The gathering was convened by eight participants in the United Nation’s Seminar on Ethical and Spiritual Dimensions of Social Progress. [The seminar was held in Bled, Slovenia, October 1994, as a part of the preparations for the Social Summit convened by the United Nations in Copenhagen in 1995.] Twenty two persons representing diverse sectors of society and/or academic disciplines attended this post-Slovenia gathering in Cambridge.
The purpose of the meeting was to explore critical, political-economic and social issues from a standpoint that assumes an inherent spiritual dimension and ethical imperative in human nature. This dimension takes account of the heart and spirit of humanity, those elements that drive people to care for others and to appreciate beauty and knowledge for their own sake. At the same time, it has practical political relevance for resolving the social crises confronting humanity.
To this end, participants combined the empirical viewpoint that commonly prevails in discussions on these topics with a philosophical perspective. Such holistic sweep penetrates the purposes and appearances of modernity in the global village and uncovers the intangibles of human nature — idealism, altruism, intuitive wisdom, and innate dignity. This approach also sheds different hues of light on the economic distortions that fuel poverty, purposelessness, alienation, and violence. Finally, it provides a more universal outlook on ways to open political economic frontiers by inspiring fresh ideas, a wider and enriched vision, and hope.
The following notes summarize the essence of ideas exchanged at this meeting.
The Spirit and the Secular
Evoking ethical considerations in political discourse is not as problematic or ideologically alien to western political discourse as is the introduction of the notion of the spirit of humankind. One of the most difficult subjects to inject in contemporary political discourse is the relevance of the spiritual dimension of the human experience. This metaphysical plane of political theory and philosophy, prevalent in different ways in the classical, medieval, and romantic periods, virtually vanished from public discourse in the West, before the end of the 19th century. Present resistance to considering morality and the spirit of humanity, as a way to enrich the discourse on political, economic, and social policies, reflects the centrality of the natural scientific method of inquiry, a legacy of the Enlightenment. While valuing basic human rights and freedoms, the enlightenment perspective leaves the transcendental dimension of spirit outside the realm of political/economic relevance. Such questions are the province of religious and philosophic institutions.
In some western democratic countries, there are institutional as well as philosophical obstacles to injecting moral and spiritual considerations in political discourse. Ultra strict construction of the principle of separation of church and state is not an insignificant barrier. In the United States, while retaining its symbolic importance, the spiritual dimension of humanity is largely dissociated from the political realities of society. Moreover, judicial controversy envelopes prayer in schools, nativity scenes or any religious artifacts in public commons, and physical healing by means of prayer. In these instances, spirituality would seem to provoke competition for Atruth@ between proponents of rival institutional concepts of the transcendental realm, as well as the legacy of the historical struggle between the political forces of church and state institutions.
A great deal of the difficulty also lies in semantics. There is necessity to find a language to discuss political implications of the spiritual dimension of human nature without evoking religious or theological controversy and without generating the consternation of enlightened rationalists.
Recognition of the spirit in humankind has significance for society in many ways. It is in honest and humble recourse to some harmonious, transcendental consciousness or power that societies may find objective grounds for the elaboration of ethical and moral norms. Lacking spiritual dimension, codes of ethics and moral values do not take deep roots in society. They are nothing more than transient perceptions of good behavior imposed by the most powerful groups in society at a point in time. And, human dignity continues to be measured by the criteria of material well-being and freedom to exercise political rights. In other words, an individual=s dignity is to be an entitlement conferred by society, and people have to be empowered to be human. Such an approach amounts to rejection of the values of traditional societies and dignity as inherent in the individual. Thus, feeds the egotism and the dependency of the economic haves and have nots, respectively. The resulting frustration and emptiness give impulse to various forms of religious fundamentalism.
