Humankind Advancing, Vol. 7, No.3  July 1996

Theme: Between Light and Darkness

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From Robert Theobald's letter to his friends and supporters of July 20, 1994.

"We are caught in forces which are much larger than we can control. If we move with them we shall survive. If we try to prevent them from emerging, massive breakdowns are inevitable. -- We must parallel the skills that people have when they are running physical rapids. It is not possible to plan ahead: rather one must be "fully present" in the moment and behave in ways which are appropriate to the particular challenge. One has skills from past efforts but the moment that one tries to exactly replicate what one did in the past one prevents oneself from seeing the realities of the current situation." (P.13) -- These passages are part of an outline of Theobald's book Discovering The Twenty-First Century: A Manual for the Main Stream.

Roy Dennis Morrison II
1926-1995

This quote appears in an obituary, written by Professor Tom Gilbert, as an example of Morrison's "outstanding character traits" of "uncompromising integrity and intellectual honesty."

Roy D. Morrison, an African-American, earned his B.A. with honors in three years from Howard University, a B.D. from Northern Baptist Theological Seminary in Chicago, and an M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. He taught English, and was, among others, professor of critical philosophy, philosophy of science, philosophical theology, and black literature. In his book on Einstein, Kant, and Tillich, "he reveals an understanding of science that few philosophers attain."

I remember Morrison as a wonderful person with a warm sense of humor and am grateful for the privilege of having met him.

Brian Swimme, co-author (with Thomas Berry) of The Universe Story and a specialist in mathematical cosmology, teaches in the Philosphy, Cosmology, and Consciousness program at the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco. -- For more information please contact: Bruce Bochte, Center for the Story of the Universe, 311 Rydal Avenue, Mill Valley, CA 94941, USA. To order, call 1-800-273-3720.

IN THE LIGHT OF HOPE
The United Nations sometimes seems to me one vast planetary prayer, interspersed with many sins and falls. (P.7)

Robert Muller
My Testament to the UN

Fifty years later we should remember these lines which Franklin Roosevelt wrote in his own hand on the day of his death for a speech he was to deliver to give birth to the United Nations from the ashes and blood of the sixty million dead of World War II: "The work, my friends, is peace: more than an end of this war -- an end to the beginning of all wars.... The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today."

My mail abounds with proposals for a better global management of this planet. I have therefore decided, after nearly fifty years of UN experience, to be a candidate for the post of Secretary General of the United Nations and work for its reform and strengthening -- to bring closer to reality the goals of our world's great visionaries. 

The same is, of course, true for sex, and much of the book is preoccupied with the expression of that aspect of human nature in different cultures on earth, with its ineradicable dominance over reason, and with the shadow it throws over all our hopes for a sensible solution to the population question. The conflicts we experience now are bound to get worse as the desires inherent in human nature clash ever more violently with our need for culture.

"If people could live independently of one another, the dream of nature without culture, of life without strife or conflict, might well be attainable. The catch, of course, is that we could not exist in such circumstances; people, like nearly all other primates, have by sheer biological necessity been highly social throughout their evolution. In social groups, the possibility of mutual aid arises, but so does the reality of conflicting interests. And once interests clash, paradise is lost. Getting by requires compromise and restraint -- the stuff of culture." (P.166)

If our inherent natures cannot be moved by reason, might there not be a way out by turning to religion? Since the dawn of civilization religions had powerful influences on human nature, and they are embedded in all cultures. But even they evolved in response to long-vanished conditions on earth, and their very power is now often an impediment rather than a help. "In my own case," Konner reports, "the realization that there was an almost infinite variety of religious forms -- whose practitioners all felt they were absolutely, uniquely right -- played a role in my abandonment of the religiosity of my teenage years." (P.210)

Then what can be done? Should we abandon hope? It is my conviction that human nature is not fully without loftier sensations and deeper insights, that it differs in different persons, and that the influence of great teachers is experienced in many cases as liberating rather than restraining. Konner seems to admit something similar, when he says on p. 16 of his introduction; "Of course, that nature also includes a built-in ethical component that derives the potential for responsibility, decency, love, even happiness from the animal necessity for cooperation and altruism. These capacities too are shared by many animals, and we can take heart from the fact that they are so widespread in nature. But for them to really prevail requires the kind of collective attention that is possible only in the framework of human culture. In this framework reflection on the outcomes of natural tendencies can restrain or modify those tendencies. Culture is full of deceptions, but it is much better than nothing, and with it we exceed the capabilities of any other animal for similar restraint." -- At the end of the introduction, he goes even further: "Without admitting the existence of human nature, without describing it as forthrightly and richly as possible, we will never fully exercise that crucial interaction [between intelligence and genetically determined impulses], which alone holds the prospect of an admittedly limited, but absolutely imperative, transcendence."

