Editorial

One of the dramatic developments of the first half of the twentieth century has been the emergence of public opinon as a major force in national and world affairs. It finds means of expression in all but the most primitive social systems and no modern leader can afford to ignore its power. The sanction of public opinion or sentiment, either explicit or implicit, is essential to the long-term success of policy and action in virtually every field of human activity.

The consequences of this development are profound and as yet insufficiently realised. The management of even a modest enterprise can be complex and tax the most able brain. The management of affairs in political, economic, religious and other fields on a world scale is infinitely more so. Yet if the direction of world affairs is in the last analysis affected and even determined by the public will, the responsibility for that direction is placed fairly and squarely on each one of us. The individual man or woman is today forced by the power of public opinion to face world issues an think about them in the same basic terms as is a world statesman.

Not only is the public voice increasingly powerful, but national and international policy will reflect even more direcly the clarity of perception and degree of understanding of the public mind. This in its turn emphasises the responsibility of those who influence and form public opinion. It underlines the urgent necessity for a deeper understanding of the forces creating and affecting the present world situation. And it is for this reason that we have attempted to present an interpretation of current world trends and events in this issue of the World Goodwill Bulletin that transcends the limited and special viewpoints of the ideologies. 

Our keynote is the tendency to synthesis that can be seen emerging in every field of human expression and which we believe provides the only realistic basis for an understanding of our modern world. 

The Problem of Apathy

But understanding is not enough. Humanity needs an active and progressive public opinion today, not a passive one. The acelerating process of human evolutionary growth owes its success to the efforts of a relatively small number of pioneers (thinking in world terms) who push forward along many lines in the face of much opposition and, in many instances, even greater apathy. It is a sad fact that those who choose to take an active part in almost any service organisation, and who show but a little ability and persistence, will almost invariably find themselves asked to take on a position of responsibility within a few months, such is the shortage of trainsed personnel. And while these dedicated men and women struggle to maintain the crest wave of human advance there are literally millions of people living in selfish comfot with time and energy to give to good causes who let their possible contribution to world welfare go by default. There is no doubt that many of our current difficulties need never have arisen if enough men and women of goodwill had lived up to their principles and worked more energetically for what they believed to be right. There is equally no doubt that only a small contribution and a modest sacrifice is needed by these millions to make a profound difference to the work of the pioneers whose lives are completely dedicated to the improvement of the human situation. 

This problem of apathy is particularly a problem for the western world with its high living standards and even higher expectations. If the peoples of the West had been alive to realities there need never have been a Second World War. If the peoples of the West were less economically selfish the problem of economic development and adjustement in the world would be far further forward than it is today. If the peoples of the West had faced the realities of the race relations situation earlier there would be relatively few racial tensions today. And if the peoples of the West had genuinely and whole-heartedly thrown their efforts behind the United Nations, disarmament could by now have been a reality and the cold war have dissapeared. The under-developed peoples are already fully stretched, but the West is not. The West has the resources, the experience and therefore the major responsibility at this time. In fact the peoples of many of the older nations are in real danger of being left behind the accelerating progress of humanity and must bestir themselves if they are to make their proper contribution. Otherwise they may find themselves drifting into a backwater in the course of the next generation.

When one considers how small a contribution so many people make, the extent of human progress is miraculous. If the men and women of goodwill in the world will now live up to their possibilities and meet the challenge of what will surely be one of the most exciting periods of change that humanity has ever experienced, the future and the welfare of humanity are assured. 

The End Of The Ideologies

“ No other passion is so fatal to the pursuit of truth as fanatical partisanship. Wherever it exists, whether it takes the form of religious intolerance or ferocious patriotism, there is an atrophy of science, learning and all the humane arts.”

Dean Inge

Read More

In Search of Vision

Few people today are willing to accept a purely materialistic concept of the Universe. Not only is the prospect a dreary one, but we now realise that scientific evidence does not compel reason able men to accept such a view, as many once thought to be the case.

This change in attitude has come about partly as a result of progress in science itself. As the frontiers of knowledge have been pushed back , the truly intangible nature of the physical universe has forced a revision of earlier and more mechanistic ideas. Progress in psychology and parapsychology, in medicine, and in psychical research, is demonstrating the scientific reality of much mystical and extra-sensory phenomena and experience, previously regarded as mythological or hallucinatory. The fallacy that the universe could have occurred by chance - the odds against this are inconceivably great - has also been recognised, and the notion that our universe with its marvellously intricate and interlocking laws could be both mindless and purposeless is widely accepted as absurd. The evidence of modem science increasingly supports the view that we live in an ordered and intelligent universe and that there is a guiding mind and purpose behind it all.

Read More