The Revolt Within Society

Among the results of the manifestation of spiritual forces will be that the human world will adapt itself to a new social form, the justice of God will become manifest throughout human affairs, and human equality will be universally established.

(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, The Promulgation of Universal Peace, p. 131)

The signs that the energies of Revelation are diffusing through society are two: unifying movements slowly growing in power and influence, but discord, commotion and dissension spreading more quickly.  Internal disintegration characterizes ever more areas of society, institutions falter then fall, new movements, politically and economically separatist, religiously sectarian, culturally divided from the mainstream, appear with greater frequency.  Over time, disintegration not only spreads, but accelerates, the world becomes more complicated and strife torn, divided and anarchical, increasing in speed and destructive power with every passing decade. Every year fewer things work.   While most of this upheaval is the commotion characteristic of a disintegrating order, some of it is the result of unifying efforts to bring humanity into a new social order that are resisted by the remaining strongest sectors of the passing order.

The new and larger social unity being established is a global civilization that embraces all humanity as one family, for the fundamental purpose of the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh is the realization of not only the spiritual unity of humanity, but also the organic unity of the entire human race.  This world civilization can only be founded upon a consciousness of the oneness of humanity, which is, in turn, grounded in the universal Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh.  “In the Bahá'í view, the oneness of humankind represents an organic interdependence within a corporeal social entity. This implies that the welfare of the constituent components of this body is inextricably interwoven with that of the whole. Moreover, the essential oneness of the human race is not restricted to the physical dimension; it extends to the social and spiritual aspects of human life. Through the nurturing and unfolding of man's transcendental potential, cultural diversity can begin to be viewed as the expression of this universal and basic truth.” (Bahá’í International Community, 1990 Jan 26, Combating Racism) 

As I have been arguing, the emergence of this new and larger unity itself provokes dissension, tumult and commotion in the established order, which is a unity of less complexity, order, and coherence.  While all sovereign nations have political and economic challenges and problems to work out between themselves bi-laterally or multi-laterally, all lands and peoples are challenged by the God-given goal of uniting within one social unity founded upon the principle of the oneness of the human race, for this means, among any other things, the abolition of all forms of prejudice, equal opportunity in education and employment for all regardless of race, class, ethnicity, gender or nationality, the just distribution of the world’s wealth, the protection of civil rights, the promulgation of universal human rights, and more, and all on a global scale. To reach this is not just a matter of vision, moral idealism, good planning and hard work. Shoghi Effendi believed: “That nothing short of the fire of a severe ordeal, unparalleled in its intensity, can fuse and weld the discordant entities that constitute the elements of present-day civilization, into the integral components of the world commonwealth of the future, is a truth which future events will increasingly demonstrate.” (The World Order of Bahá’u’lláh: 46)

At their end stage, “the signs of universal discord” that appear “among the peoples of the world,” and the “commotion” which seizes “the dwellers of earth and heaven” become more powerful than any force for unity except that generated by Revelation.  But Revelation does not come into the world to save the old one, but to build a new one, and a new world is what is required from humanity.  This is hard to discern amid the welter of conflicting passions and movements, some of which are very progressive.  How is humanity to form into a new social unity? 

That question is both separate and inseparable from the questions of religion and consciousness, which are the other two revolts against materialism.  In essence it is all one revolt. But in manifestation it is many revolts going on at the metaphysical, mental, and material levels, each of these levels experiencing their own manifold internal struggles and changes.  Social advance is separate because integration and disintegration are going on socially without any awareness on the part of most people of the origin of the new spirit of religion that is, in my view, generating global ferment.  Yet, all these movements, upheavals and changes, are inseparable just because they are the myriad effects of and varied human responses to the workings of the same sovereign Power and Will.  And, it is in the social dimension that the actual workings of the Spirit can be observed most clearly: more clearly than in religion, where a materialistic world dismisses it outright as either a metaphysical conceit or merely another social force, or in consciousness, where all vision can be thought to originate with humans themselves.  But socially, the pattern and nucleus of a new unity is actually present and manifest for all to see.

Exploring the process of humanity’s social advance will take us alternately and often back and forth between the inside of society to examine the confusion and discern some differences in movements and outside humanity to gain some objective overview of the tumult of transformation.

This double vision is necessary to gain a spiritual perspective which is both penetrating and encompassing.  Remember, Bahá’u’lláh’s characterization of the existing order as “lamentably defective” did not mean that it was totally so.  Much good remained, but what was good could not be saved and also have that order continue. Neither could the good be surgically separated out and saved. Humanity had to transform to save what was good.   The lamentable defect of the materialist order always was, in my opinion, the lack of a transcendent, spiritual dimension to its life and thought due to the decline of true religion.  Thus, it had no means of animating, coordinating and grounding its collective moral life, leading to barbarism, confusion, chaos, and rising levels of violence.  Thus, we must see things not only in their immanent changing state, but also as moving toward a socially transcendent goal.  

  

Faith the Integration of Consciousness

Arise and, armed with the power of faith, shatter to pieces the gods of your vain imaginings, the sowers of dissension amongst you.

(Gleanings from the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh: 217)

We closed last post on this note: “Now these historical forces while prompting a healthy search for meaning cannot provide it.  What can do it?  One Common Faith says: “…the accelerating breakdown in social order calls out desperately for the religious spirit to be freed from the shackles that have so far prevented it from bringing to bear the healing influence of which it is capable.”  That healing, like most healing, is best accomplished not through invasive surgeries and poisonous chemicals, but by properly adding more energy and life to an ailing body.  In this case it is the body of human thought and consciousness, desperately ill from a toxic ingestion of materialism.”

