A foundation

This is an outline of what I Am War is, and what it is not.

Fundamental Assumptions, Notions, and Guidelines

At the root: Wars have causes. Causes of wars have solutions.

The purpose of I Am War is to:

1. Identify causes (of wars)
2. Identify solutions (to those causes identified)
3. Implement the solutions

On Causes

We have a specific notion of a "cause" in I Am War. A cause is always a problem of scarcity -- a lack of resources (energy, food, water), or a lack of civil liberties (speech, religion, press, assembly, petition, expression).

We say a cause is "always" a problem of scarcity; this is a hypothesis. It may be that there are other types of fundamental causes, but the focus of I Am War is to attack problems of scarcity. This is fundamental.

On Solutions

We likewise have a notion of a "solution" in I Am War. A solution is a creation -- a structure, program, invention, process, or otherwise -- that overcomes and resolves the issue of scarcity at hand. A proper, full solution in I Am War is sustainable, and it does not introduce or mask new problems of scarcity. This notion of creation is a fundamental piece of the I Am War method.

On People

A fundamental notion of I Am War is to acknowledge the humanity of every person.

It is easy to see this in our friends and our families. I Am War expands this view, and holds this notion for everyone -- our teachers, our leaders, our attackers, and our victims all share the bond of being human. We see the thieves, the murderers, warlords, zealots, and terrorists as fellow human beings. We understand this is not the traditional way of seeing our "enemies."

Building the creative environment

To rise above war, we need a supportive environment. Today, we live in an environment that leads us to war, as it has done invariably for centuries; the politics of war, on many levels, are no different today from those of the past 4,000 years. We see the actions of our leaders -- political and otherwise -- as reflections of this environment.

To get out of this war cycle, not only do we have to choose to get out of it, but we have to create an environment that supports and sustains this choice; we have to create an environment that addresses the fundamental, natural problems of scarcity in this world.

When this is done, when we build an environment of support through sustainable creation, we will have a foundation to stand upon, to live and let live. Understanding this idea is critical. Our mission is to create this supportive environment. And, in this environment, we believe the notions of war will be dismissed as arcane and unnecessary.

To put this notion in a specific light: Our goal is not to convince the world to put down its guns, but to create an environment where disarmament is the easy, natural, obvious thing to do. If people want to build bombs or carry guns, let them; as long as people own guns for defense, or spend 10-15 percent of their gross income on war machines, we know we have more work to do.

On the phrase, "I am war"

Concisely, "I am war," means, "I am taking ownership of this problem of war."

The notion of taking ownership is the same notion of ownership we use at our day jobs -- in the workplace, when someone "owns" a project, they become responsible for the end result of that project, and they are empowered to make decisions that directly impact how successful that project becomes. Similarly, when a project has no owner in the workplace, it is often left in a state of limbo, with no direction, floundering for years at a time, with no progress being made.

We believe many people feel disempowered when observing the state of affairs and the conflicts occurring around the world. Millions of people wish they could contribute in some effective way, but they don't know where to start or don't see where they fit in.

Saying "I am war" is the first step in becoming empowered. It is coming from a place of ownership, and turns us inward to look for solutions, rather than relying upon others to fix it for us.

On Peace

Our focus is on ending organized murder and bloodshed between mass groups of people -- in other words, war.

It is not our aim to end verbal disagreements, heated arguments, greed, cruel intentions, or other cerebral endeavors of humanity. We see "disagreements" between people as part of being alive in an expressive society, and an interesting part at that.

What we are not

I Am War is NOT a political organization. We are NOT here to organize protests, or march in the streets for political change. We are NOT here to define public policy. We are NOT here to disarm the military, or lay down our arms. We are NOT here to end all crime, including murder and domestic violence.

Mission Statement

In the context of the above fundamental assumptions and notions, the mission of I Am War is to build an environment of sustainable creation, while acknowledging the humanity of everyone, to empower ourselves to cause world peace in our lifetime.

A leading step

I Am War is in a state of genesis. Over the course of two and a half months, 16 people have gathered around a few simple ideas:

1. We -- you and I -- can cause world peace in our time.
2. To do this, we must create. We must create in a sustainable way. We must solve the fundamental problems of scarcity at hand, whether they be in energy, food, water, or expression.
3. The Internet has matured to a point where we can build and use serious tools that are up for this historic task.

Now that these ideas have been laid out, it is time for action. It is time to start building our framework, building our supports that we need as we grow into a global organization, when we will serve as a hub and focal point for millions of people, when we will do what's never been done.

We must act, but it must be with thought. As Jim Collins and Jerry I. Porras have shown in Good to Great and Built to Last, we can learn from our past to build a great business.

They show us that it is critical to have a focus, and to build structures that support our focus. It is equally critical to have the right people in the right places, with visionaries (as opposed to task managers) in leadership roles. We must build a culture that empowers individual contributors, build a framework of ideas we can all look upon for guidance, so we can all make the "right" decision when the time comes, so we can all take ownership, as our name implies.

We are recruiting leaders on every front, as we take that next, first step.

We need engineering leaders to architect our website, to lead the building of a place dedicated to information on the fundamental causes of specific wars. We need talented directors to focus our research, to look into these conflicts and tensions, to scour publications, the media and news, to head first-person accounts.

We need savvy thinkers to craft our business plan; we need prescient artists to communicate our message; we need people who are passionate, who are screaming inside to do something meaningful, something worthwhile, something amazing -- to make something truly great.

This is your opportunity -- your invitation -- to step forward, to own this, and to meet your peers.