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[NarrativeQA]: Title: The Promise of World Peace | |
Kind: gutenberg | |
Story url: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/19286/19286-0.txt | |
Story start: The Promise of | |
Story end: eBooks . ***FINIS*** | |
Story: The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Promise of World Peace by Universal | |
House of Justice | |
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no | |
restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under | |
the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or | |
online at http://www.gutenberg.org/license | |
This is a _copyrighted_ Project Gutenberg eBook, details below. Please | |
follow the copyright guidelines in this file. | |
Title: The Promise of World Peace | |
Author: Universal House of Justice | |
Release Date: September 2006 [Ebook #19286] | |
Language: English | |
Character set encoding: UTF-8 | |
***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PROMISE OF WORLD PEACE*** | |
The Promise of World Peace | |
by Universal House of Justice | |
Edition 1, (September 2006) | |
BAHA’I TERMS OF USE | |
You have permission to freely make and use copies of the text and any | |
other information ("Content") available on this Site including printing, | |
emailing, posting, distributing, copying, downloading, uploading, | |
transmitting, displaying the Content in whole or in part subject to the | |
following: | |
1. Our copyright notice and the source reference must be attached to the | |
Content; | |
2. The Content may not be modified or altered in any way except to change | |
the font or appearance; | |
3. The Content must be used solely for a non-commercial purpose. | |
Although this blanket permission to reproduce the Content is given freely | |
such that no special permission is required, the Bahá’í International | |
Community retains full copyright protection for all Content included at | |
this Site under all applicable national and international laws. | |
For permission to publish, transmit, display or otherwise use the Content | |
for any commercial purpose, please contact us | |
(http://reference.bahai.org/en/contact.html). | |
CONTENTS | |
Baha’i Terms of Use | |
I | |
II | |
III | |
IV | |
THE PROMISE OF WORLD PEACE | |
October 1985 | |
To the Peoples of the World: | |
The Great Peace towards which people of good will throughout the centuries | |
have inclined their hearts, of which seers and poets for countless | |
generations have expressed their vision, and for which from age to age the | |
sacred scriptures of mankind have constantly held the promise, is now at | |
long last within the reach of the nations. For the first time in history | |
it is possible for everyone to view the entire planet, with all its myriad | |
diversified peoples, in one perspective. World peace is not only possible | |
but inevitable. It is the next stage in the evolution of this planet—in | |
the words of one great thinker, “the planetization of mankind”. | |
Whether peace is to be reached only after unimaginable horrors | |
precipitated by humanity’s stubborn clinging to old patterns of behaviour, | |
or is to be embraced now by an act of consultative will, is the choice | |
before all who inhabit the earth. At this critical juncture when the | |
intractable problems confronting nations have been fused into one common | |
concern for the whole world, failure to stem the tide of conflict and | |
disorder would be unconscionably irresponsible. | |
Among the favourable signs are the steadily growing strength of the steps | |
towards world order taken initially near the beginning of this century in | |
the creation of the League of Nations, succeeded by the more broadly based | |
United Nations Organization; the achievement since the Second World War of | |
independence by the majority of all the nations on earth, indicating the | |
completion of the process of nation building, and the involvement of these | |
fledgling nations with older ones in matters of mutual concern; the | |
consequent vast increase in co-operation among hitherto isolated and | |
antagonistic peoples and groups in international undertakings in the | |
scientific, educational, legal, economic and cultural fields; the rise in | |
recent decades of an unprecedented number of international humanitarian | |
organizations; the spread of women’s and youth movements calling for an | |
end to war; and the spontaneous spawning of widening networks of ordinary | |
people seeking understanding through personal communication. | |
The scientific and technological advances occurring in this unusually | |
blessed century portend a great surge forward in the social evolution of | |
the planet, and indicate the means by which the practical problems of | |
humanity may be solved. They provide, indeed, the very means for the | |
administration of the complex life of a united world. Yet barriers | |
persist. Doubts, misconceptions, prejudices, suspicions and narrow | |
self-interest beset nations and peoples in their relations one to another. | |
It is out of a deep sense of spiritual and moral duty that we are impelled | |
at this opportune moment to invite your attention to the penetrating | |
insights first communicated to the rulers of mankind more than a century | |
ago by Bahá’u’lláh, Founder of the Bahá’í Faith, of which we are the | |
Trustees. | |
“The winds of despair”, Bahá’u’lláh wrote, “are, alas, blowing from every | |
direction, and the strife that divides and afflicts the human race is | |
daily increasing. The signs of impending convulsions and chaos can now be | |
discerned, inasmuch as the prevailing order appears to be lamentably | |
defective.” This prophetic judgement has been amply confirmed by the | |
common experience of humanity. Flaws in the prevailing order are | |
conspicuous in the inability of sovereign states organized as United | |
Nations to exorcize the spectre of war, the threatened collapse of the | |
international economic order, the spread of anarchy and terrorism, and the | |
intense suffering which these and other afflictions are causing to | |
