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Global Responsibility

- New Orientation in Culture and Politics -

Reflections on what it Means to be Human

 by Wolfgang Fischer

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Plea for a Civilisation in Accordance with Nature that is not Based on Money and Violence.

 

Environmental crisis and war, economic and political crime, the global expansion of multinational corporations, the impoverishment of ever more sections of society, regression to religious interpretations reminiscent of the Middle Ages - all these characteristics of the present do not bode well for our future. The spreading of misinformation by the political and economic establishment reveals a lack of respect for the sovereignty of the people. The widespread political tendency to favour 'inherent necessities' before the finding of fair solutions, the general denial of the effects of our way of life upon the environment as well as the vigorous defence of the status quo against any new ideas hinder the evolution of peaceful coexistence among humans.

 

Will we fall victim to these developments or are there alternatives?
Is there any hope left for us?

 

If we ever want to solve the problems presently endangering all life on earth we need to reflect with an open mind upon some so far unanswered questions as well as present abuses and grievances. The unbiased recognition of the features common to all life will inspire us to personally stand up and take action to promote the establishment of universal justice. This can then serve as a yardstick by which social systems and ideologies can be measured.

 

THREE THESES:

1. A precondition for the development of a profound understanding of life and the world around us is freedom of thought, open communication and comprehensive information unfettered by dogma or ideology. Individual responsibility develops on the basis of a high degree of understanding which is increasing through lifelong experience and continuous learning. Competition serves only to increase mutual tolerance within the eco-systems and societies of our planet. Solidarity is conducive to increasing personal motivation and happiness whilst dissolving addictions and anxieties. An unbiased view of the world will become a powerful motivator for political action for the benefit of the entire planet. The mature human spirit will create the material and emotional preconditions for universal prosperity and peace. The truth will set us free.

2. Where there is an awareness of earth being the common basis of us all, social disparities dissolve. The joint utilisation and preservation of the global resources of energy and commodities will foster the development of a global society. By preserving ecological contexts the surplus yields will be used for the benefit of disadvantaged areas. Global resources and knowledge will serve humanity to realize a sustainable society.

3. Social justice of social systems as well as economic systems and industries which are compatible with the principles of ecology are prerequisites for survival on earth.

 

Reflection

The earth, its oceans and continents, landscapes, rivers and lakes, plants, animals and human beings, all these are integral parts of the large-scale energy flow and life-system of the biosphere. All things represent a natural loan, a borrowed infrastructure of global life which needs to be taken care of. All parts exist interdependently, each being indispensable for the functioning of the whole.

The present constitutes the basis for the future. The young generation builds upon what's been left behind by the preceding one. Faulty developments - often wrongly believed to be 'progress' - as well as achievements, together with all their consequences, accompany us throughout history. Hence, each generation bears a large responsibility for the succeeding one. We each are responsible, not only for ourselves, but for all others as well, and not least of all for that 'loan item' given into our care: Nature.

Evolutionary processes expanding the life of unicellular organisms, plants, animals and humans beings have been going on for more than three billion years. They are paralleled by corresponding changes in the environment. Life and our environment are interrelated and affect each other in a process of dynamic adaptation. The interrelated nature of their respective development is evident.

Everything in nature, from the cyclical, chemical, molecula processes and the DNA of our genes up to the galactic movements in the universe, is governed by identical laws. The Cause of all movement within the universe uses feedback processes (principle of response = responsibility) to develop forms of organisation that are closely interrelated whilst at the same time linked to their common origin (re-ligio).

The complex and differentiating universality of life is based upon so-called spontaneous orders arising through resonance phenomena within the life-system. Selforganisation, higher grades of order and increasing complexity of life happen against the premises of death caused by the physical law of entropy. A synchronised connection of all forces with the energy source of sunlight (synergy of the 'powers of light') is the basis for the evolution of life on earth in towards ever greater differentiation (principle of direction = justice). Through the principles of continuously developing justice and responsibility all life is interconnected within an ecological context. This means that our future depends on universal justice, full responsibility and harmonisation with the experienced laws of life.

