In the second part of our reflections on the major problems facing humanity, the focus is on the issues of International Unity; Capital, Labour and Employment; and Minorities. All of these problems have been intensified by the extraordinary global conditions created by the pandemic. Nations have struggled to coordinate their response with one another, even within supranational groupings like the European Union; the world of work has seen a major shift towards home work in some fields, while other industries have been almost completely shut down; and the issue of migration, already so inflamed, has become even more controversial in a world of closed borders. So this is, in one sense, the perfect time to focus on creative solutions to these issues that have been proposed in the past, and those newer solutions which are now emerging in response to this global crisis.

These three problem areas are especially concerned with the close interaction between politics and economics. Humanity continues to struggle with the fact that the misuse of political power can feed off of the expression of greed in a mutually reinforcing loop. We might say that politics has been ‘captured’ by economics, with the material wealth of a nation being seen as indicative of its prosperity.  But is this really the case? There have been a number of alternative proposals for ways to measure the well-being or happiness of a nation, including the UN Development Programme’s Human Development Index (bit.ly/humdev-index), the Global National Well-Being Index (bit.ly/globnat-index), and the Good Country Index (goodcountry.org). What often distinguishes these measures from ‘objective’ measures such as Gross Domestic Product is that they usually include one or more ‘subjective’ dimensions, which seek to highlight various qualities of consciousness. And simply by directing our attention to the key importance of such broad and immeasurable principles as ‘happiness’ or ‘the common good’, they help to lift the mind out of an obsession with the reduction of everything to numbers. Like all socioeconomic measures, they will only ever be approximate estimates, but they help us to start thinking in a better direction, and to question the priorities of the status quo.

Another recent attempt to focus on the broad principles of creating a better society is the Wellbeing Economy Alliance, WEAll, (wellbeingeconomy.org), which is a “global collaboration of organisations, alliances, movements and individuals working together to transform the economic system into one that delivers human and ecological wellbeing.” They note that the “transformation required calls for an entirely different way of being within human society: a shift from ‘us vs. them’ to ‘WE All’.” This emphasis upon social cohesion and community spirit is particularly significant in this time, where there is a general recognition that current politics and economics are not coping well with the pandemic, as the meme or slogan “Build Back Better” implicitly acknowledges. One initiative of WEAll is the Wellbeing Economy Governments partnership, WEGo, a collaboration between national and regional governments which currently includes Scotland, New Zealand, Iceland and Wales. WEGo members commit to:

• Collaborate in pursuit of innovative policy approaches to create wellbeing economies – sharing what works and what does not, to inform policymaking for change;
• Progress toward the UN Sustainable Development Goals, in line with Goal 17, fostering partnership and cooperation to identify approaches to delivering wellbeing;
• Address the pressing economic, social, and environmental challenges of our time.
   

The problems that humanity faces now, and will continue to face over the coming decades, will need initiatives like WEAll which recognise the essential role of cooperation across borders and ideologies, and the need to share ideas and methods. Realising the underlying unity of the soul in all beings, in the context of a wide diversity of physical challenges, is a process that all of us can contribute to, wherever we are. Whether it is through linking up with civil society initiatives, or simply sharing with friends, family and neighbours, we can all make a positive difference in shifting the trajectory of evolution. The Problems of Humanity Study Course exists to aid this process. 

WORLD UNITY

Perhaps the highest ideal of mankind is one of World Unity, where all people regardless of nationality, race, religion, and ideology are unified not by their sameness but by their commitment to a culture of goodwill which has no boundaries and which permeates the diversity of humankind. The seed of this idealism can be traced back 2,000 years to the beginning of the Piscean Age when Christ demonstrated the spiritual potential of the human being to “bridge the heavens and the earth” and to express love and goodwill towards all. The keynote of the Christian Gospel message “God is Love” today extends beyond the confines of religious doctrine and seeks to transform all aspects of human society and living.

Although humanity today seems to stand on the threshold of a future wherein the ideal of World Unity is within our grasp, the obstacles to this ideal that exist within the psyche are also emerging. Desirous of the future, yet bound to the past, it can easily appear as if we are stuck in conflict. Yet this conflict is the inevitable result of humanity’s growing aspiration for more light, love, and unity and as such is itself a sign of progress.

The present world tension will be resolved when humanity learns to relinquish the old and to embrace the new. The ideologies of the past glorify individualism at the expense of unity, breed separateness, and prevent the birth of a culture of goodwill on earth. The future idealism recognizes the responsibility of the individual to the whole, is based in goodwill, and will therefore result in World Unity once it is anchored within human thinking and consciousness.