The book's dominant message, however, is that we must accept with the inherent good in human nature also its evil, and that therefore paradise is unattainable -- forever.

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Melvin Konner, Ph.D., M.D., is professor of anthropology and associate Professor of psychiatry at Emory University. All but two of the essays in the above described collection are republications from Konner's regular column "On Human Nature" in The Sciences (a magazine of the New York Academy of Sciences), of which he was a contributing editor since 1985.

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The Darwin-inspired opening of the realm of mind and morals...presents us with a choice about how we should think about values. We can continue to try to authorize them by tracing their origin to higher powers, whether those be the eternal entities of Platonism or the changeable entities and processes of modern science. Or we can settle for tracing their origin to what human beings have said and done and let it go at that. If we choose the latter alternative, we can turn our energies to improving upon the values we have inherited from our predecessors rather than trying to show that their authority is more than human.

J. Wesley Robbins
Professor of Philosophy

Global 2000 Revisited: What Shall We Do? By Gerald O. Barney.  Arlington, Va.: Millenium Institute, 1993. 105 pages $20. (Distributed by Public Interest Publications, Arlington, Va.)

During the Carter Administration Gerald Barney was asked to conduct a comprehensive forecast of the economic, demographic, resource, and environmental futures of every country in the world. The result, Global 2000 Report to the President, has proven to be remarkably accurate. Recently, Barney has updated and condensed his work, assembling a similar report, Global 2000 Revisited, which was used to prepare participants in the 1993 Parliament of the World's Religions to discuss the critical issues of the twenty-first century. The report is a tour de force of clarity, substance, and insight, one of those rare books one wishes could be read by everyone on the planet. It's a short book but written with such economy of style that the reader emerges as if enriched by an entire library.

Global 2000 Revisited addresses itself to two fundamental questions: (1) What's the matter with the world? and (2) What can and should be done about it? In the first half of the book Barney guides his reader through a series of critical issues: global population, land use and food production, energy needs and resources, threats to biodiversity, global warming, ozone depletion, and global justice concerns. The discussion is both informative and accessible, the charts and graphs illustrative and intelligible. Wherever possible, Barney keys his forecasts to the expected lifetime of a child born today, a device that gives poignancy to otherwise bland data. The virtue of Barney's discussion of familiar problems is that he keeps the reader mindful of the fact that they are not discrete problems but aspects of a single, complex megaproblem. As humans have begun to think globally, it has become clear that we do not have just a poverty problem, or a hunger problem, or a habitat problem, or an energy problem, or a trade problem, or a population problem, or an atmospheric problem, or a waste problem, or a resource problem. On a planetary scale, these problems are all interconnected (p.7).

This megaproblem (the "global problematique") is global, systematic, immediate, and chronic -- it is what's the matter with the world. The second half of the book turns to a consideration of what can be done about it. Barney assembles a daunting agenda: reduce human population and consumption, modify technologies, develop sustainable energy economies, invent alternatives to militarism, create the conditions for global cooperation, and so on. The general list of suggestions is then broken down in a discussion of more specific actions: those to be performed by the North, and those to be performed by the South. Barney's agenda does not amount to a lot of arm waving by some fuzzy-headed idealogue. It is sane, realistic, and commensurate with the problems and has benefited from extensive research and consultation. The list of necessary actions is followed by a very helpful discussion of the principal barriers to their completion, most of them pertinent to the tendency of human nature to resist fundamental change.

The most significant obstacle, Barney suggests, is that we are a species without a vision. The entire global community appears to be committed to models of social progress and individual success that are demonstrably unsustainable. If we are to address the challenges of the global problematique we must rethink these models and commit ourselves to a new vision:

"The task ahead is to reexamine, reconsider, and reformulate every human institution to ensure that it fosters and supports our first principle: a mutually enhancing relationship between the human species and Earth as an unavoidable necessity for mutually enhancing relationships among humans. The institutions in questions include international organizations, nation-states, domestic and multinational corporations, the family, and the faith traditions." (p.63)

Religion comes in for special attention in one of the final sections of the book. The section on "the role of faith traditions" challenges religious traditions with the task of self-examination and reform, so that they might become viable and relevant resources for responding effectively to the global problematique. The section (almost entirely composed of questions) is a veritable syllabus for theological reflection, and deserves to be studied with care by every person who has an investment in the future of organized religion.

This is a wise and measured book, but it is also written with passion. I consider it a "must read" for anyone who aspires to a global perspective. It also is a very useful book. I recently used it, with terrific results, as a primer in an environmental philosophy course, but it also would be suitable for a variety of religion courses, and (especially) for adult study groups in churches.