 

Orientation

In its blind illusion of universal feasibility and smug arrogance as a consequence of its piecemeal scientific discoveries, 'civilized' humanity has increasingly lost sight of these truths. Motivated primarily by financial or material concerns, it has largely lost any appreciation of the whole and hence failed to develop any sense of its own responsibility - its own role as an integral part of the biosphere. And not having recognised its own life-sustaining function within the universal scheme of things, it has to this day been unable to assume this task. In its spiritual immaturity it denies its own responsibility for self-created threats, submitting, at the cost of the intactness of Life, to 'necessities' that are the result of its own actions.

Its activities not being subject to genetically determined limitations, humanity has, for some 25 million years, been engaged in a physical and spiritual maturation process which has still not been completed. Darwin's concept of the 'right of the fittest' fails to do justice to Life as it is evolving. The point of the process of becoming human is the development of a truly human society and culture which, acting wisely, retains its tradition for the future. To achieve this, we need to overcome the patriarchal principle of domination and violence that has been dominant for centuries and we need to replace it by the principle of solidarity and to accept our responsibility as humanity. Only then will our cultural evolution run parallel to, and confirm rather than destroy, the genetical one.

As long as humans, unimaginative and spiritually inflexible, keep pursuing their 'happiness' in blind disregard of the given truths and exigencies of life, they are a danger to themselves as well as to others.

The self-centred acquisition and use of possessions violates the principle of wholeness and jeopardises social unity; and the same applies to the use of scientific findings for personal economic gain or to the advantage of an elitist group. Wherever the gain of one is the loss of another, the result will be a counterproductive development to the detriment of society and the environment.

Greed for power or possessions makes blind and insensitive. Those who are exclusively pursuing the interest of a financially powerful minority or a rigid ideology become unable to respond freely and without prejudice to potential threats or disturbances.

The maintaining of private property requires laws and instruments of power (=legitimised force) to protect it. This applies to individual as well as national and intellectual property. Stating this fact is of course not to dispute the individual's rights to their own home, savings account or copyright; nonetheless we must bear in mind that in every case private property (lat. privare - to rob) is wrenched from the totality of nature and thus lacking in the system as a whole (1).

Where no vital necessities are involved, this has grave consequences. The free development of natural evolution is disturbed. The result is a deficit, a debt - the splitting of life, which then serves as an energy source powering substitutional compensation processes. The corresponding split thinking in terms of opposites felt to be contradictory (man-woman, mine- yours, familiar-alien, good-evil) gives rise to a discriminating potential that is in direct opposition to life.

The process of integration and maturing as a human being requires coming to terms with one's own contradictions.

It is therefore high time for us to query our ideas concerning the meaning and purpose of life and to liberate our minds from the fetters of authoritarian belief systems. It is high time for us to clarify our attitude towards life, including the body in particular. When corporeality and sexuality are experienced in a satisfying and natural way, the result will be feelings of total acceptance of life. Those who love respect their environment and will strive to keep it intact. They are no longer so easily manipulated, nor readily subservient to the powers that be. On the other hand, an attitude that rejects the body, and thereby life, becomes a fertile ground for inferiority complexes and, by way of compensation, lust for power and greed.

A society thus marked by oppressive authoritarian power structures exhibits an increasing potential for disease, social problems and growing ecological imbalance.

The conflict between adjustment processes within nature and the misuse of possessions in a way obstructing fair distribution and further development is detrimental to evolutionary growth.

As I pointed out before: the jealous protection of property and knowledge results in a polarisation which destroys wholeness. The free flow of information is disturbed, which must create tension between property and power on the one hand and the quality of life on the other.

