Two weeks ago, the United States once again had a presidential election, its 58th in an uninterrupted series held every four years since George Washington, predictably to occur in yet another four years. During the 1912 presidential election, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá … Continue reading ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s Post-Election Talk
Humanity is on the threshold of the crowning stage in its evolutionary history – its collective maturity, characterized by a unification of the entire human race, manifest through a new world civilization which has achieved a dynamic coherence between the … Continue reading Re-Birth of the Clinic
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?
Paragraph#: To the Baha’is of the World 1 – 3 years down. 2 to go. 2 Movements reinforced by youth conferences. 2000 Programs of growth (PG) remain of the goal.2 – 3000 PG’s. Many simple lines of action; some intensified … Continue reading Ridvan 2014 Message Summary
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 continuation of a conversation on Facebook, prompted by the quotation below, in which thoughts about these two links were asked… http://www.usdebtclock.org – US National Debt Clock xkcd.com/980/huge/ – xkcd: Money Chart “Tell the rich of the midnight sighing … Continue reading The Midnight Sighing…
Accumulation of wealth at one pole is, therefore, at the same time accumulation of misery, agony of toil, slavery, ignorance, brutality, mental degradation, at the opposite pole. Along with the constantly diminishing number of the magnates of capital, who usurp and … Continue reading Marx, Baha’u’llah, and Suffering
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
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
In the 1 July 2013 Message of the Universal House of Justice, that beloved Body draws a connection between an individual’s engagement in the process of civilization-building and that individuals own personal development. The Letter states, “You, however, are aware … Continue reading The Reality of Coherence
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
The Baha’i world has been learning how to use an education program to raise capacity in individuals and populations to take charge of their own spiritual, social, and intellectual development and to build communities that understand the dynamic coherence of … Continue reading Pedagogy of the Empowered
This past weekend, nearly forty individuals gathered together for an exploration of participation in discourse. (See post, Discourse: Session at Bosch) The aim was to connect everyday conversations – those with neighbors, with friends, with co-workers, with family, with parents … Continue reading Collective Reflections
“In the young people of the world, then, lies a reservoir of capacity to transform society waiting to be tapped. And the release of this capacity should be regarded by every institute as a sacred charge.” “In an age consumed … Continue reading Advent Youth Conference
According to Abdu’l-Baha, wealth inequality, can be attributed to the “extreme greed and rapacity of the manufacturers and industrialists.” He furthermore identifies the root cause of income disparity as the defunct operations of the legislative branch of government: “The principal … Continue reading Abdu’l-Baha on Economic Policy
Partisanship is a bane to effective governance. Identifying with a political party exacerbates a bitter partisan divide that threatens the very fiber of social order and governance. Motivations of civil servants should be only the good of all people and … Continue reading Double Cure: Eliminate Parties and Campaigning
Since the housing market crash of 2008 we have heard it said that the economy is recovering. Who, I wonder are the people who are actually recovering? Let us look into what the facts say. The top 7% of wealthy … Continue reading Money, Lies, and Spiritual Solutions
Paragraphs: 1- “The Book of God is wide open, and His Word is summoning mankind unto Him. Incline your ears, O friends of God, to the voice of Him Whom the world hath wronged, and hold fast unto whatsoever will exalt His … Continue reading Summary Ridvan 2013 Message: Growth and Discourse, A Dynamic Coherence
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
Global prosperity will result from the establishment of universal justice. The establishment of justice in turn depends upon the progressive unification of the peoples of the world into a single community, one family, functioning like the fingers of one hand. … Continue reading Planetary Unity, Universal Justice, Global Prosperity
