“Mankind will never see an end of trouble until… lovers of wisdom come to hold political power, or the holders of power… become lovers of wisdom.”
–Plato, The Republic
Here’s a Quick Way to Understand Why Today You Need Good Relations With Everyone
The change humanity requires in order to solve the global crisis is not a superficial one, but a fundamental change that goes beyond how we build our economic system, our education system, or even our political system. It is a change in our understanding of life, and as a result, of the society we live in. For the change to last, we need to realize that at our stage in human development, we as individuals cannot prosper unless the whole world prospers, too.
In the past, it was enough to be good to our families. By doing so, we balanced ourselves with the giving force of nature on the only level we were conscious of—our families.
Afterwards, as our communities grew, we needed to become aware of larger groups, and we learned that it is not enough to be good to one’s family, but also to offer care and kindness to one’s townspeople. This put us in balance with the giving force at the community level.
Then, we grew even more and needed to balance ourselves with nature’s giving force on the national level, beyond that of our towns or families.
Today, we need to do the same towards the whole world. Our awareness, whether or not we are conscious of it, now encompasses all of humanity. Hence, to balance ourselves with the giving force in nature, we must be positive and contribute to everyone, everywhere.
The consequence of not doing so is the crisis we see unfolding before our eyes. It is not a punishment from some higher force, but a natural result of not obeying a natural law, similar to the pain we feel when we disobey the law of gravity and jump off a roof without proper preparation or equipment. For us humans, our best defense is awareness.
Building Politicians We Can Be Proud Of
And because awareness of nature’s desire to give is our first and most important tool, the first thing we must do is to teach politicians about its role and importance. We must show them that we haven’t been aware of it thus far, and that its absence from our thoughts is the cause of today’s crisis. In this way, politicians, who are highly sensitive to what works and what doesn’t, will know how and why they need to change their policies to suit today’s requirements.
Since politicians and statespersons live every day in the self-centered system of politics, they will quickly become aware of the discrepancies between the flawed existing system and the perfect, balanced one. In fact, this process began spontaneously the minute the financial crisis erupted.
Barack Obama’s speech on January 20, 2008 at the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia, is a beautiful example of such awareness: “Unity is the great need of the hour—the great need of this hour. Not because it sounds pleasant or because it makes us feel good, but because it’s the only way we can overcome the essential deficit that exists in this country. I’m not talking about a budget deficit. I’m not talking about a trade deficit. I’m not talking about a deficit of good ideas or new plans. I’m talking about a moral deficit. I’m talking about an empathy deficit. I’m taking about an inability to recognize ourselves in one another; to understand that we are our brother’s keeper; we are our sister’s keeper; that… we are all tied together in a single garment of destiny.”
In light of that reckoning, all we need to do is add the adhesive, the substance that will make that garment strong, yet soft and smooth. And that substance is the awareness that in uniting, we are aligning with the giving force in nature.
Achieving unity among politicians does not mean an end to debates and conflicts, but with both desires of nature in mind, conflicts can become fertile ground for change. As public opinion changes via the media, politicians will not worry about losing votes because they’ve lost political arguments. On the contrary, if a politician is able to change his or her view after realizing that it is in the public’s interest to take another direction, constituents will consider this flexibility an act of strength.
Moreover, in doing so, that politician becomes even more responsible for the success of the new direction, having seriously debated its pros and cons before deciding in its favor. The politician can then tell voters, “Look, I have weighed the options and have concluded that my opponent’s idea will be of greater benefit to the public than mine. Therefore, I think you should support it.”
This is a big responsibility, bigger even than that of the “winner” of the debate. By taking this approach, not only is unity enhanced, but ideas are thought through much more thoroughly.
International politics will have to change in the same way, too. In the global age, caring for the world is far more important than caring only for one’s country. Naturally, this trend must be shared by all the nations if it is to succeed. It requires that everyone knows about the two desires that sustain the foundations of our world. Without this knowledge, isolation and protectionism will prevail and wars will erupt. With it, we will finally have a genuine opportunity to achieve world peace.
Why Taking Only What You Need and Giving the Rest Away Is Your Ticket to Balance
The universe is built on the balance between two forces—the desire to give and the desire to receive. And because these forces lay beneath all that exists, every element in the universe must maintain that balance within it. Objects and creatures that do not maintain it within them cannot survive.
In the animal kingdom, animals eat only what they need and leave the rest untouched. In this way, they naturally maintain nature’s balance by grazing where there is plenty of grass and leaving depleted areas, or by preying only on weak or sick animals. This is how nature preserves and promotes the wellness of the stronger and healthier plants and animals.
But man is a different story. Through our connections with each other, we desire to receive not only from nature, like animals, but also from other people. And when we begin to exploit others, we are no longer aligned with nature’s two forces because we are over-using the desire to receive and under-using the desire to give.
In this way, we undermine the balance of the two forces that form life, and thus disrupt the whole of nature. The multiple crises we are faced with today are in fact manifestations of this very disorder: the imbalance we inflict on nature. If we learn to balance these desires within us—take what we need and give the rest to nature and to humanity—we will immediately restore the balance, and all systems will stabilize, like a sick person who has suddenly been cured.
at all levels of creation, from the atomic to the most complex human relations, existence is possible only through collaboration and self-fulfillment. Thus, for the survival of humanity, all of us must realize our personal potential through our contribution to the societies we live in. And today, that society is the entire world.
Toward the second decade of the 21st century, it is becoming increasingly clear that the days of personal, self-centered success are drawing to a close. Since the 19th century, the predominant school of economics has been the “economic human” (Homo Economicus), which builds its guidelines on the concept that we humans are “self-interested actors.”
In order to reverse this negative trend and to quickly heal the world, we need to make a small but paramount amendment: “economic humanity.” The new guidelines should rely on humans being collective-interested actors.
The minute we change our attitude toward benefitting one another, we will correct what has been wrong since the time of Babel, and the effect will be immediate. Today, every scientist, politician, economist, and businessperson knows that we are all interdependent. This is why every world leader, from Obama to Putin, is preaching unity these days. But it takes everyone to succeed—each and every person in the world. We are all under nature’s law of balance; hence, it is truly everyone’s responsibility.
In conclusion, I’d like to hitch this wagon to a star and suggest that to bail ourselves out, each of us need not ask what the world can do for me, but what I can do for the world.
“Are You Aware of the Enormous Benefits that Come from Developing a Global Perception?” is based on the book, Bail Yourself Out: How You Can Emerge Strong from the World Crisis by Dr. Michael Laitman.