increasing millions. Indeed, so much have aggression and conflict come to | |
characterize our social, economic and religious systems, that many have | |
succumbed to the view that such behaviour is intrinsic to human nature and | |
therefore ineradicable. | |
With the entrenchment of this view, a paralyzing contradiction has | |
developed in human affairs. On the one hand, people of all nations | |
proclaim not only their readiness but their longing for peace and harmony, | |
for an end to the harrowing apprehensions tormenting their daily lives. On | |
the other, uncritical assent is given to the proposition that human beings | |
are incorrigibly selfish and aggressive and thus incapable of erecting a | |
social system at once progressive and peaceful, dynamic and harmonious, a | |
system giving free play to individual creativity and initiative but based | |
on co-operation and reciprocity. | |
As the need for peace becomes more urgent, this fundamental contradiction, | |
which hinders its realization, demands a reassessment of the assumptions | |
upon which the commonly held view of mankind’s historical predicament is | |
based. Dispassionately examined, the evidence reveals that such conduct, | |
far from expressing man’s true self, represents a distortion of the human | |
spirit. Satisfaction on this point will enable all people to set in motion | |
constructive social forces which, because they are consistent with human | |
nature, will encourage harmony and co-operation instead of war and | |
conflict. | |
To choose such a course is not to deny humanity’s past but to understand | |
it. The Bahá’í Faith regards the current world confusion and calamitous | |
condition in human affairs as a natural phase in an organic process | |
leading ultimately and irresistibly to the unification of the human race | |
in a single social order whose boundaries are those of the planet. The | |
human race, as a distinct, organic unit, has passed through evolutionary | |
stages analogous to the stages of infancy and childhood in the lives of | |
its individual members, and is now in the culminating period of its | |
turbulent adolescence approaching its long-awaited coming of age. | |
A candid acknowledgement that prejudice, war and exploitation have been | |
the expression of immature stages in a vast historical process and that | |
the human race is today experiencing the unavoidable tumult which marks | |
its collective coming of age is not a reason for despair but a | |
prerequisite to undertaking the stupendous enterprise of building a | |
peaceful world. That such an enterprise is possible, that the necessary | |
constructive forces do exist, that unifying social structures can be | |
erected, is the theme we urge you to examine. | |
Whatever suffering and turmoil the years immediately ahead may hold, | |
however dark the immediate circumstances, the Bahá’í community believes | |
that humanity can confront this supreme trial with confidence in its | |
ultimate outcome. Far from signalizing the end of civilization, the | |
convulsive changes towards which humanity is being ever more rapidly | |
impelled will serve to release the “potentialities inherent in the station | |
of man” and reveal “the full measure of his destiny on earth, the innate | |
excellence of his reality”. | |
I | |
The endowments which distinguish the human race from all other forms of | |
life are summed up in what is known as the human spirit; the mind is its | |
essential quality. These endowments have enabled humanity to build | |
civilizations and to prosper materially. But such accomplishments alone | |
have never satisfied the human spirit, whose mysterious nature inclines it | |
towards transcendence, a reaching towards an invisible realm, towards the | |
ultimate reality, that unknowable essence of essences called God. The | |
religions brought to mankind by a succession of spiritual luminaries have | |
been the primary link between humanity and that ultimate reality, and have | |
galvanized and refined mankind’s capacity to achieve spiritual success | |
together with social progress. | |
No serious attempt to set human affairs aright, to achieve world peace, | |
can ignore religion. Man’s perception and practice of it are largely the | |
stuff of history. An eminent historian described religion as a “faculty of | |
human nature”. That the perversion of this faculty has contributed to much | |
of the confusion in society and the conflicts in and between individuals | |
can hardly be denied. But neither can any fair-minded observer discount | |
the preponderating influence exerted by religion on the vital expressions | |
of civilization. Furthermore, its indispensability to social order has | |
repeatedly been demonstrated by its direct effect on laws and morality. | |
Writing of religion as a social force, Bahá’u’lláh said: “Religion is the | |
greatest of all means for the establishment of order in the world and for | |
the peaceful contentment of all that dwell therein.” Referring to the | |
eclipse or corruption of religion, he wrote: “Should the lamp of religion | |
be obscured, chaos and confusion will ensue, and the lights of fairness, | |
of justice, of tranquillity and peace cease to shine.” In an enumeration | |
of such consequences the Bahá’í writings point out that the “perversion of | |
human nature, the degradation of human conduct, the corruption and | |
dissolution of human institutions, reveal themselves, under such | |
circumstances, in their worst and most revolting aspects. Human character | |
is debased, confidence is shaken, the nerves of discipline are relaxed, | |
the voice of human conscience is stilled, the sense of decency and shame | |
is obscured, conceptions of duty, of solidarity, of reciprocity and | |
loyalty are distorted, and the very feeling of peacefulness, of joy and of | |
hope is gradually extinguished.” | |
If, therefore, humanity has come to a point of paralyzing conflict it must | |
look to itself, to its own negligence, to the siren voices to which it has | |
listened, for the source of the misunderstandings and confusion | |
