Principles of Reconstruction

From the Crimson Book: Five Principles of Reconstruction

By John Taylor; 15 January, 2006

Back in October of 2005 the Baha'i International Community, our NGO at
the United Nations, submitted a set of proposals for the UN to help it
out in its current soul-searching initiative in a document entitled,
"The Search for Values in an age of Transition." Not long after this
document was released our Badi' list started examining this paper in
detail. Today let us pick up where we left off last fall.

The "Search for Values" document starts by saying that "... the
worldwide Baha'i community across 191 nations" are engaged in
realizing this general vision provided by the Guardian:

"(A world) ... in which the clamor of religious fanaticism and strife
will have been forever stilled; in which the flame of racial animosity
will have been finally extinguished..." (WOB)

In view of present headlines, it is inspiring to reflect that a world
is possible where there is a complete extermination of fanaticism and
racism. How many stereotypes and mental blocks will have to be
dynamited from our path if we are ever to look upon everyone we meet
as Ali, Son-in-Law of Muhammad, suggested, "either as a brother in
religion or a brother in humanity," that is, to be united by faith or
by identity but be so aware and unprejudiced as to never allow one to
interfere with the other.

The BIC selects five spiritual principles to supplement the UN's
rather narrow and materialistic measures of development. They are.

One, unity in diversity
Two, equity and justice
Three, equality of the sexes
Four, trustworthiness and moral leadership
Five, freedom of conscience, thought, and religion

The BIC points out that all five of these positive spiritual
principles are dealt with in detail in earlier BIC publications; in
the notes to this document they offer the references. One could object
that all rights, even the narrow and materialistic ones of the UN,
were originally inspired by scripture. That is what the Master taught.
But what I suppose they are implying is that these are five spiritual
principles that Realpolitik singles out in particular for exclusion
and suppression. If the BIC are indeed saying that, there does seem to
be a certain persuasiveness to the idea now that I think of it.

The few living memoirs of former slaves that are extant describe the
techniques that slave masters used to keep their human cattle weak and
manageable. The pattern follows these five spiritual rights, except in
reverse, in order to suppress them.

Slave societies assiduously ignore the unity and brotherhood of man;
uniformity and conformity are the law. Among an idle elite a divorce
is established with manual labor; instead they use their energy in
intrigue and gossip. Thus verbal bullying enforces conformity beyond
the reach of law. So much for principle one.

As for spiritual principle two, equity and justice are for slave
owners only, while slaves are kept illiterate and powerless. Female
slaves, it was found, can be marginalized along with the systematic
destruction of family ties. Isolated, with no husbands or brothers to
protect them, they are prey to open rape by male slave owners; slave
owning women dislike this state of affairs too, but have no more say
than slaves. Suppression of women is thus part of slavish psychology.
Slaves were forced to work, which excludes morality and
trustworthiness. The story of the integrity and honesty of one slave,
the real-life model of the novel "Uncle Tom's Cabin," was such a
contrast to the venality of his owners that it could be said that his
example dissolved the moral ground of chattel slavery in the South.

As for freedom of thought, an effective technique evolved to suck all
vigor and end any aspirations on the part of male slaves. They were
worked without respite year round, except once. They were given one
brief holiday at Christmas. Even then they were not allowed to pause
to reflect or plan escapes; instead they were plied with unlimited
booze. Owners sat back and laughed as the men drank themselves silly,
gambled, played frenetically at sports, and squabbled among
themselves. Allowing chattel to indulge themselves instead of sinking
roots into independent thought was all that was needed to keep males
down.

As for religious freedom, historians have noted that virtually all
discussion of slavery in the Anti-bellum United States was not
secular, it was framed completely in religious language. Who sinneth?
Is slavery a sin, like original sin? Unfortunately the language of
faith was emasculated and diffused, incapable of discussing principle,
half of which involves action questions like: what strengthens
freedom? What is common to all humans? How do we establish the
brotherhood of man? As long as the meaning of freedom is obscure and
undefined, nobody can be free.

