity, the regulator may not see this part of the money supply in its field of vision. In order to create incentives for the voluntary transition of capital into the fully transparent world of electronic money, citizens should be immune from government harassment. If, after the transition to electronic money, someone decides to violate the law, then, of course, there will be no immunity.
All the technical means to switch to electronic money already exist - these are electronic cards and electronic payment systems (Apple Pay, etc.).
Eliminating opaque financial flows:
It is necessary to refuse to work with firms that are registered in offshore zones and other places on the Planet, where there is an opportunity to commit financial crimes and money laundering. I note that some actions in this direction have already been taken [ 21 ].
Creation of an independent EU payment system:
It is necessary to create the EU's own fully electronic, independent payment system. German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas was the first to speak about this initiative [ 22 ]. It is necessary to bring this initiative to realization.
Waiver of annual tax return:
The next logical step after the transition to electronic payments will be the waiver of annual tax returns. This should be done at least for employed people. In its current form, the tax return in Germany is a very inconvenient way of organizing subsidies for the population through the reimbursement of tax deductions. A large part of these are travel expenses to and from work. Therefore, doing away with the annual tax return would be a natural step after the introduction of free public transportation (see related thesis) and the transition to electronic money. Financial tax authorities should automatically receive the information necessary for calculations. Frankly speaking, mandatory declarations are a huge bureaucratic apparatus forcing citizens to beg the state for small compensations - it would be much more correct to raise the general standard of living of citizens and stop the practice of declarations.
Introduction of a single tax rate:
Or abolishing the diversity of tax classes. There are six different tax classes in Germany. After more than ten years of living in this country, the author of this program has come to the conclusion that such a variety of tax classes leads to unnecessary inconvenience and complexity for citizens. I propose to introduce a single tax rate or a single tax class.
accomplished:
Reforms in transportation: transition to free electric public transport;
List of reforms:
- switching to free electric public transportation;
- additional infrastructure development for electric bicycle transportation;
- stand-alone electronic boards at each public transportation stop;
- abolition of the division into first and second classes;
- stimulating the development of autopilot systems;
- additional measures to improve the quality of passenger transportation;
Transition to free electric public transportation:
Meaning not only intra-city public transportation, but also commuter and regional trains.
The aim is to make it easier to travel and reduce emissions from private vehicles. Switching to free public transportation will reduce the number of private cars, which will have a positive impact on both the environment and spending on road development. The problem of traffic jams will be solved. The number of automobile accidents will be reduced. I will say more harshly: endless planting of cars and, accordingly, parking lots and garages for them is an incredible redundancy in terms of material intensity and consumption of resources, including living space. Mankind does not need it. The industrial complex should be reoriented to the space industry, renewable energy and construction of skyscrapers. All these aspects are considered in this Program.
It should be understood that the transportation system, the movement of people and goods, ensures the vitality of the economy. Therefore, the less resistance (tolls) and clots (traffic jams) in this system, the more active the economy develops. Therefore, the additional burden on the budget will result in increased revenues from other sectors of the economy. It is difficult to predict exactly in what volume the budget revenues will increase, but I think that it will be much more than the additional expenses for free public transportation. It is necessary to have a clear understanding of where development should be driven by business and competition, and where it is necessary to show state initiative.
In the introduction to this Program it was said that the EU, and Germany in particular, is going along with the lobbies of some big sectors of the economy - I was referring to this particular case - going along with the lobby of the automobile industry.
Here it is necessary to back up the arguments with figures. Thus, we learn from [ 46 ] that the expenditure of the German Ministry of Transport in 2019 will be 29 billion € and the revenue 9 billion €. That is, in order to cover all the costs of free public transportation, we need to allocate an additional 9 billion € from the budget. With a total budget of 356 billion €, I don't see this as a big problem. But, as said above, the benefits of this step are obvious.
It's worth noting that in Germany (I often compare it to Germany because I've been living here for over 10 years) there has been talk of free public transportation since 2018 [ 23 ]. There are both critics and supporters of this idea. On the part of critics such arguments as the financial side of the issue and possible overcrowding and littering of public transport are given. I am sure that by transferring public transportation to a free basis, all the problems that have arisen can be solved at the proper level. Moreover, in most developed countries, keeping cleanliness and order is an established norm of life.
It is clear that car production will decline in the automobile-producing countries, particularly in Germany. We will have to go through this in order to end up with a renewed society that does not suffer from an overabundance of private motor vehicles. A society that is more environmentally friendly and less material-intensive. We must realize that the production of environmentally harmful, metal-intensive products is counterproductive. After all, there is no need to pollute the environment without special reasons.
It should not be forgotten that any private car, including an electric car, after the end of its life cycle will be about two tons of garbage. And the number of car tires, which in the process of their wear and tear also pollute the environment, is simply astronomical.
Additional infrastructure development for electric bicycle transportation:
The modern electric bicycle, having made a "quiet" revolution and changed the way many citizens look at travel, active recreation and even cargo transportation [ 24 ], is capable of traveling up to 150 km per day. Therefore, it is necessary to further develop both roads for bicycle transportation and a network of autonomous rapid recharging points based solely on solar panels. The calculation [ 25 ] shows that the energy consumption per 1 km per person for an electric bicycle is 10 times less than for an electric car. This type of transportation does not waste energy, almost everything goes into motion.
Stand-alone electronic signage at each public transportation stop:
In Germany and in many EU countries, convenient digital signage displaying real-time traffic can be found at public transport stops. In order for such a system to work, each public transport unit must be equipped with a GPS navigator that transmits information via a mobile network to a central computer. At the moment not all stops are equipped with such devices due to difficulties of installation and connection. It is proposed to make these electronic boards fully autonomous through the use of ultra-low consumption screens and solar panels installed vertically, so that they are not covered with snow in winter. Each such board will be easily installed at any public transportation stop without the need for physical connection to the power grid and data transmission channel and will immediately display the required information.
Abolition of the division into first and second classes:
In trains and airplanes, there is still a division into first and second class. This is a relic of the past: aristocrats and the poor, peasants and landowners, slaves and their masters, remember? Class division in transportation corresponded to class differences in society. It's high time we abolished this outrage [ 26 ]. The point is that trains and airplanes should be equally comfortable for everyone. If this is not still the case somewhere, it should be made so. Especially since rich people always have the option of traveling by private transportation. The point is also that today, for example, on regional trains in Germany, the first-class compartments are often worse than those in second class. At the same time, first class is almost always empty. Wouldn't it be better to use this space to increase the overall capacity of the trains?
Here it is appropriate to recall Ludwig Erhard, the architect of the German economic miracle [ 27 ]. For him, the market, market economy was not an end in itself, but a means to achieve social goals, in particular, to overcome class differences in society and maximize the development of the creative forces of the country (from the preface to the book "Welfare for All" [ 28 ]).
Stimulating the development of autopilot systems:
Stimulating the development of electric car transport, free public transport and autopilot systems should be one of the government's priorities. Autopilot and free public transport will lead to a significant reduction of personal vehicles on the roads, which will relieve both car traffic and parking spaces. In turn, the reduction in car production will have a positive impact on the environment. It goes without saying that the main achievement from the introduction of autopilot will be the reduction of deaths on the roads.
Additional measures to improve the quality of passenger transportation:
There is also an idea to revise the principle of garbage collection in trains: now in many German trains small garbage containers are fixed on the side panels opposite the tables and seats. Undoubtedly, this is a certain convenience for passengers, but on the other hand, it is extremely unhygienic: firstly, such containers lack a special waterproof bag, which leads to the spilling of liquids, for example from discarded coffee cups, directly inside the container. Secondly, and this is terrible in general, when the janitor walks around all the cars and, leaning over the passengers, with hands in the dirtiest gloves shoveling garbage out of these containers. Solution: leave one centralized garbage collection point per car.
It is necessary to install more convenient screens in trains to display information about stops, time, speed of travel. In addition, where appropriate, a visual map of the journey should be displayed.
The practice of showing advertisements on trains through information screens should be abandoned.
It is also desirable to abandon the practice of coupling different trains, running for a certain part of the route in coupled condition and then separating into two parts, each of which then proceeds in different directions. This is misleading for passengers, especially foreigners, and it is impossible to get used to. Here I will also include the simultaneous stay of trains on one platform - very uncomfortable for ordinary citizens. In general, transportation is one of those areas where people who can make complex systems simple for the end user are in great demand. After all, the goal is the same - people should not have difficulties when they want to move from "point A to point B".
accomplished:
Energy reforms: the challenges of the hydrogen transition and the potential of geothermal energy;
To answer this question, let us start from the present situation. Today we have a rapid development of both renewable clean energy sources and thermal power plants that consume coal and gas and pollute the planet's atmosphere. Nuclear power stands apart - it produces no carbon dioxide emissions, but it produces radioactive waste that remains dangerous for thousands of years. Is it possible to do without nuclear power and hydrocarbons at all? Is it possible to build an energy system on renewable clean energy sources alone?
Solar power in Europe is practically not produced in winter, on cloudy days and at night. Wind farms are also characterized by unstable power generation, depending on the availability of wind. In winter, they may freeze and not participate in power generation, although these are rare cases. Hydropower is stable but small in capacity.
Obviously, it is necessary to store the energy generated in summer somehow to smooth out the peaks and use it in winter, including for heating. Germany has come to the conclusion that hydrogen can serve as a means of energy storage. Indeed, the environmentally friendly hydrogen produced by hydrolyzing water in summer could be pumped into underground storage. Then, in winter, the hydrogen can be converted back into either heat through combustion or electricity in fuel cells. In both cases, we get pure water as the end product of the reaction. What's left for us to do is to do the math. How much hydrogen should be stored in underground hydrogen storages, so that it would be enough for heating and electricity needs in winter?
The author of this program made a calculation for Germany [ 29 ] and made the following conclusions: in order to store hydrogen necessary for heating and supplying electricity to the country in winter time, we will need at least 13.5 times more underground storage facilities than Germany already has. Storing energy in electric batteries to supply the entire country during the winter is impossible because of the prohibitive cost ($325 trillion). Thus, the difficulties of hydrogen energy and energy based on clean energy sources such as wind and solar alone are apparent. Although the use of hydrogen is not excluded in some separate spheres of life, for example, for long-range passenger airplanes and space rockets. It is known that in the future there will be another type of clean energy, it will be provided by fusion reactors. But until that moment, which may be postponed, in all likelihood, for 50 and 100 years, we will have to look for other solutions.