One person's property may easily conflict with that of another. By way of example, take on the one hand, the production of 'anti-cancer drugs', and then, the airport security measures as well as the arms industry as a whole. The discovery of the causes of cancer and its elimination would threaten the multi-billion dollar market of the pharmacy giants in the same way as the drying out of the terrorist swamp through the institution of global social justice would render the trade in armaments and the 'security market' quite obsolete. Although these days legal agreements seek to regulate the use of property, we must not overlook the close interrelationship between power, its executive and the property owners. The legislative must realise that today the most dangerous conflict no longer concerns just the interests of individual persons, groups, nations, or global corporations. It is the human intellect who, as yet quite unawares, has created an area of tension between human order and natural perfection in paradisical unity and intactness (primary, authentical and creative order = cosmos).

The term 'intactness', though, here refers to the ideal, since in fact of course everything on earth is exposed to cosmic influence like earthquakes or extra-terrestial catastrophes. However my concern here are man-made threats. We need to realise that everything is at stake: the survival of all higher life-forms on this earth.

In western civilization and its offsprings human property and the power structures designed to protect it have become more important than life. As a result, animal life remains deprived of all rights and is being exterminated, without this raising concern with most people, although their own life, too, is already in jeopardy.

Yet the massacre is crying out for termination. The faulty developments of our social systems require correction. The biosphere must be granted its own, formally safeguarded legal protection. Living creatures cannot be wilfully turned into property or divided up into possessions, for parts of Nature and environment cannot be arbitrarily multiplied according to the requirements of business. They only multiply according to the requirements of Life.

Correspondingly, human orders and systems should be constructed so as to be able to reflect Life's goals.

In our social and political organisations, responsibility as well as reverence for life and the principles safeguarding life need to be assigned the highest priority. The world needs to be released from all man-made nationalistic, economic and ideological limitations and impediments so as to maintain a healthy and truly humane dimension of life.

In terms of its usefulness for the biosphere, 'civilized' humanity, whose social orders exploit rather than preserve or enrich the existing contexts and energy flows, scores very poorly. From an ecological perspective, the behaviour of animals and plants seems much more intelligent. Even a raven mother in the successful teaching of social behaviour to her offspring may be an example to human parents who have become estranged from nature.

The alarming state of the ecological and social equilibrium on the planet is proof that the ways of thinking and teaching in the leading nations are gravely deficient. An education which deprives young people of their sensitivity and spiritual openness in favour of the ideology of their society leads to mental rigidity, and this life-denying attitude is reflected in a significant increase in physical ailments.

Recent findings in the field of psychoneuro-immunology show the influence of mental concepts on the condition of the body. We find that the individual constitution can be conditioned as a matter of principle.

The thought systems of the powerful minority world not only lack a vision encompassing the global whole but are also deficient in knowledge concerning healthy behaviour in personal matters. Their creed of "progress above all", fixated exclusively on material growth and the increase of possessions, prevents a clear perception of the laws and inherent connections governing life on earth. Our industrialized and capitalized way of living obstructs the process of increasing awareness assigned to us by nature. In their greed for domination many of the leading nations behave like rebellious students who refuse to study the subject on the curriculum (Life) and, constructing a substitute world of their own, abuse their teachers (Nature), causing havoc in their classroom (the environment). In this respect, an aggressively destructive "no future" generation accurately reflects our degenerated social reality.

The natural development process should enable us to transform our as yet largely destructive life potential into a general potential for preserving life - a potential which, rather than destroying the environment, is geared to ensuring the survival of humanity and nature. A creative potential which will spawn ideas concerning ways of organising global society accordingly. Many pre-colonial peoples, sacrificed on the altar of "progress" in the interest of power and profit, had already developed such forms of organisation.

Today, by taking into consideration most simple facts, well known since ages by indigenous people constantly in contact with nature, we need to ensure the safeguarding of the basic requirements for well-being and health all over the world. This must begin with reflecting what these basic requirements are. The use of drinking water to flush toilets, nuclear power for luxury appliances or vehicles guzzling unlimited quantities of petrol can clearly not serve as a general standard, even less so since the affluence on one side of the world must cause shortage for those on the shadow side.

