The New America Papers Summary:
An awakened future on our horizon
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Positive Future-Cooperative Integrative by Social Material Stress (PFCI by SMS)
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Because of the important role this grid plays in providing a highly visual analysis, a brief tour of it is in order. Its five zones are:
- Upper right (High PFCI/Low SMS) - 15% of households tend to identify with a more positive and integrated future, and do not express feeling a high level of social material stress.
- Upper left (High PFCI/High SMS) - 22% of households tend to identify with a more positive and integrated future, and do express feeling a high level of social material stress.
- Middle straddling region (Boundary Zone) - 21% of households are very close to the boundary between two or more quadrants and, as such, cannot be reliably identified as belonging to one single quadrant.
- Lower left (Low PFCI/High SMS) - 25% of households tend not to identify with a more positive and integrated future, and express feeling a high level of social material stress.
- Lower right (Low PFCI/Low SMS) - 18% of households do not identify with a more positive and integrated future, and do not feel social material stress.
The Narrow Worldview
For people concerned with positive social change, there is only a very small portion of the population that seems highly constricted and inflexible in their worldview. |
To compare left and right halves of the grid, the right side is populated by people who are likely to not have as high an emphasis on the material things in life, either because they have "enough" materially, or perhaps are less attached to material concerns regardless of their financial status. In addition, these people are less stressed emotionally and less disconnected from self or society. To compare upper and lower portions of the grid, people in the upper half identify more with the positive future factors than those in the lower half. Conceptually as well as statistically, it is reasonable to see that one's sense of a "positive future" and amount of "social material stress" will have a direct impact on one's behavior from voting habits to lifestyles.
What The New America Papers is not about is how to achieve greater material success for everyone. Clearly, "having it all" does not equate with a happy and fulfilling life. What we are focused on is the importance of listening to, identifying with, and acting upon the higher or deeper aspirations we all share, to bring more people together around the highest common denominators possible in any given circumstance.
