Our theory of economics is predicated on the assumption that people and wants grossly outnumber opportunities and resources in our society. This is why competition is the basis for our economic system. Biology is as much a testimony to this … Continue reading Economics and Human Nature
How great is our capacity for change? The endpoint of our progress is as difficult to imagine as space travel is to cavemen. Social reform will outpace our technological ingenuity. Freedom fighting at present is dwarfed by the liberties of … Continue reading Spring Showers onto Hard Earth: Prevailing Theories of Human Nature, Alterable?
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?
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?
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
The conventional analysis of the role of power in society has only focused on material sources of power. The discourse of this blog acknowledges that civilization has both a material and spiritual dimension, that science and religion are complementary systems … Continue reading Spiritual Sources of Power
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
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
Knowledge of human nature is essential in championing the cause of justice. Ontologically, human beings are dual-natured – there is capacity for egoism and altruism, competition and cooperation; in short, there is a lower/animal nature, and a higher/spiritual nature. Self-interested … Continue reading Champion of Justice
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
The previous post’s mention of various views about human nature, incoherent and fragmented in and of themselves, are also incoherent and fragmented in their application towards different domains of life. One individual, as an example, who claims self-interested notions of … Continue reading Questioning Fragmentation
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
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 