Corrupt incentives drive people’s contribution to the public discourse. Politicians, businessmen, financiers, are all guilty. The discourse no longer represents an honest viewpoint of reality, the dominant slogans on TV and radio are a designed smoke-screen to hide the real structure, decision-making, and motives at play in the world of economic policy, legislation, and campaigning. The derangement in economics, political deceit, and social manipulation is reaching unrecognizable proportions. Popular culture is responsible for making itself gullible to such influence. Our society nurtures a desire to be entertained from childhood, cultivating generations eager to be led by priests, politicians, advertising, pop idols, and whoever proves … Continue reading New World Order
No one looks for the source of economic problems in spiritual matters. Likewise, no one looks for solutions to economic problems through spiritual means. Unemployment is the self-claimed most important economic problem of the day, and yet, the fact that … Continue reading Unemployment and Religion
For decades, the Universal House of Justice has been nurturing the development of the Baha’i community in Iran, guiding them through their persecution and assisting them to recognize the significance of their sacrifice and their opportunities to serve. A few … Continue reading Framework that Shapes the Baha’i Approach to Political Involvement
Topic Outline: (by paragraph) Summary Youth Saviors 95 Conferences will be Convened Carpe Diem (Seize the Day) ¶1 Summary Civilization as we know it is characterized by a culture of rational self-interest and a value system that encourages individual benefit. Decisions regarding … Continue reading Ninety-Five Conferences will be Convened
Some facts are based on principle, others follow from empirical evidence. The economic and social order of the industrial world no longer considers universal welfare the object of its deliberations and actions. This has been, in part, the result of … Continue reading In the Masses Lies the Key
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
So long as woman is maintained in the prison of objectification and her worth set by superficial conceptions of beauty–international unity and peace, and economic prosperity, will remain beyond the grasp of human achievement. The uniting power of a more compassionate … Continue reading Gender Equality and the Economy
Mental illness is not responsible for mass shootings. Removing guns from society would prevent mass shootings, but guns aren’t responsible for mass shootings. A desire for mass suffering is at play. What causes the desire for mass suffering? Much of … Continue reading Mental Illness and Collective Responsibility
If other people were carrying guns in the Newtown massacre they would have been able to intervene and stop the mentally ill killer — Or so the argument by gun owners goes. The reason why this argument is false is that mental … Continue reading Guns and Moses
Fire arms enable tragedy in a way that no other technology does. Where guns are absent, tragedies and destruction are less. Where people possess fire arms, homicide, suicide, and mass shootings are more prevalent. Why do we need guns? We don’t. We enjoy guns … Continue reading Don’t Regulate Guns: Arm the Children!
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
One hundred years ago today, a sixty-six year old traveler from the East, an exile and prisoner since the age of nine, with no formal education, in broken and failing health, having never faced a public audience, and unfamiliar with … Continue reading America’s 1912 Election
Every intelligent mind that evaluates the causes for global warming concludes that human-induced green-house gas emissions are responsible for Earth’s atmospheric average temperature increases. The only people who disagree with this are fringe scientists and few in number. For mysterious … Continue reading Climate Change and Political Partisanship: Why is the Truth So Divisive?
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
Human nature has been misinterpreted. We are not selfish and competitive by nature, but rather, altruistic and cooperative. Human societies to some extent actually represent an anomaly in the competitive theory of the jungle. Humans demonstrate a detailed division of … Continue reading Economic Theory: Competition, the Key to Prosperity?
Paragraph#: 1. 10 new Regional Councils (RC’s). 5-Year Plan messages foundation of action and study. Familiarity with dynamics of growth increases with core activities. 2. Dichotomy of neighborhood and centralized children’s classes (CC) transcended. 2 Junior Youth learning sites. Expansion/consolidation primary task of RC’s. … Continue reading Summary of August 9th Message
Discourse on the following topics has brought these themes to the point of being reconceptualized. Certain foundational principles have emerged and crystallized from ongoing discourse. Principles we now believe in in a new way are: 1) Unity of all Humankind 2) … Continue reading Discourse and Politics: Blood in the Arteries of Governance
Is it possible that a “debate” leads us, the listeners and watchers, to truth? Can a mode of dialogue such as contestational or confrontational debate assist others and people interested in the issues to discover the truth or learn more … Continue reading Can Debate Lead to Truth?
