AFF Missions SCIO

Individual wellbeing is dependent on the ultimate wellbeing of society. Therefore, life must be understood as a holistic experience of interconnectedness that unfolds in an altruistic interplay between people to yield the ultimate wellbeing of society. Unfortunately, our society is saturated with two problems that undermine this ultimate value; thus, ruining the ultimate wellbeing of the western society. These two problems are moral degeneration and the “us against them” ethos. 

Moral Degeneration

Psychosocially, it’s been proven that people’s openness about their otherness and the liberty of its expression is necessary for the ultimate wellbeing of society. However, in an environment of free market and digital media entertainment, this liberty of expression of otherness has been transformed into a lucrative creative commodity that depends on subscriptions, clicks and views for revenue generation.

This commodification of people’s expressions of their otherness on digital entertainment platforms is pushing content creators into unimaginable depths of degeneracy to come up with more deplorable antics for views and viral moments; thus, the proliferation of contents that promote dangerous antisocial behaviours, misogyny and misandry ideologies, hypersexualised and lewd behaviours, and debauchery.

Over the years, society’s insatiable consumption of such contents has transformed these characters into talents whose work rewards them with money, power, and fame; thus, causing upsurge in content creators for this niche.

This upsurge is creating fierce competition; hence, pushing these content creators into unimaginable depths of degeneracy to come up with more deplorable antics to express their otherness for views and viral moments. In return, we have proliferation of dangerous antisocial behaviours (like prank videos), misogyny and misandry rhetoric filled contents, hypersexualised and lewd contents, and on camera debauchery.

The harm is that these contents are inculcating deplorable antics and perversions into the vulnerable minds of our younger generation. They are being empowered to express their otherness in their daily worldly encounters with the spirit of degeneracy, and this is ruining the ultimate wellbeing of our western society.

The Us Against Them Ethos

Studies show that the us against them ethos is exacerbating depression, anxiety, obesity and substance abuse because it incites violations of others through bullying, discrimination, violent extremism, and repressive otherization. 

The western society is saturated with the “us against them” ethos which fuels contestations among people. Unfortunately, with the help of algorithmic curation, this ethos has been transformed into a powerful lobbying apparatus in politics and a lucrative commodity of the free market. 

The us against them ethos provokes people to believe that the ultimate wellbeing of society is perverted when choices, convictions, beliefs, opinions, lifestyles, and practices of others do not align with theirs.

Therefore, they assume the pious role and declare those who do not align with their position as the infidels whose perversions are the causes of disorderliness and deterioration of the wellbeing of the milieu. 

This cultivates utter detestation, anger, and hostile aggression in people. It causes repressive otherization and escalates the violation of otherness through marginalisation, bullying, discrimination, and violent extremism. 

Social politically, this ethos is the drive behind contestations between the reactionary and the progressive ideologies of the western society. The former pushes nationalism and fundamentalism agenda against the individualism and "liberating tolerance" (Marcuse, 1965) agenda of the latter. 

Both agendas promote repressive otherization and that creates lack of community integration and causes disconnect between people; hence, fostering the tendency of minimizing the necessary mutual engagement that allows people to be more aware and empathic towards each other’s experience. 

As this disconnect i.e., fragmentation, is tribalized and politicized, the divergences escalate to levels that stoke animosity between people and that yields into polarisation. 

Sadly, grifters and lobbyist have identified that the commodification of this polarisation is lucrative, and since the use of artificial intelligence is becoming more dominant in our world of free market, algorithms of search engines and social media platforms are curated (Noble, 2018) to advance this commodification agenda.  

According to Frazer et al (2022) polarisation (us against them mentality) is not only detrimental to the socio-political wellbeing of communities, but it has a direct link to mental and physical health of people. 

Therefore this incitement of repressive otherization and violations against people (because of polarisation) is exacerbating depression, anxiety, obesity, self-harm, and substance abuse in people, especially the youth. The wellbeing of society is under attack!

Solution

To heal society from these problems we must cultivate the Agency of Interconnectedness (The AoIn) that can inspire society with the civic values of equality, diversity, charitability, serviceability, responsibility, and accountability. Therefore, this demands the cultivation of schemas such as virtuousness, peacefulness, helpfulness, oneness, thankfulness, forgiveness, blessedness, and resourcefulness in communities of the western society.

According to Maslow (1971), self-transcendence is a state of human consciousness where a person apprehends their purpose of life as that of interacting proactively with others as a vessel of interconnectedness to ensure the wellbeing and flourishment of all humanity and the environment.

This means, at the state of self-transcendence, a person cultivates the agency of interconnectedness that inspires them to understand life as a holistic experience that unfolds as an altruistic interplay focused on the cosmological vision of wholeness.

The vision of wholeness perceives the universe as a natural whole within which the communion of life and matter is essential for its wellbeing. Communion means concordance that yields ultimate interconnectedness of lives to manifest the charisma of altruism, activism, pacifism, modesty, empathy and sanctity. 

At the state of self-transcendence, a person becomes the Agency of Interconnectedness (the AoIn) because they exude this charisma in their interplay and exchanges with other people to manifest the cultural schemas that yield civic values of equality, diversity, serviceability, charitability, responsibility, and accountability.

In summary, we work to interpret the charisma of the AoIn into schemas that can be integrated into structuration processes of communities such as schools, universities, corporations and faith communities.

Plan

So, our mission is to, 

• Maintain a backend interdisciplinary research in social anthropology, education, religious studies, and psychology that can constantly interpret the evolving interplay between agency of interconnectedness and social structure into schemas. 
• To program these schemas into activities that can be integrated into community life of the western milieu through schools, universities, faith communities, and corporations as,
  • Seminars e.g., lectures, speeches, presentations, and group discussions.
  • Expressive Arts events e.g., painting, music, drama, poetry, dancing, and storytelling.
  • Innovative Pedagogy (dialectical learning), which involve analysing, criticizing, and synthesizing information i.e., maintaining an investigative, interactive, and expressive pedagogy.
  • Multimedia Presentations e.g. podcast, blogs, reels, music videos, short movies, and RP games.

We therefore program these activities into our AoIn events as, 

• AoIn Clubs- these are peer to peer fellowships and intervention groups in schools and universities aimed at empowering and inspiring the charisma of the AoIn, which is the spirit of altruism, pacifism, activism, empathy, modesty, and sanctity.
• AoIn Festival- a joyful annual gathering of all diversities of people to creatively and expressively to celebrate wholeness, liberation, and reconciliation. 
• AoIn Campaign-an outreach program of seminars and expressive arts performances for schools, colleges, universities, and faith communities that inspires the values of equality, diversity, charitability, serviceability, responsibility, and accountability.
• AoIn Curriculum- amalgamating dialectical learning and expressive arts to design a curriculum that cultivates civic values of equality, diversity, charitability, serviceability, responsibility, and accountability. 
• AoIn Project-our backend interdisciplinary research.
• AoIn Pod-our podcast streamed on Spotify and various other platforms.
• AoIn Literature- these are articles, essays, newsletters, books, and transcriptions of our audio and video presentations.
• AoIn Socials- these include YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok.