START HERE

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Author	Title	Year
Andrews
Brown
Carpeanter

Introduction to the OC, the Project, and CFUSA^*

We live in a fragmented society. The situation is growing worse. No one likes it. What shall we do?

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You are on the OC website now. Go to The Modern Cohesion Project^TM >>> Go to Charitable Foundation USA >>>

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* OC = The Practical Modern Glossary, Ontology & Compendium of Social Cohesion ----- The Project = The Modern Cohesion Project^TM ----- CFUSA = Charitable Foundation USA

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Housekeeping items

What shall we do? I want to jump to the answer, but must first take care of some housekeeping items:

Read all of this page

Presumably you learned about the OC, the Project and CFUSA from having read my book, Ticket to a Project, or someone else's authorized Related Book. On the other hand, you may not have read any of them. Instead you came here via a hyperlink from someone else's online blog or magazine article, or possibly from an Internet search. You do not know much about the OC, the Project, or CFUSA.

However you got here, and whatever level of knowledge you may have, I encourage you to read this Start Here page in its entirety before exploring this website or the ones for the Project or CFUSA. See the table of contents in the right-hand sidebar.

How to use the right-hand sidebar

At the top of the right-hand sidebar, you see a toggle switch. By clicking the toggle, the sidebar may either be (A) the current page's table of contents, (B) an alphabetical glossary of Special Terms, titles of articles, essays and appendixes in this website, or (C) an Ontology of the Special Terms, titles of articles, essays and appendixes in this website. Below the toggle, there is a search box you may use to quickly find any Special Term, article, essay, or appendix title. Notice that the sidebar automatically scrolls to and highlights the Special Term or title that is active when you click it in a (1) Related Book, (2) in the content of the main reading panel of this website, or (3) when looking for it via the search box.

Notice about Copyrights & Trademarks

The websites of the OC and the Project are owned by Modern Cohesion, LLC. The content is copyrighted by me, Daniel Hough Jones, and other authors where indicated. The puzzle logo in the upper left-hand corner of the OC and Project websites is a ® registered trademark owned by Modern Cohesion, LLC. It is registered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and the (name of international authority). Unregistered trademarks owned by Modern Cohesion, LLC include Modern Cohesion, The Modern Cohesion Project, Cohesion Project, Cohesion Program, Proxima, Proximae, Proxima News and the International Cohesion Registry. These trademarks often appear in sentences. The ^TM symbol is not used, however, when a trademarked term occurs before a period, comma, question mark, dash, colon or semicolon. Still, you are put on notice: These are trademarks owned by Modern Cohesion, LLC. For more information about all legal matters, see the OC and Project Legal Page. The website for Charitable Foundation USA is separate. It has its own CFUSA Legal Page.

Three initial points

Having taken care of the housekeeping, we can begin with the substance. At the outset, I want to bring to your attention three points:

Social Fragmentation is getting worse

(1) Social Fragmentation is getting worse. It is an extremely complex Subject. I cannot emphasize that enough. Yet Ordinary People in the many millions must master it or there is no hope. Ordinary People cannot expect Leaders and Experts to Solve the Super Extraordinary Problem of Social Fragmentation. It is unreasonable to expect them to do so. Ordinary People must step up to the plate and start swinging at the ball. What you are now reading is designed to help you - in your capacity as an Ordinary Person even if you are a Leader or Expert - along with millions of others to do just that. (By the way: One reason my writing may strike you as simple or childlike is because I am aiming for an "average reader" with no more than a 9th grade education. For example, this paragraph has a Flesch-Kincaid grade level rating of 7.0, i.e., 7th grade. Ordinary People who are literate are the most important Audience.)

Unnecessary Suffering

(2) The second point I want to bring to your attention at the outset is this: You and your loved ones probably are Suffering Unnecessarily. Some of your loved ones may have died prematurely, too. You and they probably are Suffering despite whatever kind and level of work you and they do out there in the marketplace. Hollywood tabloids are filled with stories of Wealthy Celebrities, for example, who Suffer nevertheless.