This idealism is aptly described as spiritual, not because of its relation to religious thought, but because it relates Spirit to its expression—“human to human and human to God.” It brings all parts into relationship, and thus into one unified whole. It eliminates all that perpetuates separateness and cultivates all that encourages right relationship. It seeks the full expression of human consciousness—the full light, love, and power of a unified humanity that, in its unity, becomes a vehicle for unique energies to emerge into expression on the planet.

The misuse of the power of thought is largely responsible for the perpetuation of disunity. The truism “energy follows thought” is demonstrated by the effect that the waxing and waning of ideologies has on human civilization. Leaders, those responsible for espousing ideologies, use the power of speech to direct mass thought either for good or ill. When humanity thinks in terms of “self vs. the other,” a culture of divisiveness is created. As humanity learns to think in terms of collectivity, goodwill, and the underlying unity of creation, then human culture becomes likewise shaped.

With right thinking, the material barriers to unity, seemingly so insurmountable, begin to fail. The ideas which once vitalized these forms are no longer present and so the material structure of the old becomes devitalized and crumbles. This phenomenon was demonstrated in the fall of the Berlin wall which symbolized the breakdown of the ideological division which had permeated the world since the end of the World War.

The ability of thinking to create change cannot be understood entirely apart from material reality. The world of thought does not exist in a vacuum and is interrelated with both the material and spiritual worlds. This relationship between thought and form is exemplified in the nation-state which is both idea and institution. The nation-state has been defined as an “imagined community”(1): in other words, what makes a nation is the fact that a population thinks of itself as one. This powerful group thoughtform determines the strength and quality of a nation’s existence. Esoteric thought sees this group thoughtform also as the vehicle for the manifestation of certain potencies, i.e. the soul of the nation. Yet, the material form of the nation-state, the institutions of governance, also profoundly affect global interrelationship. Good governance facilitates order, enforces laws, provides security, regulates the exchange of goods, safeguards freedoms, secures basic resources, protects human rights, and renders justice. Bad governance leads to failed states, anarchy, chaos, and violence.

Today, institutions of both domestic and international governance are far from perfect, but offer a more than adequate foundation upon which to build a cooperative and integrated world. The problem then is one not of institutional capacity, but of international relationship. To speak of right international relationships is to speak of the priorities of governments being aligned with values of goodwill and love of the whole—the same values that enable individual human beings to be in right relations with others, their nation and the world. There are, however, a variety of obstacles to translating these qualities to the national level—most finding some expression in the country’s national interest.

The national interest is the foundational guiding principle of any nation’s foreign policy and generally has three components: security, prosperity, and values. The international system, lacking a supranational police force, is one in which states must provide for their own security, through a variety of means. Today, standing militaries are still considered a necessary part of responsible government by most countries. 

The security problem must be understood as a subjective one—we too rarely ask, how much security is enough? When perceived threats are exaggerated they give power to fear and create a culture characterized by adversarial relationships. This impedes the creation of an international culture which would aid in creating the safety necessary for true World Unity.

Prosperity, while clearly an important goal for the state and its people, does not have to be at the expense of others, though it often is. Critics of our current economic system argue that it encourages competition and rewards greed. Proponents argue that the system is sound and greed is a human rather than a systemic problem. Others believe that there is some degree of circular causality, with human greed perpetuating systemic greed and vice versa.

Today’s dominant economic system, broadly defined as neoliberal capitalism, has managed to augment the wealth and prosperity which exists in the world and has lifted millions out of poverty and into dignified living. In a world populated by actors of goodwill, this system would see the world’s wealth distributed to all humanity, eliminating poverty, hunger, and homelessness entirely. Sharing, after all, is natural when one has enough to meet one’s basic needs. Instead, egocentrism and love of power have caused the hoarding of wealth, making it a tool of selfishness and even enslavement.

Defining the national interest in terms of the values that the nation espouses provides an opportunity for the soul of that nation to express through its relationships with others. To the extent that a nation’s values reflect the qualities of the soul—love, wisdom, reason, and sacrifice—then the nation is able to become a mediator and a unifier and to bring itself and others into relationships characterized by goodwill.

Clearly, World Unity requires the thought, action, and will of humanity to be rightly directed towards this goal. This means eliminating the hindrances of the past and building the forms through which to express ideals of the future. Most importantly, it requires building relationships; it is through a unified approach that the ideal of World Unity can be worked out within the imperfections of the manifested world. 

(1) Benedict Anderson. Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism.

 

...in handling these problems we should search out the wrong conditions which have brought humanity to its present state of almost cataclysmic disaster.

