Leo Igwe - On Humanism

Video of Leo Igwe - on Humanism - really powerful discussion on why we need to be courageous and willing to take responsibility for our own lives.

Leo Igwe works to end a variety of human rights violations that are rooted in superstition, including witchcraft accusations, anti-gay hate, caste discrimination and ritual killing in Africa. I have corresponded with him for years - this talk - is wonderful. He talks about why Humanism is important for human progress.

If you want to learn more about Humanism as a philosophy:

• Get my Book:  The Handy Humanism Handbook - free with sign up: http://www.jen-hancock.com/handyhumanism/
• Watch my Introduction to Humanism Videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96K7v1f9EJk&list=PL926B6F22CBF88997
• Also available on DVD: https://amzn.to/2pY1nmL
• And if you want to learn more about how to live life more simply by applying Humanism to your daily life- get my book: The Humanist Approach to Happiness: https://humanistlearning.com/the-humanist-approach-to-happiness-book/

To learn more about how you can help promote Humanism worldwide - visit: http://iheu.org/

How to stay positive despite the horrors

A post for freethinkers, Humanists and atheists who are concerned about or dealing with violent oppression for their world view.

This is based on a question I got over at my Bollywood Humanist youtube channel. Queen movie Review: Bollywood/Kangana

Question:

I am a Humanist myself, nice to see your review. Specially incidents of the world now make me feel sad. Recently Saudi Arabia order beheading an Atheist. Similar punishment for Blasphemy was also there in Iran, Pakistan, Indonesia and other country.  Being a Bengali and Bengal is divided by British into Hindu and Muslim ( West Bengal and Bangladesh now) parts. Hindu Part fall into India and Bangladesh was under Pakistan then they fought for a secular country and make Bangladesh. We Bengali's from both side of the border share same language, culture, book, foods and also writer and bloggers. 18 writer, bloggers, cartoonist, publishers and were killed just because they were Humanist and spreading their message in Bangladesh, by ISIS. Hack to death in streets between 2015 to 2016. In India 3 humanist were killed recently H Farook was killed for posting "No God No God No God" in his Facebook status in Tamil Nadu.

We also see the rise of Right wing like Trump in USA, British, India now right wing leaders like Yogi Adityanath who previously openly used hate and threatening speech to all Muslims are elected in India. There were Hindu terrorist who are killing people for selling or consuming beef ( Cow is considered sacred among many Hindus).

Other secular country like Turkey becoming more of a dictator, arresting Atheist and Human Right activist. Saudi Arabia will be head of UN from 2018 ... I am not feeling good the direction the World and World politics are moving towards. What you thing and how we can promote human rights and harmony when hate and divide in the society is increasing ( as my observation).

My response:

Yes - it's a scary time and the entire freethought community is upset about the killings happening in the Bengal areas.  And yes, religious authoritarianism is on the rise in many places.   The good news is that there is resistance to that everywhere and we just have to keep resisting and finding positive ways to talk about life and be alive.  

I have been wavering between hope and despair for months now, but I keep finding reasons to be hopeful. For instance, Republicans in the US partnered with Dems to pass a budget that rebuffed the worst of what Trump proposed.  I am dividing my time between acts of resistance and acts of creation.  In times of great turmoil - creating beauty is in itself an act of resistance. One of the best lessons on this was the Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia. People realized that as oppressive as the state was - they operated mostly on fear. People were afraid to resist because of the threat of retaliation. But the artists involved in the Velvet Revolution created box art that could be shared and they decided to act as if the state couldn't find them - which they couldn't - not really. They resisted through art.

One of the reasons I wanted to review movies from a Humanist perspective was to highlight the work artists are doing to promote humanism and human rights even in the midst of societies that are doing their best to suppress dissent.

