Why - and the question needs to be asked plainly -- has this society
been impotent, despite its great wealth, to remove the injustices that are
tearing its fiber apart? The answer to
this question, as amply evidenced by decades of contentious history, cannot be
found in political passion, conflicting expressions of class interest, or
technical recipes. What is called for is a spiritual revival, as a prerequisite
to the successful application of political, economic and technological
instruments. But there is a need for a catalyst.
(The Universal House of Justice, 2000 Jan 08)
The thesis of the book I am working on at present is that general
prosperity endures only when our outer material and inner spiritual aspects are
operating in balance. Although the terms
can obviously be used interchangeably, in the book I use the term riches to
refer to the spiritual form of wealth, and the word wealth to mean the material
form of riches. Riches, (i.e. our
virtues) and wealth, broadly speaking our material goods, are, from this
perspective, complementary aspects of true prosperity; one without the other is
insufficient and leads to poverty. The
world is over-balanced on the material side, and that is why we are
experiencing economic meltdown. Hence we
must re-establish a balance between riches and wealth. How do we do this? That deceptively simple question requires too
complex an answer for my knowledge. Rather,
I will ask: What can education do to
help get the situation into balance?
My own answer to the question starts from this
statement of the Universal House of Justice: "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." (
Perhaps one aspect of a “spiritual
approach” and a “fresh look” can be taken through education, because education is that institution par excellence that, when it is spiritual education, has to do with fostering an understanding of spiritual verities and producing an universal attitude. I am an educator by profession and commitment
so much of what I write in the book is about education and vision, or better, a vision of
ideal people creating prosperity by educing their ideal self and using
spiritual virtues as currency. For me, true
prosperity will never be established by setting our sights only on achieving
material wealth, for reasons that will become clear in the book.
First, let’s make a simple, perhaps
overly-simple, distinction about economic problems, namely, that there are two
main types of them: too little and too much. These are never far apart. In our economically integrated world, the
problem of too little for many occurs because a few have too much. That is, a material underdevelopment among
many occurs in large part because of spiritual underdevelopment of some
few. That is the essence of the problem,
and it is as true among individuals as it is among nations.
To solve
the problem of too little requires, first, setting in place a practical and
academic education that enables disadvantaged people to acquire the skills needed
to obtain what they materially need. But
this addresses only one half of the problem, and by itself it spawns a wriggling
mass of more challenges, for it only better enables some few previously disadvantaged
individuals to insert themselves somewhere into a dysfunctioning system. In short, this “fix” creates even more competition
for a shrinking economic pie, generating more frustration, resentment, rage and
anxiety. This toxic mix will
explode. There is no doubt about
that. A solution that “fixes” only half
a problem is no real solution at all, but adds to the severity and urgency of
the problem.
To address
the second problem, that of too much, requires a moral and spiritual education
which persuades the well-to-do that sharing with and empowering those less
fortunate is in everybody’s best interest.
In either case, proper education is a key element of a spiritual
solution to economic problems. But since
the problem of too little is really a result of some having too much and not
sharing, then the real problem for education must be a rethinking of the main purpose
of education itself away from academic and technical training for career advancement
or mere personal advantage to moral and spiritual enlightenment for the
advantage of all. Fixing material
poverty is, from this view, a product of fixing spiritual poverty, for, in
truth, there is plenty of wealth to go around. A new impetus for change is required.
In one
beautiful statement ‘Abdu’l-Bahá said it this way: “The fundamentals of the
whole economic condition are divine in nature and are associated with the world
of the heart and spirit. This is fully explained in the Baha'i teaching, and
without knowledge of its principles no improvement in the economic state can be
realized…. When the love of God is established, everything else will be
realized. This is the true foundation of all economics.” (The Promulgation of Universal Peace: 239.)
How can
this goal be accomplished? That’s a challenge
for proper education to meet. As the
book is not really about the practical aspects of training of people for
employment, equipping them with the skills of providing material necessities
for families and community, and the like, the primary discussion of the book is
about the spiritual side: the training
of moral perception and sentiment which creates the context for the first, that
literally creates the community. That
spiritual education is, I believe, based on four questions. These will be set forth in my next post.
A direct link to purchase my book, Renewing the Sacred: A
New Vision of Education, is:
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