Does not the very operation of the world-unifying forces that
are at work in this age necessitate that He Who is the Bearer of the Message of
God in this day should not only reaffirm that self-same exalted standard of
individual conduct inculcated by the Prophets gone before Him, but embody in
His appeal, to all governments and peoples, the essentials of that social code,
that Divine Economy, which must guide humanity's concerted efforts in
establishing that all-embracing federation which is to signalize the advent of
the Kingdom of God on this earth?
(Shoghi Effendi, The World Order of Bahá’u’lláh: 60)
This, and the next few posts, will explore the concept of
Divine Economy, keeping in mind that the word, economy, means “household.” The household I am talking about is planet
earth and its family members are all humanity.
To
move from the present international political order, whose core principle is
the “anarchy inherent in state sovereignty”, (The World Order of Bahá’u’lláh: 202) into a new global
unity built upon the oneness of humanity, “the pivot round which all the
teachings of Bahá’u’lláh revolve” (The World Order of Bahá’u’lláh: 42) is not going to be easy, of course To construct society upon the principle of
the oneness of humanity implies, Shoghi Effendi said, "an
organic change in the structure of present-day society, a change such as the
world has not yet experienced." (The World Order of Bahá’u’lláh: 43)
A global social order cannot be
erected independently of the consciousness of the oneness of humanity, for
it is the outer social embodiment of this inner unifying consciousness. Thus, consciousness of world unity cannot
acknowledge the finality of the principle of national sovereignty and interest,
but, rather, that “in a world of interdependent nations and peoples the advantage
of the part is best to be reached by the advantage of the whole....The welfare
of the part means the welfare of the whole, and the distress of the part brings
distress to the whole." (The Promised Day is Come: 122) Consciousness
of human oneness, like other unifying spiritual conceptions, breaks into a
polarity of complementary material or social parts that interact reciprocally to
increasingly manifest the coordinating powers of the spiritual.
Hence, one part of the organic change in the structure of
society, to be recognized before the union of political states can be effected,
is the establishment of a universal system of social governance based upon a
conception named by Shoghi Effendi “the oneness and wholeness of human
relationships”.
How did Shoghi Effendi know this? He noticed effects, what are often called the
signs of the times, and read them correctly.
Shoghi Effendi also said that the world was falling into ruin from the “lamentable inability of the world's recognized leaders
to read aright the signs of the times.” (The World Order of Bahá’u’lláh: 36) I will discuss what I
think are two such signs: the demise of the international political order, and
the rise of communications technology.
Shoghi Effendi saw
that the nation-state system, having reached exhaustion, was collapsing, and
understood why. He wrote in 1936: “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 and for all the machinery
that can best incarnate this fundamental principle of life.” (The World Order of Bahá’u’lláh: 202)
Being a fundamental principle of life, the oneness and
wholeness of human relations range from the principles and standards restoring
the primary and universal social institutions of marriage and family, to the
principles that strengthen civic organizations and institutions, such as
education, to the principles organizing international political relations and
building the organs of world government.
That is why they are universal.
Because they are a fundamental principle of life, the
oneness and wholeness of human relationships have always been the essential
form of human society. Today, because of communications technology, which
helps build world consciousness, they can be fully manifest as a fundamental
principle of a global civilization.
As a principle organizing humanity’s social
development through history, the oneness
and wholeness of human relations can become fully manifest now because, at the
end of history and development (wholeness), the essential spiritual form itself
(oneness) becomes manifest in fully mature organic stature. Said another way, oneness is the archetypal
spiritual form out from which was generated the wholeness of all the
development toward its manifest mature form.
This is the working of spiritual causality, and we saw the same
principle at work earlier in the appearance of the universal Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh
to unify the religions, and the promulgation of the consciousness of the
oneness of all humanity to unite human beings.
The global Bahá’i community can be seen as one
model, though only a nascent one, of these relations. But the distinction characterizing the Bahá’í
community is that it is truly a global community, a single social
organism. Every local Bahá’í community
is as the embryo of a global community living within the womb of a national
one.
What does the oneness and wholeness of human relationships
look like and how do these operate in present society? Though no complete
answer to this question can be given, certain principles structuring them can
be understood because they are already functioning within the social order
established by Bahá’u’lláh.
First, the need to create the oneness and wholeness of
human relationships means that simple adjustments to current human relations
cannot effect the radical transformation required to unite in a global
civilization. It means, rather, that nothing less than a new kind and
totality of human relationships be created, a qualitative change that embodies
a truly organic and universal restructuring of social life resulting from a
reconceptualization of both the nature of humanity and the structure of
society. Such relationships embody
a new ideal of civil society.
Seen separately, the oneness of human relationships,
arising out of the urge of human beings to form groups, unifies individuals
into purposeful on-going collective experience. The wholeness of human
relations, stemming from the need to diversify to bring about the expression of
the full range of human potentialities, allows full play to humanity's creative
drive, humankind's sole hope of meeting novel situations successfully.
Oneness and wholeness are complementary necessities that
act reciprocally to manifest a single principle, unity. One without the
other is insufficient to build or transform society, because both qualities are
required to nurture the whole human being.
Together, not separately, they compose a fundamental principle of life,
a unity manifest in a diversity, and unity in diversity is totality.
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