It is essential that there should be a presentation of these things in terms of the spiritual welfare of humanity and a truer interpretation of the meaning of the word “spiritual”. The time is long past when a line of demarcation can be drawn between the religious world and the political or the economic. The reason for the corrupt politics and the greedy ambitious planning of so many of the world’s leading men can be found in the fact that spiritually minded men and women have not assumed—as their spiritual duty and responsibility—the leadership of the people. They have left the power in the wrong hands and permitted the selfish and the undesirable to lead.

 

           (Problems of Humanity pp.168-9)

 

TECHNOLOGY AND POVERTY ERADICATION

One of the problems that humanity faces is the gap that exists between the rich and the poor, a gap that is becoming increasingly unacceptable, not only to those of the developing world who share an intensifying aspiration towards better living standards, but also those in the developed world who recognise the unjust nature of resource distribution. 

The poor, in economically ‘developed’ and ‘developing’ societies, do not have equal rights to economic resources, and it is their lack of access to basic services, their lack of ownership and control over land or other forms of property, their lack of education and the means to appropriate new technology and financial services, that keeps them in poverty. It can sometimes seem as if the only resource they can offer is labour, and due to lack of skill, education and often physical resilience they have little power in the market, and are therefore often exploited or ignored.

The number one UN SDG is to ‘end poverty in all its forms everywhere’ with the aim of eradicating extreme poverty by 2030. Extreme poverty is currently defined as people living on less than $1.25 a day. It is a challenging goal, for poverty is self-perpetuating and can create a downward spiral. And even having a job does not guarantee a decent living and a life without poverty. In fact, 8 per cent of employed workers and their families worldwide were recorded as living in extreme poverty in 2018. 

Extreme Poverty has many dimensions, but its main causes are unemployment, social exclusion, and high vulnerability of certain populations to disasters, diseases and other phenomena which tends to inhibit  productivity. It is a problem that humanity must solve, and it is not limited to extreme poverty, for while overall wealth and standards of living are increasing for a minority of people in all countries, this is leading to a growing inequality that undermines social cohesion, increases political and social tensions and, in some circumstances, drives instability and conflict. 

Advancing technology is one area where there have been significant successes in tackling poverty. Technological progress is often associated with increased unemployment, especially amongst the unskilled and low paid, which weakens the bargaining power of labour and therefore could be a contributor to poverty. But technologies such as mobile connectivity and AI, both associated with wealthier nations, are now being used most successfully to aid the world’s poorest. In Kenya for example, a revolutionary mobile money service named M-Pesa has been running for more than a decade. In a survey recently published by the Kenyan central bank, more than 80 per cent of Kenyans now have access to financial services – defined to include those offered by banks, microfinance providers and mobile money providers. 

Of course, having access to a bank account does not lift someone out of poverty. When financial problems arise more than 60 per cent of Kenyans still turn to informal borrowing from friends, families and loan sharks, and more than two-thirds of Kenyans say they are still unable to meet their daily expenses in each income cycle. Like many African countries, Kenya is heavily reliant on the agricultural sector, and agriculture and global poverty are intricately linked. According to the World Bank, 65 percent of poor working adults make a living through agriculture, and investing in the agriculture sector is up to four times more effective in reducing poverty than other economic sectors. Agricultural development is clearly a powerful poverty-reduction tool and again progress is being made here through the use of technology. 

Kenyan technology entrepreneurs are focusing their attention in this important sector, and Agrikore, a digital payment system that utilises the already established mobile money service, is one promising avenue of change. It is a system, already up and running in Nigeria, that connects small farmers in rural areas with large commercial customers. Smallholder farmers face three main challenges; low productivity, poor access to buyers and opaque pricing. By creating a detailed catalogue of what each farmer grows, in what season, and at what volume, it aims to overcome these challenges. When Agrikore’s commercial buyers make large orders on the platform, the algorithm divides up the request based on capacity and proximity and sends out text messages to individual farmers requesting a volume of a certain product, on a certain day, at a certain price. Once the farmer accepts the offer, the system triggers a series of other activities, matching the farmer with registered transporters and quality inspectors who all log their activities via the platform and are paid via digital wallets. 

AI and robotics are also being used in the battle against poverty. It is AI’s data-mining ability that is being used most effectively in pinpointing the regions most in need so that investment can be directed appropriately. It is also an effective tool for increasing access to information on crop yields. For example, in the U.S. selective crop breeding programs have ensured that valuable foods like corn and wheat are optimized to grow in specific areas. By using AI to understand plant growth, including the minute details of how genetics and environment affect plant characteristics and yield, scientists are able to analyse data for hidden patterns. By utilising this information in the developing world, the agricultural yield of staple crops, in particular sorghum, can be improved. In countries like India, Nigeria, and Ethiopia, this drought- and heat-tolerant plant is a valuable cereal crop that has huge genetic potential thanks to its more than 40,000 varieties. Such initiatives can give poor farmers the information they need to cultivate the most nutritionally packed crop of sorghum possible for their environment – at the highest possible yield.