To Solve the Problems and mitigate the Conditions that are Causing Unnecessary Suffering and premature death, there are (roughly) five Categories of tools in your tool box that you may use:

1. Adopt a self-help program. Four kinds come to mind:
   1. Study at a tax-payer funded public school and graduate. Then you are on your own. It's self-help all the way.
   2. Pay tuition to a private school, college or university, study and graduate. After graduation, it's self-help all the way once again.
   3. Update your Skills by reading the latest self-help books:
      1. Dieting
      2. Exercise
      3. Yoga
      4. How to grow rich
      5. And so on
   4. Pray to God for deliverance. That's a kind of "self-help," too, of sorts.
2. Seek professional help. Three sources of such help come to mind:
   1. Government Organizations
   2. Non-profit Organizations
   3. For-profit Organizations
3. Here's an idea! Write and sell nonfiction books analyzing the Situation or Crisis. Libraries are full of such books. You can add one more. Academics and journalists do this sort of thing all the time. Analyzing the Situation or Crisis without actually doing anything makes a you feel better and who knows - you might end-up on T.V., the radio and YouTube and make some serious money. Of course, the limitation of this approach is that - usually - nothing much happens out there in the real world, although your career may benefit a lot.
4. What the heck - Think big! Change Aspects of the entire Social Order - heck, change the whole thing - to make it more favorable for Solving your Problems and mitigating your Conditions that trouble you. You change the Social Order by:
   1. Gathering a multi-million or billion-dollar budget to market, advertise and sell the changes in the Social Order you seek. This is normal for big corporations.
   2. If you don't have the budget, you along with a few others can use Deep Camouflage to infiltrate and change from the inside the Organizations that stand in your way and by that subtle means change the Social Order. Change Supreme Court rulings! Change "the church." Change Academia. Why not?
   3. If you are comfortable with violence, overthrow by force the Organizations that annoy you. Change the Social Order in that way.
5. Something else

Do something else

(3) The third and final point I want to bring to your attention is this: The above list represents a box of tools, not necessarily mutually-exclusive options. I advocate the "something else" tool you can use additionally along with the above tools that are not violent or nefarious ones. The "something else" is what you are reading about

The Cause of Social Fragmentation

What is causing contemporary Societies across the Modern World to Socially Fragment?

I explain these concepts in detail elsewhere, but on this page let me just use their Special Term titles and describe them briefly.

Our worsening Social Fragmentation is caused by the Overwhelming (a noun) pressing on the Individual's Sensorium. The Overwhelming is made up of Aspects of the global Ideomatic (a noun).

What is the Overwhelming? It a marauding pack of saber toothed tigers. No person or family alone can defeat it.

The Overwhelming is a hurricane-force wind. You cannot stand upright outdoors in a state of informed Liberty while it is blowing. You must seek a sturdy shelter. On this page I want to briefly tell you about a three-part shelter: (1) The Practical Modern Glossary, Ontology & Compendium of Social Cohesion ("the OC"), (2) the Modern Cohesion Project^TM ("the Project" or "this Project"), and (3) Charitable Foundation USA ("CFUSA") (or its equivalent in your Country). These entities and their Projects and Programs represent that sturdy shelter if a Critical Mass of Ordinary People use them. That last point is the key.

Groups & Networks, Projects & Programs

The "something else" is made up of new Organizations that execute Projects and maintain Programs. Below I merely list Categories of them with brief explanations.

For-Profit

Modern Cohesion, LLC

Modern Cohesion, LLC houses what I am doing. It administers three Programs:

(1) The International Cohesion Registry ("ICR"). To gain access to all of the OC and become a Participant in the Project, you must register in a confidential registry. Why is this necessary? Social Cohesion is geographically-grounded in Households and Neighborhoods. It is not out there scattered in the marketplace or the Internet. To develop and sustain Social Cohesion, we must know where you physically live so that we may help you and your Neighbors physically get together in Like-Minded Groups and Meetings.