Let there be no mistake. All five of these anti-freedom techniques
still apply today, albeit more subtle and sophisticated. There is no
collective addiction, from alcohol, drugs and gambling to militarism,
from patriarchy, to the obsession of masses of "free" men with sports,
lust and superficial pleasures, to television sitcoms and violent
video games, that is not a direct legacy, a bad habit learned in a
brutal, slave driving past.

The post-Civil War period of recovery from slavery in the United
States became known as "Reconstruction." This means building up anew
from the very foundations. Unfortunately, without first principles in
mind the reconstruction was incomplete; it allowed the evils of
enslavement to take viral form, escape America enter the vitals of the
entire world order.

The danger is to look at this situation, parlous as it is, in an
entirely negative light. However Baha'u'llah, writing around 1890
which was at the end of the period known as Reconstruction in the
States, used the word "reconstruction" in referring to His Writing
around the beginning of the Reconstruction period. "Whilst in the
Prison of 'Akka, We revealed in the Crimson Book that which is
conducive to the advancement of mankind and to the reconstruction of
the world." He then chooses five principles of reconstruction from
that "Crimson Book," that is, the Covenant. You can read the full text
in Tablets (89-90). I only extract them here as paraphrase:

One, to promote the Lesser Peace, which allows the reduction of our
exorbitant expenditure on weapons and the military, which in turn
cripples reconstruction financially before it even starts.

Two, a common language. Not coincidentally an issue of universal
concern ignored completely in English speaking lands, same as the
how's of manumission were ignored by Whites in the Antebellum South.

Three, "It behoveth man to adhere tenaciously unto that which will
promote fellowship, kindliness and unity." To see what an
unreconstructed world adheres to, switch on the television. Crime and
serial murders, movie stars and their breakups, who is to blame for
what, violence according to the slogan: "If it bleeds, it leads."

Four, universal, direct support from each wage earner for education.
Slaves were kept from learning to read, but the education of modern
citizens is firmly in the hands of those who know how to exclude and
manipulate the five principles of freedom mentioned above. Power
mongers form our minds for their ends. This has to end.

Five, agricultural reconstruction. Marx had it wrong, the basis of
human economy is not labor but sunlight. We get our energy and our
food from that and that only; liberty and true reconstruction must
start there, where we get our food and where the food chain of real
productivity begins.

Baha'u'llah, after enunciating these five ways to end slavery once and
for all, then addresses the inordinate complexity of this world order,
perhaps the most intimidating obstacle lumped before the lover of
freedom.

"Were men to strictly observe that which the Pen of the Most High hath
revealed in the Crimson Book, they could then well afford to dispense
with the regulations which prevail in the world."

And prevail it does. The number of rules accelerates and boundaries to
freedom mount. There is endless accumulation, oceans of red tape
infested by predatory lobbyists, lawyers and bureaucrats. This
complexity cannot be ignored as a barrier to freedom. To understand
how sharks ply these seas of regulation, I highly recommend an article
by scientific watchdog David Michaels called "Doubt is their Product,"
in Scientific American (June, 2005, p. 96). He cites an all-too-clever
cigarette industry advocate, who in a confidential memo barefacedly
declared,

"Doubt is our product since it is the best means of competing with the
`body of fact' that exists in the mind of the general public." (p. 96)

No, no longer do smirking "owners" sit idly and laugh at chattel as
they stumble drunkenly on a sports field, now the rules and
regulations of a perverted reconstruction bury us all, educated or
not, wealthy or not, free or not. Manufacturers of doubt work overtime
on all sides in their ideological factories of doubt, churning
systems, laws and regulations, complications and dubieties that few
can understand, much less name. Restrictions to freedom pile upon one
another; laws are prolific beyond control and only large players steer
it where they will. The few individuals with the gumption to rise
above the distractions and addictions laid before us in the name of
what is understood as "freedom" find out soon that any initiatives
they do start for reform are immediately buried under complex laws and
regulations.

This is why I cling for dear life to the set of clear principles laid
out with such precision and brilliance in the Crimson Book.

--
John Taylor

badijet@gmail.com