Below we list possible solutions in the energy sector:
1. one option is to temporarily use nuclear power. The author of this Program considers the German decision to completely abandon nuclear power by 2022 to be premature in terms of environmental impact. It would be more appropriate to first stop burning coal and gas in the boilers of thermal power plants, and then we could gradually shut down nuclear power plants, shifting the balance towards environmentally friendly renewable energy sources. It is clear that it is possible to meet the thermonuclear energy of the future using hydrocarbon fuels, but this is fraught with consequences for the environment. In general, nuclear power involves the difficult-to-solve problem of radioactive waste and the risk of contamination of the area in the event of an accident. This is a huge disadvantage. Although just at the current moment it is seen that the problem of radioactive waste can be solved with the help of fast neuron reactors capable of "after-burning" the spent fuel of nuclear power plants. But at the moment these technologies are in their infancy.
It should be noted here that there is such a little-known indicator as population mortality per kilowatt of electricity generated. This indicator is calculated by analyzing premature mortality from diseases mainly related to the human respiratory system and from the number of natural disasters caused by climate change. Thus, for NPPs this indicator is incomparably lower than for coal and gas power plants, which emit a huge amount of harmful substances into the atmosphere, which, in turn, leads to aggravation of diseases of both people and animals, as well as to climate change on the Planet. The mortality rate of the population depending on the type of power plant is given in the report of the European Science Center [ 30 ].
2. another interesting solution to the energy dilemma is the supply of solar electricity from the Sahara desert: in the desert the sun is active even in winter, which opens up the possibility for the EU to heat itself with electricity purchased from the desert regions of the planet, abandoning gas and coal heating. This would be a very significant contribution to reducing emissions into the atmosphere. I am talking about the further development of the Desertec project [ 31 ], which started in 2009 in the EU but is currently experiencing difficulties. In terms of the risks of locating energy outside the EU and also because of the political instability in the African region, the Desertec project is unfortunately a very risky endeavor. And it cannot be a sustainable development for generations to come. The author of this Program, for the sake of interest, calculated the parameters of a power plant equivalent in capacity to the world energy consumption and consisting only of solar panels located in the Sahara Desert [ 32 ]. The reader may also be interested in the calculation of a 1 TW and 15 TW transmission line [ 33 ] to deliver electricity from the Sahara to the European continent.
3. the third and, in the author's opinion, the best solution for the present is the widespread use of geothermal energy. We are talking mainly about deep (up to 3 km) drilling of the Earth. Wikipedia [ 34 ] gives the following figure: the energy stored underground at a depth of up to 3000 meters is enough to supply the entire humanity for 100.000 years! These are incredible figures and it means that only a thousandth of this energy can supply the humanity for 100 years to come. So far, dozens of deep wells have been drilled in Germany, with a maximum depth of up to 7 kilometers. The temperature of the underground rocks at the bottom of these wells ranges from 40°C to 374°C, and the available thermal power ranges from hundreds of kilowatts to tens of megawatts per well. Thus, one deep well can provide hot water and heating in winter for a whole neighborhood in a city, i.e. thousands of apartments. And it all works without any heat pumps - hot water from under the ground can be directly supplied to residential buildings. And geothermal energy, unlike the energy of such sources as the sun and wind, is quite stable, i.e. does not depend on the time of day and season. In geographical terms, geothermal energy is available almost anywhere on our planet.
It should be noted here that deep drilling wells are capable of generating steam directly for steam turbines of electric generators. But the efficiency of such conversion is extremely low, in the warm season a lot of heat has to be discharged into the atmosphere. Therefore, in the author's opinion, it makes sense to generate electricity at deep wells only in the cold season, when the waste heat can be used for heating buildings. In addition, this would compensate for the decrease in electricity generation from solar panels. It also seems sensible to supply only apartment buildings with heat energy, as it is very difficult to connect supply pipes to each private house. Private houses can be supplied with energy through shallow (80...300 m) boreholes with the use of heat pumps.
Geothermal energy has two main disadvantages: firstly, the high cost of drilling - currently millions of euros per well. This disadvantage is easily overcome with the proper involvement of government incentives for the industry. For example, a significant reward could be given for achieving a halving of drilling costs. In this case, the industry should bring in innovators, like Ilon Musk, who will make the technology massively available. The second disadvantage of geothermal energy is more serious - it is rare cases of provoking underground tremors, small earthquakes. Here it is necessary to carefully study the causes of this phenomenon and exclude its occurrence in the future. But already now it is obvious that in the process of delivering thermal energy from the depths of the earth to its surface it is necessary to provoke changes in underground rocks as little as possible.
At the moment (the end of 2023) we can witness the creation of a breakthrough technology of deep horizontal drilling capable of providing mankind with both thermal and electrical energy for centuries to come. The project is a 3.5 MW geothermal power plant with horizontal drilling from the startup Fervo Energy from the USA [ 35 ]. The power plant powers one of Google's data centers. Technically, it is a vertical drilling to a depth of just over two kilometers and then horizontal drilling to a distance of one kilometer. Previously, Fervo said that if this project is successful, it intends to build a much larger geothermal power plant in Utah.
The age of thermonuclear energy: the transition to efficient heating with electricity.
When the time comes and inexpensive and powerful fusion reactors are used in our everyday life, then, in the author's opinion, it will be possible to make the transition to efficient heating with electricity. Using electric underfloor heating may be a better solution in terms of material, ease of installation and the space required for additional equipment. Yes, it requires more electricity, but the ease of installation with cheap electricity is worth it. Another great idea, again for the future, to use taps with electric heating for hot water supply: no need to take care of the hot water supply, almost instant heating. Low material and space requirements compared to the use of boilers, boilers or heat exchangers. By the way, Amazon already has a rather rich selection of such devices [ 36 ]. Thus, only electricity and cold water would need to be connected to each house. This solution seems quite elegant.
Conclusions: at this historical stage, in the author's opinion, it is necessary to develop geothermal energy rapidly. Energy from deep (up to 3 km) wells can fully cover the needs of the European Union in hot water supply and heating, as well as partially compensate for the reduction in electricity generation by solar panels in winter. In parallel, it is necessary to increase capacity by installing new solar panels and wind turbines, as well as battery stations to smooth out instabilities in the energy system. If the choice is to use nuclear power plants or coal and gas power plants, it will be much more reasonable to choose in favor of nuclear power plants because of their almost complete neutrality in terms of emissions of substances that lead to climate change. In the future, with the emergence of fusion reactors and cheap electricity, it will be possible to switch to heating and hot water supply through direct conversion of electricity into heat.
accomplished:
Reforms in construction: emphasis on the construction of high-rise comfortable buildings;
- Construction of high-rise comfortable buildings;
- Designing cities from start to finish, the Civilization Project;
Construction of high-rise comfortable buildings:
Skyscrapers today are the shortest and most efficient way to provide people with comfortable and affordable housing. The innovations that will make the proposed high-rise buildings the most outstanding high-rise buildings in the World will be listed below:
- the first innovation is complete self-sufficiency in electricity, hot water and heating. Surplus electricity will be used to charge electric vehicles. This innovation makes our building truly a building of the future: heating, water heating and electricity will be generated by the earth's heat using deep horizontal drilling technology without the use of heat pumps;
- the second innovation is the construction technology: our skyscraper will be assembled from various pre-prepared blocks like a Lego set. This will significantly increase the speed of construction. By the way, the construction of the entire building should take no more than a year. At the same time, its service life should be at least a hundred years. After that it will be relatively easy to completely dismantle the building and erect a new one in its place;
- the third innovation is the relatively low cost of construction: our high-rise building will cost in the range of 100 million €, revolutionizing the mass construction of affordable housing;
- the fourth innovation is a canteen located directly in the building with a cheap food offer. This solution will reduce electricity consumption by reducing individual cooking in the apartment. In addition, a supermarket, kindergarten, elementary school, gym and office space are planned to be located directly in the building;
A brief technical description may look as follows: the building has a storey height of 60 and a base of 45 m x 45 m, which corresponds to a free arrangement of 16 apartments of 90m2 per floor. The first 10 floors are 4 m high (stores, canteen, kindergarten, elementary school, offices, gymnasium), the remaining 50 floors are 3 m high, making the total height of the building 190 m. With its storey height, the building will be relatively low. The number of residents will be about 2500 people. It also implies a three-level underground parking lot for cars and one underground floor for bicycle parking. And with the transition to free public transportation and the arrival of the era of autopilot cabs, the need for underground floors will decrease.
It should be said at once that the excuses currently practiced in the EU for the construction of high-rise buildings, such as the impossibility of exceeding a certain height of existing buildings, look old-fashioned and ridiculous. The need to build a skyscraper is dictated by the high demand for housing on the one hand and a vision of the future on the other. With its innovative innovations, the proposed skyscraper will be an example of an efficient economy.
What needs to be done? First of all, it is necessary to introduce legislative incentives for building skyscrapers. In growing cities and even in small towns, we should concentrate exclusively on high-rise buildings. It should be emphasized that the author is by no means suggesting that all people should be moved into skyscrapers. To live or not to live in such buildings is a purely voluntary decision of each citizen. But, in view of the prevalence of low-rise buildings and the almost complete lack of choice today, I propose to abandon the construction of low-rise buildings in the short term and concentrate on the construction of high-rise buildings and the improvement of related technologies. After all, it is clear that many people will like such a house. And this is an efficient use of space and resources, and low material and energy intensity compared to an equivalent number of disparate low-rise buildings.
Numerous intermediaries in the housing search and rental process should be eliminated. A centralized web-based apartment search service should replace all unnecessary layers. This will ensure convenient apartment search and regulated rates. At the same time, each rental unit should be accompanied by 3D models of its interior, as well as 3D exteriors of the building itself and the surrounding area.
