Transcript of: Love, Power and Justice
William S. Hatcher
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[0:00] Have one's titles of the old world order being displayed in such a fashion after we heard abdel Baha'i talks about what he considers to be his greatest privilege pleas e a elena della demanded the committee executive assistant edited by underplays auntie Iqan and well me more the locals assemble jozy Tahirih guatemalan president turkey wanted tp Iran the confidence and win social question ray and see stay to the book says your lamp off john's confidence and well that's so sensational visited by d c they teams of intel johnson will be more of the same values that's what's just visited by a code of the day so the dificil last was just humor visited by over on visa racial connie and sure the deficit Akka confronting said the taliban the theater community Bahiyyih Akka swallow swallow particulary shown vacuum that value to tom mento counted upon world the nouveau model the big issue at the core of the mission of the association for by studies he is indeed the promotion and encouragement of studies off and on the Baha'i faith and its application to the needs of humanity in keeping with the principles of the baha'i faith one of the central features of this work is therefore the development of a practice of scholarship which is rooted in the writings which is guided by the preeminence given in these writings to knowledge and learning to the gift of the intellect as a builder i called it and which is endowed with the prominent functions of the promotion of human welfare and the consolidation of the Baha'i community this is not a simple order it is quite different it is quite a departure from what is considered scholarship particularly in the academic world in this time in the Baha'i context there for what we need to look at is that scholarship is as much your practice and the process as it is a product it is primarily characterized by the attitude of the scholar one which is distinguished as Baha'u'llah puts it in leanings by four barron's and benevolence or as abdul Baha'i rights, ethical conduct and virtuous character universal's of justice in what spring of guidance talks about one of the characteristics of intellectual pursuit and talks about honesty and humility among the individuals who throughout the history of the baha'i faith and within the Baha'i community have become an accord here from the international teaching center have become widely recognized for their scholarship and was intellectual pursuits were in which by their abiding devotion to the faith and a compelling desire to teach the faith was assemble using some values he was a historian trained at the university of beirut and at the northern school of economics among his remarkable studies which sure all of you know we can find the howl of the king of glory abdul Baha'i the center of the covenant of Baha'u'llah and imminent behinds in the time of Baha'u'llah when mr values he died in nineteen eighty new universal's of justice commanded in its measured to the Baha'i world on quote his outstanding scholarly pursuits this is the reason why the association for Baha'i studies decided shortly after the passing of assemble, using to honor his memory by creating the s and values the memorial lecture delivered at the time of the annual conference by a distinguished individual who has made outstanding contribution two Baha'i college scholarship but as well has a distinguished record off placing her or his life in the service of the baha'i faith way have with us today when such individual and this is the reason why this year especially as we are here in the province of quebec where he resides, that we have has not a william hatcher to be the recipient of the assad bubble values the memorial lecture i'm sure most of you know doctor hatcher and his biography is on page eighteen how your program so well not point out all of his old world titles you can read them for yourself. What i want mostly to point out is that here is an individual who has had the capacity and the will to put his scholarship is intellect this gift of god to the service of the faith to not on lee increase understanding of the Baha'i revelation and its multiple facets but also to increase the understanding of others indanan Baha'i world to the marvels of Baha'u'llah is revolution most of you know that for many years as the members of the national special assembly of canada as a professor of mathematics at laval university has contributed to this in canada itself in north america but you may not know or may not realize that for five years of torture lived in russia and contributed to the rising awareness of the faith in russia particularly among intellectual circles he spent two and a half years specifically as an invited researcher at the stake law of mathematical institute in san petersburg and he was of course in contact with many intellectuals scientists in russia and russian mine is a very sophisticated mine which does not easily become convince of anything and therefore having had the opportunity of having doctor hatcher being in russia in order to right raise the profile of the baha'i faith was certainly an achievement let me just say one last word not a hatcher is mentioned in the encyclopaedia philosophy can either sell as one of the eight contemporary pleat earnest philosophers i think that it is quite on the treatment in itself to be recognized by this nasik low p d which is the largest encyclopedic work people yet since did a whole encyclopedia in the eighteenth century doctor hatcher is going to talk to us about love power and justice literature uh i want to say um before i start the lecture proper that i'm very honored and gratified had being invited to give the hassan values the lectures um i only met hasan but easy once briefly at the international congress and royal albert hall in london in uh nineteen sixty three but of course i like most of us have read his many works that scholarship on the faith and as you know