A Species In Denial

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The
World Transformation Movement

 

Please Note: The WORLD TRANSFORMATION MOVEMENT was formed in 1983 under the
name Centre for Humanity’s Adulthood (CHA). In 1991 the CHA was incorporated as a
non-profit organisation and re-named the Foundation for Humanity’s Adulthood (FHA),
which in 2009 became the WORLD TRANSFORMATION MOVEMENT (WTM).
With the finding of understanding of the human condition, humanity is
transformed from insecure adolescence to secure adulthood.

 

A profile written by a WTM Founding Director and Patron
Tim Macartney-Snape AM OAM

 

Please note that in 2003, when A Species In Denial was published,
Tim held the position of WTM Vice-President

 

(For more details about the WTM visit www.humancondition.com.)

 

The World Transformation Movement (WTM) developed from the Foundation for Humanity’s Adulthood (FHA), which was founded in 1983 to promote the biological explanation of the human condition. In particular the WTM recognises the work put forward by Australian biologist Jeremy Griffith in his books Free: The End Of The Human Condition, published in 1988, and Beyond The Human Condition, published in 1991, and now A Species In Denial (all of these books, as well as Jeremy’s more recent publications, are freely available to be read and/or printed at <www.humancondition.com/publications>). The aim of the WTM, as stated in its memorandum of association, is to ‘bring forward understanding of the human condition and through doing that ameliorate that condition’. The WTM is registered as a charity in NSW, Australia, and is a company limited by guarantee. The WTM has six directors, Jeremy Griffith, Simon Griffith, Stacy Rodger, Tim Watson, Annie Williams and myself. It also has Members and Supporters. (Please note, the details provided above apply to the structure and personnel in place in 2003 when A Species in Denial was published; for current details on the Structure of the WTM and History of the WTM membership, visit <www.humancondition.com/description>.)

Jeremy has mentioned that he, his brother Simon, myself and others involved in the WTM attended Geelong Grammar School in Victoria, Australia, where we were the beneficiaries of the unique approach to education of the late Sir James Darling. In the essay about Plato’s cave allegory, Jeremy referred to Sir James’ emphasis in education on preserving and cultivating the sensitive, instinctual, soulful side of studentsas opposed to the usual emphasis on intellectual achievement; on academic prowess and success in competition. Page 500 of
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In a highly competitive and pragmatic world this was a very brave approach to take. In fact it bordered on heresy, but I believe the benefits are fully on display in this book, for only innocence can confront and then reach all the way to the bottom of the issue of the human condition. The inclusion of Sir James as one of the 200 ‘great Australians’, the only headmaster on the list, in Australia’s Bicentennial year in 1988, was testament to his stature as an educator. It is also significant, especially in the context of this book, that in Sir James’ full-page obituary in The Australian newspaper in 1995 he was described as, ‘a prophet in the true Biblical sense’ (3 Nov. 1995).

Sir James Darling was himself a product of very special education in England. His teacher and mentor was William Temple, an inspired educator who went on to become Archbishop of Canterbury and to be considered by many as the most enlightened of all leaders of the Anglican Church. Indeed these insights into the human condition that Jeremy has synthesised are the fruition of a carefully cultivated enterprise that goes right back to Plato, a sequence of inspired educators who have sought to cultivate and preserve soul against the always threatening demands of a pragmatic, compromising world in denial. All of us involved in the WTM regard it a very great privilege to participate in the final stage of this enterprise. Now that the truth about the human condition has finally been dug up from its historically repressed state and is scientifically explained our job is firstly to defend the all-precious explanation against the historic denial, and secondly to educate the world at large about the explanation. The following is a summary of the work of the WTM.

I should first explain the Foundation’s ‘key held aloft’ logo and name. The discovery of the cause of humans’ capacity for good and evil is the key that ameliorates that troubled condition, and our task in the FHA (as the WTM was then known) is to hold that key aloft. Since such understanding matures humanity from insecure adolescence to secure adulthood we are laying The Foundation for Humanity’s Adulthood. (Please note, an explanation of the decision, in 2010, to change our name from the Foundation for Humanity’s Adulthood to the WORLD TRANSFORMATION MOVEMENT can be found at <www.humancondition.com/description>.)

Initially the WTM offered formal membership subscriptions and published regular lengthy newsletters, the first in December 1988, the last, Newsletter 32, in March 1997. By late 1997 the WTM had so developed that it was decided to replace subscription and newsletters with a website that in time will be complemented with university-level computer courses in the study of the human condition, together with public lectures.