Human consciousness is in desperate need of a new birth of the religious spirit, not any reinvigoration of an established religion.  Though we are, as yet, far more aware of the growing dissension and splintering in consciousness than we are of the integrating effects of the Word, the religious spirit will not be denied, primarily because people cannot function effectively or for long without faith in something higher and greater than humanity, unless they let themselves be completely convinced of the materialist paradigm and thus be relieved of their anxieties.  

Let us recall, then, that the forces of dissension in consciousness, as in religion and, as we will see, in society, are released by a panicky, reactionary response to the emergence of a greater unity displacing established forms of unity.  The emergence of this new unity, present in the Revelations of the Báb and Bahá’u’lláh, is resisted by all those who are attached to the old form--attachment to the fashioning of the imagination makes an imagining into a "vain imagining."  Today, that greater unity in consciousness is the consciousness of the oneness of humankind.  Faith as the integrator of consciousness is also generated by adherence to this principle, even as it disintegrates lesser unities of consciousness such as nationalism, racism, sexism, and a host of other isms that divide and separate the one human family.  Baha’u’llah identifies exactly what these isms are: “gods of your vain imaginings”.  These gods are “the sowers of dissension amongst you.”

Other gods of vain imaginings in the materialist paradigm that sow dissension are: the false beliefs and assertions by human beings that they alone are in charge of their destiny; belief in the sovereignty of the individual mind; in the supreme authority of government; and the claim to have a monopoly on God propounded by sectarian religions.  Only the power of faith can shatter these imaginary gods—meaning they are like actual idols to be smashed—and faith should be put in the overarching principle of the oneness of God, the oneness of religion and the oneness of humanity.  Faith in these will integrate consciousness.  Faith, however, is a matter not of blind belief, but of conscious knowledge, and all the human and physical sciences are converging on the truth that humanity is one species.

But real faith is in two parts. The religious spirit must have a body of works that demonstrates its reality.  ‘Abdu’l-Bahá says, “Faith is, first, conscious knowledge, and second, the practice of good deeds.” (Bahá’í World Faith: 383)  Thus we demonstrate our faith in the oneness principle by creating private lives and collective societies characterized by a lack of prejudice, in equal opportunity for all in education and employment, in the care of all children, in the divine foundation of all religions, and the like.  The principal barriers to creating such lives and societies are ingrained ideas about human nature and what that nature is capable of achieving--gods fashioned by mere imaginings. 

The House of Justice noted: “Alas, notwithstanding the laudable efforts, in every land, of well-intentioned individuals working to improve circumstances in society, the obstacles preventing the realization of such vision seem insurmountable to many.  Their hopes founder on erroneous assumptions about human nature that so permeate the structures and traditions of much of present-day living as to have attained the status of established fact.  These assumptions appear to make no allowance for the extraordinary reservoir of spiritual potential available to any illumined soul who draws upon it; instead, they rely for justification on humanity’s failings, examples of which daily reinforce a common sense of despair.  A layered veil of false premises thus obscures a fundamental truth: The state of the world reflects a distortion of the human spirit, not its essential nature.” (The Universal House of Justice, Riḍván 2012)                  

Real faith generates moral conviction, and conviction, in turn, fuels and drives ethical action for positive social change.  By faith I mean what Saint Paul wrote in his letter to the Hebrews: “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” (King James Bible, The Book of Hebrews 11:1)  In a materialist order of belief and thought nothing is less substantial than faith in invisible reality, or faith in the prospect of peace, or faith that human nature can rise above self-interest.  Yet having faith that these things can be accomplished and made manifest through the moral conviction of what Buddhists would call “right action” is itself the evidence of their reality.  But that action must be more than some aggregate of individual ethical actions.  There must be collective moral action arising from a collective consciousness that releases a social dynamism for the world to change and transform its outlook and behavior.  That requires not only universal values but also moral leaders.

Bahá’u’lláh prophetically pointed out more than one hundred fifty years ago: “They that are possessed of wealth and invested with authority and power must show the profoundest regard for religion. In truth, religion is a radiant light and an impregnable stronghold for the protection and welfare of the peoples of the world, for the fear of God impelleth man to hold fast to that which is good, and shun all evil. Should the lamp of religion be obscured, chaos and confusion will ensue, and the lights of fairness and justice, of tranquillity and peace cease to shine. Unto this will bear witness every man of true understanding.” (Tablets of Bahá’u’lláh: 125)

Obviously, the leaders of humanity, moral or otherwise, stupefied by their obsessive pursuit of material advantage, paid not the slightest heed to this warning.  Humanity persists in its blindness and continues in its adolescent willfulness, putting furious confidence in human will and thought, though less and less so as the damages pile up.  Sadly, it persists in its waywardness even though the answer has been given, the remedy of the new vision and divine Plan is being applied, and assurances of development are given to all who follow it.  Because of the heedlessness, blindness and willfulness, of the leaders of humanity, Shoghi Effendi stated: “Nothing but a fiery ordeal, out of which humanity will emerge, chastened and prepared, can succeed in implanting that sense of responsibility which the leaders of a new-born age must arise to shoulder.” (The World Order of Bahá’u’lláh: 46)

Discussing the role of faith in generating moral conviction and positive social action takes us to an examination of the revolt against materialism from within society, the last, the outermost, the most tumultuous and chaotic, and the most visible level of the disintegration of the materialist order.