Designing cities from start to finish, the Civilization Project:
It should be noted that some aspects of city design can only be optimally solved by designing an entire city from scratch. These aspects mainly include the low cost of housing due to the efficiency of construction technologies. And also, for example, a high-class system of separation, collection and utilization of household waste based on pneumatic garbage chutes [ 37 ]. So, having a revolutionary technology of high-speed construction of high-rise buildings, described above, it seems logical to design a whole big city on its basis. The project "Civilization" from the author of this Program [ 38 ] is designed to make this dream a reality.
Thus, if we imagine a city consisting mostly of skyscrapers, we can talk about a very large area of parks, green spaces and reserves located between the high-rise buildings. It should be borne in mind that the need to move between the high-rise buildings in the city will partially disappear, because in the skyscrapers will function and firms that provide jobs, and stores that provide food and other goods, as well as some types of entertainment and even schools and branches of universities.
accomplished:
Education reforms: countering propaganda, cognitive distortions, mass online education;
List of reforms:
- countering propaganda: informing the public about the methods and dangers of propaganda;
- cognitive distortions of thinking - a need for study at the primary education stage;
- massive online education;
Countering propaganda: informing the public about the methods and dangers of propaganda.
The author of this Program identifies clear signs of propaganda:
- is the mandatory regular harmonization of the media's infoprovocations with the dictatorial regime;
- is the funding of propaganda media activities from public funds;
- is a blatant lie mixed with a vestige of truth;
- is inflating insignificant infoprovods into significant ones and, on the contrary, "masking" undesirable facts;
Thus, in Hitler's Germany, ordinary Germans were indoctrinated with the idea that Russians were uneducated, unorganized and weak-willed. This was the very propaganda, as a result of which people became like zombies and justified for themselves the war with the Russians. But Germany has since learned its lesson and banned government-dependent media outlets by law.
In fact, from the point of view of the development of people as a species, what propaganda does to them is a real phenomenon. At this stage of Man's development it is enough to bombard people from all sides with a powerful stream of information coordinated in advance with the dictator and formed in a special way, and in his head will appear thoughts in a strictly limited mental corridor. In other words, the absolute majority of people are not able to counteract propaganda, it is like a corrosive poisonous slurry that gets into their heads. And vice versa, a rare person is immune to propaganda, able to regulate and analyze infopoints independently.
Using the knowledge of neural networks and the impact of information on humans, we can say that the basic parameters are in good agreement: the human brain is a complex neural network, and neural networks, in turn, are trained and tuned with the help of information fed to their inputs. Hence the conclusion that a dictator who subjugates the media changes people at the level of their consciousness. He is able to raise zombies who will justify attacking other countries, war, bloodshed. The most interesting thing is that in the place of an ordinary German during the Second World War could be any person who was simply born or was in Germany at that time. Such a person could have been me and you.
Thus, with the help of propaganda it is easy to make a person a carrier of fascist ideology and he (the person) will not even realize it. The dots over "and" will be set later in the historical context, as it was in Nazi Germany. And now, for example, Russians happily support the massacre under Putin's leadership and talk about the greatness of Russia with the pensions and salaries of the poor. At the same time people of Russia are so poor that for one third of deputy's salary they are ready to go to kill inhabitants of the neighboring country and to be killed themselves.
This means that the autocratic leader of the country, who imprisons his citizens in the infofield of propaganda, is a criminal. In this case, the people's right to form an objective point of view, to think freely, to receive information from independent journalism is taken away from them.
The serial killer of oppositionists, Vladimir Putin, is such a criminal these days. Propaganda media either directly or through special services coordinate their messages with him. All of them mold people into narrow-minded zombies, receiving money for this from the budget. This is a crime on the level of what Hitler committed. As a result, in the minds of most Russians, the war with Ukraine and the actions of the dictator Putin, who has gone off the rails, are justified.
In democracies, the media do not coordinate their information agenda with the leaders of the countries. In Germany, for example, the mainstream media are sponsored by the people through a special tax on media and radio [ 39 ]. This ensures that people have access to independent journalism.
Here we propose to introduce a course on the methods and dangers of propaganda in high schools. The aim of the course is to develop in each person immunity from propaganda, the ability to regulate and analyze infostreams independently. The author is sure that it will be very useful for people to partially borrow the methods of training of special services agents in this direction.
Cognitive distortions of thinking - a need for study at the elementary education stage.
The meaning of basic school and higher education is to pass on the experience of previous generations to new generations. At the same time, it is not only about the transfer of technical skills, but also about knowledge that allows a person to improve and develop personally. It is obvious that man, as a species, is imperfect. This is evidenced, among other things, by the extensive list of cognitive distortions of human thinking [ 40 ]. This also includes the very interesting experiment of Stanley Milgram [ 41 ] in the field of social psychology and other classical experiments [ 42 ]. The essence of Milgram's experiment is that absolutely any person on Earth will agree to conduct a scientific experiment on another person in an average of 70% of cases, even if it is clear that the latter is suffering and asks to stop the experiment. This example illustrates well the imperfect nature of human beings, who tend to abdicate responsibility and submit to authority. If all these things are competently told to teenagers in high school, the next generations of people will correct their behavior already at the level of heredity.
In general, that part of education, which is aimed at human development, should contribute, among other things, to the fact that a greater and greater part of human thinking would move from his subconsciousness to the full control of consciousness.
I would like to add to the list of cognitive distortions the incorrect reaction of people to price tags with nines. Thus, many people subconsciously perceive, for example, the price of 7.99€ as a price near 7€, not 8€. This peculiarity of human perception has long been used by sellers of goods all over the world, although in fact this is a form of deception. Moreover, such pricing (with nines at the end) makes it difficult to calculate the total amount in your mind, say, when visiting a grocery store.
Massive online education.
It is necessary to develop mass online education. As an example, we can consider the project "Coursera" [ 43 ]. As of February 2017, Coursera had 24 million registered users and more than 2000 courses and 160 specializations from 149 educational institutions. There are similar projects in Germany too. It is necessary to actively develop this direction.
Any employer should be able to get a qualified professional. For this purpose, the requirements for a job posted on a labor exchange should specify what online courses an applicant for the position must take and what his/her minimum score on the relevant exam may be. People should be able to requalify and get the desired job/position at any point in their lives free of charge. At the same time, before taking online courses, a possible future employee can participate in tours of the company he/she is interested in.
The point is that the ability to transmit information over the Internet makes it possible to scale people's education without the cost of over-extending the teaching force. Theoretically, lectures of outstanding teachers and schoolteachers can be streamed online to any geographical location, even to other countries, for example, to the countries with the lowest GDP per capita (see the corresponding thesis below). With the help of a hologram, the learning process can be made as exciting and futuristic as possible, and at the same time effective and practical. But here it is very important not to neglect the education of living teachers and educators.
accomplished:
National security reforms: emphasizing cybersecurity and addressing the EU's lagging behind in some technological areas;
List of reforms:
- emphasize defensive and surveillance forces, cybersecurity;
- eliminating the EU's lagging behind in some technological areas;
- development of commercial space: private missions to the Moon and Mars;
- we need to build high-speed satellite internet;
- need to create their own popular operating system for computers;
- it is necessary to create your own quality search service (Google competitor);
- development of artificial intelligence systems and efficient supercomputers;
The goal is to make the World peaceful.
Some of the reforms on the list do not require further explanation. I don't think it is necessary to explain that lagging behind in technological spheres is a threat to national security for the EU.
Development of commercial space: private missions to the Moon and Mars:
Instead of mindless stamping of private cars, the industry should reorient itself to building spacecraft, rocket engines and related technologies. The space industry should be profitable and provide revenues to the budget. Ilon Musk's achievements clearly prove that even one person is capable of creating innovative rockets, spaceships, rocket engines, which are many times cheaper than the existing analogs made at the expense of taxpayers. But it is also important to understand that behind Ilon Musk is a whole state, which has developed a long-term program of support and development of private space. We cannot lag behind here, it is desirable for the European Union to catch up and overtake NASA and Ilon Musk! I am proceeding here from the benefit for all mankind. We don't need an arms race, we need a space race!
I note that the first steps in this direction have already been taken: the European Space Agency (ESA) is launching its own commercial space program, under which companies will be given the opportunity to make paid flights into orbit [ 44 ]. This is certainly encouraging. It is necessary to support and develop this direction in every possible way. After all, in the coming decades, mankind will enter the era of private cosmonautics. This industry will eventually create jobs and bring significant revenues to the budget.
For organization of communication between planets (Earth-Mars) or planets and their satellites (Earth-Moon) the use of the effect of entangled photons looks very promising [ 45 ]. It becomes possible to organize audio or video communication without time delays even at such large distances. By the way, it may be possible to use this technology for ordinary satellite Internet. In this case, satellites can be safely placed in high geostationary orbit, because there will be no delays in signal transmission.
The financial side of the reforms:
The financial side of the issue let's look at the example of Germany, which has a budget of 356 billion € for 2019 [ 46 ]: defense spending in 2019 in Germany will be 43.2 billion €. This is 5 billion.€ more than in 2018 [ 47 ]. The author of this Program is not an expert in the subtleties of the budget, but believes that 10-15-20 billion $ from the military budget line can be used not for the creation of lethal machines, but for the above-mentioned purposes.
accomplished:
Measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions: making people aware of the huge ecological footprint of livestock production;
List of Measures:
- reducing emissions in the energy sector;
- informing people about the gigantic ecological footprint of animal agriculture;
- refusal to manufacture and import products related to the killing of animals;
- support of food production that meets the requirements of sustainable ecosystem development;
- unified internet resource of the European recycling service;
Reducing emissions in the energy sector:
The website ourworldindata.org provides a chart of the distribution of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions by technology sector [ 48 ]. It can be seen that the energy sector accounts for almost three quarters of the emissions contributing to global climate change. Measures to reduce and eliminate these emissions are well described in the theses "Energy Reforms" and "Transport Reforms" of this Program. Here I will only present the conclusions from the respective theses:
at this historical stage, in the author's opinion, geothermal energy should be rapidly developed. Energy from deep (up to 3 km) wells can fully cover the needs of the European Union in hot water supply and heating, as well as partially compensate for the reduction in electricity generation by solar panels in winter. In parallel, it is necessary to increase capacity by installing new solar panels and wind turbines, as well as battery stations to smooth out instabilities in the energy system. If the choice is to use nuclear power plants or coal and gas power plants, it will be much more reasonable to choose in favor of nuclear power plants because of their almost complete neutrality in terms of emissions of substances that lead to climate change. In the future, with the emergence of fusion reactors and cheap electricity, it will be possible to switch to heating and hot water supply through direct conversion of electricity into heat.