douglas martin and i when we wrote the behind faith emerging global religion we added a detailed appendix about e g brown in the Baha'i faith which draws heavily on ah hassan values the scholarship in this area um so i think that it will be years and even centuries before we were able to appreciate the ultimate effects off what has on valued he did uh the second thing i want to say is whoever's in charge of this that it is now to two minutes to two o'clock according to my watch ah, because i think it will take about an hour during the election and i don't want to get into arguments that people here okay theme often too city in human relationships comes to the forefront of world literature in the nineteenth century i'm thinking off foot waters as dostoevsky, tolstoy, gibson, victor hugo, mark twain, ambrose bierce and philosophers such as cook a guard the steam of authenticity seems to emerge almost spontaneously in all parts of the world in the literature and that's why i mentioned writers both russian writers and american writers, french writers such as hugo and so long with some of course um necessary over generalization the basic theme of this literature is the following the first is that the true meaning of our existence human existence consists in the establishment of authentic relationships between and among human beings. According to this view of the human condition, nothing else can possibly be the meaning of human existence other than the establishment of authentic into human relationships. Everything else which has a value has a value on lee in so far that contribute to this at the same time, this literature also presents the human condition as being one in which most human beings are incapable ah sustaining authentic relationships, for example. Most people will, under certain circumstances betray their friends and loved ones. Let me just say a word about what i mean by authenticity though this will become clearer as i go along when i speak of an authentic relationship between two people i mean a totally reciprocal relationship based on the mutual recognition off the universal value that is intrinsic to an inherent in each human being the mark of authenticity in human relations is the presence of self sacrificing love or altruism. Now these perceptions of these writers of these literary genius is a no less a figure than harold bloom uh in his recent book the western canon has said that in his opinion tolstoy is perhaps the greatest writer since shakespeare and that tolstoy is the only one who approaches shakespeare's ability to depict to the human condition and all of its richness be that as it may uh these figures that i've named were literary giants and so their perception uh of this twin perception that authenticity is the meaning of life and that most human beings are incapable of sustaining authenticity gives rise to certain cultural solutions to this problem i'll call this the problem of authenticity for the problem of authenticity is the necessity off um creating authentic relationships and the difficulty that most people have in doing that so i want first to look at several different cultural solutions the thesis that i will be presenting in the first instance is that the great ideologies of the twentieth century have been driven by the various cultural solutions to the problem of authenticity in other words i've come to believe and i will defend this thesis in the course of my lecture that it is not the logical content or the substantive content of these ideologies which is of any significance whatsoever that these ideologies are all symbolic of the frustrated will to authenticity this also will become kira's i go along so let me uh give some examples the first is what i perceived to be the russians solution to this problem the russian solution is roughly as follows a man is condemned to the noble pursuit of an impossible goal that is the russians say this is the human condition we are condemned to the noble pursuit of an impossible goal the meaning of life then consists not an external success quit is largely considered to be impossible in any case the meaning of life consists rather than in the nobility and dignity with which one accepts and deals with the often negative realities of the human condition the sufferings, the injustices, the fundamental expression of human freedom then lies not an external success but in the care with which one chooses one's friends which are perceived as comrades in arms in the fight against the sufferings of life this russian solution also gives rise to what i call the thirst for absolutes which i believe is the dominant characteristic of the so called russian soul this thirst for absolutes created conditions for the russian people to accept the absolutist doctrine of communism which seeks to establish an absolutely egalitarian society thus to establish authentic relations by social decree marks was after all the social determinants and marks incidentally was not a lover of humanity you despise common humanity he called them the lupin proletariat the proletariat was not the suffering people like you and me on dh the homeless and everything it was the working class and industrial england was a very precise class and the bourgeoisie was also a very precise class full marks was not did not see himself as a universal saviour he saw himself as fostering the revolution off the proletariat to overthrow a identifiable class which wass uh the bourgeoisie um this fundamental social determinism of marxism in shines a contradiction namely the attempt to obtain altruistic behavior without altruistic motivation marks made the following state it was linen who made the statement about religion being the opium of the people marks never said that mark said something which is even in fact more vicious mark said religion is the heart of the heartless world religion is the heart of a heartless world in other words what mark is saying if this keeps going down in a little extra pressure um you see what marks was saying was that religion