We describe our long-term vision, the Society of Agreement, in a very comprehensive way (covering technical, social, institutional and economic aspects) and with many details. This is very unusual: many long-term visions for society remain very sketchy. There are several reasons for our choice of a comprehensive, detailed description of our vision.
Overcoming the fear of the unknown
A first reason is that it helps overcoming the fear of the unknown that many feel when reflecting about our collective future. There is a general, even if often suppressed, perception that everything must change for our society to be sustainable, but nobody really knows towards what. Some mottos exist, such as a "sober happiness", to describe this future. They are inspiring for some, but too blurry for many, who lack the imagination to figure out what a radically different future could be. This uncertainty about what the future could be is a source of fear. The many details that we provide help to clear the fog and to see, in a concrete way, what life would be in a future, radically just, sustainable, democratic and happy society, and contribute to alleviating this fear. We hereby complement similar exercises of long-term anticipation have been performed recently, with the same intention of alleviating fear and of inspiring hope (e.g. by the United Nations in 2012, or by the Club of Rome in 2023), but are not as comprehensive as ours.
Providing an alternative, complete, and acceptable social contract
A second reason is that it presents the full picture of an alternative, complete and acceptable social contract. Whereas the quality of consumed products is likely to improve in a more sustainable society (with more durable products and healthier food), their overall quantity is likely to diminish very drastically, in order to meet the requirements of a net-zero society (with a yearly Greenhouse Gases emissions budget of ca. 750 kg CO2eq / year in the EU - to be compared to the current 10 tonnes). In order to be socially and humanly acceptable, this drastic reduction in the quantity of products being consumed must be compensated by drastic gains in other dimensions of life. This is the foundation of a social contract: constraints in some dimensions of life are compensated, and beyond, by benefits in other dimensions. We propose that these other dimensions of drastic gains be social justice and democratic participation - two areas in which our current society has (much) room to improve.
A system made of mutually-reinforcing elements
A third reason is that we want to demonstrate that the Society of Agreement constitutes a system, in which components are coherent with, and reinforce, each other. It gives a concrete meaning to current aspirations to "changing the system, no the climate". It also shows that the Society of Agreement can achieve its goals of providing a decent and happy living to all, within planetary boundaries, with a level of efficiency comparable with that of the current system (the consumer society) in achieving its own, outdated goals, namely producing en masse cheap, diverse and short-lived products.
A vision amenable to be amended by democratic decision
As mentioned already in the "Important note" at the end of our main page on the Society of Agreement, the text describing it is part of our Statutes. This means that the text is stable, but also that it can be amended, deeply if need be, by democratic decisions of our Cooperators.