Three Protagonists and the Life of Society Prosperity is the goal for mankind. As individuals and as a collective. To govern large groups of individuals congregated into a collective, as in a metropolis or a rural village, as in a city … Continue reading Beyond Political Partisanship
As has been a central theme throughout the discussions on this blog, our current stage of human history is defined by global interdependence. All forms of government and organization that divide one group against another are simply outdated, ineffective, and … Continue reading Oneness, Justice, and Governance
How does the conception of power from the last few posts shape thoughts regarding governance? Currently, because our society’s structures and relationships are dominated by self-interested expressions of power, governance is viewed as a set of regulations and rules of … Continue reading Governance and Discipline
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
Operating under the assumptions that human beings, by nature, are cooperative and not competitive, and that there are spiritual sources of power that can unleash the latent capacities of individuals towards contributing to the advancement of civilization, the model of … Continue reading Neuromuscular Power
Spiritual sources of power and capacity are relatively more intangible than material sources; they nonetheless exist and exert influence just the same. One way to discuss their dynamics and learn how to draw upon them is to use the analogy … Continue reading Spiritual Magnetisim
Capacity building requires forums in which space has been created for learning about the betterment of society. Open forums for discourse can accompany and assist undergraduate students through their four years of university studies. Through an ongoing cycle of study, consultation, action … Continue reading Discourse, Education, and the Collective
That one who generates knowledge can be likened unto a scout evokes images of walking a path, which perhaps can be an analogy to the process of generating and applying knowledge. Let us expand on this analogy. Firstly, walking a … Continue reading Walking a Path
Human nature is endowed with the capacity to unite together in groups. This unity is the result of forces that bind individuals together, whether these forces are generated by love, fear, ideology, culture, religion, interest, etc; and the capacity for … Continue reading A Unifying Center
Any minority pursuing development on behalf of the collective foists its values onto, and often disturbs, the very population it purports to serve. Subsuming collective prosperity to their personal values of progress, and sacrificing the participation and engagement of whole segments of … Continue reading Truth, Civility, and Consultation Part III
A culture of learning that operates through study, consultation, action, and reflection, depends on empowerment and capacity building on the level of both the individual and the institutions of society. Individually, all are responsible to participate in the generation and … Continue reading Global Learning
The history of philanthropic movements recounts many instances of people who believe in noble ideals and strive to fulfill their vision of what they think the world ought to look like. One may reasonably ask however, whether what they considered … Continue reading Truth, Civility, and Consultation Part II
Unity and Truth are closely related. If two people argue about a matter both are wrong about it. Prevalent assumptions hold that truth can be known and should be sought by individuals. Alternate epistemologies hold that truth should really be pursued as … Continue reading Truth, Civility, and Consultation Part I
The choice to adopt assumptions with the intention of operationalizing them does indeed entail challenges – overcoming habits of mind, resisting corrosive social forces, understanding the dynamics of change, etc – however, the journey hardly stops there. These assumptions need … Continue reading A Culture of Learning
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
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
How does the body’s cardiovascular system determine blood flow in a way that transcends the limitations of unfettered individualism, which places value on the organ at the expense of the organism, on the one hand; and suffocating collectivism, which confuses … Continue reading Cardiovascular Justice – 2
Just as the physical world has laws and functions in ways that reveal underlying patterns, so the spiritual world has laws and patterns that can be observed and understood. We can observe that justice only emerges where there is love. … Continue reading Love, Power, Justice
Current society, quite understandably so, has a fear of imposed conformity in the name of unity. History has repeatedly given examples of oppressive systems under the disguise of unity – feudalism, castes, communism, fascism, theocracy, nationalism, and authoritarianism. This legitimate … Continue reading Fear of Uniformity
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
Ideals are wonderful as they are, but what really can we say are the practical implications for speaking or believing in a principle as lofty as the spiritual concept of ‘Justice’? Are its implications for social and economic development really as … Continue reading Defender of the Interests of All Humankind: Justice
Justice is the ruling principle of social organization, and the advancement of civilization depends upon its universal application. Conceptions of justice have been explored for centuries, and today, are highly numerous and variable. In our current crisis of civilization, confusion … Continue reading Justice in the Context of Oneness