perpetrated in the name of religion. Those who have held blindly and | |
selfishly to their particular orthodoxies, who have imposed on their | |
votaries erroneous and conflicting interpretations of the pronouncements | |
of the Prophets of God, bear heavy responsibility for this confusion—a | |
confusion compounded by the artificial barriers erected between faith and | |
reason, science and religion. For from a fair-minded examination of the | |
actual utterances of the Founders of the great religions, and of the | |
social milieus in which they were obliged to carry out their missions, | |
there is nothing to support the contentions and prejudices deranging the | |
religious communities of mankind and therefore all human affairs. | |
The teaching that we should treat others as we ourselves would wish to be | |
treated, an ethic variously repeated in all the great religions, lends | |
force to this latter observation in two particular respects: it sums up | |
the moral attitude, the peace-inducing aspect, extending through these | |
religions irrespective of their place or time of origin; it also signifies | |
an aspect of unity which is their essential virtue, a virtue mankind in | |
its disjointed view of history has failed to appreciate. | |
Had humanity seen the Educators of its collective childhood in their true | |
character, as agents of one civilizing process, it would no doubt have | |
reaped incalculably greater benefits from the cumulative effects of their | |
successive missions. This, alas, it failed to do. | |
The resurgence of fanatical religious fervour occurring in many lands | |
cannot be regarded as more than a dying convulsion. The very nature of the | |
violent and disruptive phenomena associated with it testifies to the | |
spiritual bankruptcy it represents. Indeed, one of the strangest and | |
saddest features of the current outbreak of religious fanaticism is the | |
extent to which, in each case, it is undermining not only the spiritual | |
values which are conducive to the unity of mankind but also those unique | |
moral victories won by the particular religion it purports to serve. | |
However vital a force religion has been in the history of mankind, and | |
however dramatic the current resurgence of militant religious fanaticism, | |
religion and religious institutions have, for many decades, been viewed by | |
increasing numbers of people as irrelevant to the major concerns of the | |
modern world. In its place they have turned either to the hedonistic | |
pursuit of material satisfactions or to the following of man-made | |
ideologies designed to rescue society from the evident evils under which | |
it groans. All too many of these ideologies, alas, instead of embracing | |
the concept of the oneness of mankind and promoting the increase of | |
concord among different peoples, have tended to deify the state, to | |
subordinate the rest of mankind to one nation, race or class, to attempt | |
to suppress all discussion and interchange of ideas, or to callously | |
abandon starving millions to the operations of a market system that all | |
too clearly is aggravating the plight of the majority of mankind, while | |
enabling small sections to live in a condition of affluence scarcely | |
dreamed of by our forebears. | |
How tragic is the record of the substitute faiths that the worldly-wise of | |
our age have created. In the massive disillusionment of entire populations | |
who have been taught to worship at their altars can be read history’s | |
irreversible verdict on their value. The fruits these doctrines have | |
produced, after decades of an increasingly unrestrained exercise of power | |
by those who owe their ascendancy in human affairs to them, are the social | |
and economic ills that blight every region of our world in the closing | |
years of the twentieth century. Underlying all these outward afflictions | |
is the spiritual damage reflected in the apathy that has gripped the mass | |
of the peoples of all nations and by the extinction of hope in the hearts | |
of deprived and anguished millions. | |
The time has come when those who preach the dogmas of materialism, whether | |
of the east or the west, whether of capitalism or socialism, must give | |
account of the moral stewardship they have presumed to exercise. Where is | |
the “new world” promised by these ideologies? Where is the international | |
peace to whose ideals they proclaim their devotion? Where are the | |
breakthroughs into new realms of cultural achievement produced by the | |
aggrandizement of this race, of that nation or of a particular class? Why | |
is the vast majority of the world’s peoples sinking ever deeper into | |
hunger and wretchedness when wealth on a scale undreamed of by the | |
Pharaohs, the Caesars, or even the imperialist powers of the nineteenth | |
century is at the disposal of the present arbiters of human affairs? | |
Most particularly, it is in the glorification of material pursuits, at | |
once the progenitor and common feature of all such ideologies, that we | |
find the roots which nourish the falsehood that human beings are | |
incorrigibly selfish and aggressive. It is here that the ground must be | |
cleared for the building of a new world fit for our descendants. | |
That materialistic ideals have, in the light of experience, failed to | |
satisfy the needs of mankind calls for an honest acknowledgement that a | |
fresh effort must now be made to find the solutions to the agonizing | |
problems of the planet. The intolerable conditions pervading society | |
bespeak a common failure of all, a circumstance which tends to incite | |
rather than relieve the entrenchment on every side. Clearly, a common | |
remedial effort is urgently required. It is primarily a matter of | |
attitude. Will humanity continue in its waywardness, holding to outworn | |
concepts and unworkable assumptions? Or will its leaders, regardless of | |
ideology, step forth and, with a resolute will, consult together in a | |
united search for appropriate solutions? | |
Those who care for the future of the human race may well ponder this | |