Material security in itself is no guarantee of satisfaction and inner harmony, as shown by the alcoholism and drug addiction rampant in the consumerist industrialised nations. The addictive craving for pleasure or power indicates a lack of emotional security - escape into a world of substitutes at the price of fear. Our societies are experiencing a sense of futility and a crisis of values that drastically show up the inadequacy of the structures and notions developed over the years - and thereby the urgency of changing society into one committed to social security and ecological sustainability.

Precondition for the emotional security of individuals as well as nations is a general recognition that everyone is entitled to a fair and Nature protecting share of the earth's commodities. The ruling classes must cease using their positions of power for robbing those who are poor and defenceless. The purpose of a "New World Order" cannot be to stabilise the economies of industrialised nations. Globalization as a mere agglomeration for the protection of the powers of capital and industry (see MAI, the "Multilateral Agreement for Investments") has proven to be an attempt at nipping in the bud any potential resistance to certain ecologically and socially dubious practices as applied globally by the interests of finance. This clearly shows up the disregard of globalization for the sovereignty of nations. Under the guise of "progress and democratic freedom" entire national constitutions, together with their inbuilt social and ecological safeguards, are being repealed in favour of a "right to profit" claimed by corporate investors.

However, if we understand globalization as a growing together of the nations through faster and freer communication, fostering increased mutual understanding by actually getting to know each other, then this may lead to worldwide solidarity. Through joint efforts life on earth may then be transformed in the direction of more humaneness and fairness and greater environmental compatibility.

Development aid can then foster a healthy material development as well as the free expansion of an awareness by all "children of the global family" that acknowledges the right to life of all humans, creatures and regions.

Only on the basis of free personal development without dogmatic restraints can a universal morality take shape. A mature, psychologically healthy individual will be intimately connected with all forms of life on earth and aware of the common basis of all living things.

In order to support this awareness, religions and political ideologies must give up antiquated dogmas which are still creating much confusion and conflict. The true value of a religion shows itself in its acceptance of new, fitting responses that will cause our thinking to be in better correspondence with truth. Killing - whether humans or any other creatures - in the name of an imagined God or "progress" is no longer acceptable. Only authentical thinking that takes due account of life itself can spawn purposive action that will change our world.

The quality of our life is dependent upon the quality of our thinking. As we think today, so we shall live tomorrow. Hence the quality of our thinking requires our full attention. If logic and reason carry too much weight in our thinking, they will displace our playful imagination and thereby creativity. There is hardly any space left on the drawing boards of the calculating planners for the bird of paradise, the sea horse or even the tropical rain forest.

Yet the diversity of species has not come about through rational compulsion, but through the principle of self-supportive freedom (= creative chaos). Such a state is characterised by tolerance and sensitivity - attributes that we preach but to this day fail to live up to, and which we therefore urgently need to realise. Only when we are prepared in a self-responsible and creative way to strive for a common future of all living beings on earth - only then can an unerring human instinct develop from the various faulty ideologies.

A non-violent climate of spiritual freedom is conducive to global peace, generating motivation on the side of those who are helping, and work on the other side. The vision of a fair life within a global family having equal rights, of jointly celebrating, working and enjoying together, is an effective remedy against the fearful thinking in terms of competition which today still marks our political motivations. We need to change our ways of dealing with the disadvantaged nations as well as with foreign workers. There must be an end to the exploitation of those who are dependent. It is time we stopped denying our own responsibility for people seeking our help who are coming from countries whose social misery is the cause of our affluence. Instead of regarding the problems we are confronted with as an irritating burden caused by others, we should accept them as a challenge offering the chance to effect real change. Through being prepared to face problems squarely with a view to finding a fair solution, we shall gain strength as well as authority.

This authority carries with it the moral responsibility to point out injustices occurring in neighbouring countries as well as faults in the practice of our own judicial system. Human rights violations and damage to the environment incurred merely in the hope of low wages and high profits are simply unacceptable. The result is ecological disaster and social misery, indicated by the flow of refugees and asylum-seekers all over the world. And instead of being prepared to share our affluence with them, we consider them as outlaws and seek to deport them!

