Bahá’í World/Volume 28/Detachment Shall Lead to Redemption
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Ricardo Young, national coordinator of
the Pensamento Nacional c/as Bases Empresariais andfounder ()fthe Brazilian chapter Ofthe World Business Academy, outlines the needfbr a spiritual evolution in theface Qf'humanizjv is declining morality.
DETACHMENT SHALL LEAD To REDEMPTION
When I read Who is Writing the F uture?, I was overcome by the pleasant feeling of having been thrust into one of the most beautiful retrospectives of humankind’s history, where grandeur and the ability to redeem more than offset weaknesses and Viciousness.
It has become a common theme in the late twentieth century to take the part for the whole, the moment for the process, the fact for history, reaction for reflection, the incidental for the norm. Many times our vision is obscured by hopelessness that the complexity of the world seems to imply.
This text, however, affirms the opposite. It focuses on the process that made the twentieth century the most challenging chapter in the history ofhumankind, wherein humanity, like a pendulum movement, has oscillated from holocaust to awareness of its unity and interdependence. The civilization that has evolved over the last one hundred years represents a geometric progression of achievements that make the preceding centuries pale, however emblematic they might have been. In this setting, the text is extremely insightful, maintaining that social evolution and
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technological evolution are actually instruments for the ultimate fulfillment of human consciousness and human potential, and establishing a causal relationship between these two aspects.
If it’s true that humankind’s ultimate achievement is consummated in the maximum expansion of its consciousness and spirituality, together with a deep understanding of the meaning of its journey in this cosmic fragment, it follows that we’ve never been so Close to an unprecedented leap in our comprehension of the meaning oflife. The intense flow of events that culminated with the technological revolution has eliminated long—standing barriers of time and space, creating a proximity among individuals and a complicity among peoples which, painful as it is, summons everyone to a new dimension of solidarity. The planet no longer passively accepts the wars and abuses of this or that government. The recent examples in Kosovo and East Timor show that humankind is increasingly alert against authoritarian ventures and the disrespect of human rights. In the case of Kosovo, one could not but notice the concern of allied forces to spare lives in their air raids—paradoxical as this might seem. The so—called surgical war would have been unthinkable a few decades ago.
We are living in extraordinary times that would have seemed miraculous to our forebears. However, side by side with this, human beings cannot dispel the threat of existential emptiness, the absence of values, the evanescence of references. Paraphrasing Marshall Berman’s book about the modern experience, “all that is solid melts into air.” In spite of all the revolutions we have made, it seems we’ve reached the threshold of the twenty-first century without having undergone a major transformation: understanding that the attainment of supreme happiness emanates from within ourselves. What moves human beings closer to the divine is not their ability to manipulate matter or control nature, but their ability to love. Behind every great transformation undergone by humankind, there is a story of faith, persistence, and detachment. Heroic or simple feats spring forth from the detached search for something one believes is essential. In this century, amidst many horrors, we have also seen Gandhis, Mother Teresas, and
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Mandelas affecting the destiny of millions and helping them through painful passages in their search for dignity and a meaningful life. This is perhaps the last great challenge through which humankind will find redemption from its sufferings in the next century: detachment.
The now-global consumer society conjoins with the technological and communications revolution in a very perverse manner. While notions of space and time disappear, local references, values, cultural traditions, and ethics appear to cede to the appeals of a glamorized global consumer society. This is nothing new: the consumer society is one of the landmarks of the twentieth century. What is new is the scale on which this is happening. The media try to lead us to believe that only news has valueand, at the same time, that any news is universal. The death of a child becomes a global fact while violence is banalized, exaggerated ad nauseam by the media. What is the logic of this? Sensationalism thrills people, vampirizes their energies, assures that TV sets are kept on, quantified in ratings that translate simply into greater visibility for advertisers. In the end, advertisers become accomplices to the exploitation of violence, even if their first intention was to promise additional degrees of happiness to spectators who consume their products.
A total change in mindset is called for. We must not mistake the enormous material progress achieved by humankind in the twentieth century on the material plane for attainments on the moral, psychic, and spiritual planes. We must achieve an awareness capable of reflecting on the meaning of life, an awareness that strives to sunder values from material security, prestige from power, by seeking out those who may bring human beings into contact with enduring philosophy—that which has existed and guided human existence since time immemorial. Our education must concern itself with this philosophy, with learning to think, with the meaning of life, with the interdependence of beings, with the planet’s systemic unity. We need to have citizens functioning in the world who are aware of their limitations and fascinated by the infinite possibilities of spaceship earth. We need to stimulate a new solidarity that understands that a fairer distribution of the
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planet’s wealth and resources is not a charitable action, but a necessity that imposes itself upon future generations. Financial capital will sooner or later be seen as accumulation of wealth on top of misery and, as such, something unsustainable that will lead to ruin and waste on an unprecedented scale—as the successive crises in Asia, Russia, Mexico, and Brazil have shown.
