THAT PEACE MAY PREVAIL IN THIS WORLD:THE CRUCIAL HUMAN FACTORS
Prof. Dr. Ervin Laszlo
Mme. Chairperson, Mr. President, eminent Directors and Trustees of the Goi Peace Foundation, distinguished Members of the Selection Committee, Ladies and Gentlemen,
Let me begin with a quote from a saying of Madame Masami Saionji, and I quote:
The achievement of world peace, more than anything else, depends on inner growth and the awakening of each and every individual… When each one of us contributes to our own evolution by raising our inner awareness ever so high, the world will immediately make a shift toward peace.
On this day when the war in Afghanistan has entered a new and crucial phase, when war and terror are rampart also in the Middle East, when fear is gripping the hearts of people also in the United States, in Europe and in many parts of the world, I think it is important more than ever to send a message for peace and to emphasize that peace depends above all on our own inner peace.
Attaining inner peace is a task that each of us has to fulfill in the intimacy of his or her own heart. But it also has preconditions in the outer world. It is not that inner peace couldn’t be won under the worst of real world conditions: in conditions of hunger, deprivation, marginalisation, and acute suffering. Such achievement, however, is limited to individuals with a highly evolved consciousness; for the present it cannot be expected of the great bulk of the world’s population. On the level of individuals, attaining inner peace calls for real world conditions that allow a life of basic dignity, free of the stresses and deprivations that sap strength and challenge character. And on the collective level of a nation, of a culture or religion, inner peace requires understanding and respect by all the world’s peoples for the diversity of the lifestyles and beliefs, cherished and held sacred by a group of people, however small or large, powerful or powerless they may be.
While in the long-term enduring peace awaits the evolution of humankind’s consciousness, in the short term it depends on creating conditions under which all people in our socially, economically and culturally diverse human family can find a measure of inner peace. In this regard we have a long way to grow. Conditions in the world are poor and they are still deteriorating. At the same time as globalization is integrating production, trade, finance, and communication, it is producing a social and ecological backlash due to national and regional unemployment, widening income gaps, and widespread environmental degradation. The benefits of economic growth, for long the main indicator of progress, are more and more concentrated: hundreds of millions live at a higher material standard of living, but thousands of millions are pressed into abject poverty, in shantytowns and urban ghettos in the shadow of skyscrapers and of ostentatious affluence. Entire cultures and religious faiths are excluded from progress and find themselves hard pressed to maintain a modicum of dignity and self-respect. Such conditions create frustration, fuel resentment, and lead to hate that ultimately issues in violence.
The new technologies of information and communication could establish contact between all the people of the world. They could lay the groundwork for understanding and solidarity, but as yet the Internet is dominated by a search for profit through marketing and advertising products and services that offer immediate gratification regardless of whether or not they provide genuine human or social benefit. Television and cinema are oriented toward entertainment that “sells” by catering to the baser instincts of the public for violence, scandal, sex, and revenge, making it difficult for many people to distinguish the real world from virtual reality.
In view of this situation my colleagues of the Club of Budapest and I are doing our best to call attention to the urgent need for new values and a new mentality in every segment of the world population. In the Declaration on the Essential Ethic of the Media, a document we have drafted recently and will be presenting next year, we are challenging the national and the global media to assume its share of the responsibility for the lives and wellbeing of the public. In this declaration we point out and I quote;
‘…in these critical times media responsibility goes beyond the traditional dimensions: it extends to what the media communicates, in addition to how it communicates. It is just as irresponsible to communicate solely or even primarily content that excites and sells as to disseminate preconceived ideas for living and acting. In addition to reporting on current events and providing quality entertainment, it is the responsibility of the media to provide impartial in-depth information on local and global problems, on the technologies and policies that address those problems, and on the trends that emerge in new ways of living and acting.’
It is indubitable that there are major and as yet insufficiently recognized responsibilities attaching to people’s social role and economic and civic activity whether they are media executives, political or business leaders, community or opinion leaders, or plain citizens. Another document of the Club of Budapest entitled, the Manifesto on the Spirit of Planetary Consciousness, specifies these responsibilities.
“As individuals, we are responsible for seeking our interests in harmony with, and not at the expense of, the interests and well-being of others; we are responsible for condemning and averting any form of killing and brutality, we are responsible for not bringing more children into the world than we truly need and can support, and we are responsible for respecting the right to life, development, and equal status and dignity of all the children, women, and men who inhabit the Earth.”