All these manifestations of global injustice and lack of love will end once we focus our awareness on what we have in common, on life and survival. Then also will we come to understand that, in order to safeguard the right to exist of people, animals and landscapes, we need to preserve the natural regulatory cycles on earth. Regulatory cycles of the atmosphere, of drinking water, of food chains, of sowing and reaping. Such regulatory cycles are active even in the social sphere, in our economies and bureaucracies. They are characterised by inner causal connections and evolutionary laws which serve to assign a just meaning and purpose to all that happens. Wherever we deviate from this purpose of life - either from ignorance or because of corruptly refusing to acknowledge certain connections already perceived -, we'll have to pay a high price in the form of crime, terrorism or natural disasters.

As yet our recognition of those simple and inevitable feedback mechanisms of Nature (actio=reactio) has been limited by certain concepts about God and the world which lead us to regard the possibility of absolute justice as a utopian fantasy. Much rather we would believe in certain Gods passing judgment and sons of God redeeming us whom we have linked with governmental authority and pressed into our service - Gods we are making use of to spread fear and threats whilst pursuing our dubious unfair practices under their cloak.

Whereas originally any surplus produced by ancient societies was kept as seed for the next year, it was later used to maintain a caste of priests and civil servants. Today it is serving to support the giants in banking and industry. The increase in surplus value has been gained at the cost of fair distribution. With the principle of money earning interest, Mammon was invested with a power that is threatening life today everywhere: exponential capital increase on the winner side of the financial speculators - gigantic destruction of money and material on the side of the losers among those involved in the countless economic wars.

The increasing failure of our monetary systems and economic orders clearly throws up the question of what is wrong with our policies. If we are to find a meaningful answer, we should first be willing to admit that it is a potentially deadly mistake to subordinate Life to dead values and sacrifice it to financial interests. The funds for environmental protection and social justice will continue to be inadequate for only as long as vast sums are being misused as investments in power politics (e.g. for military purposes), nuclear energy or interest payments, thus becoming unavailable for meaningful purposes. It is to be hoped that we will be prompted by loving insight to become ready to change, radically questioning and giving up familiar ways of thinking and acting, before destructive catastrophes will force us into doing so. For Life, if we continue to attack it, is surely going to turn against us.

In the hectic bustle of our industrialised world we have totally lost the radiant happiness and inner peace still exuded by many of the poorest in the underprivileged countries. Driven by a growing inner emptiness, we are rushing through life constantly haunted by a feeling of missing out on something. The lies concerning life, which have proliferated in a society solely geared to performance and profit, are causing a loss of honesty and alienation from our own nature. Love for life is being suffocated by conflicts of interests, as we've experienced with environmental legislation, with laws regulating the food industry or with the criminal reality of our secret services. It may be true that the result of our hectic way of living is material affluence and the illusion of security, yet our senses are numbed, chronic illnesses abound and our environment is dying. Is this kind of civilisation really worth us pledging our lives to it?

Our politicians could stop supporting global death by protecting special interests, could put an end to the increase in destruction and its fusing into an uncontrollable giant. Today's biblical dragons bear the names of multinational corporations and banks, whilst the present-day mythological monsters are the secret service institutions serving the political structures that depend on them.

We might overcome our destructive way of living by openly questioning the ruling ideologies and belief systems. Non-violent, hence fearless communication will enable us to heed our feelings and confidently to listen to our inner voice. In so doing, we will trustingly gain access to a world not based on causal connections, a world where new things may happen at random: to the sphere of ideas and solutions.

As we become aware of our own responsibility we cease to hold fate responsible, thus becoming free to fulfil what is our task within the framework of evolution: to serve Life.