Stimulating the development of electric car transport, free public transport and autopilot systems should be one of the government's priorities. Autopilot and free public transport will lead to a significant reduction of personal vehicles on the roads, which will relieve both car traffic and parking spaces. In turn, the reduction in car production will have a positive impact on the environment. It goes without saying that the main achievement from the introduction of autopilot will be the reduction of deaths on the roads.
Educating people about the giant ecological footprint of livestock production:
Estimates of the contribution of global livestock production to climate change vary somewhat. The article [ 49 ] provides different values for these estimates and explains the reasons for the discrepancy. In 2013, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Division estimated that livestock production was responsible for 14.5% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Although the analysis was based on data from 2004 and 2005, it remains the most widely cited estimate of livestock production's global carbon footprint. The author of this Program will be guided by this value.
In particular, the following quote is attributed to James Cameron (creator of such remarkable films as Titanic, Terminator and Avatar): "...annual greenhouse gas emissions from livestock farms account for about 14.5% of the total greenhouse gases emitted into the atmosphere from human activity. This is more than is produced by the entire transportation sector on the Planet (13.5%) ... We can make big changes immediately by simply enabling people to change their lifestyles. It doesn't require huge investments. It doesn't require new innovative projects, new engines or new energy sources ... More than 70% of the crops grown in the U.S. are given to animal feed. 70% of available water is used to grow crops, most of which goes to animals, not people. It takes 13 pounds of grain to produce one pound of meat ... not to mention the monstrous cruelty of the livestock industry, which claims an estimated 100 billion innocent lives every year."
The author of this program recorded a video on YouTube [ 50 ], where I tried to tell about all the most important aspects of veganism. To date, numerous studies have been completed (some of them, by the way, lasted for decades), which prove that it is possible to give up products related to animal husbandry, and this, of course, without harm to health. Scientists already know exactly what elements at the micro level (proteins, fats, carbohydrates, vitamins, trace elements) and in what quantities the body needs. And what food sources you get these components from, animal or vegetable, does not play a role, but determines your dietary culture. The one element that has not yet been discovered in plants, but is essential for humans, is vitamin B12. Revolutionary vegan products that harmonize all the essential plant elements have already begun to appear, but more on that below.
Wikipedia provides ample information on this topic [ 51, 52 ]. In general, it is important to note that it is in our century that a historic opportunity has arisen for everyone to adopt a vegan food culture. Half a century ago (not to mention earlier times), switching to veganism would have been associated with health risks due to lack of scientific knowledge.
Finally, let us explain to people protesting against climate change [ 53 ] that it is their eating habits and those of their parents that are responsible for a significant share of harmful emissions into the atmosphere. It is necessary to bring this information to the attention of all EU citizens, because not all of them know about it (!). At present, children associate environmental protection with green spaces, but not with the way of eating and avoiding animal husbandry. This needs to be corrected. People's attitude of treating other lives as a price per kilogram needs to be corrected.
It may be effective to include livestock in the EU emissions trading system [ 54 ].
To summarize the above it can be seen that transitioning people to a vegan lifestyle will be beneficial:
- for the environment (reduction potential of 14.5% of total greenhouse gases);
- to improve farm efficiency: reducing energy consumption for the production of agricultural materials and fodder, avoiding the expansion of pastures for grazing animals and arable land for growing fodder crops, reducing water consumption;
- for the conscience, because the realization that it is no longer necessary to kill other living beings to sustain your existence clears the conscience and warms the soul;
- for World Peace, because if every human being realizes that it is not good to harm another living being, there will be no one to fight with. Let us remember here that one of the most important discoveries of mankind in its history was Charles Darwin's discovery of the fact that humans once, a long time ago, descended from monkeys, i.e. we are obviously animals ourselves. Only we are unspeakably lucky, we are animals with a more developed ability to reflect and communicate. Therefore, we have more freedom of choice - so let us choose just "Peace in the World" (!), let us choose a vegan way of life, let us take this responsibility, and let it be not a burden but a joy for us;
- here, I'm sure many will say: I'm ready to give up animal food, even if it is not good for my personal health, but fortunately, the vegan lifestyle with the right approach is also good for your personal health (!) - you just need to choose a diet of plant foods so that its composition at the micro level (proteins, fats, carbohydrates, trace elements, vitamins, fiber) does not change compared to your current diet and, of course, do not forget about the additional intake of vitamin B12;
Refuse to manufacture and import products related to the killing of animals:
As part of the protection of the environment and the animal world, it is necessary to refuse the production and import of products associated with the killing of animals. These are mainly leather products, the production of which itself involves the use of many harmful chemicals.
Supporting food production that meets the requirements of sustainable ecosystem development:
It is necessary to take measures to develop and disseminate food products that meet the requirements of sustainable ecosystem development. We are talking about innovative products that have been on the market for a relatively short time, only a few years ago. These are powdered mixtures or drinks containing all the necessary components for human activity, and exclusively based on plant components: proteins, fats, carbohydrates, microelements, vitamins and necessary types of ballast substances. The thing is that every country or union of countries has its own Ministry of Health or an analogue of this organization, which exactly knows and recommends to each person, depending on the age group, a strictly defined amount of calories and microelements. But only recently people came up with the ingenious idea to mix the original natural, exclusively plant components so as to get the necessary ratio of calories and micronutrients. The first such revolutionary product called Soylent was developed in the US in 2013 [ 55 ] and was initially non-vegan. Soylent's analog in the EU is Mana [ 56 ]. These kinds of products have several advantages: the first is the enormous saving of cooking time. If one consumes Mana while studying in any educational institution, or at work, there is simply no need to organize canteens. It also makes sense to take Manu on various treks and trips. Secondly, the fact that Mana is based solely on plant products leads to a reduction in methane and other greenhouse gas emissions associated with animal husbandry, while reducing water and electricity consumption, as well as deforestation for pasture. Mana complies with EFSA (European Food Safety Authority) [ 57 ] and adheres to its recommendations for the necessary composition of micronutrients in the diet for each individual.
Now let's digress and imagine ourselves on a huge space trans-galactic ship (!). Or, let's take a closer future, imagine people building a settlement city on Mars (!). Can you imagine raising cows and pigs there? (!) at the same time plant-based food based on fruits from your own "vegetable garden" can be easily imagined. That's the whole point - the Multiplanetary Human Species will be exclusively Vegan.
A single online resource for European recycling services:
It is not easy for a foreigner to understand all the intricacies of waste separation in the EU. The author of this program felt it on his own experience, having moved to Germany for permanent residence. In order to make life easier for all citizens and to improve the quality of waste recycling, every garbage can should have a sticker of sufficiently large size with the indication of one single Internet resource. We are talking about a single European recycling service, where, by entering the name of the product, one could get clear recommendations on its utilization. The search should be carried out not only by the name of the product, but also by its photo or by a special bar code on the product.
accomplished:
The introduction of a single universal language for all people on Earth as a second language;
The goal is a seamless understanding of all people on the Planet.
It is difficult to even list all those areas of human existence where the introduction of a common language for all people will make life much easier. On the whole, it will increase labor efficiency, facilitate the unimpeded movement and integration of people, which, in turn, will become an additional stimulus for the growth of the world economy.
Imagine that any business document, book, movie or song would only need to be translated into one single language .... how much less time and money it would cost ... and, if you are a businessman, how much wider your sphere of influence would be ... The world will indeed be much closer to each person. In addition, by accumulating the world's experience in one language, we can predict an increase in the quality of articles in the world's knowledge base - Wikipedia.
According to Wikipedia [ 58 ], there are currently just over 400 languages in the World that are considered endangered. The 40 most common languages are spoken by about 2/3 of the world's population. The most spoken languages are Chinese, Hindi, English, Spanish, Arabic, Russian and Portuguese.
Just imagine, 40 languages and 400 languages! i.e. if I want to go anywhere in the world and I need to be able to speak to any person on Earth, knowing 40 languages will not be enough! it is obvious that the number of languages will decrease in the future, and approaching the figure of 40, the extinction of languages will slow down considerably. If nothing is done, a single language will probably form by itself, but it will obviously take at least several centuries until the cherished moment.
In case of an advanced transition to a common language for all, in a couple of generations it will not matter how mankind came to it, but the fact that people from different countries all over the world can communicate with each other in a coherent, beautiful, grammatically and logically correct and polished language will be important. At the same time, it goes without saying that it is very important not to forget one's mother tongue. After all, natural language carries a centuries-old history of its origin and origin. For example, it is interesting that the names of most days of the week in German and English have a direct connection with the Gods of Germanic-Scandinavian mythology [ 59 ].
I would also like to address a common opinion such as "language is a cultural code, therefore, people will lose their culture and national identity in the transition to a universal language". This statement is fundamentally wrong - people have been losing their ancestral languages throughout history. But as a result, the culture of peoples has not disappeared, and humanity is now in a much better position compared to even the recent past. Culture is a timeless concept, besides language it includes traditions, upbringing, education, as well as all forms and ways of human self-expression and self-knowledge [ 60 ]. Culture, like national identity, can change over time, but not be lost. Therefore, if humanity knows one common language for all, it will not lose its culture and national identity, but will only acquire new features and characteristics.
It should be noted that in hundreds of years a single universal language, having been initially introduced as a second language of communication, will become the mother tongue of most people. This is inevitable, and there is nothing tragic about it. You don't feel nostalgia for several thousand languages that used to exist but are now extinct, do you? In the present time of globalization, weaker natural languages are rapidly dying out, so the future of the languages of mankind in any case looks like some residual number of the most "strong", influential languages. And such a future seems to come without the special introduction of a single language. But in order not to wait for this moment for centuries and even, perhaps, millennia, while constantly experiencing language barriers, it seems very logical to adopt a single language of communication for all people on Earth as a second language today.