“As citizens of our country, we are responsible for demanding that our leaders beat swords into plough shares and relate to other nations peacefully and in a spirit of cooperation; that they recognize the legitimate aspirations of all communities in the human family; and that they do not abuse sovereign powers to manipulate people and the environment for shortsighted and selfish ends.”
“As collaborators in business and as actors in the economy, we are responsible for ensuring that corporate objectives do not center uniquely on profit and growth, but include a concern that products and services respond to human needs and demands without harming people and without impairing nature; and that products and services do not serve destructive ends and unscrupulous designs; and that they respect the rights of all entrepreneurs and enterprises who compete fairly in the global marketplace.”
—and
“As members of the human community, it is our responsibility to adopt a culture of non-violence, solidarity, and economic, political and social equality, promoting mutual understanding and respect among people and nations whether they are like us or different, demanding that all people everywhere should be empowered to respond to the challenges that face them with the material as well as the spiritual resources that are now required for this unprecedented task.”
Such responsibilities are not yet sufficiently recognized by the international community. Since the end of World War II, the members of the United Nations adopted a series of rights without addressing the responsibilities that are implied by these rights. The United Nations has first adopted the International Covenant on Civil and Political rights, and then the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. The first of these set of rights includes among other things, the right to vote, the right not to be tortured, and the right to free speech. These are essentially what is called negative liberties. They are “freedoms from” – from discrimination, oppression and arbitrary constraint. The second set of rights comprises the right to health, the right to food and the right to employment. These are positive liberties. They are “freedoms to”—among other things to lead a life of sanity, dignity, and basic material wellbeing.
There is a major difference between these two sets of rights in regard to the policies that are required to ensure that they are respected. Negative liberties can be ensured through the existing authority of the majority of today’s states—they require mainly what is known as acts of omission—not to engage in certain acts. But respecting the positive liberties requires acts of commission. These are more difficult to implement. Not only do they stretch the current political will of many of the world’s governments, they also exceed the effective power of the public sector. The acts of commission required for ensuring positive liberties presupposes the concordance and the active cooperation of society as a whole, including the private sector of now globalized commerce, finance, and industry.
Ensuring that the rights proclaimed in the recent past have not only de jure validity but are de facto translated into practice, calls for responsibility on the part of every human being, on the part of the entire world community. The 20th century may enter history as the Century of Rights, but the 21st century, if it is not to lapse into violence and break down in war and catastrophe, must become a Century of Responsibilities.
Shifting from rights to responsibilities calls for a corresponding shift in ethics and morality. Claiming rights is compatible with the classical morality of representing one’s interests in the welter of similar or competing interests, but accepting responsibility for ensuring that these rights are respected calls for a new and a more enlightened ethic. In today’s globally communicating and interacting world this ethic cannot be geographically, culturally, or politically confined: it must be truly a planetary ethic.
Let me elaborate on the notion of a planetary ethic. We all have a private morality: this is our personal ethic. This ethic varies with the personality, the ambitions, and the circumstances of each of us—it reflects our own unique background, heritage, family and community situation. We also have a public morality, this is the ethic shared in our community, in our ethnic group, religion, or nation. This is the ethic the group in which we live requires of us in order for it to function—it reflects its culture, faith, social structure, economic development, and environmental conditions. The urgently needed universal morality goes a step further. It presupposes a planetary ethic which is oriented to ensure that all members of the human family can enjoy the rights the international community has already proclaimed for them.
Universal morality is an essential part of private and public morality. It respects the conditions under which all people in the world can live in peace, freedom and with the necessary degree of material wellbeing without destroying each other’s chances of livelihood, culture, faith, and environment. Universal morality does not prescribe the nature of private and public morality; it only ensures that private and public morality do not give rise to behaviors that are damaging to the planetary community as a whole.