Reviewer: Loyal D. Rue
Professor of Religion and Philosophy
Luther College, Decorah, IA 52101, U.S.A. (This excellent book is hard to find. Please contact the reviewer for assistance.)

"I am convinced that no humans exist on other planets. God simply could not make the same mistake twice." (p.6)

Henry Feld

Roger W. Sperry was a professor of neuroscience and nobel laureate.

He died on April 17, 1994.

Discussion of

"In the major centers of world politics," Gorbachev says, "the choice has been made in favor of peace, cooperation, interaction, and common security. In pushing forward to a new civilization [the book's subtitle is "Developing a New Civilization"] we should under no circumstances make the error of interpreting victory in the "Cold War" narrowly as a victory for oneself, for one's own way of life, for one's own values and merits. This was a victory over a scheme for the development of humanity that was becoming slowly congealed and leading us to destruction. It was a shattering of the vicious circle in which we had driven ourselves. This was altogether a victory for common sense, reason, democracy, and common human values." (p.3/4)

When I remembered that these words were said by a person who had from his earliest youth with all his passion, his love and his life worked and fought for his country and his ideology, tears came into my eyes. What an inner battle must it have been to reject the urge to excuse and perpetuate the weaknesses of his nation and its convictions, and to be guided instead by an independence of thought that values fairness on a global level above all else.

Values are vital. Gorbachev warns against the complacent view that the danger of nuclear warfare has disappeared after the cold war was over. That complacency overlooks the continuing global spread of these weapons as well as other means of mass destruction, all of which are incredibly dangerous, but most of all in the hands of authoritarian regimes. Democracy, therefore, is the superior method of governing everywhere on earth. However, without factual information and values fostering responsibility democracy cannot and will not work.

The dangers of our time have started to spawn a new kind of consciousness, but it has not perpetrated widely enough. While struggling toward a new world order that favours cooperation among nations rather than competition, we witness an increase of confusion and disorder. Policy makers don't evaluate the consequences of their actions. "What is absolutely necessary is a critical reassessment of the views and approaches that currently lie at the basis of political thinking." (P.14)

"Humankind has become mortal," Gorbachev warns (P.20). Yet our consciences were formed at a time when our powers to destroy were far more limited; advance toward greater maturity is absolutely essential. In the midst of this struggle between insight and inherent compulsions, which he dramatically describes, not only with reference to politics and economics, but also to environmental deterioration, Gorbachev remains hopeful that full awareness of our situation will lead to more responsible actions.

One of the greatest dangers to the environment is the population explosion, combined with the explosion of wants, generated through worldwide access to the mass media. He reminds us that humanity is but a small part of a web that includes the interaction of innumerable plant and animal species, most of them microorganisms, through which the soil, air, and water are maintained in livable conditions. Blind destruction of this web will have devastating results. Our entire value system must be adjusted. Individuals able to combine foresight with reality-orientation must become most influential. But "artificially constructed utopian schemes are not workable anywhere," (p.42) Gorbachev warns, and sudden revolutionary breaks lead invariably to disaster. The lessons of the past taught us that a slower step by step approach is less destructive and more lasting.

To avoid losing the gains we made, however small, three points are emphasized: 1) The need to join politics with morality; 2) unqualified compliance with international law; 3) fairness and justice. (In my view, fairness and justice should lead, not end, this list. There can be no unqualified compliance with international law, unless it is solidly founded in fairness and justice, nor can politics be moral otherwise.) "The state of the human spirit assumes paramount importance," (P.58) in Gorbachev's view, and the future of our civilization will not be determined by either capitalism or socialism, but by the best achievement of human minds and actions anywhere. What we need is a "humanistic-ecological culture," which is in part embodied in the core values of the world's religions. Yet it is important that our new global perspective not replace the cultural differences which enrich our lives; it must be designed rather to protect individual cultures and prevent their disappearance. Similarly, the sacrifice of individuals to the state is wrong. Individual human beings, too, must be allowed and encouraged to enrich humankind with their unique gifts.

The New Civilization we need must replace confrontation -- and its waste and devastation -- with cooperation, and narrow selfishness with identification with all of humankind and all of nature. It must be realistic, courageous, open-minded, constructive, and future-oriented. To achieve this goal, interaction is necessary among all sectors of our society. Gorbachev cites the maxim "After us, the deluge," as an example of an irresponsible philosophy that would "propel humankind toward self-destruction." .... "The main source of our troubles," he says, "is not outside, but within us." (p.74).

Everyone must become involved in the immense task ahead. "It would be criminal," he believes, "to miss the chance to carry through the historic shifts that have been maturing for so long" (p.79).