At the same time, there is strong demand for a more holistic base from which to determine the constituents of harmonious life and social progress. Renowned physicists and scholars, in recent decades, have dented the seemingly impervious facade of enlightened material truth. The environment movement has given credence to the spiritual dimensions of the universe as reason for caring for the environment. Vaclav Havel has urged societies to rediscover their spiritual roots and to live life as if everything one did was being recorded in the infinite consciousness that governs Life. President Clinton, while acknowledging the constitutional separation of church and state, finds that it should not obviate the spiritual dimension of humankind as an important factor in society.
There is also growing interest in philosophies and religions that do not separate personal achievement from collective or social harmony, and which recognize the spiritual dimension as an inherent and fundamental part of life. Harmony with oneself, with one=s family, with the community, with the universe, and ultimately, with the infinite consciousness, constitute radiants in expanding circles of relationships wherein people develop their human identity. In countries adhering to time honored religious legacies, traditional ethical and moral values provide tenets for social relations. There and elsewhere, questions of spiritual values are being studiously addressed in an effort to encourage progress based on common values in settings of religious pluralism. The ways spiritual and moral precepts influence political thought in some countires, both North and South, indicate how they can benefit policy making in societies seemingly obsessed with materialism. The good institutions building human happiness and peace must have an inherent spiritual dimension to function effectively.
Mediating Institutions, Spiritual Values, and Entropy
Traditionally, mediating institutions are located between individuals and large and powerful structures of the economy and state. The role of these institutions is to form the individual by instilling values, inspiring the imagination, and putting checks of responsibility on freedom. Families, schools, and military and religious entities are the formal mediating institutions; and, while authoritarian in nature, as principle sources of education and discipline they have been vital to the survival of democratic societies. The theater and institutions for the arts expand the imagination and delve into the heart of society. Many informal gathering places, pubs, clubs, barber shops, and country stores, offer small mediating forums for encouraging the discipline of human decency.
Mediating institutions are responsible for generating the fuels on which the macro social structures have run. Society has forgotten that free markets and democratic governments run on fuels they do not generate. Their virtues and successes are to be attributed to the ethos of altruism and integrity, sacrifice, and morality instilled in the human capital that provide their foundations and temper their self-destructive excesses. For example, the endurance of hardship is a source of energy; human nature is such that hardship leads to productivity. Productivity inspired by want is, however, not sustainable; it vanishes once needs and desires have been satisfied. The process of entropy begins when a sense of entitlement pervades society. The survival of democratic institutions depends on continual awareness and civic and moral obligations. Because of breakdowns in the mediating institutions, youth have a limited acculturated sense of doing right or wrong which, in many materially advanced countries, is now a matter of perception rather than transgression.
When political, legal, and market institutions consume the fuels they run on without protecting and encouraging their production, moral decadence, obsessive acquisitiveness, and political license proliferate. This phenomenon is demonstrated in a silent erosion of values among the middle class. Countless examples of expediency, graft, cover up, and blatant selfishness among the so-called civilized classes manifest the extent of the problem.
The viability of traditional mediating institutions is threatened. One reason why mediating institutions are much weaker today is the changing role of women. Women, through their volunteer labor as heart and soul of families, hospitals, churches, and communities, were the backbone of vital mediating institutions. Today, the world is experiencing a unique period in history; never have children been separated from their parents so early, never has this early separation been so widespread. Thus, the family has, in a sense, dissolved and society has not found an alternative.
The military and clergy are two classic institutions that have taken seriously the notion of ethics and have resisted the onslaught of modernity. This resistance has lead to a growing chasm between the military and the rest of society. Holding to a strong code of ethics within the military is a matter of life and death. Many students now entering the military schools and recruits entering the service do not come prepared to share this strong sense of ethics. Much time must be spent teaching students and servicemen basic values such as the importance of honesty. In a relativist society, the military, with its inflexible ethical code, amounts to a sort of counter-culture. But, the military is not immune from breaches of ethics and morals. Often it seems that there is a contradiction between what the military expects and what it permits. Awareness of this problem has stimulated the military to give renewed impetus to fostering its traditional ethic of altruism, service, and sacrifice.