advice. “If long-cherished ideals and time-honoured institutions, if | |
certain social assumptions and religious formulae have ceased to promote | |
the welfare of the generality of mankind, if they no longer minister to | |
the needs of a continually evolving humanity, let them be swept away and | |
relegated to the limbo of obsolescent and forgotten doctrines. Why should | |
these, in a world subject to the immutable law of change and decay, be | |
exempt from the deterioration that must needs overtake every human | |
institution? For legal standards, political and economic theories are | |
solely designed to safeguard the interests of humanity as a whole, and not | |
humanity to be crucified for the preservation of the integrity of any | |
particular law or doctrine.” | |
II | |
Banning nuclear weapons, prohibiting the use of poison gases, or outlawing | |
germ warfare will not remove the root causes of war. However important | |
such practical measures obviously are as elements of the peace process, | |
they are in themselves too superficial to exert enduring influence. | |
Peoples are ingenious enough to invent yet other forms of warfare, and to | |
use food, raw materials, finance, industrial power, ideology, and | |
terrorism to subvert one another in an endless quest for supremacy and | |
dominion. Nor can the present massive dislocation in the affairs of | |
humanity be resolved through the settlement of specific conflicts or | |
disagreements among nations. A genuine universal framework must be | |
adopted. | |
Certainly, there is no lack of recognition by national leaders of the | |
world-wide character of the problem, which is self-evident in the mounting | |
issues that confront them daily. And there are the accumulating studies | |
and solutions proposed by many concerned and enlightened groups as well as | |
by agencies of the United Nations, to remove any possibility of ignorance | |
as to the challenging requirements to be met. There is, however, a | |
paralysis of will; and it is this that must be carefully examined and | |
resolutely dealt with. This paralysis is rooted, as we have stated, in a | |
deep-seated conviction of the inevitable quarrelsomeness of mankind, which | |
has led to the reluctance to entertain the possibility of subordinating | |
national self-interest to the requirements of world order, and in an | |
unwillingness to face courageously the far-reaching implications of | |
establishing a united world authority. It is also traceable to the | |
incapacity of largely ignorant and subjugated masses to articulate their | |
desire for a new order in which they can live in peace, harmony and | |
prosperity with all humanity. | |
The tentative steps towards world order, especially since World War II, | |
give hopeful signs. The increasing tendency of groups of nations to | |
formalize relationships which enable them to co-operate in matters of | |
mutual interest suggests that eventually all nations could overcome this | |
paralysis. The Association of South East Asian Nations, the Caribbean | |
Community and Common Market, the Central American Common Market, the | |
Council for Mutual Economic Assistance, the European Communities, the | |
League of Arab States, the Organization of African Unity, the Organization | |
of American States, the South Pacific Forum—all the joint endeavours | |
represented by such organizations prepare the path to world order. | |
The increasing attention being focused on some of the most deep-rooted | |
problems of the planet is yet another hopeful sign. Despite the obvious | |
shortcomings of the United Nations, the more than two score declarations | |
and conventions adopted by that organization, even where governments have | |
not been enthusiastic in their commitment, have given ordinary people a | |
sense of a new lease on life. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, | |
the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, | |
and the similar measures concerned with eliminating all forms of | |
discrimination based on race, sex or religious belief; upholding the | |
rights of the child; protecting all persons against being subjected to | |
torture; eradicating hunger and malnutrition; using scientific and | |
technological progress in the interest of peace and the benefit of | |
mankind—all such measures, if courageously enforced and expanded, will | |
advance the day when the spectre of war will have lost its power to | |
dominate international relations. There is no need to stress the | |
significance of the issues addressed by these declarations and | |
conventions. However, a few such issues, because of their immediate | |
relevance to establishing world peace, deserve additional comment. | |
Racism, one of the most baneful and persistent evils, is a major barrier | |
to peace. Its practice perpetrates too outrageous a violation of the | |
dignity of human beings to be countenanced under any pretext. Racism | |
retards the unfoldment of the boundless potentialities of its victims, | |
corrupts its perpetrators, and blights human progress. Recognition of the | |
oneness of mankind, implemented by appropriate legal measures, must be | |
universally upheld if this problem is to be overcome. | |
The inordinate disparity between rich and poor, a source of acute | |
suffering, keeps the world in a state of instability, virtually on the | |
brink of war. Few societies have dealt effectively with this situation. | |
The solution calls for the combined application of spiritual, moral and | |
practical approaches. A fresh look at the problem is required, entailing | |
consultation with experts from a wide spectrum of disciplines, devoid of | |
economic and ideological polemics, and involving the people directly | |
affected in the decisions that must urgently be made. It is an issue that | |
is bound up not only with the necessity for eliminating extremes of wealth | |
and poverty but also with those spiritual verities the understanding of | |
which can produce a new universal attitude. Fostering such an attitude is | |
