[prelude to] A manifesto

Manifesto — A public declaration of intentions, opinions, objectives, or motives

We are all, every one of us, different from each other — in our details; in our particularities.

At precisely the same time, we are all exactly the same — at our core; in the fundamentals of being a person.

We all want to love and to be loved; we all have this astonishing spark of life inside our own envelope of skin; we all need others, to keep our lives going and to help our lives to be purposeful, meaningful, and joyful. We all feel pain and hurt. We are all, at times vulnerable. We are all, every single one of us, unique.

We each have our very own preferences, capacities, and experiences. We all have something that only we can bring to our shared life.

Our uniqueness makes us special. The common nature that we share is a gift to treasure. It connects us to each other. It is a fundamental connection between every unique one of us.

From that basic, wondrous state, we as people need to decide how much we prefer to keep to ourselves — we all need time of our own, and how much we want to be with others — we all need connection; noting that what we want may not always be best for our peace, happiness, and flourishing.

When thinking about variously being on our own and being with others, we also need to determine how much we want to allow others to affect how we go about our days, and how much we want to affect how others go about their days.

Considering whether to engage or to step back from our connections with others is informed by a mutual vulnerability that arises from being a person in the world. Honouring our mutual vulnerability requires trust. Trust is needed because we are each vulnerable in our own ways and at times need others' care. Care is needed because at times we are being trusted to hold others' vulnerability.

It is the job of politics to decide, ideally together, where, when and how much we will be in others' lives, how much we will allow others to be in our lives, and how to ensure that these relationships allow us to honour the needs that arise from our mutual vulnerability.

To work this out, as individuals and in our communities, requires that we take our connections seriously. In our lives sometimes we seem to have too many connections, but even then, sometimes we still don’t have connections that we badly wish we had. And sometimes even when we have few, we have connections that we'd rather not. Sometimes we can do something about this and sometimes we cannot.

We cannot live without human connection. And if we are wise, we would not want to. And still, while human connection is fundamental to joyful, flourishing lives, it is not inevitably easy; it is not always obvious how to do it well; and it is not without risk. Living good, connected lives requires that we take our need for care seriously; that we take our responsibility to care seriously. It is worth the effort.

This is all really, reasonably obvious, and also really, very hard to do well.

Codicil

How the work described in the manifesto is to be done in practice, in all the communities that comprise a polity, is the work of a political party.

For Common Endeavour, this work is guided by our values and principles, which are themselves an expression of the ideas in the manifesto.

This means listening and acting with generosity and courage to strengthen connection and to ensure that those whose lives are touched by our work are safe from harm.

These values guide how we recognise, celebrate, and prosper from bringing together all our difference, while always remembering and respecting our shared, universal, human dignity and mutual vulnerability. In that way we will accept the value of difference, acknowledge the challenges of difference, and honour our common nature.

This can be hard work.

This work is made harder because we are all imperfect and even our best efforts will sometimes fall short. But our best efforts are what we must bring when we come to this work.

Thinking about how we interact with each other will help our work produce good results. In addition to all being imperfect, we also share some common ways of understanding and being with each other.

Consider: People are best able to be adventurous, to learn, and to do hard things when they are operating from a secure foundation. Recognising when a secure foundation is not present will influence how we work. An important part of Common Endeavour's work is to foster secure foundations as a matter of course.

Consider: When thinking about the attributes of people and groups, the default should be to understand them as complex, not simple, especially when comparing them to our own groups and our groups' characteristics, which we understand in great detail and which are rarely more complex than any other's.

Two additional useful guidelines for doing our work are to:

i. be as clear as possible about what constitutes transgression;

This includes recognising the role of connection in sanctioning or even fostering and encouraging transgression — through for example, negative group behaviour, like coercion. But recognising also that the possible harms that transgression can cause vary widely and so accepting that some transgression may be tolerable. But hurting others carelessly or indifferently never is.

ii. always leave a space for grace and redemption.

Then, if we approach the work of taking connection seriously with care and an attitude of service, Common Endeavour will contribute meaningfully to fostering a world where people can live together, trusting and trusted and safe.