The clergy’s separation from society is what permits it to relate to humankind through the lens of theology. It has thus observed that society, in attempting to free itself through secularization, has discovered different, and perhaps greater ills. While popular secular society may perceive religion as optimistic and engaged in good works, the fact is that genuine religious dimension makes possible the probing of evil and its operations as a vital step toward progress.
Unlike the military or the clergy, people in theater are constantly putting on different costumes and as a result see the same issue from many different points of view. The theater is suspicious of the Hegelian state. The abstract concept of spirit is also mistrusted for it implies something from above rather than from within. In the theater, private lives on stage are a metaphor for the public life of the state. Literature like religion, often explores the private dark side of human nature. If the dark side is not explored it is difficult to arrive at any spirituality. The courageous examination of this dark side is also a route to progress.
Art aids in imagining beauty. Fundamental social change begins with imagining beauty.
Finally, writers act as important mediators in their role as cultural interpreters. Dostoevsky, for example, uses religion to analyze the nature of evil and confront the depths of humanity.
Economic Development
The free market enterprise paradigm commonly equates individual and collective progress with economic development. In turn, economic development is equated with consumerism and its rapid turnover of techniques and goods. Industrialized free enterprise societies feed on consumerism. Efficiency and labor saving innovations are handmaidens as well as indicators of growth. The market system progresses in waves of fluctuations, gains, and losses measured by indices of GNP per capita; of combined production, life expectancy, and literacy [PQLI]; and of purchasing power†[PPI]. Economic Darwinism, that demands short product life spans, constant innovation, and increasing profits, is its ethic. While economic growth is the way to attaining physical facilities for comfortable living, accelerating communications, and increasing universal mobility, the illusiveness of material satisfaction introduces insatiability. The drives for bigger and better and more render economic growth an end in itself, rather than a means to creative fulfillment and the pure enjoyment of living. Development as an undefined end in itself steers society on a directionless and illusionary trajectory careening toward emptiness and ultimating in chaos once supplies of non renewable and recyclicable matter fail to meet the general demand.
In the wake of this ideological and political tide, there is the growing phenomenon of unemployment and transitory employment. The recent surge in unemployment among 50 year old American male exemplifies the tendency for innovation to outstrip the labor force. While these people may be cushioned economically by the state, little is done to restore their sense of purpose. Thus, development, according to the present free market ethos, accompanies increasing poverty, the loss of self esteem, and the evaporation of opportunities for satisfaction from creativity.
As it operates today, the free enterprise market system is not restrained by the automatic controls and values Adam Smith embodied in his economic theories. At the same time, values, such as honesty and trust, are critical for long term business success. The virtual absence of these ethics in market transactions fosters legalism, as in the United States where increasing wealth is siphoned to attorneys and insurance companies to blunt the impact of court actions for alleged economic transgressions. The importance of trust in business explains, a contrario, extreme cases of some economies, notably in Latin America, where wealth is very poorly distributed and money by small groups of people who trust one another.
Finally, vital economic considerations concern global equity in making development choices necessary to sustain harmony in society and between humanity and the natural environment. Common sense suggests that reversing the course of economic development, where consumerism has reached a feverish pitch, is essential for the realization of human fulfillment and the sustainability of life-supporting resources. While the developed world has the luxury to ponder a reverse course, such a measure becomes problematic in considering the development aspirations of Third World countries. Given the aggressive global commercialization of the West=s extravagant material life style, is the developing world now to be advised to resist economic growth and, instead, to cling to their time honored cultures and materially sparse levels of living? And, the more so, especially in light of the happiness present material growth seems to bring, for example, to the people of China? Such questions raise issues of how to promote economic development that does no harm to the human spirit. Or, otherwise expressed, is it possible for people to eschew the development game at a certain point to enjoy their intellectual, community, and spiritual life – once they have gotten caught up in the maelstrom of market development paradigm?