itself a major part of the solution. | |
Unbridled nationalism, as distinguished from a sane and legitimate | |
patriotism, must give way to a wider loyalty, to the love of humanity as a | |
whole. Bahá’u’lláh’s statement is: “The earth is but one country, and | |
mankind its citizens.” The concept of world citizenship is a direct result | |
of the contraction of the world into a single neighbourhood through | |
scientific advances and of the indisputable interdependence of nations. | |
Love of all the world’s peoples does not exclude love of one’s country. | |
The advantage of the part in a world society is best served by promoting | |
the advantage of the whole. Current international activities in various | |
fields which nurture mutual affection and a sense of solidarity among | |
peoples need greatly to be increased. | |
Religious strife, throughout history, has been the cause of innumerable | |
wars and conflicts, a major blight to progress, and is increasingly | |
abhorrent to the people of all faiths and no faith. Followers of all | |
religions must be willing to face the basic questions which this strife | |
raises, and to arrive at clear answers. How are the differences between | |
them to be resolved, both in theory and in practice? The challenge facing | |
the religious leaders of mankind is to contemplate, with hearts filled | |
with the spirit of compassion and a desire for truth, the plight of | |
humanity, and to ask themselves whether they cannot, in humility before | |
their Almighty Creator, submerge their theological differences in a great | |
spirit of mutual forbearance that will enable them to work together for | |
the advancement of human understanding and peace. | |
The emancipation of women, the achievement of full equality between the | |
sexes, is one of the most important, though less acknowledged | |
prerequisites of peace. The denial of such equality perpetrates an | |
injustice against one half of the world’s population and promotes in men | |
harmful attitudes and habits that are carried from the family to the | |
workplace, to political life, and ultimately to international relations. | |
There are no grounds, moral, practical, or biological, upon which such | |
denial can be justified. Only as women are welcomed into full partnership | |
in all fields of human endeavour will the moral and psychological climate | |
be created in which international peace can emerge. | |
The cause of universal education, which has already enlisted in its | |
service an army of dedicated people from every faith and nation, deserves | |
the utmost support that the governments of the world can lend it. For | |
ignorance is indisputably the principal reason for the decline and fall of | |
peoples and the perpetuation of prejudice. No nation can achieve success | |
unless education is accorded all its citizens. Lack of resources limits | |
the ability of many nations to fulfil this necessity, imposing a certain | |
ordering of priorities. The decision-making agencies involved would do | |
well to consider giving first priority to the education of women and | |
girls, since it is through educated mothers that the benefits of knowledge | |
can be most effectively and rapidly diffused throughout society. In | |
keeping with the requirements of the times, consideration should also be | |
given to teaching the concept of world citizenship as part of the standard | |
education of every child. | |
A fundamental lack of communication between peoples seriously undermines | |
efforts towards world peace. Adopting an international auxiliary language | |
would go far to resolving this problem and necessitates the most urgent | |
attention. | |
Two points bear emphasizing in all these issues. One is that the abolition | |
of war is not simply a matter of signing treaties and protocols; it is a | |
complex task requiring a new level of commitment to resolving issues not | |
customarily associated with the pursuit of peace. Based on political | |
agreements alone, the idea of collective security is a chimera. The other | |
point is that the primary challenge in dealing with issues of peace is to | |
raise the context to the level of principle, as distinct from pure | |
pragmatism. For, in essence, peace stems from an inner state supported by | |
a spiritual or moral attitude, and it is chiefly in evoking this attitude | |
that the possibility of enduring solutions can be found. | |
There are spiritual principles, or what some call human values, by which | |
solutions can be found for every social problem. Any well-intentioned | |
group can in a general sense devise practical solutions to its problems, | |
but good intentions and practical knowledge are usually not enough. The | |
essential merit of spiritual principle is that it not only presents a | |
perspective which harmonizes with that which is immanent in human nature, | |
it also induces an attitude, a dynamic, a will, an aspiration, which | |
facilitate the discovery and implementation of practical measures. Leaders | |
of governments and all in authority would be well served in their efforts | |
to solve problems if they would first seek to identify the principles | |
involved and then be guided by them. | |
III | |
The primary question to be resolved is how the present world, with its | |
entrenched pattern of conflict, can change to a world in which harmony and | |
co-operation will prevail. | |
World order can be founded only on an unshakeable consciousness of the | |
oneness of mankind, a spiritual truth which all the human sciences | |
confirm. Anthropology, physiology, psychology, recognize only one human | |
species, albeit infinitely varied in the secondary aspects of life. | |
Recognition of this truth requires abandonment of prejudice—prejudice of | |
every kind—race, class, colour, creed, nation, sex, degree of material | |
civilization, everything which enables people to consider themselves | |
superior to others. | |
Acceptance of the oneness of mankind is the first fundamental prerequisite | |
for reorganization and administration of the world as one country, the | |