(2) The Practical Modern Glossary, Ontology & Compendium of Social Cohesion ("the OC"). The website you presently are on contains the OC. In addition to being a Glossary, Ontology and Compendium, the OC is a Course of Study that gets you ready for the next program:

(3) The Modern Cohesion Project^TM ("the Project" or "this Project"). This Project is many Courses of Action that hopefully will bring about Social Cohesion in the Place where you live and throughout the Modern World generally. You choose to participate in the Project

Non-Profit

Charitable Foundation USA (CFUSA)

CFUSA has three programs limited to the United States:

(4) For donors - CFUSA is a neutral administrator of the donor's philanthropy.

(5) For financial advisors - CFUSA is a neutral charity with whom financial advisors may have mutual referral agreements. Financial advisors may refer their philanthropic-minded clients to CFUSA (often in regard to a highly appreciated asset) and CFUSA may refer investable assets back to financial advisors.

(6) For other charities - CFUSA may serve as as a "planned giving office" for the benefit of other U.S. public charities in support of their Mission.

About the OC

Now let's talk about the OC - the website you are now on.

What is the OC about?

The Subject of the OC is Social Cohesion, Social Fragmentation, and related social, political, economic, and environmental matters in the Modern World. That is what the OC is about. Think of each Special Term in the OC as a Topic within the Subject.

Mission of the OC

The Mission of the OC is, first, to be a Practical glossary and Ontology of Special Terms for Ordinary People to use to help them Solve (1) their Ordinary Problems of life, (2) the Extraordinary and (3) Super-Extraordinary Problems ("SEPs") of the larger society, too, and (4) to mitigate Undesirable Conditions in the Places where they live starting in their Households and Neighborhoods and working their way up to their Nation.

The second part of the Mission is to be a Compendium of Knowledge regarding Social Cohesion, Social Fragmentation, and related social, political, economic, and environmental matters.

Achieving the Mission of the OC results in a vocabulary of well-defined Special Terms out of which Like-Mindedness may be built and sustained in Circumstances dominated by the Overwhelming Aspects of the Ideomatic. Without a Critical Mass of Like-Mindedness, it is impossible for Individuals and Households to stand upright in the hurricane force of the Overwhelming.

Purpose of the OC

The Purpose of the OC is to help avoid Unnecessary Suffering and premature death and - for those who Believe in such things - to help avoid Hell and gain Heaven after death.

In Christianity, the word "evangelization" refers to the spreading of the Christian Gospel. "Pre-evangelization" refers to the persuasion of people that God exists in the first place. The Mission and Purpose of the OC and the Modern Cohesion Project^TM fall into a new Category of "pre-pre-evangelization." As used herein, "pre-pre-evangelization" is focused on Activities that may be shared by Christians, agnostics, and atheists.

Parties to the OC

By "parties" I do not mean parties to a legal contract. I mean the people who mutually agree, as trustworthy Individuals, to voluntarily adhere to the meanings of the OC Special Terms in all of their Conversations and Communications. In short, they agree to mean what they say and say what they mean.

In the OC, "you" means you, the present reader. "I," "me," and "mine" means, me, Daniel Hough Jones, the first author and editor or another author where indicated. "We," "us," and "our" means, depending on the Context, (a) all the OC authors and editors, or (b) the authors, editors and you, or (c) the authors, editors, you, and all the other people who voluntarily adhere to the OC.

What is the OC?

Let me highlight six Aspects of the OC:

Public pages

The portion of the OC you are reading right now is open to the public. Anyone may access this portion, look up a Special Term from the Welcome "home" page, and read its definition, for example.

Glossary

The OC is an alphabetical Glossary of over 400 Special Terms and their definitions that make sense to me and other authors where indicated. Except for one term in Latin (Sensorium) and three new terms I coined (Influtrol, Ideomatic and Overwhelming), all OC terms are commonplace words in English that Ordinary People with a 9th grade education use. You can see an alphabetical list of the Special Terms by clicking the toggle switch at the top of the right-hand sidebar.

Practical

The OC is not Academic. It is Practical. It is for the use of Ordinary People in their everyday Problem Solving.

Modern

The OC is Modern in the sense that its Special Terms are defined in the Context of the Modern World. I have a very particular definition of what I mean by Modern, Modern World and Modernity. (Click here to read it.) In more simple terms, think "western world" or "the west" and that may be good enough for now.