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Mikhail Gorbachev was president of the Soviet Union from 1985 to 1991 and is currently chairman of the International Institute for Social, Economic, and Political Studies in Moscow. He also serves as honorary chairman of the Gorbachev Foundation/USA and as chairman of the International Green Cross. (The book has been translated by Pavel Palazchenko.)

Editor's comments: Will it be possible to match, in the West, the courage to reject the excesses and weaknesses of one's own system? If it is, it will be a far more heroic accomplishment than that of Gorbachev, because it will be made from a position of power rather than from one close to defeat. But if it is not, defeat will invariably follow -- not through forces from without, but through inner defects (greed, corruption, and enticement to crime) which are allowed to grow and multiply.

"Many social conflicts are really conflicts of power...people in power usually prefer to maintain their position in an unjust world rather than accept a lesser status and power in a better world." 

                        Roger L. Shinn 21

Railing against the limitations of one's culture is just as useless as inveighing against the lack of vision displayed by genetic instructions. Even though one might disagree with many of the values and practices the culture supports, the benefits of living within a reasonably civilized social system are so high that a blanket rejection is senseless. Being grateful for the culture that made one human does not, however, imply accepting it at face value. Some of the greatest figures in history are those who cared enough about the development of human potentials to take issue with the society in which they lived, even when that society was at the height of its success. (P.74)

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

The Evolving Self
Rochdale Society of Equitable Pioneers -- 1844 by Joel David Welty.

A new inspiration came into the world when 28 poverty-stricken weavers opened a tiny store on the winter solstice of 1844, the year of hunger in the British Isles. They were open only a few hours a week to sell flour, butter, sugar, candles and oatmeal. Without money, without friends in high places, with only their own heads and brains, they started a new idea that has grown around the world to include seven hundred million co-op members, about twice the total population of the United States, Canada and Mexico combined!.... Their problems were far worse than our problems today. English cities were swollen with farmers who had lost the land their families had tilled for centuries, because the landlords evicted them to use the land for grazing sheep to supply the new woolen mills....They were helpless, almost hopeless. But they had one thing going for them: their co-op.

From TRANET, January 1995.

REFLECTIONS: -- Melvin Konner admonishes us that the evil in human nature must be accepted together with the good in it, because it is a part of humankind so deeply anchored in its genes, that an attempt to eradicate it would eradicate humankind itself. History has shown that the efforts to banish evil through revolutions or by authoritarian regimes have led to the worst atrocities. All attempts to abolish evil have also destroyed unique and priceless values.

The questions that arise, however, are: "How much evil can humankind survive while the power to express it increases? How much can it accept and still remain human? How much is actually determined by genes, how much is learned? And even if genes express prehistoric impulses, how far can these impulses be redirected through insight and education? Why do individuals differ? Why do some of them experience joy when fellow sentient beings suffer, while others feel empathy and compassion?" And finally: "How can we know what is good and what is evil if circumstances change and neither our genes nor our ancestral wisdom remain reliable guides?"

Serious research in this area is urgently necessary; without it we cannot continue to live. I believe that human genes are prepro-grammed to benefit from experience. -- A belief system pressed onto a population by force leads to revolt. Nor is democracy the answer, if all thoughts and emotions voiced are given equal weight without any consideration of their consequences. One of my subscribers, Eliane Lacroix-Hopson, dramatizes the problem with her typical bluntness: "Democracy never existed in history, it is a slogan and the concept of majority means that 10 idiots prevail over 9 intelligent beings." Even Churchill admitted that democracy is the worst system -- except for all the others.

Democracy is an ideal that works only in the presence of a critical mass of responsible citizens -- or better a critical influence of them. 

Precisely because human nature is malleable -- not infinitely, but to a large extent, and not because our genes don't count, but because our genes have made us that way -- democracy is a reflection of the thoughts of persons who have the most influence on the general population. Between revolt-producing force and a value-less vacuum there exists an effective way to influence a population: the provision of role models.

The provision of right role models is absolutely essential for the survival of our species. Once the influence of responsible persons diminishes below a critical level, the attitude of the entire citizenship suddenly reverses itself. What has been taken for granted before becomes an aberration, and what has formerly been rejected becomes normal. It is possible that the apparent differences between different population groups are caused not so much by inherent qualities, as by qualities expressed by their role models -- that is by persons admired and imitated.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS:

 I wish to thank Dr. Robert Muller for his original contribution, Philip Hefner and Loyal Rue for permission to reprint the review of "Global 2000 Revisited" from ZYGON, and Elaine Lacroix-Hopson for her permission to quote from her letter.

REFERENCES