Adopting the slogan "Wealth through economic growth" as a basis for political action, we have been sacrificing life on our earth and the creative powers of humanity for the sake of a "free market economy" - one that is in truth free only to serve specific interests. Here lies a limit set to us by Nature. The life of countries and nations is dependent upon the ideas and his own initiative of their people. It is true that, since our lack of orientation still admits all possibilities of destruction, a certain amount of control is required to realise these ideas. Up until now such control has been exercised solely with a view to supporting a certain group or specific commercial or ideological interests.

Today however it has become evident that a superpower's right to veto decisions representing the interests of a majority is unjust, and that we need to develop a form of control that is conducive to the functioning whole. The controlling of people's ideas and initiatives is acceptable only where it leads to a sound functioning of the natural and social environment in its totality.

The living context on this planet begins in the local and communal sphere and ends in the dimensions of the atmosphere. The concept of the nation state represents an immature interim product of man's social development which we have forcibly imposed upon entire continents. In the reality of life on earth there are no nation-state borders: nature does not adhere to such constructs of man's incomplete development. Instead, the biosphere knows of real boundaries: boundaries set by life itself - e.g. in the lives of the Indians, of trees, fishes etc. - which in the interest of power and profit we have so far completely ignored.

Although the effects of this neglect are becoming ever more apparent, we remain self-righteously entrenched behind the boundaries of our thought systems and ideologies. If we want to survive, we must stop this and dare to step forward. We must learn to own up to our mistakes and face the consequences. Through the formation of private lies in an attitude of stubborn defiance and prejudice, our private emotions, fears and misconceptions do have a huge effect upon certain decisions which in turn produce results in the sphere of socio-politics. Hence it is most important to openly confront and talk about our fears and insecurities.

Frankness and openly expressed feelings create closeness and trust. Therefore, too, politicians, journalists and other prominent figures affecting public opinion ought to always speak truthfully in public. For only through courageously dealing with truth in responsible dialogue can we save the foundations of all life on earth from being totally destroyed.

Christian politicians, too, share responsibility for the development of such injustice. Like the Church in Rome, which claims to be the guardian of the message of redemption and shepherd of mankind, the clergy of other religions as well have been supporting the structures of suppression, and thereby death for a large spectrum of life. Notwithstanding the severe problems we are facing globally, programmes and notions that aggravate these very same problems are still being adhered to. In view of all the misery, the poverty and the ensuing trail of death they entail, the arrogance, stupidity and lack of humane sensibility on the part of those responsible, are quite incomprehensible.

Subservient to the domination and profit motive, technological perfection must lead to spiritual emptiness. However, if we focus our attention on the principle of honesty and global cooperation based on emotional security, people's creativity will be able to develop naturally in a way conducive to public welfare. The greed engine will be stalled and the ride into the dead-end alley of substitute pleasures come to an end. Meaningful development "in the service of the whole of society" will be the outcome. This kind of development regulates itself according to the requirements of Life. In contrast to destructive technological progress development in this sphere will slow down to a healthy degree, thus enabling the development of metaphysical insight to keep pace.

A parallel development of material world and human understanding will result in cultural development. Such a development is aware of the boundaries of living space and will remain within the system of the biosphere that is designated for life. This realisation is conducive to inner orientation and sovereignty. A meditative integration of calculating reason and sensitivity can now take place, which will enrich us emotionally: we are gaining understanding and losing our fear, feeling secure. Thus we are no longer able to be manipulated, but attaining an autonomy supportive of the Whole. Spreading peace and love, our individual lives become meaningful to life on our planet.

As soon as human society starts to focus on reality of life, it will be able to promote the standards of peace and tolerance. The development in the realm of the material, spiritual and essential runs parallel and coherent, keeping our awareness attached to the true quality of life without which we are lost. The culture of the future again will be a culture of healing with a love for life, or else there will be none.

This idea corresponds to the views of many religions concerning our goal. The goal is indeed Paradise, a nest of love - however, set in the Here and Now. That's what is new and old at the same time, as we all derive from there. Once we comprehend that the biblical 'beyond' is nothing but the present waiting for us, to be politically realised by ourselves, the human psyche can develop a spiritual framework for action conducive to life. Any metaphysical or pseudo-religious embellishments of traditional frameworks will then come to a natural demise. We'll obtain a truly human orientation which will put an end to the creation of benefits for the few to the detriment of others.