In general, I propose to make a common language of communication just as it is seen in the distant future, having formed naturally. As a practical realization of this thesis I see the creation of a new language according to the following rules: the vocabulary of the new language can be determined by borrowing from other languages on the basis of their modern spread in the World. It also makes sense to borrow words from non-living languages that played a significant role in the past (Latin, Ancient Greek, etc.). Grammar and rules of sentence construction should be simple and without exceptions. Here we can use the experience of such an artificial language as Esperanto [ 61 ] and similar ones.
A common language for all people should be free from the disadvantages inherent in existing languages. For example, shortcomings might include differences in spelling and pronunciation in English, or the use of several letters of the alphabet to describe a single sound in German ("sch" for "sh", "tsch" for "ch", etc.).
A necessary requirement for a new language is high speed and ease of learning. By the way, according to Wikipedia, learning Esperanto takes 10 times less time than learning English: 150 hours and 1500 hours respectively (comparative studies of the speed of learning some languages were conducted at the German University of Paderborn). These numbers are simply mind-boggling (!). Indeed, if you don't spend time studying tables of strong and weak verbs, transcription and pronunciation, exceptions to the rules, etc., it becomes possible to achieve huge results with minimal investment (!).
There is an idea (and it is only an idea for discussion) to use an analog of Huffman's algorithm [ 62 ] and assign the main semantic load of the language to words consisting of two, three or four letters. In theory, this would increase the speed of communication and reduce the volume of documents and books, increasing the speed of reading.
For information: at the end of 2016, Google introduced a new online translation technology, Google Neural Machine Translation [ 63 ]. As a result, the quality of online translations has increased significantly, but still leaves much to be desired. Simultaneous speech translation can not be talked about at all yet. Nevertheless, when the power of neural networks increases thousands of times, I am sure we will get high-quality machine translation of both written and spoken speech. It is necessary to stimulate this direction at the state level. But I don't see the point in waiting for the appearance of technical means of perfect translation of spoken speech, because it will by no means replace natural mastery of a universal language.
In conclusion, I would like to criticize the European approach to solving the problem of multilingualism. This approach and its background are well described in the article "Mother tongue and two foreign languages" [ 64 ] [ 64 ]. We discussed above that 40 languages would not be enough to be able to move around the planet without language barriers. The European plan implies learning foreign languages during one's life, which I strongly disagree with - a person is not born to learn foreign languages all his life, it should not be a necessity in his life. I think it is wasteful to spend time and resources on learning many foreign languages instead of one universal language. At the same time, the introduction of one language for all people on Earth as a second language will reduce the hours allocated today to the study of two compulsory foreign languages in EU schools. The freed up time could be used, for example, for learning to play musical instruments, because music is also a universal language in its own way [ 65 ].
I will give a tentative sequence of actions for the realization of this thesis: the first thing to be done is to gather a group of specialists and confirm the fundamental possibility of creating a new artificial language that would allow us to express our thoughts and build sentences in a simple, coherent way, based on a small number of rules. To work out a strategy of its creation based on the accumulated experience. Then it is necessary to hold the first global vote for the adoption of a common language for all people as a second language of communication. It is important that every person should take part in this. Having secured the support of the majority of the World's citizens, it is necessary to create the final version of a single World language in the shortest possible time, to compile appropriate dictionaries and further to ensure the study of this language in schools all over the World. At the same time it is necessary to create institutions for preserving natural native languages. At the same time, due to the global nature of the action, both the world vote itself and the publication of dictionaries of the common language should be made exclusively in electronic form (based on ecological considerations).
accomplished:
Improving citizen safety through the introduction of "Citizen Safety Automats";
The purpose of such devices is to record law and order violations and crimes.
An Automated Teller Machine is a small-sized device installed in public places. They should automatically recognize the following events: a fight, a threat with a weapon, the appearance of people in masks, unusually large crowds of people, unusual human actions (e.g., sudden fast running), a car accident, search for a person (suspected of a crime) on request. The realization of all of the above functions is currently seen as quite possible. At least one company (IBM) is already fulfilling customer orders on some such topics [ 66 ]. The above video describes in detail some of the tasks solved by artificial neural networks and (as a bonus) the configuration of the Summit supercomputer.
In normal operation mode, such an Automat is a high-resolution video camera, the image from which is continuously analyzed by the "Open Software Module for Civil Security". In case of identification of the above mentioned events, the information is immediately transmitted to the responsible police station, it is like an extra set of eyes for police officers. Thanks to such devices, it will be possible to reduce the number of police officers, while increasing the efficiency of response to violations of law and order.
The dispensers must be fully autonomous, supplied with electricity from solar panels located in their immediate vicinity (on a pole or building wall). In addition to the above events, the dispensers must respond to an attempted hacker attack and an attempt to jam the signal.
«Civil Security Automated Teller Machines can help in counting the number of people participating in demonstrations. This is important, because often the results of counts from different sources (usually of opposing political views) differ many times over. It should be noted that we should try not to make people feel the need to go out to protest demonstrations. The introduction of electronic voting and the principles of direct democracy (see the corresponding thesis) will help here.
Information from such multifunctional Automated Teller Machines can be accessed by public organizations as well, if necessary. In some cases, this will help in the fight against fake news.
At the same time, as already mentioned, the Program Module functioning inside the Automated Teller Machine should be publicly available so that every person could make sure of its "purity". It is important that people do not think that they are being "watched", but understand that the Automated Teller Machines perform a strictly defined function and work with completely anonymized data. Such Automata can be compared to the ubiquitous motion-sensitive lighting automata.
Initially, the writing of the Program Module will involve professional programmers in cooperation with intelligence agencies and police officers. The "Open Program Module on Civil Security" is then made publicly available on the Internet. It is clear that due to the openness of the Program Module, many bloggers who know programming will be able to cover its functionality in a way that is accessible to ordinary citizens. Bloggers and programmers will help to find flaws and bugs that will be fixed over time. In the end, we will have a virtual policeman indistinguishable from the most responsible person.
accomplished:
Abandonment of paper documents: transition to fully electronic document management;
The widespread use of digital documents has significant potential to increase labor efficiency. An obvious additional advantage is the reduced consumption of paper, stationery, printers/scanners/shredders, and the need to organize space for paper archives.
This is especially true nowadays, when the number of paper documents and books has increased many times more than in the recent past. The development of the world economy has led to unprecedented availability of technologies for printing documents and books. The reverse side of the coin is the shrinking of forests, which has a negative impact on the environment.
However, if we continue to think in terms of the outdated paradigm of paper-based document management, it will be a long time before we can take full advantage of the benefits of the transition to digital documents.
The goal can be considered achieved if electronic document management is introduced in all state institutions and non-state enterprises, and if printed publications go fully electronic. Also, the need for regular mailboxes should completely disappear, as all correspondence can be received by email.
A word or two should be said here about the German universal e-mail service "De-Mail" [ 67 ]. This service was conceived as a highly reliable e-mail service for the exchange of messages and documents between German citizens and all government agencies. The idea is good, but the implementation is just disgusting. First of all, double domain names like "@de-mail-t-systems.de-mail.de" are simply unacceptable. You could have just chosen the universal name "@mail.de". Secondly - paid functions. In the age of digitalization, one should have thought of paid e-mail (!). Thirdly, you have to inform government agencies about your e-mail account, because initially they don't know anything about your e-mail. The fourth disadvantage of the German e-mail service is that registration is optional. As a result, not all citizens of this country have e-mail.
For the convenience of users, I propose to create a universal e-mail for the whole EU on the domain "@mail.eu" and to eliminate all the shortcomings of the German realization of this good idea. The mail should be completely free, and public institutions should know the e-mail of their citizens. All EU citizens and public institutions should be given a universal e-mail box of the form "имя.фамилия_123456@mail.eu" or "фирма/учреждение_123456@mail.eu" (where the digits are a random six-position number). Before sending a message, both the recipient and the sender are verified (all senders and recipients are entered in a special register). Two-factor identification via cell phone will be responsible for the security of access via the Internet. A mobile application will ensure user-friendliness on a mobile device. The use of end-to-end encryption will additionally secure correspondence.
I repeat, once these measures are implemented, all mailboxes can simply be dismantled. After all, all correspondence, including newspapers, can come exclusively in electronic form. This will significantly reduce the burden on the environment.
accomplished:
Optimization of design and manufacturing processes for electrical circuits and printed circuit boards;
The lack of universal databases of electronic components leads to the fact that each firm has to spend quite a lot of resources on individual optimization of the design and manufacturing processes of electrical circuits, printed circuit boards and products based on them. This increases the final cost of the product, reducing its competitiveness.
The universal solution is to legally oblige all manufacturers of electronic components operating in the EU to enter data on each component into a universal database. A special group should be created to keep this database up and running. The data on electronic components will contain a list of parameters by component type, simulation model + thermal model, 3D housing model with support for tolerances and material identifiers, manufacturer recommended Layout data, weight, certification, compatibility, Lead finish, MSL level, ESD level, Manufacturer reliability data, radiation resistance, packaging options, etc...
With such a universal database in place, existing circuit and PCB design tools (CAD-Software) as well as software for machines for automatic installation of components on the PCB will need to be finalized. All of them should be synchronized with a single database of EU electronic components.
In addition to automation and ease of component selection, instant simulation of electrical circuits and construction of high-quality 3D models of printed circuit boards, now we get new functions as a bonus: this is a quick optimization of the device by weight (you can select elements with similar parameters, but less weight), by operating temperature range, by resistance to radiation, etc... The most interesting thing is that if we add another column "recommended price" to the database, we will be able to quickly optimize by cost. It is clear that the final price depends on the volume of the order and the cost of shipping and packaging, and this should all be taken into account.