Dr. Michael Karlberg is a professor of Communications at Western Washington University whose work centers around the advancement of collaboration and mutualism in human relations. In his TEDx Talk, Dr. Karlberg challenges the assumption that human nature is inherently competitive … Continue reading Beyond the Culture of Contest
The concept of the oneness of humankind provides an ideological foundation upon which humanity can understand its own reality in a way that conduces to its prosperity and harmony. It is an ontological truth of reality, a teleological end and … Continue reading Freedom
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
In previous posts, we read about various fragmented and incoherent conceptions of the individual and her or his relationship to society. We also looked at an example of the evolution of conceptions of the individual over a historical perspective. The … Continue reading History of the World, Part 1
The socio-spiritual phenomenon beginning circa 33 AD inaugurated an era of ever-deepening emphasis on the social reality of the individual, in terms of her or his status and rights, merits and responsibilities, and origins and opportunities. The various religions of … Continue reading The Rise of Christianity and Individualism
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
In addition to individualism and individuality, here are two more examples of fragmented social theories on the conception of the individual: anarchism and socialism. Anarchism’s view places the individual as the source of inspiration, and values freedom for the people … Continue reading Ideological Either-Or
Individuality consists in the inner feelings and essential subjectivity of the human condition. Individualism on the other hand is a politico-economic doctrine instating rights and privileges of persons. The former is empirical fact; the latter, a cornerstone of anglo-american political theory and … Continue reading Individualism and the West
Society is plagued by a cult of the individual that has gone so far as to see association with other human beings merely as a means through which an individual acquires commodities that satiate his private desires. Presuppositions of the … Continue reading Cult of the Individual
Oneness reconceptualized across spatial and intergenerational dimensions informs social policy and institutions. Re-structuring according to principles of reciprocity, cooperation and interconnectedness engenders profound ramifications for the relationship binding the individual and society. All humans are molded by their environment, some … Continue reading Collective Transformation and the Individual
Following the last post’s foundational conviction that society should be organized according to the principles of reciprocity, cooperation, and interconnectedness, that oneness is the operating principle of civilization – as well as following a previous post’s idea that oneness is … Continue reading Oneness through Time and Space
We are in disagreement with self-interested conceptions of human nature and competitive social models. These tend to derive from a materialistic reduction of reality. Humankind’s future does not rest in their espousal, regardless of how popular they may seem at … Continue reading The Human Body and the Body Politic
The analogy of the human body to the body of humanity provides important insights to the nature of human society and the relationship between the individual and the collective, as well as into the principle of oneness itself. Yet, the … Continue reading Oneness as an Ontological Truth
Beyond emotions of levity, what does it mean in practicality to generate policy based on our conception of the entire human species as a unified organic whole? As some readers have pointed out, the analogy of the human body as … Continue reading Questions on Oneness
Universal scope and jurisdiction must be afforded any institutions necessary for the construction of a planetary civilization that deems for itself laws and order conducive to global prosperity. Educational systems and mass communication media must become conduits for the dissemination … Continue reading Oneness and Order
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
Social Organization initiated distinctly with the consolidation of the institution of family life, moved in stages successively through simple structures of clan-based and tribal existence to the eventual emergence of a diversity of forms of urban society, coming to rest … Continue reading Social Organization Progressively Expands and Integrates
The human body is the one analogy that points toward a convincing model for the organization of a planetary society. There is no other model that mirrors its complexity or prosperity upon which we can rely. Human society is not … Continue reading The body of humanity
The bedrock of a strategy that can subsume the world’s population in assuming responsibility for our collective destiny is the consciousness of the absolute oneness of humankind. Deceptively simple though it may be, the concept that humanity constitutes a single … Continue reading Consciousness
At this critical moment in the history of humanity’s social evolution, the diverse people’s of the world need a more coherent vision of society that can guide the advancement of civilization. This need can only be met through the voluntary … Continue reading Oneness
achieving coherence 