The Meaning of Life is Panorthosic

Finding Purpose in the Principles of Peace

By John Taylor; 2009 Sep 03, Asma 15, 166 BE

Climate change expert George Monbiot reports the latest findings that CO2 being pumped into the atmosphere is not going to go away as previously thought. In the title "Not even wrong" to his latest column, he references a famous quip by a scientist confronted by superstitious claptrap: "It is not only not right, it is not even wrong."  Monbiot calculates that as a result of the new findings, nothing on the table among nations is adequate to accomplish anything like the results we need to stop global warming.

"The targets and methodology being used by governments and the United Nations - which will form the basis for their negotiations at Copenhagen - are not even wrong; they are irrelevant. Unless there is a radical change of plan between now and December, world leaders will not only be discussing the alignment of deckchairs on the Titanic, but hotly disputing whose deckchairs they really are and who has the responsibility for moving them. Fascinating as this argument may be, it does nothing to alter the course of the liner." (http://www.monbiot.com/archives/2009/08/31/not-even-wrong/)

This analogy of the Titanic describes the problem perfectly. We should not even expect national governments to be able to do anything about climate, because it is a problem that only a world government is qualified to address. Imagine how far Western and Eastern nations would have got in responding to Hitler if instead of national leaders running the war, the mayors of the big cities, London, New York, Moscow and a thousand other cities tried to deal with it. Urban government is not designed to raise an army or plan beyond a very narrow sphere. The same is true of nationalist governments today.

Monbiot reports that the filmmakers who made the film, "Age of Stupid," are advocating a "10:10" campaign aiming at a ten percent cut in the UK's emissions during the year 2010. They are suggesting that individuals and companies work at this on their own in order to shame national governments into actually doing something substantive to stop emissions. While it is true that decarbonizing the economy will require support on all levels, this appeal to even more fractured and circumscribed power bases shows the direction of peoples' thinking. The very idea of world government is unthinkable.

Monbiot rightly points out that without independent auditing and firm legal backing, the goals of this plan will not mean much. But he agrees that an airy balloon of a plan is better than no plan at all.

In the meantime, the only good news is coming from the financial front, which the present recession is making so urgent that world leaders are actually tiptoeing close to the line between words and deeds.

In July a summit of world leaders seriously brought up the idea of a world currency to replace the De Facto currency since the Second World War, the American dollar. Both the Russians and the Chinese advocated a world currency, and French President Nicolas Sarkozy agreed, saying that we should dump the dollar because "we cannot stick with just one single (nation's) currency." The Russian president even had an example of such a coin stamped, labelled "United Future World Currency," which he distributed to other leaders attending as a gift. He was quoted as saying,

"In all likelihood something similar could appear and it could be held in your hand and used as a means of payment. This is the international currency." ("Medvedev sees single currency dream in G8 coin gift," AFP, July 10, 2009)

A few of my readers sent photographs of this coin, which impresses with its beauty. It is gold coloured and has five leaves of different species, the maple leaf being most prominent; this of course warms the hearts of Canadians. The words "Unity in Diversity" are stamped on one side. This warms the hearts of Baha'is, since it reflects one of the major themes of the Writings of Baha'u'llah. Probably, it is primarily meant to reflect the Latin saying, "E Pluribus Unum," Out of Many, One, which is featured on American currency.

When the time comes to make up a world currency, I would suggest the following words that Comenius suggested be used as a headpiece or proclamation for a world constitution.

"O thou, who art the herald of the coming light, follow the example of the sun, and wherever it goes, so must you go also, and encircle the earth so that you and your rays visit every part of the world touched by the rays of the sun. For the Lord of the universe commands that your benefits, like those of the sun, should be enjoyed by all people." (Panorthosia, Ch. 25, para 10, p. 152)

What better words to print on a world paper currency than these, along with a picture of a sunrise?

Unfortunately, this early proposal at the G8 summit for a world currency, as so often happens in international meetings, did not go beyond words. It is unlikely that much will be done about implementing the foundations of world peace without the support of North and South America. This certainly was what Abdu'l-Baha thought. During His visit to America in 1912, just before the First World War broke out, He was quoted as saying,

"If the republics of the Americas assembled and agreed on the question of peace, and if all of them would turn to the [Peace] Assembly at the Hague, most of the powers of Europe would follow suit. But looking at it from another point of view, if an international war breaks out in Europe, international peace will be established more quickly. Also, if these ideas regarding peace spread among the public, the financiers will refuse to give loans for wars and the manufacture of armaments, the railway companies will abstain from transporting instruments of destruction and the armed forces will not engage in carnage and the spilling of blood. Also the boundaries should be established." (Mahmud's Diary, 278-279)

This profound statement implies that if we knew the principles of peace and a desire the end war really took hold, or even if it grew a little stronger than the profit motive, national governments would lose their power bases. Business, which profits from military spending, would rebel and the military-industrial-academic complex would collapse; even individual soldiers would refuse to fight.

Indeed, if the leaders themselves read what Baha'u'llah had advised them, they would not consider money or military triumph to have anything to do with their true wealth. Baha'u'llah advised leaders to think of their people as their true power base, not wealth, luxuries and other trappings of power. It is not a coincidence that in modern wars and conflicts, civilian populations have become the primary targets. This shows that even military and paramilitary strategists recognize what goes right over the heads of national leaders, that the people are the real basis of power. The welfare of the people themselves are all the glory they should seek.

In fact, Baha'u'llah holds that this is exactly why we all have been brought into being. This is the nature of the human station, what distinguishes us from animals.

"All men have been created to carry forward an ever-advancing civilization. The Almighty bearest Me witness: To act like the beasts of the field is unworthy of man. Those virtues that befit his dignity are forbearance, mercy, compassion and loving-kindness towards all the peoples and kindreds of the earth." (Baha'u'llah, Gleanings, p. 215)

Over the past year I have been examining the works of John Comenius, whom I have come to regard not only as a genius, but also very much a minor prophet. So much of what he says, especially in his posthumous masterwork, Panorthosia, leads up to and supplements the millennial vision of peace that Baha'u'llah advocates. For example, compare what Baha'u'llah says above about progress as our reason for being with what Comenius said in the 17th Century about reform and peace.

"I say that the task must be tackled seriously so that this Universal Reform (the world's last before its end) is not a mere shadow, but a reality whereby we may truly escape from Babylon, and truly release ourselves from the labyrinths, and be truly restored to God and attached to freedom, and truly achieve the supreme end of life, which is peace of mind." (Comenius, Panorthosia, Ch. 19, para 12, p. 14)

Here are two different but complementary insights into our purpose in life. One is to carry forward an ever advancing civilization, the other to gain peace of mind. In fact, what would calm our fears better than knowing that civilization is advancing? I grew up in a time when everybody was afraid of being killed by the atomic bomb. Now we have the creeping fear of climate disaster.

Indeed the two books that I am working on are designed to help find a way out of climate destabilization by means of the Baha'i principles and what Comenius called universal reform, or Panorthosia. At the same time, the principle of universal peace through world government would both end wars and the consequent threat of atomic destruction, and it would allow for universal reform through principle. Which is by way of introducing the next in my Panorthosia essay series, which will describe how Comenius deals with universal peace.

John Taylor


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