has always claimed to touch and change the human heart the great religious saviors of the past have talked about the human heart about love and so long but look at the world marks and say look at the injustice look at slavery look at the way women are treated er so it is obvious marks said religion has failed, religion has failed and so why is religion fail ? Because human motivation can't be changed people are essentially selfish and egotistical and aggressive and that's the way they will always beat but what you can do he has changed the structure of a society in such a way that you have altruistic behavior even without altruistic motivation. So this was the fundamental internal contradiction if i may borrow from marx himself off marxism so that's one solution the russian solution, the thirst for absolutes, the noble pursuit of an impossible goal on the value given to human relations as as a solidarity and the struggle against the sufferings of life. Now let's go to the other poll and look at what is the american solution to the problem. Since authenticity is difficulty to achieve, we dedicate ourselves creating the best substitutes possible. Of course this is also a contradiction in that the goal is to achieve fake sincerity. As orel roberts son said when he was receiving the mantle from his father, he said, the most important thing is sincerity when you can think that you've got it made so starting with hollywood movies in the beginning of the century which all have about three different plots that air essentially the same um leading to the disney view of life and eventually to disney world with television beginning in the nineteen fifties and now virtual reality american culture has become a vast to machine for the generation of illusions, so this was the american solution and others in a certain sense the russian solution wass if we can achieve authenticity, at least we won't take substitutes we will not give up we will nobly pursued this impossible goal we will not compromise whereas in a certain sense the american solution was well why not create the best possible substitute you know europe has been caught in the twentieth century between the russian bear and the american eagle the dominant european ideology of the twentieth century has been fascism fascism essentially combines the authoritarianism off communism or stalinist communism and the elitism of american individualistic capitalism it is so to speak the words of both worlds now my thesis again is that these movements which have largely determined the character of life in the twentieth century have been mainly driven not by their abstract ideological content which has been endlessly debated but rather by the fact that they are expressions however distorted of a frustrated will to authenticity these ideologies served i believe as psychological defense mechanisms to avoid confronting the frustration off relation along authenticity they serve to legitimize inauthentic behavior such as for example making heroes out of murderers, rapists and torture and other words this inauthentic behavior grossly an authentic ah becomes not a blight on your character but you become a hero if you torture in the name of marks are or hitler or whatever. So um in other words, i'm thing that you will not derive any useful understanding of russia or russians by an intellectual analysis of marx's theory but rather by looking at the thirst for authenticity that made the russians willing to embark on the communist experiment on such a vast scale is a matter of fact it's quite clear that linen simply used the vocabulary of communism to foster his own power there was no bourgeoisie in russia there was no industry in russia uh let me just mention a few facts in this regard russian serfs were freed in eighteen sixty one by saw alexander the second at that point in eighteen sixty one ninety percent of the population of russia within flavoring ninety percent now black slavery in the united states never attained more than twenty five percent of the public i'm not saying that that's nothing of course but he will have to agree that there is it nonetheless in minutes difference between twenty five percent and ninety percent more over the russian service serfdom was justice cruel and just his brutal as black flavor he was in the southern united states the russian surf had no rights of the human being he could be tortured, maimed, killed with impunity he had no legal redress whatsoever he was not a legal person he was entirely owned by his master and of course those of you who have read you know, the novels of say dostoyevsky and so on you know that the description of what was done to these people and told story also writes about this now as i say the serfs were freed in eighteen sixty one sold in they became a vast illiterate peasantry and within one generation you have the communist revolution which re enslaved them so that's the history of russia in the twenty century ok one generation out of slavery they were re in flavor by linen who using putatively the ideology of mark's simply decreed that the peasants were the proletariat that there was no proletariat in russia there was no industry in russia so there was no proletariat nor was there a bourgeoisie there was just a thin layer of intellectuals and aristocrats living almost totally in either moscow or st petersburg and that was the structure of russian society this vast delivered peasantry capped with this a handful of intellectuals and aristocrats located almost entirely in two cities so as i say at that time in the beginning of the twentieth century everybody was talking about socialism in germany, france, england everywhere united states everybody was talking about socialism but the on ly country that undertook a socialist experiment on such a massive scale was russia so what i'm suggesting is that the reason why they did that has nothing to do with socialist theory whatsoever it had to do with the spiritual condition of the russian people in other words what i'm suggesting among