Ladies and Gentlemen, at the dawn of the 21st century the time has come for a planetary ethic that can be embraced by all people regardless of creed, religion, race, sex, and secular belief. It must have intuitive appeal, addressing the basic moral instinct present in all healthy individuals. Such an ethic is possible, but creating it constitutes a major challenge. The egalitarian ideals of Marx, Lenin, and Mao failed in the practice of communist countries, and today the dominant secular ethic of the modern world is primarily the liberal ethic inherited from the British philosophers such as Bentham, Locke and Hume. In this secular conception ethics and morality have no objective basis: human actions are based on self-interest, and they are moderated at best by an element of altruistic sympathy. This ethic says that people are not to be prevented from pursuing their self-interest as long as they observe the rules that permit life in civilized society. “Live and let live”—this is the liberal principle of the dominant secular morality. It is tolerant: one can live in any way one pleases, as long as one does not break the law.
Now in actual practice, however, the dominant ethic of laissez-faire is not as tolerant as it seems to be in principle. Those individuals and countries who do not or cannot compete in the marketplace are ruthlessly marginalized, making for a two-leveled world where modern Westerners and the Westernized elites of all world regions are on the top, and the vast masses of so called “backward” traditional people are on the bottom. The gap between these layers is great, and it is growing rapidly.
Humanity therefore I believe is in urgent need of an alternative to the secular, purely market-oriented ethic of industrial society. This alternative is not reasonably sought either in the Marxist ethic of world communism, or in a fundamentalist religious ethic that claims that there is only one path to salvation and to justice and all others must be condemned. The reasonable and the promising alternative is a planetary ethic that is meaningful for all cultures in the global community, both the religious and secular. This ethic cannot be articulated and enforced “from above” by any authority—it must win the heart of the people and it must diffuse in society “from below.”
A grass-roots ethic that is voluntarily adopted by the world’s peoples is not impossible to find. I suggest that it can take its cue from a saying by Mahatma Gandhi: “Live more simply, so others can simply live.” This concept is of great intuitive appeal, and it is not contrary to any culture or religion. It is becoming ever more evident that the way people live has much to do with the kind of world we live in. Lifestyles and professional aspirations must not impose an unsustainable burden either on society, or on nature.
The now urgently required planetary ethic articulates and specifies Gandhi’s ethic. I hope to encapsulate this new ethic in this single sentence; “Live in a way that all others in this world could also live.” At present living in this way is not a matter of course. Living in affluence uses too much and too many of the planet’s precious resources. Living in poverty overuses and often misuses some of our most basic resources. Living in a way that all others in the world could also live is living more responsibly, whether in poverty or in affluence. It is living with conscious consideration not only of one’s own rights, but the rights of all people who share this planet.
Living in a way that all others could also live is feasible, and it does not call for major sacrifices. In a report to the Club of Budapest called Macroshift: Navigating the Transformation to a Sustainable World, which will appear in Japanese is a few months time, I summarize the practical implications of a planetary ethic under the heading of four ways to live, four ways to work, and two ways to evolve ourselves.
1. LIVE WITH RESPECT FOR OTHERS AND FOR NATURE
1.1 Live in a way that satisfies your basic needs without detracting from the chances of other people to satisfy their needs.
1.2 Live in a way that respects the unalienable right to life and development of all people, wherever they live and whatever their ethnic origin, sex, citizenship, and belief system.
1.3 Live in a way that safeguards the intrinsic right to life and to a life-supporting environment of all the things that live and grow on this Earth.
1.4 Pursue happiness, freedom, and personal fulfillment in harmony with the integrity of nature and in consideration of the similar pursuits of your fellows in society.
The second category of living according to the new universal morality is:
2. WORK WITH OTHERS TO CREATE A BETTER WORLD
2.1 Require of your government that it beats swords into ploughshares and that it relates to other nations and peoples peacefully and in a spirit of cooperation, recognizing the legitimate aspirations for a better life and a healthy environment of all people and cultures in the human family. This particular precept I believe has become particularly urgent and important in today’s war-torn environment.
2.2 Require of business enterprises that they accept responsibility for all their stakeholders, in addition to their shareholders and their customers, and that they produce goods and offer services that satisfy market demand without impairing the environment and without reducing the opportunities of all people to participate in the local and the global economy.
2.3 Require of the public information media that they provide ongoing and reliable information not only on current sensationalistic items but on basic trends and on crucial processes, so as to enable citizens and consumers to take informed decisions on the issues that affect their own health, prosperity, and future.
2.4 Make room in your life for helping those who are less privileged than you to live a life of basic dignity, and for working with your neighbors and likeminded people, whether they are near or far, to preserve and to restore the regenerative cycles of nature.
