Pattern

The Ordered Pattern of Polity

By John Taylor; 2007 June 08

Yesterday Central School had a talent show in which both Thomas and Silvie participated as keyboardists, along with a few other piano students, several dancers and many more lip-syncing singers. One little boy, more of a piano novice than our Thomas, had chosen "Frere Jacques," as his piece. No sooner did he get started than he hit a snag. "Frere Jacques, Frere Jacques, dormez ..." The teacher told him to start over. So he did, and got to the same place, and could not go on. This happened several times, and the tension was rising in the room. Would he ever get it? Finally he got to "vous," and from there it was clear sailing. He was so exultant that it showed in his playing, which was rapid and had great bravado; he clearly was aiming to kill Frere Jacques, not wake him. He ended with a flourish, followed by a dramatic pause. There was an audible sigh, the whole school felt such relief at this happy ending to the threatened humiliation that suddenly, in one accord they gave him a louder, more rousing ovation than anybody the whole afternoon.

Here was a living demonstration of theodicy, a flawed performance that worked better than a dozen others, all more sophisticated and far closer to technical perfection. So it is with our era, we are badly stuck, but when we finally get it the results may turn out much more impressive than if we had done it right the first time. At least, that is what I tell myself when I hear estimates of the number of species about to go extinct in coming decades, the acreage of land that will disappear under the waves, the number of climate refuges rushing to high ground, the recrudescence of Cold War nuclear tensions, and on and on.

One simple and basic thing that we no longer seem able to get right is the relationship between the individual and government. We must have understood this before, or how could we ever have got to where we are? I doubt that we could ever have invented the wheel, far less worrying about genetic engineering and exploiting nuclear fusion, if the relationship between "me" and "us" had always been as twisted, stunted and retarded as now. Like that little boy, we had to have been impressive in auditions and practices but in performance, now that national loyalty needs to transcend to universal patriotism, we choke. Suddenly, early Twenty-first Century, we no longer connect to the most basic of relationships, that of one to many, of person to society. The House of Justice, in its most recent communication, recognizes this. They wrote,

"One of the signs of the breakdown of society in all parts of the world is the erosion of trust and collaboration between the individual and the institutions of governance." (UHJ, Message to the Baha'is of the World, 25 March 2007)

This letter from Haifa discusses how Baha'is internally can counteract this general breakdown. They say that we can do this at Ridvan, by all participating enthusiastically in the elections that rejuvenate our local Spiritual Assembly. The ovation we give to the holy institution gives it a powerful spiritual impulse for guiding us to carry out the Plan. No amount of eloquence, planning or organizational skill can substitute. It is like marriage or parenting; technical arrangements and outward conditions may vary but be it near or far from outward perfection, nothing takes the place of love, affection and fidelity among the parties involved.

The Ridvan voting, bolstered by the year-long "campaign" of acquaintanceship and friendship-building that led up to it, establishes affection between assemblies and community members, and this lubricates, makes for harmonious cooperation in the coming year. In effect, God lays out a hidden design on the tissue of our relationship with "institutions of governance." We may not see it, but from a distance, in the aspect of eternity, it is a beautiful thing. Shoghi Effendi hints in the following famous passage that this design may one day be seen as a "pattern for world polity."

"A twofold process, however, can be distinguished, each tending, in its own way and with an accelerated momentum, to bring to a climax the forces that are transforming the face of our planet. The first is essentially an integrating process, while the second is fundamentally disruptive. The former, as it steadily evolves, unfolds a System which may well serve as a pattern for that world polity towards which a strangely-disordered world is continually advancing; while the latter, as its disintegrating influence deepens, tends to tear down, with increasing violence, the antiquated barriers that seek to block humanity's progress towards its destined goal." (Shoghi Effendi, World Order, 170)

We have been discussing this pregnant word, "polity," for a while in this series. Polity describes what happens when the interest of the whole comes first; it is the reverse of partisanship, the opposite of power politicking, manipulation and espionage. Polity depends upon a direct love shining like the sun between one and all, where lesser loyalties are never allowed to block out the higher.

Polity is a fabric made of many threads, and it is growing and evolving constantly. Even when it seems to be the wrong color, or woven in the wrong way, that wrong is righter than any right we can conceive of, as the principle of theodicy proves. In the following, the Guardian speaks of the work of the Baha'is as weaving just such a fabric, that of an "orderly world polity," of which we alone are fully conscious.

"Who else can be the blissful if not the community of the Most Great Name, whose world-embracing, continually consolidating activities constitute the one integrating process in a world whose institutions, secular as well as religious, are for the most part dissolving? They indeed are "the people of the right," whose "noble habitation" is fixed on the foundations of the World Order of Baha'u'llah -- the Ark of everlasting salvation in this most grievous Day. Of all the kindreds of the earth they alone can recognize, amidst the welter of a tempestuous age, the Hand of the Divine Redeemer that traces its course and controls its destinies. They alone are aware of the silent growth of that orderly world polity whose fabric they themselves are weaving." (Shoghi Effendi, World Order, 194)