The distribution of the world's resources and the settled
unity of the peoples of the world are in reality one and the same thing, for
behind all modern wars lies a fundamental economic problem. Solve that and wars
will very largely cease. In considering, therefore, the preservation of peace,
as sought for and emphasized by the United Nations at this time, it becomes
immediately apparent that peace, security and world stability are primarily
tied up with the economic problem. When there is freedom from want, one of the
major causes of war will disappear. Where there is uneven distribution of the
world's riches and where there is a situation in which some nations have or
take everything and other nations lack the necessities of life, it is obvious
that there is a trouble-breeding factor there and that something must be done.
Therefore we should deal with world unity and peace primarily from the angle of
the economic problem.
With the cessation of World War II came the opportunity to
inaugurate a new and better way of life, and to establish that security and
peace for which all men ceaselessly long. Three groups immediately appeared in
the world:
1.
The powerful, reactionary, conservative groups
desirous of retaining as much of the past as possible, having great power and
no vision.
2.
The fanatical ideologists in every
country—communistic, democratic and fascist.
3.
The inert masses of the people in every land,
ignorant for the most part, desiring only peace after storm and security in the
place of economic disaster; they are victimised by their rulers, by established
old conditions, and kept in the dark as to the truth of the world situation.
All these factors produce the present disorders and
condition the deliberations of the United Nations. Though there is no major war,
there is no peace, no security and no immediate hope of either.
It is essential for the future happiness and progress of
humanity that there should be no return to the old ways, whether political,
religious or economic. Therefore, in handling these problems we should search
out the wrong conditions which have brought humanity to its present state of
almost cataclysmic disaster. These conditions were the result of religious
faiths which have not moved forward in their thinking for hundreds of years; of
economic systems which lay the emphasis upon the accumulation of riches and
material possessions and which leave all the power and the produce of the earth
in the hands of a relatively few men, while the rest of humanity struggle for a
bare subsistence; and of political regimes run by the corrupt, the
totalitarian-minded, the grafters and those who love place and power more than
they love their fellowmen.
It is essential that there should be a presentation of these
things in terms of the spiritual welfare of humanity and a truer interpretation
of the meaning of the word "spiritual". The time is long past when a
line of demarcation can be drawn between the religious world and the political
or the economic. The reason for the corrupt politics and the greedy ambitious
planning of so many of the world's leading men can be found in the fact that
spiritually minded men and women have not assumed— as their spiritual duty and
responsibility—the leadership of the people. They have left the power in the
wrong hands and permitted the selfish and the undesirable to lead.
The word "spiritual" does not belong to the
churches or to the world religions. "Pure religion and undefiled" is
pure charity and a selfless following of the Christ. The churches are
themselves great capitalistic systems particularly the Roman Catholic Church,
and show little evidence of the mind that was in Christ. The churches have had
their opportunity, but have done little to change men's hearts or to benefit
the people. Now, under cyclic law, political ideologies and national and
international planning are occupying the attention of the people and everywhere
efforts are being made to bring about better human relations. This, in the eyes
of the spiritually minded and of the enlightened worker for humanity, is a sign
of progress and an indication of the innate divinity in man. That is truly
spiritual which properly relates man to man and man to God and which
demonstrates in a better world and the expression of the Four Freedoms
throughout the planet. For these the spiritual man must work.
The Kingdom of God will inaugurate a world which will be one
in which it will be realized that—politically speaking—humanity, as a whole, is
of far greater importance than any one nation; it will be a new world order,
built upon different principles to those in the past, and one in which men will
carry the spiritual vision into their national governments, into their economic
planning and into all measures taken to bring about security and right human
relations. Spirituality is essentially the establishing of right human
relations, the promotion of goodwill and finally the establishing of a true
peace on earth, as the result of these two expressions of divinity.
The world today is full of warring voices; everywhere there
is an outcry against world conditions; everything is being dragged out into the
light of day; abuses are being shouted from the housetops, as the Christ
prophesied they would be. The reason for all this outcry, discussion, and noisy
criticism is that, as men awaken to the facts and begin to think and plan, they
are aware of guilt within themselves; their consciences trouble them; they are
conscious of the inequality of opportunity, of the grave abuses, of the
entrenched distinctions between man and man, and the factor of racial and
national discriminations; they question their own individual goals as well as
national planning. The masses of men in every land are beginning to realize
that they are largely responsible for what is wrong, and that their inertness and
lack of right action and thinking has led to the present unhappy state of world
affairs. This constitutes a challenge and no challenge is ever totally welcome.