Intellectuals might then begin, apart from pointing out current flaws and grievances, also to clarify historical lies and errors of the past, specifically keeping in view the religious leaders (not only in Rome), so as to clean up the trail of death left by intolerance. Past political mistakes as well as religious errors are still affecting us today. Latin America, Africa, India and many other countries are still being adversely affected by developments imposed upon them by European colonisers.

Still not really having come to terms with our history, we are suffering from the effects of unclear religious ideas and future perspectives. This applies to the Christian, the Jewish and the Islamic world, as well as the Eastern world - we are all suffering from our non-compliance with the requirements of nature due to fanatical schisms and self-righteous overestimation.

We are suffering from a lack of trust in the power of pluralistic dialogue. We are suffering from the negative effects of suppressed human history. We are mutually suffering under one another because, in spite of all religions, we lack a common orientation that would be conducive to peace.

Things are simpler for plants and animals whose instinctive behaviour patterns are genetically determined and have socially developed. Thus for us, too, the golden key to a hopeful future lies in a process of maturation of humanity - leading to a comprehensive awareness of responsibility along with general patterns of behaviour that are supportive of life rather than destroying it. Worry about our personal security and affluence needs to give way to trust, in the certainty that each of us has a contribution to make to the further development of life.

Our ways of relating, both on a personal level and in the field of international politics, will then be imbued by a new a spirit of healing. Open and honest communication will create a culture of supportive togetherness on all levels of being. Together we'll learn from the mistakes of the past. Weapons as a political instrument will be laid to rest, alongside the intimidatory trappings of power, in the graveyard of history.

In future, war will no longer be an acceptable method of conflict resolution. The media will contribute through courageously disclosing the motivation of opposing sides whilst the individual will be personally involved by scrutinising the issue of the conflict. Power-political interests will no longer gain any kind of support: all those forces who failed to learn the lessons of history and are continuing to subscribe to the principle of domination through violence will be treated as pariahs and subjected to political isolation and economic sanctions by the international community. Nonetheless the concerns of each party to the conflict should be taken seriously and our hands held out with the offer of support so that without resorting to violence a bridge to peaceful coexistence can be constructed. A decision for peace is being made among enemies who will become friends. International peacehelpers will replace military forces to solve conflicts in a peaceful way.

The sowing of violence, naively considered 'harmless' as portrayed in children's comics, computer games and other entertainment media must also come to an end; only then can an atmosphere of mutual respect and reverence for life be created in which we'll learn how to stave off the threatening global disaster. By making available the capital today still earmarked for military purposes or frozen in countless dormant bank accounts, we shall obtain the means to redress the current social problems and environmental damage.

The infrastructural potential of our armies can be meaningfully utilized in the fields of health, transport and communication in the as yet disadvantaged countries. The problem of hunger can be solved by giving up animal production - absurd as it is in terms of energy use alone - in favour of an agriculture in harmony with natural conditions. If we use the food provided by nature without industrially refining and chemically polluting it, we'll gain twofold: through a decline in the number of civilized ailments and by having enough to feed all.

Through giving up our fixation on profit maximisation we'll be able to achieve a clearer view of the consequences of our actions. We'll put an end to the waste of WoMan Power, material and energy also in the area of the virtual battlefield of the stock market. We'll accept the integrity of genetic information as it developed in the course of evolution and will thus be very careful and restrictive in the field of human manipulation of genetic structures. We'll regain our potential for averting the growing danger of self-destruction.

One of the marks of culturally mature populations is a life lived in the awareness of responsibility. People who are physically and spiritually satisfied will be immune to irresponsible advertising designed to coax them into increasing consumption of all kinds of merchandise. If demand is not artificially stirred up, the existing resources will also benefit future generations.

