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Executive Summary
Humanity stands at a crossroads. We are living through a moment that feels fractured and overwhelming, where climate disruption accelerates, biodiversity declines, chronic diseases rise, social inequalities deepen, and institutions falter under the weight of mistrust and fragmentation. These challenges are often framed as distinct and unrelated, but at their root, they are symptoms of a deeper disorder: the systems we have designed — economic, political, technological, and cultural — have become disconnected from the universal requirements of life. When the foundations that sustain us are destabilized, no institution, economy, or culture can remain secure.
Philosopher John McMurtry described this disconnection as a systemic pathology, a “cancer stage” in human civilization. Just as cancerous cells grow without reference to the wellbeing of the organism, our global economies and governing structures often expand without regard for ecological thresholds or social foundations. Financial metrics like GDP continue to rise even as forests are destroyed, oceans acidify, and mental health crises proliferate. Technologies are heralded as solutions yet are often deployed to accelerate extraction, surveillance, and commodification. At the core of this dysfunction lies what McMurtry identified as the triumph of the money-sequence of value — a logic in which financial capital multiplies for its own sake — over the life-sequence of value, where money, policy, and innovation serve as tools to sustain and enrich the living systems upon which we all depend.
This white paper proposes a universal compass grounded in McMurtry’s framework of Life-Value Onto-Axiology. At its heart lies the Primary Axiom of Value, a principle simple in form but profound in consequence: X is of value if and only if, and to the extent that, it consists in or enables more coherently inclusive thought, feeling, and action. From this axiom flows the recognition of seven universal life necessities — breathable air, potable water, nutritious food, protective shelter, healthy environmental conditions, caring relationships, and meaningful participation. These are not negotiable preferences; they are the ground upon which any sustainable civilization must rest. Systems that secure them are life-coherent. Systems that undermine them, no matter how efficient or profitable, generate systemic incoherence and eventual breakdown.
Reclaiming coherence requires us to integrate insights from across disciplines and traditions. Economically, we must move beyond growth models that undermine the ecosystems they depend on, aligning financial flows with the regeneration of life-capital. Ecologically, we must embed planetary boundaries into policy and governance, ensuring that development stays within thresholds that sustain biodiversity and climate stability. In public health, we must recognize that chronic disease burdens are inseparable from environmental degradation, food insecurity, and social disconnection, and treat universal access to life’s necessities as the foundation of wellbeing. In governance, we must shift from fragmented policymaking to a systems-oriented approach, aligning budgets, laws, and technologies with the living requirements of people and planet alike. Culturally, we must reweave stories of belonging, interdependence, and stewardship to replace narratives of domination, extraction, and endless consumption.
To guide this transformation, the paper offers a set of practical tools. Life-coherent metrics such as the Life-Capital Index and wellbeing dashboards help us measure what truly matters, replacing financial throughput with indicators of systemic health. Strengthening civil commons architectures — the shared infrastructures and institutions that secure universal access to air, water, education, healthcare, and knowledge — ensures that no one is excluded from the foundations of flourishing. Regenerative pathways, already emerging around the world, offer proof of concept: Costa Rica’s renewable energy transition, Amsterdam’s circular economy planning, Bhutan’s wellbeing-centered governance, and Indigenous stewardship models demonstrate that aligning systems with life is not theoretical — it is achievable.
The invitation is simple yet transformative: in every domain — governance, economics, education, culture, and technology — we must ask a single, living question: Does this decision sustain and enrich the conditions of life, or does it diminish them? Applied consistently, this question becomes the fulcrum of systemic coherence. It enables us to design economies that regenerate rather than extract, to embed care and meaning into cultural narratives, and to govern within the thresholds that sustain the planet.
The stakes are clear. One path accelerates systemic incoherence, deepening the erosion of the very foundations on which we depend. The other path invites us to recover coherence — to realign our institutions, economies, and cultures with the universal conditions that sustain life. Around the world, seeds of this shift are already sprouting. Regenerative energy systems, open-access knowledge commons, wellbeing economies, and Indigenous stewardship practices point the way forward.
When systems serve life, they flourish. When they exploit life, they fail. Coherence is the difference. This white paper offers a framework for navigating this choice, providing not a rigid blueprint but a compass — one that grounds our decisions in the realities of life and the living planet we share. At this civilizational threshold, rediscovering coherence is not optional; it is the measure of whether humanity has a future worth living.
