It would be unrealistic to adhere to a retrogressive and romanticized notion of a “simple” life, in which technology is non-existent, and humanity subsists in some type of passively blissful coexistence with nature. It overlooks at once the inter-personal needs … Continue reading Technology: Good or Bad?
Friends, listen up. The end of the 20th century discloses to the eyes of humanity a vista of stupendous opportunities and grave perils. Allow me to explain. Some of the more striking phenomena are those associated with globalization, a designation … Continue reading Globalization: Good or Bad?
The Problem . ARTIFICIAL SCARCITY is a term used to describe the condition in which masses of people are deprived of their bare necessities, while wealth, resources, and infrastructure exist in sufficient proportion to provide for all. The amount of … Continue reading Artificial Scarcity & The Baha’i Faith
A recent study by Oxfam provided some striking data regarding growing disparities of wealth and poverty within and between countries around the globe: 50% of the world’s wealth is now owned by 1% of the population. This richest 1% has 65 times … Continue reading “Concentrations of Wealth” by Michael Karlberg
Humanity is a whole, single organism, and may be likened unto the body of a human being, also a whole and single organism. Likewise, the embryological processes that led to the development of the human being are therefore the same … Continue reading Embryonic Humanity
“Throughout the world, across all classes and social groups, there has been a ready response from youth who are invited to examine the forces shaping their society and their role in contributing to its constructive transformation through service as animators … Continue reading Releasing the Deep Reservoirs that Young People Possess
One can analyze in the tumultuous evolution of the life of humankind one thread, among others, that has been present and steadily advancing for thousands and tens of thousands of years. Perhaps human history can even be conceptualized as a … Continue reading A Final Step in Humanity’s Evolution
A few days ago passed the 120th anniversary of the first mention of the Baha’i Faith in the Western hemisphere. At last, the spiritual forces released by Baha’u’llah’s Revelation had an “initial conversation” through which they could be channeled. Many … Continue reading 120 years of discourse
Putting aside, for a moment, the truth that young people are characterized by having a “desire to bring about constructive change”, by having “a capacity for meaningful service”, by having “all the hope in their hearts that, through strenuous concerted … Continue reading 10% of Humanity’s Population is Young People in India
For thousands of years, beginning with the birth of the family – the smallest unit in the scale of human organization – humanity’s evolution has been characterized by a process of integration, which although far less spectacular than the parallel … Continue reading The Power of Truth
The worldwide Baha’i community is dedicated to a systematic long-term process of learning how to translate the principles of the Revelation of Baha’u’llah into reality and engaging more and more people in an “exploration of reality that gives rise to … Continue reading From the Animator to a World Civilization
Science is in its infancy. It will evolve, change, and grow until it achieves a more mature form. To date, the human experience suffers from an underdeveloped understanding of the nature and scope of the scientific enterprise. Those who suffer … Continue reading The Structure of Future Scientific Revolutions
Those who wish to make a positive impact on the world are faced with a paradox born of the very privilege that motivates them to help others. They are at once the beneficiary of oppressive structures and their product. Insofar as they … Continue reading Inside Those Suffering Eyes: The Us and Them Dichotomy
It seems like development projects in the 70’s thought of themselves as Agent Smith showing up at the beginning of the Matrix where the local police are having trouble dealing with Trinity. The extent to which he thought he was … Continue reading Development: a Critique
Development as an enterprise will fail until it studies the inter-penetration of reason and faith, the same way that students who memorize by rote repetition will always be 2nd best to the genius who understands the essence of composing music. Just ask … Continue reading The Scientist Believer
1. I feel like science is that family that screams at each other all saturday night long waking up the whole neighborhood and then shows up to socialize at a local potluck pretending like nothings wrong and acting like no … Continue reading 5 Aphorisms on Science, Religion, and Development
When articulating social action, there are certain words that are used – namely, lines, areas, and spheres. One can view an individual’s action as a “point”. As a series of actions by individuals progress over time and become harmonized, united … Continue reading Dimensions of Social Action
The global economy is now in a downward spiral, unemployment is at record highs in country after country, national debt is paralyzing governments, incomes have stagnated for a majority of workers — suddenly the question emerges from Marx’s grave: has … Continue reading Marx: From Beyond the Grave
Poverty is as ineradicable as the house-fly! The misguided conviction that material resources exist, or can be created by scientific and technological enterprise, to entirely eradicate poverty is a myth of global scope. Social scientists are hardly necessary to uncover the reason … Continue reading Poverty and Revelation
Achievement, we know from experience, requires the expenditure of material means. Social and economic development, albeit with a spiritual and transcendent intention, is no exception. Antithetically, there are many societies, some of whom may consider themselves servants of the best interests … Continue reading Utilizing Material Means
The development of a just society requires universal participation. Why? Why is this the case? If you’d like, respond with your thoughts below. Surely, there are many of reasons. Three come to my mind at the moment. They are related … Continue reading Justice and Universal Participation
In discourse, thought, reflection and action are intimately interdependent. Action is coherent only when it is not merely rote but also consultative, that is, when it is not dichotomized from reflection. Reflection, which is essential to action, is implicit in the … Continue reading Spiritual Re-Education and the Power of the Masses
Extreme socio-economic inequalities of access and opportunity result in privileged vs. oppressed classes. The oppressed, over time, adapt to the structure of domination under which generations languish and become resigned to it. The status quo of the social order is maintained by … Continue reading Empowerment, Oppression, and Social Order
Today it seems that the message for change is articulated by people who believe in the unity of races, equality of genders, and institutional intervention on behalf of social and economic justice. These people also hold that the unity of mankind is a … Continue reading Unity, Communism, and Change: The Principle, the Boogie-Man, and the Future
Paragraph#: 1. Abdu’l-Baha’s Temple-ground piercing Centenary. Diverse participants then and now. 2. Divine civilization beyond mere adjustments to present order. 3. Erroneous assumptions of human nature, justified by failings, disallow spiritual potential. 4. Imprisonment enables sympathetic hearts. 5-Year Plan (5YP) … Continue reading Summary: Ridvan 2012 Message
The universe is pregnant with these manifold bounties – bounties mysteriously emerging from the intricate interplay between the micro-cosmic visions of various actors on the world stage, each pursuing their own selfish advantage, and yet all mysteriously contributing to the … Continue reading The Universe is Pregnant
Objectivity – another desired quality of the language of science – is a term loaded with connotations and interpretations; it’s rarely a straightforward concept. It helps to contrast it with subjectivity. An entirely subjective statement is one of personal preference, such as “daffodils are the prettiest kind of flower” – this might be a consensus among a large group of people, but is not in universal agreement. Something that is in agreement with others is not necessarily objective, nor is it necessarily truth. There are certain things, however, that are somewhat objective because of their agreement amongst individuals. Social conventions … Continue reading Social Conventions – Objective or Subjective?
