A Necessary Distinction

No sooner had that Revelation been unveiled to men's eyes than the signs of universal discord appeared among the peoples of the world, and commotion seized the dwellers of earth and heaven, and the foundations of all things were shaken. The forces of dissension were released, the meaning of the Word was unfolded, and every several atom in all created things acquired its own distinct and separate character. Hell was made to blaze, and the delights of Paradise were uncovered to men's eyes.

(Bahá’u’lláh, Prayers and Meditations by Bahá’u’lláh: 296)

If we want to understand the difference between the efforts of the Bahá’i community to transform society and those of other progressive groups, an important distinction must be made.  The forces of dissension, the signs of universal discord and the commotion that are released with the coming of the Báb’s and Bahá’u’lláh’s  Revelations are not just all those clashes between angry protesters striving against entrenched oppressive powers that have been part of human history since the nineteenth century, such as those of the year 1848.  Dissension, discord and commotion are also generated by “positive” searches and progressive movements for a new meaningful order of human society.  Both protest and search have become global, as we read, yet they form but a disorganized conglomeration of movements. 

The reason that even positive movements for change originating within the old order become part of the forces of dissension is that taken together these movements lack any coordinating principle, supreme authority, universal value system, or comprehensive vision and plan that encompasses them.  Thus, they eventually begin competing with each other for influence and this makes them serve destructive ends.  They may be inspired by divine energy, but they lack the divine plan.  They receive the energy, but cannot effectively channel it for long or for enough people. 

Releasing the forces of dissension, then, is both the release of the anarchic forces of the lower nature and what happens when the tensions within the body politic, held together, in the absence of true religion, by a viscous bond of law, shared beliefs, common customs, and police patrols, are dissolved.  It is not Revelation that releases them from their latency; rather they release themselves from all constraint through the power—though they know not the Source—of His revelation.

From a larger and longer perspective, discord, tumult, and internal dissent are necessary to the process of social advance into a new social form.  Their role is to clear away the clotted bureaucracies, to dissolve the knots of prejudice and repression, to pry off the icy grip of entrenched power, so that new growth may happen.  Thus whatever disruptive influence they have is part of a larger process of greater integration.   

Shoghi Effendi explains: “The convulsions of this transitional and most turbulent period in the annals of humanity are the essential prerequisites, and herald the inevitable approach, of that Age of Ages, "the time of the end," in which the folly and tumult of strife that has, since the dawn of history, blackened the annals of mankind, will have been finally transmuted into the wisdom and the tranquility of an undisturbed, a universal, and lasting peace, in which the discord and separation of the children of men will have given way to the worldwide reconciliation, and the complete unification of the divers elements that constitute human society.” (The Promised Day is Come: 117)

Yet humanity cannot, unaided, fix the problems and challenges that it faces—perhaps because of a principle articulated by Einstein, namely, that problems cannot be solved using the same mentality that generated them. 

In 1931, in the darkest hours of the Great Depression, Shoghi Effendi summarized the impotence of human efforts: “Humanity, whether viewed in the light of man's individual conduct or in the existing relationships between organized communities and nations, has, alas, strayed too far and suffered too great a decline to be redeemed through the unaided efforts of the best among its recognized rulers and statesmen—however disinterested their motives, however concerted their action, however unsparing in their zeal and devotion to its cause. No scheme which the calculations of the highest statesmanship may yet devise; no doctrine which the most distinguished exponents of economic theory may hope to advance; no principle which the most ardent of moralists may strive to inculcate, can provide, in the last resort, adequate foundations upon which the future of a distracted world can be built. No appeal for mutual tolerance which the worldly-wise might raise, however compelling and insistent, can calm its passions or help restore its vigor. Nor would any general scheme of mere organized international cooperation, in whatever sphere of human activity, however ingenious in conception, or extensive in scope, succeed in removing the root cause of the evil that has so rudely upset the equilibrium of present-day society. Not even, I venture to assert, would the very act of devising the machinery required for the political and economic unification of the world—a principle that has been increasingly advocated in recent times—provide in itself the antidote against the poison that is steadily undermining the vigor of organized peoples and nations. What else, might we not confidently affirm, but the unreserved acceptance of the Divine Program enunciated, with such simplicity and force as far back as sixty years ago, by Bahá'u'lláh, embodying in its essentials God's divinely appointed scheme for the unification of mankind in this age, coupled with an indomitable conviction in the unfailing efficacy of each and all of its provisions, is eventually capable of withstanding the forces of internal disintegration which, if unchecked, must needs continue to eat into the vitals of a despairing society. It is towards this goal—the goal of a new World Order, Divine in origin, all-embracing in scope, equitable in principle, challenging in its features—that a harassed humanity must strive…. Is it not a fact—and this is the central idea I desire to emphasize—that the fundamental cause of this world unrest is attributable, not so much to the consequences of what must sooner or later come to be regarded as a transitory dislocation in the affairs of a continually changing world, but rather to the failure of those into whose   committed, to adjust their system of economic and political institutions to the imperative needs of a rapidly evolving age? Are not these intermittent crises that convulse present-day society due primarily to the lamentable inability of the world's recognized leaders to read aright the signs of the times, to rid themselves once for all of their preconceived ideas and fettering creeds, and to reshape the machinery of their respective governments according to those standards that are implicit in Bahá'u'lláh's supreme declaration of the Oneness of Mankind—the chief and distinguishing feature of the Faith He proclaimed?” (The World Order of Bahá’u’lláh: 33-34)

The revolts against materialism going on at three distinct levels within the world are generated by the spiritually energizing and socially organizing force of Revelation.  The materialist order cannot assimilate this new Power, for Revelation is not just energy but also new social and moral pattern. Under the impact.of both divine energy and pattern the established order buckles, then crumbles.   That progressive movements in thought and society contribute to the advance of human consciousness and society is certainly true. Yet, in my opinion, the best that these movements can accomplish is the building of the last stage of advance of the human order: certainly a good thing.  But they cannot build a divine order, and it is the divine order that is required today.

Hence, while what they do is good, it is not good enough to effect the necessary transformation in thought and action.  So long as they remain within the consciousness of the prevailing order and attempt to reform that order from within it, they must, to some degree, oppose and contend with other groups searching for solutions, with the established powers of the old and dying order, and with the Bahá’í community.