Speaking of packaging: the electronics industry is rapidly moving away from THT elements and towards SMD components. Almost all SMD components can use universal reusable packaging and thus get rid of many tons of plastic waste. Moreover, if it is not a bobbin with elements, but a special SMD-Tray, it is possible and necessary to make it so that this Tray can be immediately (without additional shifting) installed on a machine for arranging components on printed circuit boards. This will greatly facilitate the task of manufacturers of electronic devices of low serialization and reduce labor costs for manufacturing of pre-production samples of products. It is also necessary to realize recycling of standard SMD-Threads with the possibility of their return to suppliers or product manufacturers.
accomplished:
Support for platforms that compare products based on expert parameters and characteristics;
The goal is to counterbalance unfair marketing, increase the technical literacy of the population, and increase environmental responsibility.
The problem with advertising and dishonest marketing is that if their budget is big enough, there is an opportunity to sell "yuck" in greater quantities and at a higher price than great technical stuff.
Let me give you a simple example: in a conversation with a friend, we once touched on such a hot topic as "which smartphone is better". My opponent said that the camera in his smartphone has many more megapixels and the battery has more capacity, so his smartphone is better. This is an example of a person who is influenced by dishonest marketing and advertising and has no way to get reliable technical information about the really important parameters of the device.
The fact is that the smaller the megapixels, the larger they are in size and, as a result, the better the signal-to-noise ratio, and, very importantly, the smaller the size of the photo files. After all, it is obvious that the smaller the file size, the less overhead for storing and sending photos over the Internet in the future. It is known that to print a photo with the size of 13 x 18 cm in excellent polygraphic quality with a resolution of 300dpi is enough only three megapixels, and to print a photo with the size of 24 x 30 cm is enough 12 megapixels. In turn, the battery capacity of a smartphone affects its battery life only relatively. In general, a smartphone with a larger battery can work for less time than a smartphone from another company with a smaller battery. The important thing here is the battery life, not the battery capacity.
To increase the general technical literacy of the population and to stimulate technical progress, it is necessary to create a service where goods will be compared according to the parameters that the expert community will consider really important for this type of goods. For example, for all kinds of computers the energy consumption for solving different types of tasks will be important, for electric cars - the rate of battery degradation, and for almost all kinds of goods the real service life, resource is important. In other words, that important technical information about a device, which is carefully withheld by cunning marketers and which in some cases is quite difficult to obtain independently, should be put in a prominent place. It is also necessary to calculate the ecological footprint of products. The use of products that kill animals, such as leather car seats, should become unfashionable.
I am sure that this service will be in great demand. Ordinary consumers will be informed in time, and manufacturers who develop great technical things will benefit. For example, many manufacturers will not need to invest in advertising and marketing, it will be enough to send a sample of products to the office of the service for its objective analysis and evaluation. The main thing that is required is to adhere to the principles of universal simplicity and beauty in the design and production of goods, as well as to understand what should be produced and, just as importantly, what should not be produced.
An interesting idea is the creation of a special department that forms images of future "ideal" gadgets and related parameters and characteristics that these gadgets, devices and appliances should have. Here there will be a demand for people with the ability to translate the "ideas" of universal simplicity and universal beauty into real devices. The author of this Program could personally offer variants of the "ideal" television [ 68 ], desktop computer [ 69 ] and smartphone [ 70 ]. There are no such devices on the market yet, but there are already some prerequisites.
accomplished:
Dynamic tax in the system of free distribution of copyrighted content;
Here is a chance not only to catch up, but also to overtake such services as Netflix, Apple TV and others. The idea is simple: all EU residents pay a special tax and have access to any copyrighted content. The amount of the tax changes dynamically and depends on the amount of content in the system and average market prices. Adding content to the system by authors will be voluntary. The goal of the free content distribution system is to distribute users' money among content authors in a simple and transparent way.
To begin with, it means working only with books, music and movies. In the future, this principle can be extended to all other content, and even to the entire Internet. In the latter case, it means that the owners of web content will receive monetary remuneration depending on how much time people spend viewing this or that content.
All ancient (and not so ancient) books and sources which are no longer under copyright [ 71 ], i.e. which have become public domain, should also be represented in this system. Moreover, if there is no electronic original, it is necessary to create a high-quality electronic copy - this will allow to abandon the content of all kinds of libraries, leaving only a few as museums. All ancient (and not so ancient) artifacts, which have become public domain, should be scanned by 3D-scanners in high enough resolution and be available via the Internet. Such services as "Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek" [ 72 ] and "Europeana" are already working in this direction [ 72 ] and Europeana [ 73 ]. These activities will remove barriers to quality research, making it less expensive and more accessible to a wide range of researchers.
If non-EU countries join this project, the dynamic tax will decrease in proportion to the new number of users of the system. On the other hand, if the amount of content in the system increases, the tax will have to increase.
If you look at the current trend, you can see the emergence of many services like Netflix and Apple Music. Each of these services is trying to win as large an audience of content consumers as possible. Obviously, in the course of this competition, the loser will be the end consumer, who will be forced to torn between similar services and may end up paying for several services at once;
The system will be based on an open source application developed for each type of operating system. Each unit of content (it can be a book, audio or video composition, etc.) will be assigned to the monetary accounts of the right holders, indicating the percentage of participation or the percentage of "authorship". Funds will be credited to these accounts depending on the time spent by the user listening to or viewing the content. If, let's say, a person pays a tax of 10€ per month to the system of free distribution of content and during this period watches a couple of movies, reads a book and listens to some music, his 10€ will first be distributed in proportion to the time spent between the above content (possibly with coefficients according to the type of content), and then, according to the percentage of "authorship", between the creators of a particular unit of content.
The application interface should be implemented in a user-friendly and simple way, without unnecessary, cluttering details.
accomplished:
The differences between the European Union and the United States of America: an appeal to the United States;
The U.S. differs from the European Union in significant ways. Here is a list of some of the areas where this difference is fully manifested:
- vacation entitlement;
- the right to be fired;
- health insurance;
- higher education system;
- the situation surrounding the International Criminal Court;
- the prosecution of Julian Assange and Edward Snowden;
- prisons with the ability to torture people;
Vacation entitlement:
In the United States, ordinary citizens are not legally entitled to vacation [ 74, 75 ]. Only congressmen are entitled to vacation by law. Often workers have a subconscious fear that if they take an "excessively" long vacation, which usually does not exceed two weeks a year, they may be fired/replaced. At the same time, the length of vacation is determined by the firms or corporations themselves. For comparison, the guaranteed vacation in Germany is 20 working days. But, as a rule, companies add an additional 10 days of vacation to this.
Eligibility for dismissal:
Under U.S. law, an employee can be fired at any time without notice or severance pay, simply discarding the person as unwanted junk.
Health Insurance:
The US is the only industrialized country that does not guarantee its citizens a universal and inclusive health insurance system. In 2012, the U.S. ranked only 37th in terms of medical care and 33rd in terms of overall health [ 76 ]. This is despite the fact that spending on the health care system there is the highest in the world. According to a 2009 Harvard University study, lack of health insurance in the U.S. causes 44800 additional deaths annually, about 2% of the total number of deaths.
The higher education system:
The system of higher education in the USA, provided exclusively on a fee basis [ 77 ], contributes to the stratification and consolidation of inequality in society. The cost of education in the USA ranges from 1.500 to 5.000$ per month. It is clear that young people and their parents, in case of insufficient skills in the sphere of earning money, have a high chance to get in addition to the social gap in education. In comparison, in Germany, higher education is free for everyone, including foreigners [ 78 ]. This decision was made due to the fact that the government and representatives of the federal states believe that all people should have equal opportunities to access higher education.
The situation surrounding the International Criminal Court:
The U.S. is the most vocal opponent of the International Criminal Court [ 79, 80 ]. The Bush Jr. administration, under the pretext of protecting its military personnel, completely refused to participate in the Rome Statute, calling it a violation of U.S. national interests and sovereignty. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that ICC employees could face visa restrictions and sanctions because of investigations against the U.S. military. It follows that US "national" interests are at odds with the establishment of world peace. This phenomenon should be strongly opposed.
The US blocked a UN Security Council statement calling for an independent investigation into the shooting of some 50 Palestinians by Israeli soldiers during a protest against moving Israel's embassy to Jerusalem [ 81 ].
The persecution of Julian Assange and Edward Snowden:
The US together with some other countries are persecuting the hero of our time, Julian Assange [ 82 ], using false accusations against him and, judging by their actions in the legal field, show the immaturity of their democratic institutions. After all, it is obvious that it is the exorbitant scale of disregard and abuse of the principles of democracy and human freedom by the United States that motivates people like Julian Assange and Edward Snowden to tell the world the truth about the scale of these abuses for the sole purpose of protecting the citizens of their country and the whole world from illegal actions. I recall that Hillary Clinton, a former US presidential candidate, called for Julian Assange to be taken down by drone [ 83 ]. This circumstance under other conditions could be considered as a call to extremism.
Prisons with the ability to torture people:
Let me remind you that it was the US that created a network of prisons with the possibility of torturing people [ 84 ]. In this paradoxical way their democratic rhetoric is combined with continuous wars in any part of the world (Iraq, Libya, Syria, etc.). The US allows itself to militarily invade eastern or other regions without valid reasons, there is a good movie "Power" ("Vice", 2018) about it. Obviously, this is not normal.
Conclusions:
The above-mentioned facts show that the U.S. cannot be a benchmark for building a democratic society at least in the above-mentioned aspects. The U.S. should reflect on the fact that its methods of striving for world leadership do not meet the civilizational criteria of our time. Having had an unprecedented chance to do so, the U.S. has failed to become a world center of positive influence. Here the author of this Program calls on the U.S. to abandon the practice of aggressive "struggle for leadership" and try to become one of the "centers of global positive influence", along with the EU.
accomplished:
Combating chauvinism, anti-Semitism and extremism;
All I am proposing here is the passage of the "Historical Sources Inciting Intolerance and Contempt for Other Races and Peoples in Our Era Act." Under this law, all, both ancient and relatively modern sources, books that have influenced and are influencing historical eras past and present, and carry the potential to incite ethnic strife in our era, must be republished and accompanied by commentary against all controversial (again, in our era) statements and quotations.