3. EVOLVE YOUR INNER SELF TO EVOLVE THOSE AROUND YOU
3.1 Evolve your consciousness to the planetary dimension, to perceive and sense the vital interdependence and essential oneness of humankind, and recognize that such consciousness in a critical mass of people is an imperative of human survival and peace in the 21st century. Here especially I think we have entirely the same concept as is in the Declaration of the Goi Peace Foundation.
3.2 Use the example and the guidance of your own consciousness to motivate fellow members of your generation, and to help children and their generation, to discover and to adopt ways of living and acting that are appropriate to the interdependence and the oneness of the human family, and to be able to make moral decisions on the issues that affect their life and their future, and the life of future generations.
I believe the ten principles of the planetary ethic are a crucial precondition of peace in today’s violence-prone and crisis-torn world. Ethics and morality are not a luxury; they are not the privilege of a few. They are the urgent and necessary requirement of lasting peace on Earth.
Living in accordance with a planetary ethic is a relatively simple matter. We can question some of our dominant values and behaviors. For example, we should question if:
—
out-and-out competition is still the best road to success—would cooperation not produce better results?
—
efficiency means obtaining the maximum productivity for every person and every machine—would real efficiency not lie in producing humanly needed and socially useful goods and services?
—
the accumulation of wealth and of the material goods that money can buy are really the true marks of a person’s worth—is it not the case that some things money cannot buy, such as gentleness, wisdom, and caring, are the real marks of a person’s excellence?
—
frustration bred by inequality and injustice is best vented by violence, terrorism and aggressive self-assertion—would not nurturing, caring, relating, typically feminine values that are also present in the hearts of men, be the best antidotes to the indifference, egotism and violence that prevail in today’s world?
Beyond questioning obsolete values and beliefs, embracing a planetary ethic calls for some positive actions and responsible practices. These include:
—
moderating individual egoistic drives and appetites in order to live in a way that allows others to live also,
—
tempering the quest for economic and material growth with a quest for social justice, for cultural development, and a sustainable and healthy environment,
—
supporting the creation of a system of local, national, and global security without expensive, wasteful and dangerous weapons systems and military establishments,
—
using and enjoying nature’s precious resources in an efficient and sustainable manner,
—
appreciating and making productive use of the social and cultural diversity of the world as we pursue our own goals and objectives, and
—
going beyond the no-holds-barred competition, in so called zero sum games where, “I win, you lose” or “if you win then I lose,” toward cooperative actions aimed at achieving shared benefits in so called positive sum games, where “I win and you win” – where all people can win.
These are realistic and feasible goals for thinking and acting. They are not likely to be adopted, however, with the kind of mentality that provokes hate and spurs terror and violence in today’s world. Adopting a planetary ethic requires a new mentality—a more evolved consciousness. We call this new consciousness a planetary consciousness.
Let me say finally a few words about planetary consciousness. Planetary consciousness is a holistic consciousness, with an integrated vision of people, society, life, and the universe. On the personal level it is the consciousness where socially and ecologically destructive behavior is undesirable and unacceptable. In regard to society it is the consciousness that other people, whether they live next door or in distant parts of the world, are an integral part of the human family of the living system of earth. And in regard to nature it is the consciousness that we cannot do anything to the wider community of “Gaia” –of all things on Earth, without also doing it to ourselves.
For individuals planetary consciousness means simpler and more responsible lifestyles, consumer habits, civic behaviors, and professional aspirations.
In the business world planetary consciousness means responsibility for the environment, and for the welfare not just of shareholders and managers but of everyone who works for or with a company and is affected by its activities.
In the political sphere planetary consciousness means concern with the self-reliant development of grass-roots communities, states as well as entire nations, and also with the sustainable evolution of the network of interdependence that brings together entire communities, states, nations, and the global humanity as a whole.
—and finally
In the media planetary consciousness means commitment to an enduring and reliable flow of information that enlightens people regarding the state of the world and the condition of their community and enables to discover new and more appropriate values and modes of behavior.
Planetary consciousness is not utopian. Although the headlines of the media are still taken up with acts of terrorism, wars, and violence, there is also a significant but as yet little known groundswell building up in society. More and more people are changing their preferences and priorities, and adopting new values and beliefs. More and more people are evolving their consciousness. They are shifting from lifestyles hallmarked by matter- and energy-wasteful ostentation, toward lifestyles characterized by voluntary simplicity and a search for harmony with nature. They are shifting from an aspiration for maximum consumption toward selectivity in view of quality as defined by environmental-friendliness, sustainability, and efficiency in production and use.
