THE PACHACUTI ADVOCACY PROGRAM

The Pachacuti community’s foundational aim is to contribute practically to the resolution of environmental and social dilemmas that confront the global population … in whatever way we can.

To help progress that aim, we want to build a team of voluntary advocates. If you share our interests and might like to become involved in our advocacy program, this page provides further information on the subject.

What is the Pachacuti proposal?

In a nutshell, we propose a set of changes that we believe are essential to long term survival of human society;

·  Contraction of human population and per-capita footprint,

·  Submission to our ecosystem as a factor that limits the character and scale of human activity, and

·  Transition to localised, needs based economic models.

And we advocate some further changes as being highly beneficial, such as adopting an ultra-long term view in global goal setting and promoting globally common goals to displace our cultural passion for materialist prosperity.

What is the overall purpose of an advocacy team?

There are two key perceptions that influence Pachacuti methodology;

·   The most potent force for social change lies in shifting the mass attitude of our global population, and

·    Mass attitude is currently tied down by cultural issues such as lack of awareness, misinformation, systemic apathy, political spin, false optimism and misplaced confidence in our technological capabilities.

We see those cultural bonds as the crux of our problems and the deployment of advocates as just one more way to help loosen them.

What are the criteria for effective advocates?

By and large, anyone willing and able to promote the Pachacuti aims would meet our criteria, but the following few attributes would maximise an advocate’s effectiveness;

·   Social interest and social conscience,

·   Concern for the welfare of future generations,

·   Capacity and opportunity to communicate and to facilitate discussion,

·   Pragmatism and openness to evidence based reasoning,

·    Willingness to question the future value of present traditions, and

·    Interest in exploring new social frontiers.

What activities define the role of an advocate?

Involvement is voluntary, so the level of activity is obviously self imposed. Any contribution, large or small, will be useful and appreciated. The following list provides examples of the activities in which a Pachacuti advocate might find him/herself engaging;

·   Facilitating community awareness of the reality and direction of the global environment,

·   Promoting discussion generally about the environment and society’s interaction with it,

·   Providing feedback to improve our methods of interfacing with the broader community,

·   Engaging with the evolving refinement of our philosophical viewpoint,

·   Promoting individual and organisational involvement with our website,

·   Researching and submitting appropriate material to further develop the site as a community facility and resource,

·   Interacting autonomously with other advocates, and

·   Providing information and assistance, on a case basis, for specific queries that we might receive.

What might an advocate expect to gain from the program?

An advocate stands to gain very little in the way of direct material return for her/his effort. But then, that’s not the purpose of becoming involved. An advocate would obviously come to the program with a personal set of motivations, likely altruistic in nature, and the realisation of those personal goals is the most we can offer. Opportunities for social and personal development might arise from networking with like-minded people in a like-minded organisation.

Through our pursuit of public exposure via the screen entertainment media, writers and other artists may find an outlet for suitable creative material.

Pachacuti.com offers publishing services, at cost, for appropriate books and other written material dealing with aligned topics.

What resources would an advocate be expected to contribute?

Thankfully, ‘word-of-mouth’ promotion is fairly inexpensive and needs few material resources. If an advocate can give just this much, it is more than enough. Beyond that, advocates may contribute materially as much or as little as they like. Pachacuti.com will provide a package of material such as branded merchandise, leaflets and other handouts to help with promotion, although, at least initially, this would be constrained by budget. Assistance with generating promotional material would be appreciated, but is certainly not essential.

What does it take to join the program?

In reality, huge numbers of individuals are daily promoting principles similar to those of Pachacuti.com so there is already an informal advocacy. We believe however that most of these have single issue agendas and too few are engaged with the issues collectively or globally. We believe the global holistic approach is critical to long term environmental success and in joining our program, advocates would need to also embrace that viewpoint.

Perhaps the most important part of any advocacy is comprehension of the cause; its goals and its methods. Pachacuti.com is no exception. An advocate would need to understand our viewpoint, the information on which it is founded and what we are setting out to achieve. The best source of this understanding is obviously the book, pachacuti. Therefore another prime pre-requisite for advocates is to have read the book and reconciled with its values.

In today’s society it is sadly necessary for a program such as this to filter out possible malefactors. To help with this, advocates would be asked to provide some minimum information about their background and be prepared to share it with our register and with other advocates.

How to submit an expression of interest.

To express your interest in our program, please simply email us and we will contact you for further discussion.