This law will help to adapt this kind of literature to the era of globalization in which we live. The breaking down of borders between countries and cultures in our time, more than ever before, exposes the need to counteract the intolerance and contempt for other races and peoples, and even calls for death, which in this case comes from books such as the Bible (Old Testament), the Talmud, the Taniyah, the Koran and other literature. It is obvious that without the adoption of such a law, chauvinism, anti-Semitism and extremism will not be overcome in the long term.
I am sure that sensible, including religious, people living in the EU and around the world will agree with my proposal. After all, I in no way wish to distort the texts of the holy scriptures. The idea is to supplement the texts with footnotes indicating the reasons why some statements are incompatible with EU values in our time.
But first I will note that the explanations to this thesis are the most voluminous. This is due to the fact that the concepts of chauvinism, anti-Semitism and extremism are quite profound, so I have paid special attention to them. I should also note that examples of critical editions (or simply editions with commentaries) of the above sources already exist, at least some of them. The idea of the author of this Program is to review all existing critical editions, and to provide a state level of support, to compile our own comprehensive critical editions of historical sources that incite intolerance and contempt for other races and peoples in our era.
A good example in the proposed direction, which set the first precedent, is the reprinting of the book "Mein Kampf" [ 85 ]. This work in the original is extremist in nature, but in the new critical edition all hate speech is accompanied by commentaries that are designed to explain to the current generation the misconceptions that led in the past to a catastrophe on a global scale.
Below I will show the relevance of all the above-mentioned literary sources and explain the risks of familiarizing oneself with uncritical (original) editions of them. I am sure that many will be shocked by this. I will show that many of them are imbued with disregard for human life, the superiority of one group of people over another, including in order to justify the right to exploit and oppress other peoples. In other words, many of them are imbued with chauvinism [ 86 ].
So, in order not to give the impression that I am very selective in my approach to religious sources, I will start with the Bible, the closest book to the European community. It took me about two years to study the Old and New Testaments. In the process I was repeatedly shocked by the descriptions of numerous wars, bloodshed and cruelty in the "Old" part of the Bible. But in general I realized that this book has great historical value and tells about the hard times that our ancestors lived through. The important thing is that even in our days one can find traces of this inheritance. After completing the Bible study process, I put up a web page on the internet [ 87 ]. On this web page, I listed special places in the text of the Bible. In some cases, I left my comments underneath the items.
For reference: the "old" part of the Bible (or rather, only part of it) is called the "written Torah", while the Talmud is called the "oral Torah"; the "Torah" in a broad sense is the totality of Jewish traditional religious law [ 88 ]; the "New Testament" is already Christian doctrine.
So, let us begin with the "New Testament": the fact that this literary work is relevant today, I think, does not need much proof. This work does not contain calls to death, does not contain contempt for other races and peoples, which would be a red thread through the entire work. But still "New Testament" can be "criticized" for at least one point, stated in Matthew 15: "21 When Jesus left there, he went into the neighborhood of Tyre and Sidon. 22 And a Phoenician woman who lived in that region came out and began to cry out, 'Be merciful to me, O Lord, Son of David. My daughter is possessed by demons and is in great pain." 23 But he didn't answer her a word. Then his disciples came up and asked him, "Tell her to leave, or she keeps shouting and screaming after us." 24 He replied, "I am not sent to everyone, but only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." 25 But the woman came up and began to bow to him, saying, "Lord, help me!" 26 Then he said to her: "It is not good to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs." 27 She said: "Yes, Lord, but the dogs also eat the crumbs that fall from their owners' table." 28 Then Jesus said to her: "O woman, great is your faith. Let it be as you wish." And in the same hour her daughter was healed." Here we need to add a comment of this kind: "referring to a person of a different faith as a 'dog' in our era sounds insulting and provokes unnecessary conflict." A deeper understanding of the context of the Bible, including Matthew 15, is facilitated by the commentary version of the Bible by William MacDonald [ 89 ].
But there is a subtlety here: the point is that there are two possible bases for harsh statements to another person. One is when a person humiliates another person with the subconscious intention to rise above him and increase his own self-esteem. The other option, and McDougal indirectly speaks of this, is when a person far surpasses another in understanding, vision and wisdom. Then, seeing the hopeless gulf between himself and the other person and calling things by their proper names, he can, and this is proved by life experience, make the person better, help him, and later, despite the seeming humiliation at first, these people will even be grateful to the person who directly associated their affairs or themselves with something obscene. Here it is appropriate to recall the figure of the genius of our time, Steve Jobs, often criticized for making harsh remarks about his employees. But it is worth noting that many, despite this style of management, remained grateful to him, realizing that they work with a great man. There are plenty of examples, if you look for them. The same Ludwig Erhard, the author of the German post-war economic miracle, was also known as a man of harsh statements, but in his case, the then Chancellor of Germany, acting as a kind of dampener, softened Ludwig's position for the public. In general, when commenting on the texts of the Bible and other sources, one should grasp the context and meaning of the moments that are controversial in our era. In doing so, one should remain concise. Each sentence on controversial points should go through several levels of peer review.
Further Talmud [ 90 ]: The Talmud contains a number of hateful statements, which, according to critics, can cause Jews to despise non-Jews. Here is a brief list of them [ 91 ]. All these statements are required to be accompanied by commentaries based on a modern view of the world. I will justify the relevance of the Talmud today as follows: in the book "Forbidden Talmud" [ 92 ], which is the work of the remarkable Israeli Talmud researcher and public figure Yaron Yadan, the author managed to show us with surgical precision the inner structure of the Talmud, to show it in the form in which it was formed by the VI-VII centuries of the new era. I will cite here a statement of the author himself from this book: "Before coming to the heart of the matter, i.e. to tell you what guided me in choosing Talmudic discourses for my book, I will try to explain the very decision to dispel the existing misconceptions about the Talmud. In other words: why should we care what orthodox Jews do and what views they hold? Or, even more simply: what do ancient prejudices and perceptions prevent us from doing? The answer is simple: these myths actively and very successfully oppose the concepts of enlightenment, freedom and humanism. Orthodox Judaism actively opposes enlightenment and progress. Its main motive is loyalty to tradition, that is, to the realities of the "old world" - late antiquity and the early Middle Ages. In Israel this tradition is a serious social threat, aggravated by the fact that the society treats the Talmud as a sacred text that cannot be subjected to critical scrutiny and whose dictates must be obeyed unconditionally. The orthodox part of society has created political parties whose main task is to impose the enforcement of Talmudic laws on the entire state. The huge orthodox sector despises progress, laughs at science and, of course, educates its children solely on the Talmud and its laws. This is made possible in a state as developed as Israel only because the majority of its population shares the myth of the Talmud as the pinnacle of wisdom - human and heavenly. Undoubtedly, the dangerous myth of the Talmud's wisdom is also prevalent in other countries ... As I have already noted, the study of the Talmud is to this day generally regarded as a highly intellectual endeavor. Of course, this is the result of the indoctrination to which most Israelis (and not only them) are subjected from childhood. They are led to believe that it is a study of divine wisdom.
Then Tanya [ 93 ]: this book is freely available. Based on the materials presented in Taniyah, classes are held in the branches of the Chabad organization [ 94 ], which can be attended by both children and adults, but only by Jews. In this connection, the interview of journalist Tatiana Krotova [ 95 ], who worked for several years as an assistant rabbi in the Chabad center of the Perm region, is a must-see. Tatyana shared her observations and impressions from several years in the Jewish religious organization. Among other things, the journalist touched upon the idea of racial superiority of Jews actively cultivated among Chabad members, which undoubtedly incites hatred of Jews towards non-Jews and, accordingly, a negative reaction towards Jews among ordinary people. Among other things, as shown in the interview, in the Chabad organization's schools on holidays children play with the gallows and natural animal sacrifices take place. The network of Chabad branches has spread throughout the world. For example, in Germany Chabad is represented in 18 cities [ 96 ], in Russia in 46 cities [ 97 ], in the United States about 100 cities. In total there are about 1500 branches of this organization.
Below is a brief list of special quotations from Tanya, a copy of which was purchased in the kosher Mitzvah store of the Perm Chabad (2005 edition, Russian language, Moscow, Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia): Chapter 1, page 45: " ... However, the souls of non-Jews come from completely impure klipot, in which there is no goodness at all ... ". Chapter 6, page 65: " ... The lowest stage, are the three completely bad and impure klipot in which there is no good at all. The souls of all other peoples and their physical existence are influenced by them and emanate from them. The souls of all unclean and forbidden to eat animals and their physical existence ... ". Chapter 24, page 145: " ... klipot and sitra-ahora are vomit and excrement ... ". Chapter 19, page 121: " ... then all the klipot are annihilated utterly before G-d, as if they did not exist, as it is said: all the nations are as nothing before him ... ". Chapter 37, page 211: " ... and so all three unclean klipot will be destroyed and utterly turned to nothing ... ".
Possible comments on the texts of the Talmud and Taniyah might be, "The point is that in our era it is unacceptable to preach among Jews (through Chabad organizations and some Synagogues) that non-Jews have 'no goodness at all', that their souls come from 'completely bad and impure klipot' or are in any other sense 'inferior' to Jews"
In general terms, the very claim of Jews against non-Jews, as set forth in the Talmud, the Taniyah, and the Zohar, is disturbing. If Jewish chauvinism were directed against themselves, I might not be writing these lines now. But it is obvious that religious chauvinism, as a rule, occurring in a hidden form, is directed against all non-Jews, i.e. against the author of this Program personally (!). And this is already a violation of the Unified Democratic Principle: "do whatever you want, but do not harm another, either physically or mentally". After all, chauvinism means causing harm, including mental harm, to those citizens against whom it is directed.