This quiet and as yet largely unknown groundswell of public opinion is of great significance and promise. It occurs in all segments of society. It occurs also in the emerging cultures where people are committed to the search for new patterns of consumption, new lifestyles, and greater responsibility in their lives. According to recent surveys in the United States there are almost 50 million Americans who have adopted this way of life, these values. They are known as the “cultural creatives”. There may be eighty million such individuals in Europe and I’m sure there are many such individuals in Japan and in other parts of the world.
A new consciousness is indeed arising in all parts of the world, East as well as West, South as well as North. Its spread is the crucial human factor in attaining enduring peace in the world. Persons with a planetary consciousness muster the will and evolve the vision to adopt a planetary ethic, whether they live in poverty or in conditions of material affluence. Such an ethic, if it’s adopted and practiced by a critical mass of the world’s peoples, could right many of today’s wrongs and create a higher level of justice and wellbeing in the world. In the final count the evolution of human consciousness is the best way to break through the vicious cycle where lack of inner peace prevents the coming of the outer peace, which in turn is the precondition for many people of inner peace.
Each of us can take the first step toward contributing to world peace by achieving inner peace—by evolving our own consciousness. When in the world’s nations and cultures consciousness evolves to a higher plane—as we have just seen in the quotation from Madame Saionji—a planetary ethic will be embraced by a critical mass of people. Then genuine and lasting peace will indeed prevail on Earth— a peace that is not merely the absence of violence, terrorism, and war, but the expression of a spirit that is commensurate with the heart and the mind of a species that calls itself—who dares to call itself, Homo sapiens.
* * * * * * *
Allow me now ladies and gentlemen to end these remarks reciting to you a declaration that I have drafted for the Club of Budapest in recognition of the urgent need for inner peace in the world, in today’s tragic conditions. This declaration has been signed by two dozen world renown individuals, members of the Club, including His Holiness the Dalai Lama, former German President Richard von Weizsacker, Arthur Clarke, Peter Ustinov, Joseph Rotblat, Betty Williams, and others. Let me cite to you this declaration as we have drafted it. We hope to have endorsement from Japan and to be able to publish this for the world’s public information.
THE WISE RESPONSE TO VIOLENCE
A Declaration of The Club of Budapest
The 11th of September suicide attack on New York’s World Trade Center and Washington’s Pentagon was an offense against all of human life and every civilization. We condemn this act of terrorism and call to ethical and peace-loving people the world over to join together to put an end to terrorism and violence in all its forms. There is no solution to the world’s problems by killing innocent people and destroying their workplaces and habitations.
If we are to succeed in eradicating violence and terrorism from the world, we must act wisely. Violence and terrorism will not be vanquished by retaliation on the principle of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. The ultimate roots of violence lie deeper than the fanatic commitment of terrorists and the religious claims of fundamentalists. Killing one group of terrorists will not solve the problem: as long as the roots are there, others will grow in their place.
The terror that surfaces in today’s world is a symptom of longstanding and deep-seated frustrations, resentment, and perceived injustice. We of The Club of Budapest are committed to search for the causes of these hate and violence provoking factors and to suggest peaceful and effective ways they can be overcome. Until and unless the root causes are eliminated there will not be peace in the world, only an uncertain interlude between acts of terrorism and larger-scale hostilities. When people are frustrated, when they harbor hate and the desire for revenge, they cannot relate to each other in a spirit of peace and cooperation. Whether the cause is the wounded ego of a person or the wounded self-respect of a people, and whether it is the wish for personal revenge or a holy war for the defense of a faith, the result is violence, death, and catastrophe. Attaining peace in people’s heart is a precondition of attaining peace in the world.
The Club of Budapest maintains that the wise response to violence and terrorism is to help people to be at peace with themselves and with their fellow humans near and far. Promoting solidarity and cooperation in the shared cause of fairness and justice is the only feasible path to lasting peace on Earth.
Let us promote this cause together ladies and gentlemen , together The Club of Budapest, The Goi Peace Foundation and all peace loving people in Japan and everywhere.