The Humanity Project has just adopted a new vision statement. You’ll find it posted prominently on our home page. This is what it says: “To help create a world where every human being feels unshakable self-worth and profound respect for all humanity.”
Many nonprofits include such vision statements on their websites. If you’re not familiar with them, vision statements offer the ideal outcome for the group’s efforts. For instance, a local food bank might say, “To end hunger in our county.” So for the Humanity Project, our vision of the future is a world peopled by folks who believe in their own value completely … and the value of every other human being as well as humanity collectively: “To help create a world where every human being feels unshakable self-worth and profound respect for all humanity.”
Along with our mission statement and trademarked motto, this new vision statement strengthens the Humanity Project’s work. It makes entirely clear what we are striving toward — the ultimate goal of all our programs and materials, the reason for everything we do. It offers us, and those who support us, a focal point for this organization. It is our North Star.
The Humanity Project believes the deep underlying problem that plagues humanity is our individual struggle for feelings of value. Self-worth. To compensate for our sense of inadequacy, human beings do many destructive things: drug addiction, alcoholism, suicide, violence, despotism, prejudice, racism, slavery and much more. Even war can be traced back to the search for importance by nations and their leaders. The great poet, T.S. Eliot, put it this way: “Half the harm that is done in this world is due to people who want to feel important. They don't mean to do harm; but the harm does not interest them. Or they do not see it, or they justify it because they are absorbed in the endless struggle to think well of themselves.”
We are convinced the struggle for self-worth actually causes most of the harm in this world. And we believe the answer lies in training human beings to better understand and appreciate themselves as well as others. “To help create a world where every human being feels unshakable self-worth and profound respect for all humanity.” That’s our vision, plainly stated. We hope you’ll join our campaign today.
