A SOLUTION TO THE WORLD'S SOCIAL/ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS:
A new perspective.
(Note: This is the abstract from a presentation to the International Philosophical Congress convened at Jakarta, Indonesia in 1990)
We live in a world facing myriad social/environmental problems of such a magnitude that the very survival of life on out planet is threatened. Traditionally we have viewed these various problems as separate entities and have directed our attempts to solve these problems to the specific issues. While it is acknowledged that it does remain necessary to focus specific efforts on alleviating the suffering caused by the various individual problems, it now appears that any permanent solution to these many and varied problem areas requires a holistic view of the nature of the causes behind the world's problems. Only then will we be able to direct our efforts to curing the underlying illness, not just alleviating the symptoms.
Every individual acts and thinks as they do in accord with their perceptual understanding of reality, their world view. In the history of the world, few thinking beings have ever done anything illogical - within their particular frame of reference. If the frame of reference is falsely based, if the assumptions are untrue to reality, then the automatic logical functions can lead to disastrous conclusions. If any individual's perception of reality is so distorted, incorrect or illusory as to cause them to constitute a danger to themselves or to others then we, in psychiatric terms, designate that person as insane. We attempt to cure that insanity by helping the individual to bring their distorted perception of reality into a more correct and positive perception of the true nature of the world around them and their relationship with that world.
The behaviour of social groups is analogous to the behaviour of the individual and, of course, the largest social grouping on this planet is our world's human society. Since at present our human society does, unfortunately, constitute a great threat to its own survival through some pending social or ecological disaster, we would be required to diagnose the collective consciousness of the human race as being insane. All the world's many social/environmental problems are but symptoms of humanity's general insanity.
As a solution to this collective mental illness the following premise is offered: that if any individual or social group(of any size, up to and including our planetary society) is provided with a positive, more accurate world view and a broad understanding of the laws of learning by which our relationship with the physical, social and inner environment is governed then there will naturally result, within that individual or social group, a general movement toward everything good and right. The larger the social group and the more widespread the dissemination of this body of healing knowledge the greater the potential for quick and successful positive change.
The development of this much needed body of healing knowledge is not some far distant dream. Many thousands of years of human striving along three separate but not always distinct paths, the spiritual, the philosophical and the scientific have provided us with all the basic prerequisites to successfully carry out this momentous task. The present coming together of these three great paths, each supporting and fulfilling the others, has provided the long awaited "Grand Synthesis" of human knowledge which, coming at a time when there exists vast and diverse communications systems capable of spreading information to the furthest corners of the world almost overnight, will prove to be the catalyst for the greatest single turning point in human history.
Given these conditions it would not be unrealistic to predict that the human race is on the verge of a quantum leap of consciousness. We may well expect this new, higher consciousness to bring about a future human society where every individual is so good, so loving, so caring and so environmentally concerned that these new human beings could no longer bear to perpetuate the present social/environmental ills which now so horribly plague our lives.
It is human destiny that we should move ever closer to the perfect expression of all positive characteristics of existence. Only the death of our species could stop us from attaining this destined peaceful and sane world. From this point in human history it is well within our potential to transform our world and our society into a veritable utopia within a generation or so. What more wonderful gift could we offer the world's children?