other things is that whatever you think how a misguided we may regard this experiment it is also amazing amount of courage uh that is shown in the willingness to suffer such dislocations in the name of the pursuit of an egalitarian society. Similarly, in my view we cannot understand america in terms of the endless public travel about democracy and human rights but rather when we see that american culture is primarily about self indulgent attempts to avoid even the minimal degree of pain and suffering and self restraint that is necessary to the achievement of authenticity in human relationships if i think explains the insensitivity off americans to the prevailing suffering that exists in that society according to official government statistics of the u s one fifth of the population lives below the poverty line most of these are single black mothers and nobody cares about these people uh because again there's the myth that america is the land of opportunity everybody khun go as far as their abilities can carry them everybody's free to pursue their success so if these people have chosen toe have babies out of wedlock instead of getting a good education and a good job well that's their free choice there's no social injustice and so on you say so how does one remain insensitive to this degree of suffering ? I think it's on ly by this it only shows simply that is actually this public discourse about human rights and so on is in fact again a defense mechanism against uh the realization off that these relationships are not authentic nor can any analysis of the trivial but pernicious doctrines of national socialism explained to us why and only one generation hitler was able to lead the german people in tow overthrowing all of the fundamental values enshrined and their philosophical and cultural tradition recall that only a few generations intervene between khan's categorical imperative and the nazi death camps. Now look at the doctrines of national soul socialism you know, bread, freedom, work and so on and all of these things and is that going to tell you what enabled hitler to convert the german people from this uh, you know, with their philosophical tradition into a people in one generation who did all the things i think what you see the behind solution to the problem of achieving authenticity and human relationships is roughly the following. It is indeed impossible for us to achieve this alone, but with the conscious help of god it is possible and practically achievable indeed this is the very purpose for which Baha'u'llah has come in other words, the key to establishing authentic lateral relationships between and among human beings lives and establishing authentic vertical relationship both individually and collectively collectively between god and ourselves. The fundamental relationship of human existence is an ongoing dialogue between god and ourselves. We can just say that soviet marxism deliberately excluded god and attempted to achieve authenticity in terms of a lateral dialectic instead of a vertical dialogue, marxism is the two dimensional projection of a three dimensional process. Americans have not only included god but have attempted to appropriate him as an aid to the fabrication of their very a substitute for authenticity. Everything from drug you for you to sexual indulgence is somehow seen is an expression of a sincere quest for authentic spirituality robin as the ephemeral, inauthentic pursuits they in fact are the fundamental question we now ask is the following if indeed the pursuit of relational authenticity is the fundamental task in meaning of human existence, why has there been so little of it ? What in our history has prevented us from achieving authenticity ? The fact that authenticity has not prevailed in our history is witnessed by the persistence in our history ah fundamental injustice is such a slavery, economic exploitation, racism and the oppression of women we inherit the history of injustice recall again that authentic relationships as i define them are symmetrical, whereas these relationships of slavery, domination and so on are asymmetrical relationships Baha'u'llah has answer to this question that is why we inherit this history of injustice is the pursuit of power route of historical injustice has been the pursuit of power, not the exercise of power, even the misuse of power but the pursuit of power as an end in itself ? Well, let me read a quotation where Baha'u'llah talks about this he says and among the realms of unity is the unity of rank and station it redounds to the exaltation of the cause drawing find yet among all peoples ever since the seeking off preference and distinction came into play the world has been laid waste it has become desolate very seven ever since the seeking of preference in this thinking he doesn't say preference in distinction he says the act of seeking it as an end in itself ever since that this has come into play the world has been laid waste, it has become desolate those who have quashed from the ocean of divine veterans and fix their gaze upon the rim of glory should regard themselves as being on the same level as the others and in the same station were this matter to be definitely established in conclusively demonstrated through the power and might of god the world would become as thea Baha'i paradis well, we say that that's what the behind states is about is bringing about the kingdom of god on earth. And we know that the aba ha paradise is the metaphor that ball i uses to describe the kingdom of god so Baha'u'llah is telling us right here what is the essential condition for bringing about the kingdom of god hold in other words, for accomplishing the goal that stated goal of the by faith it is the renunciation of the pursuit of power were this matter those he says, who have fixed the ocean and songs on fixed their gaze on the ocean Ridvan evidence and so on should regard themselves as being on the same level and station as the others others they should renounce the pursuit of power the only way you can