The other thing that keeps me hopeful is that a futurist/humanist I saw talk years ago said that religious fundamentalism/extremism would peak in 2014.  We are in the peak right now.  If we can resist and maintain positive pressure - we should be able to get through this despite the setbacks.
One way to understand the violent backlash against humanism and humanists is that this is part of the extinction process. Old ways of being never go quietly into the night. They fight back to regain supremacy. If they lose, they fight back harder and harder.  If they were winning, they wouldn’t need to fight. This violence is part of the behavioral extinction process.

On the other hand, there will always be people fearful of change and what it will mean for them and they will always be willing to fight for their truth. So even as society becomes less violent, and it has been getting less violent, there will always be people who agitate for violent change and for that, we have to remain vigilant. Which brings me back to the need to resist beautifully.

Protecting Your Workforce

Workers have rights. That’s because humans have rights.

When we agree to work for someone, we agree to trade our time and energy in exchange for something, usually money, which provides us with the means to purchase food, shelter, transportation and health care for ourselves and our families.

What workers rarely agree to is to be killed for money, or to be injured in exchange for a paycheck. This is why all the various safety compliance requirements exist. It is why companies are held liable for injuries workers sustain on the job.  These laws, while a bit of a legal hassle, are there to protect employees from injury caused by employers exploiting labor and unnecessarily introducing risk into the work environment. And yes, this does happen and yes, workers deserve to be protected from that.

I’ve participated in my fair share of safety committees over the years. I’ve put together safety policies to satisfy OSHA requirements and common sense. At my first big job out of college at an animal control shelter, I was able to reduce our injury rate so much that we actually got a refund from our insurance company despite increasing our volunteer work hours dramatically.

I was able to do all that by instituting effective safety training programs.  Programs that taught our staff and volunteers how to avoid common injuries (which in the case of the shelter work was – a program called – how not to get bit).

Nowadays I teach how to stop harassment and bullying in the workplace. To me, it’s all part of what should be ongoing safety training for your staff.

Too often employers treat sexual harassment training as a compliance hassle. It’s actually a safety issue.  Harassment is a crime in pretty much every state for a reason. The harm it causes is real. It’s not just protected classes in the workplace who are protected. Everyone is. It’s just that when you add the economic impact of it happening in the workplace into the mix, you also have additional monetary damages that are sustained as a result of the problem.

This isn’t just about holding employers responsible for the sometimes trollish behavior of their employees. It’s about ensuring that all your employees are able to work in a safe environment.

No one should have to endure harassment to receive a paycheck. I have yet to read an employment contract that says – in exchange for your time and energy – we will repay you with crap wages, limited advancement due to your gender, skin color, ethnicity or any other arbitrary reason we may have, AND we reserve the right to harass and abuse you endlessly. No one would sign such an employment agreement!

Employers have not only a legal obligation to protect their workforce; they have a moral obligation to do so as well. If you don’t know how to protect your employees from harassment and bullying or discrimination, learn the skills required. Only then can you protect them from abusive behavior in the workplace.

See: https://humanistlearning.com/category/bullyingharassment/ for learning opportunities

 

Ten Humanist Commitments

We Humanists don’t do commandments. We do, however, feel very strongly about our commitments to others.  This is why the Kochhar Humanist Education Center has issued 10 Humanist Commitments to Education.  These are the values Humanists feel should be taught in our schools.  http://cohe.humanistinstitute.org/?page_id=14747

The website also includes resources in case you want to teach your own children these values and skills. For the record, the 10 values Humanist feel we should be committed to teaching our children are:

1. Altruism
2. Caring for the World Around Us
3. Critical Thinking
4. Empathy
5. Ethical Development
6. Global Awareness
7. Humility
8. Peace and Social Justice
9. Responsibility
10. Service and Participation

 “This ethical mission is an essential part of all education, public and private, elementary through high school and university.  In a democratic and pluralist society, we believe that the values presented should be the moral foundation of education.”

If you agree – add your name to the document. http://cohe.humanistinstitute.org/?page_id=14747