home of humankind. Universal acceptance of this spiritual principle is | |
essential to any successful attempt to establish world peace. It should | |
therefore be universally proclaimed, taught in schools, and constantly | |
asserted in every nation as preparation for the organic change in the | |
structure of society which it implies. | |
In the Bahá’í view, recognition of the oneness of mankind “calls for no | |
less than the reconstruction and the demilitarization of the whole | |
civilized world—a world organically unified in all the essential aspects | |
of its life, its political machinery, its spiritual aspiration, its trade | |
and finance, its script and language, and yet infinite in the diversity of | |
the national characteristics of its federated units.” | |
Elaborating the implications of this pivotal principle, Shoghi Effendi, | |
the Guardian of the Bahá’í Faith, commented in 1931 that: “Far from aiming | |
at the subversion of the existing foundations of society, it seeks to | |
broaden its basis, to remold its institutions in a manner consonant with | |
the needs of an ever-changing world. It can conflict with no legitimate | |
allegiances, nor can it undermine essential loyalties. Its purpose is | |
neither to stifle the flame of a sane and intelligent patriotism in men’s | |
hearts, nor to abolish the system of national autonomy so essential if the | |
evils of excessive centralization are to be avoided. It does not ignore, | |
nor does it attempt to suppress, the diversity of ethnical origins, of | |
climate, of history, of language and tradition, of thought and habit, that | |
differentiate the peoples and nations of the world. It calls for a wider | |
loyalty, for a larger aspiration than any that has animated the human | |
race. It insists upon the subordination of national impulses and interests | |
to the imperative claims of a unified world. It repudiates excessive | |
centralization on one hand, and disclaims all attempts at uniformity on | |
the other. Its watchword is unity in diversity”. | |
The achievement of such ends requires several stages in the adjustment of | |
national political attitudes, which now verge on anarchy in the absence of | |
clearly defined laws or universally accepted and enforceable principles | |
regulating the relationships between nations. The League of Nations, the | |
United Nations, and the many organizations and agreements produced by them | |
have unquestionably been helpful in attenuating some of the negative | |
effects of international conflicts, but they have shown themselves | |
incapable of preventing war. Indeed, there have been scores of wars since | |
the end of the Second World War; many are yet raging. | |
The predominant aspects of this problem had already emerged in the | |
nineteenth century when Bahá’u’lláh first advanced his proposals for the | |
establishment of world peace. The principle of collective security was | |
propounded by him in statements addressed to the rulers of the world. | |
Shoghi Effendi commented on his meaning: “What else could these weighty | |
words signify,” he wrote, “if they did not point to the inevitable | |
curtailment of unfettered national sovereignty as an indispensable | |
preliminary to the formation of the future Commonwealth of all the nations | |
of the world? Some form of a world super-state must needs be evolved, in | |
whose favour all the nations of the world will have willingly ceded every | |
claim to make war, certain rights to impose taxation and all rights to | |
maintain armaments, except for purposes of maintaining internal order | |
within their respective dominions. Such a state will have to include | |
within its orbit an International Executive adequate to enforce supreme | |
and unchallengeable authority on every recalcitrant member of the | |
commonwealth; a World Parliament whose members shall be elected by the | |
people in their respective countries and whose election shall be confirmed | |
by their respective governments; and a Supreme Tribunal whose judgement | |
will have a binding effect even in such cases where the parties concerned | |
did not voluntarily agree to submit their case to its consideration. | |
“A world community in which all economic barriers will have been | |
permanently demolished and the interdependence of capital and labour | |
definitely recognized; in which the clamour of religious fanaticism and | |
strife will have been forever stilled; in which the flame of racial | |
animosity will have been finally extinguished; in which a single code of | |
international law—the product of the considered judgement of the world’s | |
federated representatives—shall have as its sanction the instant and | |
coercive intervention of the combined forces of the federated units; and | |
finally a world community in which the fury of a capricious and militant | |
nationalism will have been transmuted into an abiding consciousness of | |
world citizenship—such indeed, appears, in its broadest outline, the Order | |
anticipated by Bahá’u’lláh, an Order that shall come to be regarded as the | |
fairest fruit of a slowly maturing age.” | |
The implementation of these far-reaching measures was indicated by | |
Bahá’u’lláh: “The time must come when the imperative necessity for the | |
holding of a vast, an all-embracing assemblage of men will be universally | |
realized. The rulers and kings of the earth must needs attend it, and, | |
participating in its deliberations, must consider such ways and means as | |
will lay the foundations of the world’s Great Peace amongst men.” | |
The courage, the resolution, the pure motive, the selfless love of one | |
people for another—all the spiritual and moral qualities required for | |
effecting this momentous step towards peace are focused on the will to | |
act. And it is towards arousing the necessary volition that earnest | |
consideration must be given to the reality of man, namely, his thought. To | |
understand the relevance of this potent reality is also to appreciate the | |
social necessity of actualizing its unique value through candid, | |