It is pertinent to mention here that based on an interview with journalist Tatiana Krotova and specific quotes from the book of Tania, I finalized the "Criticism" section of the Russian-language Wikipedia pages on Chabad and Tania, pointing out the potential incitement of ethnic strife through the teaching of Hasidic Jews. My critique stayed there for several months, then was deleted by a Jewish Wikipedia administrator accusing the author of this Program of anti-Semitism. I was shocked. It turns out that if you point out to Jews that it is not good to compare non-Jews on the pages of the book of Taniyah with "vomit and defecation", and if you equate Jews with saints, in other words, if you criticize Hasidic Jews in a reasoned way, you will be accused of anti-Semitism. So if you look at it from the point of view of a segment of Jews, anti-Semitism is any reasoned criticism of Jews? Okay, lesson learned, anti-Semitism is, among other things, any reasoned criticism of Jews. In other words, in today's reality, anti-Semitism is a ready-made information weapon. Below, the author of this Program expresses his opinion on this matter:
it is Jewish chauvinism that is the root cause of anti-Semitism. In other words, anti-Semitism manifests itself as the dislike of ordinary people for Jews who suffer from chauvinism. But there is a subtlety here: the point is that due to human imperfection, the chauvinism of a small group of Jews can lead to the fact that the reciprocal anti-Semitism of non-Jews will be directed against many or even all Jews, including those who do not suffer from chauvinism. This phenomenon can be attributed to a number of cognitive distortions of thinking [ 40 ];
I would like to point out here that due to the pronounced chauvinism contained in the texts of the Talmud and the Taniyah, religious Jews often suffer from a corresponding disorder called chauvinism. The essence of this phenomenon is well captured in a short video [ 98 ]. Jewish chauvinism, in turn, is a consequence of the upbringing of Jewish children from childhood, conducted both by parents and in synagogues or branches of the Chabad organization. The fight against anti-Semitism, in turn, is very relevant in our time, as the press is flooded with headlines related to anti-Semitism [ 99, 100, 101 ].
To understand the depth of Jewish chauvinism in Israel, I will now cite a full series of videos (a short version was given above in Russian) from a Canadian-born Jew, Corey Gil-Shuster, director of the International Conflict Resolution and Conflict Management Program at Tel Aviv University, which he publishes on his YouTube page [ 102, 103, 104 ]. Corey asks religiously relevant questions of various segments of Israeli society, from atheists to Hasidim. The answers are so shockingly straightforward that they resemble excerpts of the sharpest expressions from thousands of pages of "anti-Semitic" literature. The surveys are conducted in English or Hebrew. The article "Israeli Jews on Goyim, Talmud and Mashiach" [ 105 ] provides a translation of the most prominent passages from these interviews. After watching these videos, the question of the origin of anti-Semitism will become crystal clear. Additionally, I will give a link to an open dialog of Jewish citizens from a Russian-language social network on the topic of chauvinism among Jews [ 106 ]. One can see the enormous influence of religion, Torah and Tanya, as a result of which religious Jews and rabbis, not distinguishing between chauvinism and neutral attitude to the world around them, infect the surrounding Jews with chauvinism. After all, the very insistence on one's own special purpose is already chauvinism. The above chat also reveals such phenomenon as "fear of assimilation", which for some Jews serves as an excuse for chauvinism. By the way, in the Jewish environment is tacitly promoted a ban on so-called "mixed marriages", i.e. marriages of Jews with non-Jewish women and vice versa. I think it would be a good good signal from the rabbinate to allow and encourage mixed marriages.
A decisive step must be taken in the fight against anti-Semitism by republishing the Talmud, the Taniyah and the book of the Zohar (which is mentioned in the videos). They should be accompanied by commentaries opposite the hate speech, as is done in the German edition of Mein Kampf.
Here I will additionally cite one more short video from Michael Lightman [ 107 ]. M. Lightman has done a very great work, having reworked the ancient Jewish doctrine of Kabbalah [ 108 ] on a modern level, throwing out of it all hate speech. Only after that Michael teaches Kabbalah to everyone, including people of non-Jewish nationality. In doing so, he overcame considerable resistance from the Jewish elite. This is a great contribution to the fight against anti-Semitism throughout the world. And this is a different idea from M. Lightman, if Jews (in general case any other race) believe that they have a special destiny, that God (through Moses) passed on to them special knowledge, set forth in the Talmud, the book of Zohar, Kabbalah, Tanya, etc., then consider whether it would not be the best solution to open this knowledge to the whole world, prefaced with comments on the unacceptability of chauvinism in our time. Together we will rethink all relevant books, and, having got rid of chauvinism, we will leave the essence of knowledge in a pure form. Hopefully, like Michael Lightman himself, there will be other rabbis who will agree to organize schools and teach commented books on the Jewish religion.
Now about Islam and the criticism of its main religious book, the Quran [ 109 ]. Obviously, the Koran does not need any special proof of its relevance nowadays. After all, part of the refugees arriving in the EU from Islamic countries are religious. The criticism of the Quran from the height of our era can be reduced to the violation of human rights, infringement of women's rights and violence against critics of Islam.
Only with critical editions of the Bible, Talmud, Tanya and Koran will it be possible to make the EU "multicultural". At the same time, religion classes in schools or integration courses should emphasize religious aspects that are contrary to European values. Special efforts should be made to ensure that all organizations and ordinary citizens who actively use the original versions of the above-mentioned sources are given the opportunity to read a critical version of them.
The practical implementation of this thesis should consist in organizing a group of independent experts and creating an online service for accepting citizens' proposals for making critical comments. The experts will have to work out all citizens' proposals on controversial quotations in historical sources.
Due to the global nature of the action, critical versions of the above books should be distributed exclusively free of charge and only in electronic form (for ecological reasons). At the same time, the final electronic version should be able to select only controversial points and comments on them, so as not to waste time re-reading the full texts.
Adoption of the "Law on Historical Sources Inciting Intolerance and Contempt for Other Races and Peoples in Our Era" will help citizens to avoid acquiring such a disorder as chauvinism, will help to free themselves from extremist and anti-Semitic views. By implementing this thesis of my Program, the European Union and eventually the whole world will forget about such phenomenon as contempt for other races and peoples, forget about chauvinism, anti-Semitism and extremism.
accomplished:
Helping to become the countries with the lowest GDP per capita;
A list of possible support measures:
- accessible primary, secondary and tertiary education;
- recycling technologies;
- technologies for building comfortable and efficient housing;
- support of food production that meets the requirements of sustainable ecosystem development;
Introduction:
The EU should focus part of its efforts on helping to develop the countries with the lowest GDP per capita on the planet. This must be done if the EU is to become the World Center of Positive Influence, but not only for this purpose: accelerated development of the regions with the lowest GDP per capita is the key to eradicating, among other things, chauvinism at the global level, caused by an imaginary perception of one's own superiority. The goal is that in 20-30 years no one will be able to say that, for example, the inhabitants of Africa have fewer inventions, patents, are less developed, etc.
This thesis closely resembles the thesis on migration policy. The author of this Program believes that instead of the current aspiration to invite an excessive number of refugees to their homes, i.e. to the European Union, it would be much more effective to strive to improve their living standards "on the ground" and thus to reduce the development gap between countries. The world would then be more stable.
What kind of assistance do I mean? First of all, it is the education system, recycling technologies, technologies for building comfortable and efficient housing, organization and support of food production that meets the requirements of sustainable ecosystem development.
Accessible primary, secondary and tertiary education:
To begin, of course, with education: educated people can ensure the long-term sustainability of a country's development and its economy. In some African countries, the cost of education is about one euro per person per month. This amount stems from the often low social standards of life on the continent. Schools may lack electricity, water supply, sanitary facilities, libraries, laboratories, computer labs, etc. [ 110 ]. This is the material side, where the EU can help, but the important thing is the European education system itself, which has worked for centuries and is the best on the planet today. One should not underestimate the possibilities of online education, including the broadcasting of lectures from the best European universities. Additional information can be found in the explanation to the corresponding thesis of this Program.
Recycling technologies:
The second, equally important aspect is waste recycling. Waste recycling and zero-waste production should be introduced in all countries that need it. This is a responsibility for the Planet, and a pledge for the right of man as a species to be proud of himself, otherwise there would be nothing to be proud of. For more information please refer to the explanation of the relevant thesis of this Program.
Technologies for building comfortable and efficient housing:
Further, it is necessary to transfer skyscraper construction technologies to the countries with the lowest GDP, i.e. to solve the housing problem in the most efficient way. For more information, please refer to the relevant thesis of this Program on construction reforms.
Supporting food production that meets the requirements of sustainable ecosystem development: for more information, please refer to the explanation of the relevant thesis of this Program.
Conclusion:
Wikipedia has a list of countries by GDP (PPP) per capita [ 111 ]. One can move directly down this list in reverse order. What do you mean by moving down the list? I mean simply offering the above activities on a pro bono basis. In other words, to offer to countries in need the transfer of the most necessary technologies, the fullness of knowledge and the creation of jobs. Acceptance of this kind of assistance from low GDP countries would be purely voluntary.
The money for realization of this thesis should be accumulated through a special tax on "wealthy European citizens". For example, if a person has an income of more than 2.500€ per month, then a 10€ contribution to support the countries with the lowest GDP per capita will not disappoint anyone. I think up to 100 million € per month is perfectly acceptable to spend for this purpose. I remember reading somewhere that if a smoker in Europe gave up the bad habit, the money not spent on smoking could be used to provide a month's worth of schooling for a whole class of children in the countries with the lowest GDP.
It is important to control the implementation of works and openness of projects. This applies, however, to all the theses of this Program.
accomplished:
Stages of the Program implementation
- Creation of a web page displaying the status of implementation of the Program theses (already created). This web page will be a provider of objective information on government actions. Implementation - 10%.
- Announcement of intentions for each thesis of the Program by the EU Government. Available progress - from 11 to 20%.
- Detailed elaboration and preparation on each thesis of the Program, collection of statistical and other information. The work should be distributed among experts in the relevant fields. Bureaucracy and skepticism should be completely eliminated. This stage should take no more than three months. Available progress - from 21 to 50%.
- Consistent implementation of the Program theses as the legislative framework is ready. Further development of legislative acts. Further elaboration. Three more months are allocated for this stage. Available progress - from 51 to 80%.
- The next six months are reserved for control over the implementation of the theses of the Program. A "jewelry" adjustment is possible. Progress - from 81 to 100%.
- Another 4 years to monitor the implementation of theses Program.
List of Sources
1) for Youtube videos in a foreign language, you must enable automatic generation and automatic translation of subtitles
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