Private pages

Each Special Term has a "More" page. "More" pages are private. They are only for Individuals registered with the International Cohesion Registry or "ICR." ICR Registrants pay a modest monthly ICR subscription fee. To learn more about the benefits of registering with the ICR, please the Modern Cohesion Project^TM website.

Ontology

The OC is also an Ontology in which the Special Terms are re-arranged into Categories and the Categories into Hierarchies to suggest cause and effect in ways that make sense to me and other authors were indicated. To see the ontological arrangement, click the toggle switch at the top of the right-hand sidebar.

Compendium

The OC is a Compendium of Knowledge about the Topics suggested by the Special Terms and their Ontologies that, again, makes sense to me and other authors where indicated.

Course of Study

Finally, the OC is used in a Course of Study, i.e., a prescribed curriculum and process of formation a Person participates in as he or she passes through ___ Affiliation Levels of the Modern Cohesion Project. Mastering the Course of Study helps you get ready for various Courses of Action you will undertake in the Modern Cohesion Project^TM if you are qualified.

"That makes sense to me."

I have used the phrase "that makes sense to me" several times. I should explain what I mean by it, why it is important, and why it is appropriate, too. Here is my Argument in defense of it:

If we Modern folk are to Solve better than we do (1) the Ordinary Problems of life in our Households and Neighborhoods, (2) the Extraordinary Problems "out there" in the marketplace, and (3) the Super Extraordinary social, political, economic, and environmental Problems ("SEPs") of our Countries, while also (4) mitigating the Undesirable Conditions that trouble us at every level, we must first agree on the meanings of the words we use in our Conversations and Communications. To put it differently, we Modern folk, across the board, must share a common glossary of Special Terms in our Problem-Solving or we will continue to be nothing more than convenient consumers and useful idiots for the benefit of the Clever among us.

Proposing that Special Terms be adopted and routinely used is not a new proposal. It is commonplace.

For example, Experts, such as doctors, lawyers, scientists, engineers, auto mechanics, and air traffic controllers, and some Leaders, each in their respective field of expertise or leadership, create and use Special Terms all the time. As a consequence, they are able to consistently express accurate meanings in their Conversations and Communications with their peers in their fields precisely because they have defined a Glossary of Special Terms in advance and have arranged them into Ontologies that make sense to them. No one apologizes for the "that-makes-sense-to-me" criteria. That's what peer review means. After much debate and refinement, everyone on the committee finally nods their heads in agreement and says, "Yep. That makes sense to me."

Here is the big problem that requires the establishment and widespread use of the OC: The totality of Leaders and Experts in our contemporary Modern World is a Tower of Babel when it comes to vocabulary.

Or put it this way: The totality is not working as well as it should or could. Why? Because not enough Leaders, Experts and Ordinary People share the same glossary of Special Terms with clear meanings. The Evidence of this Proposition is the increasing Social Fragmentation, i.e., the decline in Social Capital, that has been happening since roughly 1968. Despite the workings of all the Experts and Leaders in our contemporary Modern World, things are falling apart. The center is not holding. Something is missing. The something is a shared glossary of Special Terms. Or at least, that is the first thing that is missing. Therefore -

Someone must devise a glossary of Practical Special Terms and put them on the table so that (1) Ordinary People with no more than 9th grade educations, (2) Leaders and (3) Experts may voluntarily use them effectively with one another. Since no one else has put together such a glossary, I did. I created the OC.

Will the OC work?

If no one uses it, the answer is "no." If a few thousand people use it, the answer still is "no." If a million people use it, the answer starts moving towards "yes." When 60% of the adult population use it in a given Country, the answer most likely is "definitely yes!" Otherwise, "no," the OC will not Countervail the Overwhelming Aspects of the Ideomatic. Clever Individuals, weaving in and out of the Ideomatic in Deep Camouflage using Influtrol, will continue to win the Contest like they are winning it now. We must reach a Critical Mass of OC users or I fear we are doomed. We are doomed to ever increasing Social Fragmentation and ultimately civil and international wars. Given our contemporary weaponry, the wars will be horrific. To avert war, I propose millions of Ordinary People in each Modern Country adopt, develop and sustain the Modern Cohesion Project^TM in the Places where they live which includes using the OC.