dispassionate and cordial consultation, and of acting upon the results of | |
this process. Bahá’u’lláh insistently drew attention to the virtues and | |
indispensability of consultation for ordering human affairs. He said: | |
“Consultation bestows greater awareness and transmutes conjecture into | |
certitude. It is a shining light which, in a dark world, leads the way and | |
guides. For everything there is and will continue to be a station of | |
perfection and maturity. The maturity of the gift of understanding is made | |
manifest through consultation.” The very attempt to achieve peace through | |
the consultative action he proposed can release such a salutary spirit | |
among the peoples of the earth that no power could resist the final, | |
triumphal outcome. | |
Concerning the proceedings for this world gathering, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, the son | |
of Bahá’u’lláh and authorized interpreter of his teachings, offered these | |
insights: “They must make the Cause of Peace the object of general | |
consultation, and seek by every means in their power to establish a Union | |
of the nations of the world. They must conclude a binding treaty and | |
establish a covenant, the provisions of which shall be sound, inviolable | |
and definite. They must proclaim it to all the world and obtain for it the | |
sanction of all the human race. This supreme and noble undertaking—the | |
real source of the peace and well-being of all the world—should be | |
regarded as sacred by all that dwell on earth. All the forces of humanity | |
must be mobilized to ensure the stability and permanence of this Most | |
Great Covenant. In this all-embracing Pact the limits and frontiers of | |
each and every nation should be clearly fixed, the principles underlying | |
the relations of governments towards one another definitely laid down, and | |
all international agreements and obligations ascertained. In like manner, | |
the size of the armaments of every government should be strictly limited, | |
for if the preparations for war and the military forces of any nation | |
should be allowed to increase, they will arouse the suspicion of others. | |
The fundamental principle underlying this solemn Pact should be so fixed | |
that if any government later violate any one of its provisions, all the | |
governments on earth should arise to reduce it to utter submission, nay | |
the human race as a whole should resolve, with every power at its | |
disposal, to destroy that government. Should this greatest of all remedies | |
be applied to the sick body of the world, it will assuredly recover from | |
its ills and will remain eternally safe and secure.” | |
The holding of this mighty convocation is long overdue. | |
With all the ardour of our hearts, we appeal to the leaders of all nations | |
to seize this opportune moment and take irreversible steps to convoke this | |
world meeting. All the forces of history impel the human race towards this | |
act which will mark for all time the dawn of its long-awaited maturity. | |
Will not the United Nations, with the full support of its membership, rise | |
to the high purposes of such a crowning event? | |
Let men and women, youth and children everywhere recognize the eternal | |
merit of this imperative action for all peoples and lift up their voices | |
in willing assent. Indeed, let it be this generation that inaugurates this | |
glorious stage in the evolution of social life on the planet. | |
IV | |
The source of the optimism we feel is a vision transcending the cessation | |
of war and the creation of agencies of international co-operation. | |
Permanent peace among nations is an essential stage, but not, Bahá’u’lláh | |
asserts, the ultimate goal of the social development of humanity. Beyond | |
the initial armistice forced upon the world by the fear of nuclear | |
holocaust, beyond the political peace reluctantly entered into by | |
suspicious rival nations, beyond pragmatic arrangements for security and | |
coexistence, beyond even the many experiments in co-operation which these | |
steps will make possible lies the crowning goal: the unification of all | |
the peoples of the world in one universal family. | |
Disunity is a danger that the nations and peoples of the earth can no | |
longer endure; the consequences are too terrible to contemplate, too | |
obvious to require any demonstration. “The well-being of mankind,” | |
Bahá’u’lláh wrote more than a century ago, “its peace and security, are | |
unattainable unless and until its unity is firmly established.” In | |
observing that “mankind is groaning, is dying to be led to unity, and to | |
terminate its age-long martyrdom”, Shoghi Effendi further commented that: | |
“Unification of the whole of mankind is the hall-mark of the stage which | |
human society is now approaching. Unity of family, of tribe, of | |
city-state, and nation have been successively attempted and fully | |
established. World unity is the goal towards which a harassed humanity is | |
striving. Nation-building has come to an end. The anarchy inherent in | |
state sovereignty is moving towards a climax. A world, growing to | |
maturity, must abandon this fetish, recognize the oneness and wholeness of | |
human relationships, and establish once for all the machinery that can | |
best incarnate this fundamental principle of its life.” | |
All contemporary forces of change validate this view. The proofs can be | |
discerned in the many examples already cited of the favourable signs | |
towards world peace in current international movements and developments. | |
The army of men and women, drawn from virtually every culture, race and | |
nation on earth, who serve the multifarious agencies of the United | |
Nations, represent a planetary “civil service” whose impressive | |
accomplishments are indicative of the degree of co-operation that can be | |
attained even under discouraging conditions. An urge towards unity, like a | |
spiritual springtime, struggles to express itself through countless | |
international congresses that bring together people from a vast array of | |