Change and Progress
Popular belief, fostered by prevalent economic theories, holds that community services, notably for the weakest members of society, are not part of economic development and can even be counterproductive since they divert resources from the private sector. Contrast is drawn between a culture of service and culture of growth and efficiency. Current attacks on public services and public servants are consistent with this perception. It is, as if, change, progress, and the satisfaction of human needs can only come from productive enterprises in the private sectors. Various manifestations of economic and social Darwinism are linked to this approach. Thereby the most efficient individuals, groups, and nations earn their right to be part of the mainstream.
In fact, economic growth itself depends on both individual and community efforts. Both opportunity costs and real costs are to be considered. Without, for instance, the services rendered within the family or without the social relations that hold a community together, individuals would face great difficulties becoming entrepreneurs. Moreover, both development of the person and progress of society require elements of altruism– gifts of one=s time, energy, and generosity to the other, and to the community. Even more serious are the social costs of poor living conditions and the breakdown of law and order expressed in political unrest, violence, crime, and resultant enclave communities. Such conditions are often by products of short-term business decisions that take advantage of the powerlessness of poor workers by keeping wages low and cutting employment opportunities for the sake of increasing already high profits. Economic change occurs through the merger of companies and the emergence of profitable transnational corporations. Social progress can only be the result of the greater harmony of individuals with themselves, with others, and with the universe. Such harmony comes from the discipline of the spirit in every sector of social life.
The environment is the most effective lever for tempering the course of excessive material growth. The environmental crisis imparts a sense of urgency needed to fuel social progress. It is a more palpable indicator of impending catastrophe than the widespread social malaise, however more XXX generated by the absence of moral rectitude and the loss of a sense of spirit. The environment testifies that it is impossible to continue along the present course of economic growth, and that the developing world cannot be offered the same type of material development achieved in the West. Environmental crises force society to exercise powers of imagination to envisage more beautiful and satisfying lifestyles without extravagant consumption. As lifestyles in the North are not sustainable anywhere, people in the North must face the necessity of cutting back on their material consumption.
Technology must be reined in to serve the good life. Run-away technological progress is dangerous. INTERNET is an example of progress that can serve society positively only if controlled to that end. If it runs away from society=s control, it can be extremely dangerous. For example, it fosters the virtual reality to which people seem so attracted. It permits people to adopt multiple personalities. Is this simply entertainment or does it reflect the inability of other institutions to fulfill a certain role? There are many strange opportunities afforded by the INTERNET. In the global village, while it is possible to exchange ideas with nearly everyone in every corner of the planet, face to face contact seems less and less relevant, thus threatening the very essence of society.
The power of grass roots organizations to promote social progress is evident in the surge of volunteer agencies which serve to achieve results where public institutions have been unable to respond as required. NGO=s, for example, are able to express their sincere concerns. These feelings, however, are often too exclusive. Nevertheless, the NGOs are creating a vigorous bottom up approach to problems. But, continuing progress from below is dependent on social capital which is generated through education of the general public.
While changing the course of development would be most challenging, is it realistic to continue forever on a never ending path of materialism? Are there other alternatives? Hegel=s dialectic process of progress offers stimulus for imaginative reflecting. Instead of thinking about attempting to go backwards in the development process, might it be possible that new ideas emerging, as it were, in the wake of dissatisfaction and fear, might urge societies on beyond the material stages of post-Marxism and post-Industrialism, to an age of the dominance of the human spirit? At this stage, material needs are met at a level adequate to ensure full biological realization and people are engaged in creative living and fulfillment in the pursuit of beauty, knowledge, and harmonious interaction with the elements of the universe. What prevents entrance into this neo-golden age– this era of good will– is a lack of imagination and impetus: and, as yet, a limited conception of how such an era would satisfy inherent human aspirations.
Drafted by Barbara Baudot with the assistance of Laura Baudot.
February 26, 1996