Clean industries will use production systems and processing principles in accordance with nature, thereby ensuring an effective and unpolluting circulation of energy and material resources. Utilizing the natural power sources of sun, wind and water, we will be copying proven laws of life as provided by Nature. Imitating life we will recognise that the centuries-old search for a perpetuum mobile has not been in vain. Not being the inventors of life we can never lay legal claims to patent rights, but as participants in life and in Nature we are surely allowed continuous use of what they provide.

Due to its inherent dynamics and organisation, life on earth represents a miracle which, when allowed to move without restraint, is able to augment the degree of order on our planet to the benefit of us all. Pursuing a policy of ecological compatibility and social justice, man-made systems, too, can work in a way conducive to a minimisation of entropy - i.e. so as to preserve rather than destroy. In this way our work will contribute to the maintainance of the world as the haven of peace, embedded in ever nourishing Nature.

We'll transform our dreams and longings into ideals concerning life which we will then formulate as political objectives - thus laying the groundwork for an equitable social system, a compatible economy and a culture unfettered by ideology or religious dogma. So as in the interest of survival to adapt the constitutions and legal foundations of all nations ever better to the requirements of global unity, we'll subject them to ongoing adjustment processes. To the extent to which compassion for the global life community becomes the focus of our awareness, the working of a unified humanity in synergy with Nature will be regarded a matter of course and accelerate the re-organisation of the international regulatory systems.

The current processes of social change evident all over the world offer new opportunities of coping with existing problems. Yet certain social excesses can be healed only through the creation of a climate of therapy.

Every individual can contribute to this by assuming a conscious behaviour based on a willingness to learn. We need to develop an unbiased social awareness so as to be able to recognise reactionary, domination-serving trends in the organs of government and the churches, and to put an end to them through dissident behaviour, i.e. withdrawing our personal support. Only in this way can we protect ourselves from certain counter-evolutionary obstructions and their "fateful" consequences which keep raising their ugly head.

An active spiritual sharing in the personal sphere and courageous commitment to the social and ecological goals will lead to the sensitivity and flexibility of our social institutions that are prerequisite to meeting the challenges of the future. It is my hope that a continuing discussion of the causal connections and theses here presented may prepare the groundwork for fora whose statements will serve as pointers to an evolutionary future.

1) Privatization serving without alternative as an alleged general remedy of neoliberalism is more than a deception of the public. Privatized common properties do not fall into private hands within democratically controlled areas of jurisdiction in favour of public welfare. On the contrary, they enrich global corporations, which factually write their own law and which use their monopoly for further plunder of the planet. Neoliberalism is nothing but a global raid of those in power who indisputably try to expropriate life itself. Neoliberalism reveals by commercial reasoning and acting the apocalyptic character of a world order where violence, hypocrisy and cynicism flourish: alternative solutions are being negated or ridiculed and even criminalized when the desired effects fail to appear. Actually without alternative are the results of neoliberal policy: environmental destruction, perpetuated terror and war and further social decline on a global scale.

here is more on the subject: http://emanzipationhumanum.de/english/titels.html#1

 (german version) (spanish version)

- Belen Balanya, Ann Doherty, Olivier Hoedeman, Adam Ma' anit & Erik Wesselius, EUROPE INC: Regional & Global Restructuring and the Rise of Corporate Power. London, Pluto Press, 2000
- Veronika Bennholdt-Thomsen, Nick Faraclas und Claudia von Werlhof (Hg), There is an Alternative. Subsistence and worldwide Resistance to Corporate Globalization, London, zed press, 2001
- Saral Sarkar, Eco-Socialism or Eco-Capitalism? A critical analysis of humanity's fundamental choices, Zed Books, London 1999

see also: Globalization And Responsibility, Alexander N. Yakovlev

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Emanzipation Humanum, version 02. 01, criticism, suggestions as to form and content, dialogue, translation into other languages are all desired

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http://emanzipationhumanum.de/english/responsibility.html

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