My intention in this article is not to proselytize but to highlight the fact that the “century of light” merely shows us a fascinating course of possibilities: from deliverance from illness to longevity; from mobility throughout the planet to the elimination of distances; from multicultural to intercultural; from a connection between everyone to the integration of the whole. However, these possibilities will be awesome or merely ephemeral depending on how humankind evolves in bringing them about. We must reflect deeply on the role of education and knowledge in building our tomorrow.
Citizens of the world are those who acknowledge as their home any place on earth, who appreciate diversity by seeing in it infinite manifestations of unity. Because they understand unity, citizens of the world see the indissoluble role of synergic relationships and of interdependence. Citizens of the world perceive the relativity of the individual but know that only through their own identity will they be able to contribute to a mosaic whose richness is directly related to the multiplicity of manifestations. The splendor of the stained glass in the main nave of Notre Dame Cathedral is not in the evanescent colors of thousands of tiny fragments, nor in the indefiniteness of their shapes. It is the pattern emanating from the thousands of pieces of glass that scintillate when they refract sunlight that leads us to trances of unbelievable beauty. The pattern of light and color emanating from Monet’s Water Lilies results from thousands of attempts, expressed in infinite brushstrokes, to reproduce the unique sensation produced by light being reflected in the undulations of water in a small lake in Giverny. The richness of unity is in direct proportion to the richness of the multiples that compose it.
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Thus, in the times to come, the more planetary the integration of the human species, the greater the need for cultural diversity, for preserving traditions, for cultural identity.
When we reflect on education, we must consider two fundamental aspects: the speed with which information transforms acquired knowledge, and the formation of an individual’s character. This means, in practice, teaching how to learn and stimulating the development of critical and autonomous reasoning skills. Domenico de Masi, the Italian sociologist, says the cun‘iculum Of the school of the future will have only three disciplines: mathematics (logic), philosophy (perennial knowledge and cognitive skills), and languages (cultural repertoire and the ability to understand and make oneself understood by others). Thus, while the twenty—first century heralds stimulating perspectives, it will also be a century during which humankind will have to reinvent itself. Reinventing oneself means gaining an in-depth understanding of our interdependence and our planetary responsibility. Are we prepared for this? Are we intellectually up to this? Have we evolved spiritually enough to attain an adequate awareness of what this represents?
I believe that the next decades will be marked by a profound revision of education and society. We know that, in spite of numerous advances in technology, the future will not sustain itself if it continues to be based on the unlimited expansion of the consumer society, on the systematic dissolution of humanist values, on the culture of individualism, and on the expansion of extreme poverty and unemployment. It would be painfully ironic if humankind, after struggling for centuries to free itself from barbarism, were now to succumb to it. We will find a way outand we know it. However, this deliverance can be less or more painful, according to our awareness of what must be done. It seems to me that we must use progress in technology and communications to prepare ourselves for this tomorrow. The media, the entertainment industry and the means of communication in general should, instead of exploiting the darker side of our times and the easy emotions and credulity of citizens, convey the numerous silent and unseen ways by which millions of people
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are transforming this planet, day after day, into a better place to live.
Instead of trying to control violence through fear, we should consider the causes of violence and demonstrate how to dismantle all forms of savagery in day-to-day actions. Are people who use drugs, for instance, aware of the direct connection between addiction and organized violence? We must dispel the built-in fear in sensationalism and nurture positive actions. We must stimulate solidarity as a force of collective transformation. We must give voice to the profound revolution now in progress, being carried out by non-governmental organizations and by civil society. We should stimulate voluntary work as a corollary to the increasing idleness that technology creates through unemployment. We must understand the deep changes in the very meaning of work at the onset of the millennium.
We certainly have much to do, but nothing that we must do is devoid of a greater meaning. Not for one instant should we belittle the transforming role of education in forming the character of individuals. Nor should we ever scorn the incredible resources that technology has now made available. The act of teaching is also that of learning. Thus, teachers must become the new navigators of our age, disclosing the infinite possibilities of this new world and transforming it in a laboratory of integrated learning. Interdependence, unity, equality, life, justice, and other concepts indispensable to forming the character of individuals must pervade every nook and cranny where education occurs. And we know that education is increasingly occurring everywhere, all the time. Each and every experience has an educational aspect and we are all summoned to become apprentices and teachers at the same time. Are we prepared?
The future can be extraordinary. Humankind has not yet awakened to the powers it has developed. Only now are we beginning to perceive the extension of possibilities we have created for our future. Will we be able to think as a unit that is integrated with the planet and its ecosystem, elevating life to its divine condition? The awakening of our consciousness depends on this. We have never been so close to integrating everything in
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the whole—and, at the same time, never has everything seemed so distant from the whole. Spirituality, planetary consciousness, ethical values, an ordering Vision, detachment, and loving care are concepts of ultimate importance that will acquire an enhanced sense ofurgency in the next millennium.
Let us enter this fantastic age with open minds and peaceful hearts. With our eyes focused on the world, let’s get down to work, because everything still remains to be done.
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