consider yourself on the same level in station as everybody else is not to seek power over other people, right ? And he says, were this matter to be definitely established ? Then the apart paradise would come indeed man is noble, inasmuch as each one is a repository design of god. So each person does have powers he's not saying that power doesn't exist nevertheless, to regard oneself as superior and knowledge learning or virtue are to exalt oneself, or to seek preference is a grievous transgression. Now notice again, he's not saying that there aren't people who are superior and knowledge learning a virtue, what he's saying is that whoever these people are, they're not the ones who think that they are superior and knowledge learning virtue ok, let me read it again nevertheless, as to regard oneself as superior knowledge, learning your virtual exalt oneself or to seek preference is a grievous transgression, so by the very fact of considering yourself superior to somebody else, you have made yourself morally inferior to that person, and this and other passages Baha'u'llah give us the key to understanding our history power is pursued either socially by occupying those roles to which society has attributed power and status or else by competition which is the search to out perform the other in some manner with a view to attributing a super value to yourself as the winner off the competition now notice that power relationships are intrinsically asymmetrical this is very important it's not an accident it's not that we have to pursue power although that's still try to mitigate it with a little bit of love we cannot each have power over the other at the same time and in the same way there was this logically impossible that i have power over perry even he had power over me at the same time and in the same way this is logically impossible so the pursuit of power or power based relations are intrinsically asymmetrical. Similarly we cannot each out perform the other in the same respect and at the same time competition is thus also inherently asymmetrical. Now why do we pursue power so that the conclusion there which i thought was clear but maybe i should say explicitly then is that uh if we say that authenticity of the goal and often to city is a reciprocal relationship, then it is absolutely clear that we can never achieve authenticity as long as power orientation in competition is the basis of our relationships but calls they inevitably lead to asymmetrical relationships of dominance now why do we pursue power ? Well of course there is one answer which many materialists give in which marx gave which is that people pursue power because the people are are just animals because people are intrinsically aggressive and egotistical and they always want power and so on so on however the Baha'i faith gives another answer and so i won't waste time a sort of refuting the material is answer though i do do this in the love power injustice book i do i have ah couple of pages where i had to go into detail into a reputation off the material is viewpoint as being unscientific but behind faith put forth the following proposition that the pursuit of power is really the pursuit of self value attribution we exercise power over another by threats and promises we can give or withhold something the other desires or else we can protect the other or not from some negative consequence he fears such power this allows us to compel the other to recognize our value you have to reckon with us if we have power over him similarly when we win a competition by outperforming another all those attribute to us a super value as the winner of the competition this we pursued power to acquire value we feel that we need to acquire value because we perceive ourselves as having no intrinsic or inherent Baghdad and to think of oneself as without value is tantamount to psychological suicide so let me sum up the route calls off the prevalent injustice in our history is the pursuit of power and the route calls of the pursuit of power is out self perception as intrinsically valueless now Baha'u'llah stated that the purpose of his coming into the world is to bring justice establishment justices the very purpose off Baha'u'llah now we inherit this history of injustice but noticed that there's nothing we can undo due to undo this history of injustice it will forever be true through all the worlds of god it will always have been true that the blacks were enslaved by the whites in the southern united states nothing no future thing will ever change that fact all of the injustices the past exist forever so if we insist as people tend to do that the on ly way to achieve justice is to undo the past then we will never have justice we in fact have no control over the past and we have very little control over the future. The only thing we have any degree of control over is the present how we Akka at the present soul we cannot have a future that will be different from my past if we continue to act in the president the way we've acted in the past that's logic but let me say this again because it has the fat is flying ring of truth we act in the present the way we have acted in the past then our future will be like our past can anybody refute this argument ? Therefore it follows that the on ly way to have a future different from my past is to change the way we act in the present there is no other way so all of the discussions and the conferences and everything else you want to talk about on ly have meaning and so far is the end up with changed human behavior at the present moment until that happens our future will continue to be a repetition of the past and injustice will remain thus the creative minds of the nineteenth century intuitively perceived and articulated in their works the fundamental problem that now faces humanity as explained by the manifestation of god himself the only means of bringing about justice in the world is for us to renounce the pursuit of power and replace it by the pursuit of authenticity and all our relationships