The awakening of the masses and the determination of the
reactionary forces and of the monied interests to preserve the old and fight
the new are largely responsible for the present world crisis. The battle
between the old, entrenched forces and the emerging, new idealism constitutes
the problem today; other factors—though important, individually or
nationally—are from the true and spiritual standpoint relatively negligible.
The unity, peace and security of the nations, great and
small, are not to be attained by following the guidance of the greedy
capitalist or the ambitious in any nation, and yet in many situations that
guidance is being accepted. They are not to be gained by the blind following of
any ideology, no matter how good it may seem to those conditioned by it; yet
there are those who are seeking to impose their particular ideology on the world—and
not solely in Russia. They will not be reached by sitting back and leaving the
changing of conditions to God or the evolutionary process; yet there are those
who make no move to help, even while knowing well the conditions with which the
United Nations have to deal.
Unity, peace and security will come through the
recognition—intelligently assessed—of the evils which have led to the present
world situation, and then through the taking of those wise, compassionate and
understanding steps which will lead to the establishing of right human
relations, to the substitution of cooperation for the present competitive
system, and by the education of the masses in every land as to the nature of
true goodwill and its hitherto unused potency. This will mean the deflecting of
untold millions of money into right educational systems, instead of their use
by the forces of war and their conversion into armies, navies and armaments.
It is this that is spiritual; it is this that is of
importance and it is this for which all men must struggle. The spiritual
Hierarchy of the planet is primarily interested in finding the men who will
work along these lines. It is primarily interested in humanity, realizing that
the steps taken by humanity in the immediate future will condition the new age
and determine man's destiny. Will it be a destiny of annihilation, of a
planetary war, of worldwide famine and pestilence, of nation rising against
nation and of the complete collapse of all that makes life worth living? All
this can happen unless basic changes are made and made with goodwill and loving
understanding. Then, on the other hand, we can have a period (difficult but
helpful because educative) of adjustment, of concession and of relinquishment;
we can have a period of right recognition of shared opportunity, of a united
effort to bring about right human relations, and of an educational process
which will train the youth of all nations to function as world citizens and not
as nationalistic propagandists. What we need above all to see—as a result of
spiritual maturity—is the abolition of those two principles which have wrought
so much evil in the world and which are summed up in the two words: Sovereignty
and Nationalism.
World Disunity
What at this moment appears to prevent world unity
and keeps the United Nations from arriving at those necessary settlements which
the man in the street is so eagerly awaiting? The answer is not hard to find
and involves all nations: nationalism, capitalism, competition, blind stupid
greed. It is an intense emotional nationalism which made the Polish nation so
difficult a member of the family of nations; it is materialism and fear, plus a
lack of spiritual interest, which makes France so constant an obstructionist
and has led her to work against united world action; it is fanatical adherence
to an ideology and national immaturity which prompts so much of Russia's
activities; it is a rampant capitalism which makes the United States one of the
most feared of the nations, plus her gestures of armed power; it is the fast
dying imperialism which handicaps Great Britain and a clinging to
responsibilities and territories which she is realizing could well be turned
over to the United Nations; the hope of Great Britain lies in her socialistic
tendencies which enable her to take the "middle path" between the
communism of Russia and the capitalism of the United States. It is the smug
greed of the nations which escaped the war which is hindering progress; it is
the devious actions of the Jews and the hatred which they cultivate which tend
also to undermine the hope of peace; it is the chaos in India and China which
is complicating the work of the well-intentioned; it is the unchristian and
undemocratic treatment of the Negro peoples in the United States and Africa which
is contributing to the ferment; it is the blind inertness and lack of interest
of the masses of the people which permit the wrong men to be in power; it is
fear of the rest of the world which makes the Russian leaders keep their
peoples in ignorance of the attitude of other nations on world affairs; it is
the wrong use of money which colours the press and the radio in Great Britain
and still more in the United States, thus keeping much of the truth from the
people; it is the upheaval of labour everywhere which feeds the turmoil and
forces unnecessary suffering upon the public; it is powerful, political and
international distrust, lying propaganda and the apathy of the churches which
still further complicate the problem. It is—above all else—the refusal of that
public to face life as it is and to recognize the facts for what they are. The
mass of men need arousing to see that good comes to all men alike and not just
to a few privileged groups, and to learn also that "hatred ceases not by
hatred but that hatred ceases by love". This love is not a sentiment, but
practical goodwill, expressing itself through individuals, in communities and
among nations.
Please read the rest at: http://edgeba.webs.com/internationalunityii.htm
[PROBLEMS OF HUMANITY, 1947, pp. 167-181]
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