disciplines. It motivates appeals for international projects involving | |
children and youth. Indeed, it is the real source of the remarkable | |
movement towards ecumenism by which members of historically antagonistic | |
religions and sects seem irresistibly drawn towards one another. Together | |
with the opposing tendency to warfare and self-aggrandizement against | |
which it ceaselessly struggles, the drive towards world unity is one of | |
the dominant, pervasive features of life on the planet during the closing | |
years of the twentieth century. | |
The experience of the Bahá’í community may be seen as an example of this | |
enlarging unity. It is a community of some three to four million people | |
drawn from many nations, cultures, classes and creeds, engaged in a wide | |
range of activities serving the spiritual, social and economic needs of | |
the peoples of many lands. It is a single social organism, representative | |
of the diversity of the human family, conducting its affairs through a | |
system of commonly accepted consultative principles, and cherishing | |
equally all the great outpourings of divine guidance in human history. Its | |
existence is yet another convincing proof of the practicality of its | |
Founder’s vision of a united world, another evidence that humanity can | |
live as one global society, equal to whatever challenges its coming of age | |
may entail. If the Bahá’í experience can contribute in whatever measure to | |
reinforcing hope in the unity of the human race, we are happy to offer it | |
as a model for study. | |
In contemplating the supreme importance of the task now challenging the | |
entire world, we bow our heads in humility before the awesome majesty of | |
the divine Creator, Who out of His infinite love has created all humanity | |
from the same stock; exalted the gem-like reality of man; honoured it with | |
intellect and wisdom, nobility and immortality; and conferred upon man the | |
“unique distinction and capacity to know Him and to love Him”, a capacity | |
that “must needs be regarded as the generating impulse and the primary | |
purpose underlying the whole of creation.” | |
We hold firmly the conviction that all human beings have been created “to | |
carry forward an ever-advancing civilization”; that “to act like the | |
beasts of the field is unworthy of man”; that the virtues that befit human | |
dignity are trustworthiness, forbearance, mercy, compassion and | |
loving-kindness towards all peoples. We reaffirm the belief that the | |
“potentialities inherent in the station of man, the full measure of his | |
destiny on earth, the innate excellence of his reality, must all be | |
manifested in this promised Day of God.” These are the motivations for our | |
unshakeable faith that unity and peace are the attainable goal towards | |
which humanity is striving. | |
At this writing, the expectant voices of Bahá’ís can be heard despite the | |
persecution they still endure in the land in which their Faith was born. | |
By their example of steadfast hope, they bear witness to the belief that | |
the imminent realization of this age-old dream of peace is now, by virtue | |
of the transforming effects of Bahá’u’lláh’s revelation, invested with the | |
force of divine authority. Thus we convey to you not only a vision in | |
words: we summon the power of deeds of faith and sacrifice; we convey the | |
anxious plea of our co-religionists everywhere for peace and unity. We | |
join with all who are the victims of aggression, all who yearn for an end | |
to conflict and contention, all whose devotion to principles of peace and | |
world order promotes the ennobling purposes for which humanity was called | |
into being by an all-loving Creator. | |
In the earnestness of our desire to impart to you the fervour of our hope | |
and the depth of our confidence, we cite the emphatic promise of | |
Bahá’u’lláh: “These fruitless strifes, these ruinous wars shall pass away, | |
and the ‘Most Great Peace’ shall come.” | |
THE UNIVERSAL HOUSE OF JUSTICE | |
***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PROMISE OF WORLD PEACE*** | |
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***FINIS*** | |
What is the name of the document discussed in this article ? | |
[labels: The Universal House of Justice|The promise of world peace] | |
[RepeatLabelAgent]: The promise of world peace | |
~~ | |
[NarrativeQA]: What does the Universal House of Justice say is possible for the first time in human history ? | |
[labels: World Peace|World peace] | |
[RepeatLabelAgent]: World Peace | |
~~ | |
[NarrativeQA]: What is one problem that The Universal House of Justice says must be addressed ? | |
[labels: Religious Strife|Unbridled nationalism .] | |
[RepeatLabelAgent]: Religious Strife | |
~~ | |
[NarrativeQA]: The Universal House of Justice calls for the support of who ? | |
[labels: The United Nations and all people|The United Nations .] | |
[RepeatLabelAgent]: The United Nations and all people | |
~~ | |
[NarrativeQA]: Human beings are the creation of who ? | |
[labels: God|God .] | |
[RepeatLabelAgent]: God | |
~~ | |
[NarrativeQA]: Who is quoted in the Universal House of Justice ? | |
[labels: Baha'u'llah|Baha'u'llah .] | |
[RepeatLabelAgent]: Baha'u'llah | |
~~ | |
[NarrativeQA]: The Universal House of Justice says that peace can not happen without what ? | |
[labels: Religion|religion] | |
[RepeatLabelAgent]: religion | |
~~ | |
[NarrativeQA]: What does peace need to be founded on ? | |
[labels: the thought that mankind is one human family|The understanding that mankind is one human family .] | |
[RepeatLabelAgent]: The understanding that mankind is one human family . | |
~~ | |
[NarrativeQA]: If we decide to do so what are we , as humans capable of creating ? | |
[labels: A peaceful world|World peace] | |
[RepeatLabelAgent]: A peaceful world | |
~~ | |
[NarrativeQA]: What discriminations need to be addressed ? | |
[labels: Race , gender and religion|race , gender , and religious beliefs] | |
[RepeatLabelAgent]: Race , gender and religion | |
~~ |
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ok, i think that's good for now