When one examines social structures, processes, and relationships, one can identify numerous factors that influence them all. Yet one that is a never-changing and ubiquitous factor upon which ultimately depends the efficacy of civilization-building is the individual – the values, … Continue reading Building the Capacity to Build Capacity
Historically and currently, the relationship between power and knowledge has been strained and complex, to say the least. Recently, “modernism” – which has constructed systems of knowledge around truth-claims about social reality – has come into critique by “post-modernism” – … Continue reading Beyond Modernism and Post-Modernism
Earlier in this blog, there was a post on the concept of latency. This concept helps us further understand an approach to knowledge that transcends foundationalism and relativism. If one considers the biological development of any organism – embryo to … Continue reading Relative Latency
Beyond the highly propagated fragmentation of science and religion in current thought, and the resistance to reconceptualize these complementary systems of knowledge and practice, there are, in general, voices that resist change, especially at the level of principle. They refuse to believe that the … Continue reading Conscious Choice
All human beings have spiritual capacities that can be revealed to contribute to humanity’s development and betterment. This process of empowerment occurs through access to knowledge, both self-knowledge and knowledge of reality. This knowledge is in two repositories of science … Continue reading Science and Religion
One fundamental feature of a development process that recognizes the material and spiritual requirements of social reality is capacity building. In fact, development can almost be seen as synonymous with building capacity. The people themselves are the protagonists of their … Continue reading Capacity Building
The processes of development have adopted values driven by economic growth, values that often view all things as means to a narrow-minded end, values that reduce an individual’s identity to a producer, consumer, and coveter of goods, values that reduce … Continue reading Exploitation and Oppression
Today’s vision of betterment is dogmatically materialistic. The interpretation of reality that progress equals economic development, and that people’s happiness would only be the result of better health, food, education, living conditions, etc., has consolidated itself to become the deciding … Continue reading Materialism
The advancement of civilization is propelled through increases in knowledge, as has been mentioned multiple times in previous posts. Every human being is a protagonist of humanity’s maturity, and all can contribute through a process of building on their latent … Continue reading The Centrality of Knowledge
Humanity will mature as each member is allowed to contribute to its advancement. Every human being has talents and capacities, the development of which is the right and duty of the individual, and the creation of environments that foster this … Continue reading Trust and Nobility
This term, “civilization”, has been mentioned repeatedly. In fact, the stated purpose of this blog is to contribute to the discourse on the advancement of civilization. Perhaps we could all share thoughts about our relative understandings of what civilization is. … Continue reading Civilization
Viewing justice as a latent potential of the human soul liberates us from the guilt which can so easily disempower the protagonists of social transformation. In the same way that our physical capacities emerge over time, such as the ability … Continue reading Justice and Human Potential
Where does the concept progress come from? Who sets its parameters? What do we have to do to know we are achieving something worthwhile? Without thinking about these questions we end up thinking about progress in a way that does … Continue reading Definitions of Progress and Global Development
In the collective life of humankind, justice manifests as a compass in decision making, protecting resources from being diverted towards extraneous values, and protecting groups of people from the oppression of a vocal and seemingly-powerful minority. Justice cannot, then, be … Continue reading Approaches to Justice
Humanity’s social life is evolving towards fruition of a world civilization. This process is propelled by two complementary systems of knowledge and practice – religion and science. Both of these systems advance human insights into the same reality. Both use … Continue reading History of the World, Part 4
That certain evolutionary processes are teleological in nature, meaning they are driven by an intrinsic purpose, brings up to the concept of latency. The characteristic of latent potential is common to all organic bodies – plants, the human body, and … Continue reading Latency
The next point regarding our perspective of history is that there is purpose in creation; in other words, evolution is understood as a teleological process. Characterizing evolutionary processes with this word – meaning that it is directed by an intrinsic … Continue reading History of the World, Part 3
All things evolve and develop along a path, unfolding towards maturity along a spiritual journey. The richest repository of this potential is human civilization progressing from ancient times until the modern age. The present era has seen the emergence of … Continue reading History of the World, Part 2
The region known as the ‘west’ comprises a minority of the population of the globe. The west influences global trends and determines national agendas disproportionately. China and India comprise vaster quantities of human souls than the west. Chinese and Indian … Continue reading Rural Life and Industrialization
Human beings have a two-fold moral purpose: to develop our own personal spiritual attributes (such as love, kindness, wisdom, generosity, and intelligence) as well as to contribute to the social and institutional progress of an ever-advancing civilization. Some strands of … Continue reading Twofold Transformation
achieving coherence 