both individual and collector how do we do that is how do we go about renouncing the pursuit of power ? Well first we must Akka how do we do this ? How do we go about renouncing the pursuit of power ? Well first we must remove the motivation for pursuing power first then we must name the universal recognition off intrinsic value both in ourselves and others this value is nothing else but the inherent capacities of each human soul more particularly the fundamental capacities off consciousness off mind off heart and will in fact it is this unique, uniquely human consciousness which defines us as human beings didn't give a very simple example of this but maybe it's so simple that it's almost silly but but they're with me uh what consciousness flows everything else our understanding, our feelings, our affections are will everything flows from this consciousness and every human being has this every human being has this the behi writings tell us that these capacities are inherent in the very nature of the non material immortal soul of each individual on the intrinsic and they are shared by all humans the whole lot tells us as you know that every single human soul has the capacity to reflect all of the attributes of god i mean it could have been that some souls could reflect some attributes and other souls other attributes but Baha'u'llah says no every single human soul has the capacity to reflect all of the attributes of god. So this is if you will, biological definition of a human being the human being is that unique being or entity in creation who's essential reality is the capacity to reflect all of the attributes of god as the whole explains everything else in creation reflects the sun attributes of god but not all of them because this value off the human being is intrinsic and universal it is objective that is it exists independently of whether or not we perceive that you see for the materialists if you think of yourself for certainly that's the way you are i mean there's no other self there's no other spirituals self back of this material self that is the real you the real you is just what you is just a composite off all your feelings and thoughts but from the behi writings we know that there is this objectively existing ah non composite entity which is the sole and which is the locusts off these capacities. Now i noticed that this intrinsic spiritually capacity of the soul is the source of all ex austin sigg values. Well, let me give a simple example which again maybe so simple is to be silly but i'll take the risk nonetheless here i have a twenty dollars canadian bill. Now we say that this is valuable this is an extrinsic value. This is money it's valuable and what we mean by this is that if i'm sick and this medicine in the pharmacy that will help my i can go give this piece of paper and i can get this medicine or if i'm hungry i can give this piece of paper and get food to eat that will satisfy my hunger notice that this value is totally extrinsic it is not intrinsic in this piece of paper. This piece of paper in itself is nothing but a mass of colored fibers which serves no intrinsic good. I can't eat it. It will not nourish me. It will not heal into diseases. It is intrinsically worthless. All of the value is symbolic. And what does this value derive from it derives from the cup pass it, e the spiritual capacity of human beings to sustain certain relationships of mutual trust. And so long. So in other words, these intrinsic capacities, the human beings are the source of all extrinsic value. We've just lost the sense of the connection between these extrinsic, that is, we objectify these extrinsic galleys, which are in fact subject active. And we subject, if i, the spiritual values which are in fact objective, are put it another way, a dog or a monkey has all of the physical senses that you and i do so the monte can see the paper and see the greenness of it, or whatever else you want. I think monkeys were not colorblind, right ? Dogs are, um, but he can. He can sense he can feel this paper and so on. But he has no access to this symbolic value of the paper on ly a human being has access to that symbolic value because that value arises from the nature of relationships which are sustained by human being destroyed these relationships and you destroy the value of this thing therefore in the measure that we recognize and become aware of our intrinsic value we become secure and our sense of self worth and are thus freed from the power imperative the lust for power received within us and we are free to share our value with others rather than seek something from them now remember that human behavior is determined not by objective reality but rather by our perception of reality thus if we perceive ourselves is having no intrinsic value we will fall into power seeking behavior and act as if we did not have this intrinsic value even though objectively we have it thus the recognition of intrinsic value is the knowledge of our true selves which Baha'u'llah has equated with the knowledge of god the supreme purpose of human existence this recognition of our true selves off our intrinsic value is of course a process we gained this true felt knowledge this knowledge of the god created reality that is within us that indeed is us we must begin to act as we gain this knowledge we must begin to act in the light of this knowledge we must change the way we Akka for as we've already seen it is the only it is only changed behavior that will lead to any future we must deliberately renounced the pursuit of power and dominance over others and replace it by the pursuit of justice and love which leads to authenticity in the past we sacrifice to justice to the pursuit of power, thus creating our history of injustice justice can be defined as the conditions necessary for love to flourish the goal of the Baha'i faith is unity as we know and you can make a little equation which i do in the book unity equals love plus justice thus the establishment of unity lies and replacing the pursuit of