Galtung - TOWARDS LIFE-KNOWLEDGE

This paper introduces The Life-Value Framework, a diagnostic and policy architecture designed to address the growing misalignment between modern economic governance and the biological foundations of human life. Contemporary institutions largely operate according to a “money-sequence” logic in which financial growth is treated as the primary indicator of success, even when ecological systems, social infrastructure, and human well-being deteriorate. Drawing on John McMurtry’s Life-Value Onto-Axiology and Johan Galtung’s peace research, the framework proposes a Life-Value Metric that evaluates policies according to whether they expand or diminish the inclusive range of human thought, feeling, and action. Structural violence, war economies, and the erosion of public infrastructure are interpreted as measurable forms of systemic disvalue. The paper further proposes the use of AI-assisted impartial auditing to evaluate policies according to life-value parameters and universal life necessities. A staged roadmap toward planetary solvency is outlined, emphasizing investment in the civil commons and regenerative systems capable of sustaining long-term human flourishing.

In an era of accelerating political dysfunction and institutional erosion, democracy is increasingly reduced to a hollow form — maintaining the appearance of legitimacy while serving narrow private interests. This white paper critically examines the concept of “demockracy,” as coined by Johan Galtung, to describe the performative facade of democratic governance that conceals deep structural incoherence. Through analysis of economic capture, information distortion, and civic exclusion, we expose the systemic degradation of political representation. Drawing upon life-value ethics, participatory models, and regenerative design principles, we propose a comprehensive reorientation of governance — from adversarial to coherent, from extractive to life-serving. The paper argues for a transition to regenerative democracy grounded in ethical coherence, symbolic literacy, civic imagination, and institutional responsiveness. This is not merely a political reform agenda but a call for civilizational renewal — a return to governance as care, and to democracy as a living system animated by the common good.