About the Modern Cohesion Project^TM

Introduction

If the OC is a Course of Study then the Modern Cohesion Project^TM ("the Project" or "this Project") is the Course of Action. Actually, it is many Courses of Action.

Why is this Project necessary at this time in human history?

;;;;;; The Ideomatic

What is the Ideomatic?

A better 21st Century Understanding

DAN: talk about the Sensorium here.

Aiming for Critical Mass

If a Project that you are working on is installing a fence around a backyard swimming pool to help prevent accidents, how many degrees around the pool must you build the fence to achieve your Mission? Critical Mass in this example is 100%.

If you were developing a Program of building aircraft carriers, how much capital would you need compared to a Program of building canoes? A lot more! Indeed, the Critical Mass of capital for building aircraft carriers is so great that only a few National governments in the world can afford such Programs.

Seven Audiences

Division-of-Labor

Potential Book Authors

If you are planning to write a book about Aspects of Social Cohesion, Social Fragmentation or related social, political, economic or environmental matters, and/or you wish to advance Social Cohesion in your Country or the Modern World generally, there are two points to keep in mind before you begin writing your book:

Write in light of The OC

We invite you to apply to have the eventual PDF version of your anticipated 5 inches by 8-inch hardback or paperback book appear online side-by-side on the left side of a split-screen with the public and private portions of the OC on the right side of the screen. (This setup works for desktop, laptop, and tablet-size screens. but not smartphones.) Your reader will be able to click hyperlinked words in your PDF version and have Special Terms, definitions, and commentary appear on the right side. It is cool! Your book-buyer needs to sign-up with the International Cohesion Registry (ICR) and pay a modest monthly subscription fee to gain access to this split-screen facility and to be eligible to participate locally in The Modern Cohesion Project with other local people. In other words, no basic ICR fee, no participation. These sorts of books, by the way, are called Related Books.

Increase your revenue

When you author and publish a Related Book, you (or your Organization) share in the basic monthly ICR subscription revenue generated by your book-buyers and readers.

For example, if 1,000 people (1) buy your book and (2) register with the ICR by tearing out and using the registration form at the back of your hardback or paperback book, and (3) your percentage of the basic ICR subscription fee for each ICR Registrant is $3, for example, then in addition to your one-time book sale royalties, your monthly revenue will be $3,000. If 10,000 people buy your book and sign-up as new ICR Registrants, your monthly revenue will be $30,000. This monthly revenue continues to you or your estate until the earlier of (a) the month the ICR Registrant stops paying the ICR subscription fee and (b) ten years from the date your book was published. (It gets a little complicated when you publish a second edition. See the Modern Cohesion, LLC Legal Page for all details.) If 10,000 of "your" ICR Registrants persist for ten years, you will receive a total of $3.6 million for that one book.

Cohesion Social Entrepreneurs

If you Desire to be a part-time or full-time self-employed Person - If you have an entrepreneurial spirit - If you are committed to developing and sustaining a Critical Mass of Social Cohesion in the Place where you live by working face-to-face with people individually and in Groups, please see the website for The Modern Cohesion Project. If you qualify, you may serve people as a Cohesion Social Entrepreneur ("CSE") and charge a monthly fee for your services separate from the basic ICR fee.

Suppliers of Products & Services

If you have an established firm that provides bookkeeping, accounting, tax, legal, association management, property management, special event management, or other products and services used by Households and Neighborhoods, and you want to assist Cohesion Social Entrepreneurs and receive a monthly retainer, please see the website for The Modern Cohesion Project.

Libraries

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Bloggers and other online publishers

If you write for or publish a blog or other type of website, you are free to hyperlink words on your site to the Special Terms on the public portion of the OC. Each Special Term has its own URL. See the address bar of your browser.

Charitable Foundation USA

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You are on the OC website right now. Go to The Modern Cohesion Project^TM >>> Go to Charitable Foundation USA >>>

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