power by the pursuit of justice then once justice has created this is the conditions under which love is born and first is, uh notice one other thing love is the one thing which cannot be commanded by power you give me all the power in the world i could make you suffer even kill you i can maybe fourth you in tomorrow compromise make you denounce your neighbor do all sorts of things but one thing i can't do it make you love me you see so love is actually more powerful than power because love creates power but power cannot create love that's why the pursuit of power instead of the platoon of love is such a disastrous thing now another aspect of renouncing the pursuit of power is the renunciation off competition and replacing competition by the pursuit of excellence so i want to take a few minutes here to make the point that the pursuit of excellence and competition are not the same thing competition is the horizontal comparison between the performances of two different individuals at the same time uh if pierre even sorry to take you the victim kerry but why not uh if care even i are competing to see who can play the violin the best well how will this proceed ? I mean we will play the violin at before the same audience at roughly the same time and people will observe ah whether or not which one of us can play better than the other so this is the horizontal comparison between the performances of two different individuals at roughly the same time Akka pursuit of excellence is the vertical comparison between two different performances by the same individual at different times if i can play the violin better tomorrow than i could today that's the pursuit of excellence that's the vertical comparison between two different performances by the same individual me at the same time now these two pursuits then are clearly different however of course what is often said as you know is well nonetheless um competition stimulates the pursuit of excellence well, let's look at this let's again suppose that period and i are competing as to who can play the violin the best horn of the strategies that i can use to pursue this competition well, one strategy is of course to pursue excellence. I can improve my performance over time and if i do this then i have a chance of outperforming pierre yves the problem with this strategy is that perry vve can also improve his performance over time right and i have no guarantee our priori regardless of what the president configuration is, no matter how much better i am right now than he is or whatever i have no i priori guarantee that perry you won't find a way of progressing much faster than me and eventually outperform me now notice if pursuit of excellence is our goal there's no problem the world will be better off with two good violin players than to mediocre violin players where one happens to play better than the other but if competition is the goal then there is another strategy which is sure quicker and takes much less energy that is sabotage Iqan simply sabotaged the performance of period and then i'm certain to be able to play better than hiss noticed that sabotage cannot lead to the pursuit of excellence but calls it certainly does not improve his performance and it takes energy away from my own performance therefore sabotage is the optimum strategy for winning a competition and it is never a viable strategy for pursuing excellence. Therefore the pursuit of excellence and competition are two different things now notice that if the pursuit of excellence is our goal. We can even cooperate. I suppose i find a technique, a new technique for the left hand. Well, i could show kerry you know, maybe he would never discover that. And why not ? If we're both pursuing excellence, i'm just as happy if he improves a safari approved. You say if you begin to think about these things you were realized and i can only urge you to think about them. You were realized how deep competition is embedded in all your relationships with everybody you're relating with the myth that confuses competition with the pursuit of excellence also confuses the universal with the merely general, and it results in what i call the super valuation of the special whenever we encounter each other, we can choose to emphasize whatever differentiates us or whatever unites us what we have in common, but its very nature competition puts the emphasis on our differences. Thus, when competition becomes the prevalent mode of human interaction, such as in the highly individualistic society of north america, the super valuation of the special is the result. For example, let's look at whom our society gives its resources, who are the highest paid people in our society will professional athletes why ? Because they have special ability they have through competition demonstrated special ability. They can put a ball through a hoop or ah hockey puck in the net better than you and i can and they get millions of dollars for doing this. On the other hand, motherhood in our society is viewed as ordinary it's not special and therefore it is not very much worthy off uh consideration there was the idea is anybody can be a mom other you know it's nothing to be a mother in fact, as we know that many about young people now concerned about how not to become mothers er and that's another part of the problem so motherhood is viewed as ordinary and being Iraq star or a cinema star or an athlete is viewed as special. However, if we look at the reality of the situation we can see that in fact motherhood is not ordinary it hall examine i invite you to observe the interaction between an ordinary mother and her children. You will see that from the moment a child is born the mother will sacrifice her own needs for the needs of her child from the moment that child is born until it becomes an autonomous adult and sometimes even afterwards in other words the mother is not god she gets tired, she gets hungry, she gets sick but if she perceived that her child is tired or hungry and sick she will satisfy the needs of that child