Information and the ability to access it is a major key to eliminating poverty. When people have a connection to the internet, they gain access to valuable information that helps to guide decisions. The internet can educate and help communication and connection. It is being able to plan for the weather, find information on appropriate crops and yields and watch the prices of goods in the market, that is so important for farmers. Mobile connectivity and internet banking allow families to receive money from relatives overseas, and microcredit transactions can give people a digital and financial identity that brings them into the local economy. When women have access to the same information as men, it provides them with the power to change their lives.  

Elizabeth Mason, the founding director of the Stanford Poverty & Technology Lab, says that technology in general, “puts us in a better position to solve issues we’ve never been able to solve”. It is the access to information that technology provides that is the big differentiator with poverty. It also allows labour access to capital, which in the past has been the preserve of the wealthy. It is thus opening the door to a world previously inaccessible to the poor. It is evident that in actively seeking to use technology to overcome the specific issues that face the poor, poverty could be eliminated. As Mason says, “If we can use the right tools and develop the right programs, we’re looking at a different world.”(1)

(1) nbcnews.to/2QcblNT

Economists would suggest that labour is done primarily to add ‘value’, which is conventionally measured by money. Leaving aside whether there can be any simple way of translating ‘value’ into money, it is perhaps timely to consider how much of humanity’s collective labour in transforming resources from raw materials into consumer goods and services is truly ‘valuable’, i.e. is in the service of values that genuinely enrich the human spirit. How much of what we currently produce expresses or enables goodwill, beauty, community, freedom, sharing, trust, compassion or wisdom, and how can we move towards societies where our labour promotes these values? Visionary thinkers like Handy, Robertson and Eisenstein have pointed the way towards such positive futures – it is up to all people of goodwill to help bridge the gap between vision and reality, and dignify labour with its proper role of contributing towards the social and spiritual evolution of humanity and the planet.

(From The Dignity of Labour [Goodwill in World Affairs 2019 #2] )

 

MINORITIES AND MONOPOLIES OF POWER

In the book, Problems of Humanity, the title of the chapter relevant to this discussion is “The Problem of the Racial Minorities”. There is no question that this remains a very significant issue in human life. Yet since the publication of the book in the middle of last century, humanity’s understanding of the concept of a ‘minority’ has grown more subtle and diverse. We now recognise and have terms for many more groups who claim a shared identity, whether based on genetics, culture, gender, history, sexual orientation, or other factors. Indeed, from one angle, it could be argued that women constitute a ‘minority’ – not, obviously, in numerical terms, but in terms of equal access to opportunity. The sociologist Michèle Lamont, instead of speaking of minorities, refers to “stigmatised groups”, and notes that such groups tend to be disadvantaged in terms of access to occupations, education, wealth, worth and cultural membership. 

One subtle problem with defining minorities is that elites of all kinds can pose as embattled minorities because they are in fact often numerically smaller than most other groups in their societies; yet they retain the overwhelming bulk of wealth and political and cultural power. So the political issue of ‘the minorities’ is really one of equality – of finding ways to balance the claims of various groups fairly, without privileging any one group purely because of some relatively arbitrary characteristic, such as skin colour or gender or religion. And the psychological issue is the related one of ensuring that an individual’s membership within any given group does not mark them as someone less worthy of reward or attention. 

Thus, the problem of the Minorities really concerns who, in a given society or situation, controls the majority of power. In democratic nations, in a political context, this can be a numerical majority of the populace, although the power will actually be wielded by a very small number of people: usually politicians, together with those who control large corporations and a small number of other people, such as media owners and well funded lobbyists. Part of the real difficulty of this issue concerns just how visible, transparent, and accountable all of those who are entrusted with power really are. Recent political events in a number of countries have led to the perception that there is a crisis precisely in this area: in other words, that the mechanisms which are supposed to make representative democracy truly representative of the will of the whole population, are not working as they should. When this happens, the ‘will of the majority’ can be misused to justify violation of the rights of minorities of many kinds, whether racial, national, generational, or ideological.