(Please note, the following explanation of the membership of the WTM refers to the membership structure that was in place in 2003 when A Species In Denial was published. With the promotion of the WTM to the world in 2011 this structure was significantly revised, with those in the category referred to as Members becoming Founding Memberssee History of the WORLD TRANSFORMATION MOVEMENT membership at <www.humancondition.com/description> for details.)

As mentioned, the WTM has members and supporters. Members are recognised Page 501 of
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under the WTM’s Articles of Association, and are people who support the objects of the WTM on a daily basis. Supporters are those that the WTM recognises as being appreciative and supportive of its work but who are not as directly involved.

Those supporting the objectives of the WTM on a daily basis are the Foundation for Humanity’s Adulthood, its true members, the people who have taken it upon themselves to pioneer the new, human-condition-ameliorated world into being despite the immense resistance from an existing world deeply habituated to living in a resigned, egocentric state of denial of the issue of the human condition.

This group of what are now (as at 2003, when this book was published) termed ‘Members’ and ‘Supporters’ numbered more than 100 in the early 1990s and was growing rapidly until the ferocious media attack on the WTM in 1995. While none of this group have left the WTM as a result of the attack, we have not been able to increase our numbers significantly since then. Until we receive satisfactory redress, which much of our energy is currently being dedicated to achieving, with legal actions and other forms of protests, our growth is hampered.

As will be documented in a book provisionally titled The Attempted Assassination of the WTM: The Denial Tries to Reimpose Itself that we intend to write about the persecution we have been subjected to, humanity’s habituated state of denial has determinedlyto the point of extreme viciousnesstried to reimpose itself by attempting to assassinate the WTM. As a result, the courage exhibited by all those involved in the WTM has been of paramount importance. I note that it is to the steadfast commitment, selflessness and love of the WTM Members that Jeremy has dedicated this book.

(Please note, currentas at 2012information regarding our successful legal actions can be found at <www.humancondition.com/persecution>. Since this Persecution of the WTM for Exposing the Human Condition section covers the main material that was going to be incorporated into The Attempted Assassination of the WTM, it supplants that planned book.)

The defenders of a new idea play a critical role, as noted by science historian Thomas Kuhn: ‘In science [according to Kuhn] ideas do not change simply because new facts win out over outmoded ones…Since the facts can’t speak for themselves, it is their human advocates who win or lose the day’ (Shirley C. Strum, Almost Human, 1987, p.164 of 294). Similarly, John Stuart Mill, in his 1859 essay On Liberty, emphasised that, ‘the Page 502 of
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dictum that truth always triumphs over persecution is one of those pleasant falsehoods which men repeat after one another till they pass into commonplaces, but which all experience refutes. History teems with instances of truth put down by persecution. If not suppressed for ever, it may be thrown back for centuries’ (American state papers; On liberty; Representative government; Utilitarianism, 1952, p.280 of 476).

Sir James Darling described the courage needed to defend a new paradigm when he wrote the following words about the very early Christian Church: ‘Under the strain of danger and persecution, the society [the early Christian Church] was tested like gold tried in the fire. Inside the fellowship we can imagine that the bonds of fellowship were very strong and the pride in membership high. Such a fellowship, though only the brave would join it, would naturally attract the best, but, even so, only if its members were convinced themselves and anxious to convince others that they had found…a pearl of great price’ (The Education of a Civilized Man, 1962, p.117 of 223). I should emphasise that what we are involved in is not a new church or religion. What we are involved in is not concerned with ‘faith’ and ‘belief’, rather it is concerned with first-principle-based, biological understanding. In many ways knowledge is both the opposite of faith and what ultimately replaces the need for faith. It is nevertheless true that this is a new paradigm that is being introduced, just as the early Christian Church was a new paradigm for humans.

The majority of WTM Members are, in 2003, around 30 years of age. Most became interested in the understanding of the human condition in Jeremy’s books through attending study groups that were established by fellow university students who had already become interested in the understanding. Periodically Jeremy was invited to attend these meetings. The main study groups that formed were at universities in Sydney, Brisbane, and the city of Armidale in the New England district of northern NSW.

The WTM is a highly organised and motivated corporation. It has its own offices in Sydney from where its many projects are managed. The WTM Members live nearby in neighbouring suburbs, most sharing various rented accommodation, while Jeremy and his partner Annie spend periods of time at a retreat five hours drive from Sydney where Jeremy is able to concentrate on his writinga whole new paradigm is being opened up for humans and there is a great deal to explain about it. Many Members have professional qualifications which they are putting to good use within the various WTM departments. We even have our own rugby team called Page 503 of
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the Ned Kellys, named after the legendary Australian bushranger who courageously defied the establishment. Since 2001 the WTM’s exhaustive records have been progressively converted to electronic archives so that anyone in the future can know its full history.