before she satisfies her own needs ordinary mothers do this, not submit that this is an ordinary tall it's. Extraordinary. Moreover, clearly, motherhood is the most vital role in society because the whole future of the human race depends on it. I mean, supposed to make it clear that one generation off women refused absolutely to play this role. That would be the end of the human race. Literally. I think that if there was no more michael jordan and professional basketball, i think we could live quite a while. No. So think about it. There must be something a little bit wrong. I mean, just a little bit wrong with a society that pays thirty six million dollars a year to michael jordan. And where one fifth of the population, most of them single mothers, are living below the poverty line. According to officials detected, god knows what the reality is. All right, there must be something a little wrong. No, i mean, maybe somewhere, you know, maybe it's more than just, you know, the war on poverty is something like maybe there some more fundamental value differentials going on here. Well, i would like to offer the pieces that this confusion off the universal and the ordinary results from an uncritical application of laws governing material values to those governing spiritual values. If you walk into any economics course the first day of economics one o one you will learn essentially the whole course, which is the basic principle of economics which is competition for rarity, you say i mean, if everything was abundant and freely available there would be no need for an economy. I mean, every individual could just go get what he needs you wouldn't there wouldn't be any interdependence there would be no need for work or any think so the existence of rarity and the competition for that which is rare is the basis of all economics. This principle of competition for rarity is derived from the fact that material values are diminished when their shared. If i have an apple and i have to share it with you we each have part of an apple but spiritually values are enhanced, not diminished when their shared if i have a good idea and i share it with you we both have a good idea this is ah association dedicated tow learning what is learning it's sharing good ideas you go to hear talking so he had a good idea he had a good insight well that's what you go you go to share good ideas, we have institutions, we spend money for universities why ? Because we recognize that the sharing off the spirituals value off good ideas enhances their value or if i have love and i share it with you, is the love diminished no it's enhance. In fact, the surest way to throttle love is not to share it notice also that love is the on ly truly win win relationship between human beings because love is experienced positively both by giver and receiver, even justice, even pure justice is not always perceived is not already experienced positively by the president who is the object of the action. But love is always experienced positively both by giver and receiver. And this is the passage that was read previous in the devotional period is exactly this statement of abda Baha'i where he says that love is the universal value on conditional value that is on increase in love is an increase in value under all conditions under all conditions. Thus the logic of spiritual values is cooperation for universality. Where's the logic of material values his competition for the special we have unconsciously superimposed onto spirituals values with laws governing material values. And therefore we have recreated our human relationships in the image off our lord nature. And it is we who do this. It is not because it's our intrinsic nature to do this these are choices that we have made. Motherhood is universal, and it is universal because is an expression off the intrinsic values of love off trust and self sacrifice. People sometimes challenge me will give me an example of something that's, ordinary and not universal. Okay sickness. Everybody had sick it's, very ordinary, but it's not universal and the way that motherhood is treated. Our society in effect treats motherhood as if it were an illness. You see this again shows what a perversion of values is involved in this. So i conclude we have established that the central problem of the modern world is to the replace the pursuit of power based asymmetrical relations with the pursuit off authentic relations based on altruistic love. On the personal level, such a choice is within the scope of the will of each individual. Indeed it is for this very purpose that god has endowed each of us with our intrinsic spiritual capacities, but one of the collectivity harder we to do about those who refused to make this choice to renounce the pursuit of power. Baha'u'llah has answer to this question is his covenant. Bala has constructed an ingenious system of administration of human affairs in which it is literally impossible to succeed in pursuing power. Now, of course, we know some of the features of this, such as the collective exercise of decision making authority. Ah, the electoral process without nomination in candidates, the minimum of outer rewards for a service on institution which diminishes the tendency for the egotistic individual to seek such offices, or to survive in them. If he does succeed. However, the ultimate in complete guarantee is and can only be the conferred infallibility of the universal house of justice. This alone is our ultimate assurance that no one will at will or ever can succeed in the pursuit of power in the Baha'i order as its influence spreads in the world, so will the pursuit of power be defeated. The covenant of Baha'u'llah and in particular the infallibility of the house of justice, is the Iraq against which the ship of the pursuit of power will ultimately founder and destroy itself. The coven of the Baha'u'llah is that divine barrier which alone we'll separate forever. The age of injustice and power, seeking from the age of justice, of love and a true and enduring unity.
