T hat all persons are endowed with the right to live in a cultural environment that is respectful of their humanity and supportive of their potential. T hat all children are endowed with the right to grow up in a cultural environment that fosters responsibility, trust, and community rather than force, fear, and violence. T hat when the cultural environment becomes destructive of these ends, it is necessary to alter it. S uch is the necessity that confronts us. Let the world hear the reasons that compel us to assert our rights and to take an active role in the shaping of our common cultural environment.
Humans live and learn by stories.
They are no longer told by families, schools, or churches but are the products of a complex mass-production and marketing process. This radical transformation of our cultural environment has changed the roles we grow into, the way we employ creative talent, the way we raise our children, and the way we manage our affairs. Communication channels proliferate but technologies converge and media merge. Consolidation of ownership denies entry to newcomers, drives independents out of the mainstream, and reduces diversity of content. Media blend into a seamless homogenized cultural environment that constrains life's choices as much as the degradation of the physical environment limits life's chances.