To address such a complicated problem about the balance of power in society is a subtle psychological issue that calls for a significant evolution in human consciousness. It is certainly true that, for most people, there is a temptation to try to accumulate power. This may begin naturally in the process of growing up, asserting the individual will in order to obtain independence from the control of parents or guardians; but if this understandable desire for power over our own fate spills over into the urge to dominate others, then danger ensues. And if it is then combined with the outmoded Piscean idea of fixed, almost immutable hierarchies of authority,  this can produce the desire to dominate ever-larger groups. 

Contrast this with the fluid, organic evolution of Aquarian structures of responsibility – where vitality and power flows to the places where and when it is most needed for the good of the whole, and remains free to be re-directed at any time. The rise of digital technology has given us the power of pervasive communication, which can, if used wisely, enable such organic, decentralised power sharing. It can make every minority identity a dynamic focus of cultural potential, and reveal and amplify all that is essentially good and whole-making in every identity. As examples, consider the three groups: Cultural Survival (culturalsurvival.org), which “supports a movement of empowered Indigenous Peoples organizing their communities to engage the international processes, national policies and human rights bodies to respect, protect, and fulfill their rights”; Survival International (survivalinternational.org), whose vision is “a world where tribal peoples are respected as contemporary societies and their human rights protected”; and Minority Rights Group International (minorityrights.org), whose work “offers overwhelming evidence that the inclusion of minority communities leads to stronger, more cohesive societies.” 

Unfortunately, the power of digital communications can also be mis-used; and one of humanity’s ongoing challenges is the way in which difference can be intentionally turned into division, and then inflamed even further into unreasoning hatred. Digital communications can exacerbate this problem, just as they can be a force for encouraging understanding, dialogue and the effort to see the bigger picture. The effort to elevate civilisation asks of all groups (minorities and majorities) that they develop the difficult ability to rise above the mud-slinging of the emotions and lower mind, to present an illumined vision of a higher and better world.

The key to this process is the New Group of World Servers,* whose work was celebrated globally during the 2019 Festival Week (December 21-28). This group consists of all who are working globally to nourish a sense of mutual inter-relation, and who see no racial, national or religious barriers. Working in every field of human life, from science through education and culture to politics and religion, they consecrate both mind and heart to building a new global imaginary. And within this all-encompassing movement, there are more specialised focal points, referred to by Alice Bailey as seed groups.** Especially relevant to the problem of the Minorities are the Political Organisers (who may not themselves be elected politicians, but who are working in this field in some capacity); the Trained Observers, who can help clarify the complexities, and pierce through the delusions which surround such a heated area of debate; the Scientific Servers, who can aid in understanding the true nature of genetics and its relation to human differences; and the Psychologists, who can provide insight into conflict resolution and the subtle differences in consciousness between different minority groups, thus aiding in communication and mutual understanding. Ultimately, education must play a role here too, and Religious Workers are naturally involved in questions concerning religious minorities.

Within the UN System, two of the bodies who would be most concerned with such work are UN Human Rights, which has a clear mandate to protect the equal rights of all minorities, and also UNESCO, which focuses the scientific, philosophical and cultural arguments for belief in the unity and equality which underlies all diverse expressions of human life. And beyond the UN, a wide variety of civil society organisations focus on one aspect or another of this multi-faceted issue.

The part which we as people of goodwill can play could involve some connection with such groups; and beyond that, we can all contribute to the enlightening of human thought on the issue by our meditative consideration of what we understand by the problem of the Minorities. 

* A booklet on the New Group of World Servers is available to download from: bit.ly/ngwsbooklet
** A booklet on the Ten Seed Groups is available to download from: bit.ly/tenseedgroups

 

First, there is the spirit of nationalism with its sense of sovereignty and its selfish desires and aspirations. This, in its worst aspect, sets one nation against another, fosters a sense of national superiority and leads the citizens of a nation to regard themselves and their institutions as superior to those of another nation; it cultivates pride of race, of history, of possessions and of cultural progress and breeds an arrogance, a boastfulness and a contempt of other civilizations and cultures which is evil and degenerating; 

There is, needless to say, an ideal nationalism which is the reverse of all this; it exists as yet only in the minds of an enlightened few in every nation, but it is not yet an effective and constructive aspect of any nation anywhere; it remains still a dream, a hope and, let us believe, a fixed intention. It aims to improve and perfect its own mode of life so that all in the world may benefit. It is a living, vital, spiritual organism and not a selfish, material organization.

Secondly, there is the problem of the racial minorities. They present a problem because of their relation to the nations within which or among which they find themselves. It is largely the problem of the relation of the weaker to the stronger, of the few to the many, of the undeveloped to the developed, or of one religious faith to another more powerful and controlling. It is a major and most critical problem in every part of the world today.

 

           (Problems of Humanity pp.88-9, adapted)

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