Most Members have long-standing partners within the WTM but because of their commitment to the immense task they have undertaken of ending humanity’s denial most are not as yet formally married, or have children. With the priority so clearly being to defend this information against the entrenched denial of the issue of the human condition, getting married and having children has very much been a secondary concern. In the case of having children, with billions of children in the world and no answers to the overwhelming problems facing humanity, the Members, in their denial-aware state, are able to see that getting these answers out into the world logically comes first. Also, the more a person understands the importance of nurturing the more they appreciate how consuming and important a task parenting is. Essentially, the greater the need for the new, all-important but extremely confronting insights, and the greater the resistance to them, the more selfless and committed we have to be prepared to be.

Our undertaking is infinitely more important and difficult than winning an international yacht race; it demands even more of the dedication, sacrifice and commitment that was demonstrated in Australia’s 1983 victory of the America’s Cup: ‘The Australians had never won the world’s most prestigious sailing event, the America’s Cup. Australian captain John Bertrand was more than willing to change all of that. His motivation was to something that he loved dearly, sailing to victory with a team totally committed to excellence and to each other. Instead of focusing on years of past losing, he gave his a crew a simple vision. “We are going to sail this boat as boats will be sailed in the year 2000, as no crew has ever sailed a boat before.” Knowing that teamwork required a willingness to get off of your own position for the sake of a bigger vision, he had his team commit themselves to living together for two years and to having a visualisation session each day, of winning the Cup together. They would see, hear, taste, and feel every aspect of the race. Two years of this made the vision a realitythey won the 1983 America’s Cup. In 1987, the American team, under the direction of Dennis Conner, had a similar vision and victory’ (Thomas F. Crum, The Magic of Conflict, 1998, p.164 of 251).

With regard to resistance to the new ideas that we are presenting, Page 504 of
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while the great majority of parents of WTM Members have been tolerant and supportive of their offspring’s involvement in the WTM, there has been five families where parental intolerance has led to family division. In some cases this intolerance has been taken to the extent of ruthlessly campaigning against the WTM, and even to disinheritance. It was the disaffection of these few parents that underpinned the ferocious media attack on the WTM in 1995, an attack which is now the subject of legal actions taken by the WTM. It should be said that the situation in 2003 is that of the five intolerant sets of parents, one has now given what the WTM Members have accepted as a sincere apology. Of the others, namely the Belfields, Biggses, Gemmells and Presses, the Gemmells and Presses have, respectively, apologised and made apologetic overtures, however, these two expressions have not been accepted because they were demonstrably insincere. (Please note, the Persecution of the WTM for Exposing the Human Condition essay, which was compiled in 2011 by Jeremy and myself to context the resistance encountered by the WTM, as well as provide an up-to-date summary of our victory against persecution, can be found at <www.humancondition.com/persecution>.)

The WTM has the ultimate product for humans. The reconciling understanding of the human condition is the information that humans have been searching and anticipating for 2 million years! Having the ultimate product for humans means the WTM is the ultimate business prospect and offers the ultimate in meaningful careers, however, while all new products typically have to overcome difficulties before their potential can be realised, no new product has as many initial obstacles to overcome as the understanding of the human condition. In particular, before we can market our product we firstly have to overcome the ‘deaf effect’, people’s inability to take in or ‘hear’ analysis of the human condition. Secondly we need to survive the backlash from the shock that the world of denial feels from having its denial exposed. Above all what these extreme start-up difficulties demonstrate is that the WTM has to initially be self-sufficient. The foundation capital for the WTM has come from the sale of Jeremy’s half share of a furniture business he established, and from the sale of a successful youth hostel business established by Jeremy’s brother Simon. It is the commitment and support of the Foundation Membership, in particular Members putting their life’s effort into the WTM and their involvement in initiatives to ensure the on-going self-sufficiency of the WTM that has enabled it to become a strong organisation capable of launching the most worthwhile and important of all products.

The following is a comprehensive profile of the WTM Membership assembled by the WTM administration team. (Please note, at this point in A Species in Denial a profile of each of the WTM’s Founding Members was included. Regularly updated profiles of THE FOUNDING MEMBERS of the WORLD TRANSFORMATION MOVEMENT can now be found at <www.humancondition.com/membership-profiles>).

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