Competitive Democracy

Karlberg III

By John Taylor; 2008 Sep 15, 08 Izzat, 165 BE


Let us continue our review of Michael Karlberg's article on Western liberal democracy.

Michael Karlberg, "Western Liberal Democracy as New World Order?" in The Baha'i World 2005-2006 (Haifa, World Centre Publications, 2007), 133-156. (http://bahai.haifa.ac.il/pdf/mk-cv.pdf)

Under the heading, "The Corrupting Influence of Money," Karberg states,

"In theory, when there are excesses and deficiencies in the operation of the market economy, a democratic government should be able to regulate and remedy them. The practice of political competition, however, makes this virtually impossible. The reasons for this are not difficult to understand. Political competition is an expensive activity -- and growing more expensive with every generation. Successful campaigns are waged by those who have the financial support, both direct and indirect, of the most affluent market actors (i.e. those who have profited the most from market excesses and deficiencies). (Karlberg, Western Liberal Democracy, 138)

As was previously shown on this blog several times in great detail, Aristotle held that just as living organisms die and rot in recognizable ways, the same holds for the death and corruption of the diverse forms of human governance, including democracy. Aristotle, observing the history of the many city states within his purview, noticed that that democracies inevitably sicken, die and are reborn as plutocracies, the rule of the wealthy. It has happened many times, though on a smaller scale than today. In a pure democracy citizens vote with their ballots. However, in practice their economic role, what we call "voting with our dollars," starts to count for more. Market forces (which are free only for the strong) steer the state away from equality, the principle of "one person, one vote," towards something entirely non-egalitarian. As in ponds and lakes, big fish start feeding cannibalistically on little fish until there remain only two kinds, lunkers and feeders. This we call plutocracy. In a plutocracy the big bucks dictate the agenda and the Golden Rule means only that those with the gold write the rules.

Now as far as I recall, Aristotle did not offer any theories as to why democracies degrade in this peculiar manner, he only noticed that they always seem to do so. Karlberg believes that the main explanation is human competitiveness, pure and simple.

"Yet the root of the problem is political competition itself. From the moment we structure elections as contests, which inevitably require money to win, we invert the proper relationship between government and the market. Rather than our market existing within the envelope of responsible government regulation, our government is held captive within the envelope of market regulation." (139)

Karlberg's expression "held captive" implies that government is unwillingly involved, but now the highest levels of government, in North America at least, are staffed by corporate executives holding strictly to a market fundamentalist ideology. This means that for the past several years at least Western liberal democracies are democratic in name only; by every objective criterion they are plutocracies. Nominal democracy is just another tool in the plutocrat's toolbox for manufacturing consent. If there remain any doubt, ask yourself: If the lion's share of the wealth is in the hands of a tiny minority, why is the question of sharing the wealth not first on the agenda of every political party? In anything resembling democracy, the mere suggestion would guarantee easy electoral success.

So very briefly, Karlberg's thesis is that it is not market forces alone but competitiveness itself that corrupts democracy and puts the wealthy at an advantage. As long as elections are contests, and candidates fight for their jobs -- and dread losing them in future elections -- the common interest will be held up for ransom by special interests.

"As long as governance is organized in a competitive manner, this relationship cannot be fully corrected. Any scheme to tweak the rules here and there will merely cause money to flow through new paths. This is what occurs, for instance, with attempts to reform campaign financing. New forms of contribution merely eclipse the old. Even if societies could eliminate campaign financing entirely, money would simply flow through other points of political influence such as the constantly evolving species of political action groups that exert strategic influences over media coverage of issues, public opinion formation, electoral outcomes, and many other political processes." (139)

No amount of fiddling with the rules will get around the fact that as long as competition is our model the entire electoral system will favor big fish and their divide and rule tactics. Little fish may try to hang together in a large school hoping for safety in numbers but their predators will break it up and feed on stragglers one by one. Karlberg compares this inevitability to the downward tendency of flowing liquid.

"In a competitive political system, where candidates are vying for favorable coverage, public opinion and votes, money will always flow to the most effective points of political influence just as water always flows to the point of lowest elevation. We can alter the path of that flow, but we cannot stop it." (139)

As long as we hold to competition, money will decide influence, and those who control the most money will see to it that even more money flows their way.

"This problem is a primary cause of the growing disparities of wealth and poverty that are now witnessed throughout the world, including within the Western world. The expanding income gap is not simply a result of the market economy itself. It is a result of the competitive political economy that is coupled with it. Through this political economy, the wealthiest market actors define the market framework within which they accumulate wealth. This framework comprises systems of property law, contract law, labor law, tax law, and all other forms of legislation, public infrastructure, and public subsidies that shape market outcomes. In competitive democracies, this framework is defined, over time, by the wealthiest market actors, owing to the influence of money on political competition. The result is a political-economy feedback loop that serves the swelling interests of the wealthiest segments of society." (139-140)

The result of the competitive model for democracy is not "mere" injustice but a dangerous narrowing of the diversity of opinion that is validated, recognized or even gains a hearing in public discourse. This Karlberg calls "perspective exclusion and issue reduction." Issue reduction is not just a narrowing down of the number of issues, but full fledged reductionism. A tiny, selfish minority cannot possibly represent the entire spectrum of human opinion, and when their voices only are heard, we all put on blinders. Whether we wish it or not, a shrill philosophy, what has been called the "curse of oversimplification," is systematically pounded into our heads.

"In addition to the problem of money, political competition does not provide an effective way to understand and solve complex problems because it reduces the diversity of perspectives and voices in decision-making processes. There are a number of reasons for this. First, political competition yields an adversarial model of debate which generally defaults to the premise that if one perspective is right then another perspective must be wrong. In theory, the most enlightened or informed perspective prevails. This assumes that complex issues can be adequately understood from a single perspective. However, an adequate grasp of most complex issues requires consideration of multiple, often complementary, perspectives. Complex issues tend to be multifaceted-like many-sided objects that must be viewed from different angles in order to be fully seen and understood. Different perspectives therefore reveal different facets of complex issues. Maximum understanding emerges through the careful consideration of as many facets as possible." (141)

Diverse views must oppose, push one another aside, rather than complement one another. It is a zero sum game where one binary opposition wins at the expense of the other. The commercialized media are heavily invested in this Procrustian way of dealing with varied perspectives. They must do whatever is necessary to attract mass audiences in order to sell to advertisers.

"The cheapest, and therefore most profitable, way to manufacture a mass audience is through the construction of spectacle -- including partisan political spectacle. Political coverage is thus reduced to a formula of sound-bite politics in which emotionally charged sloganeering becomes the ticket into the public sphere. As a result, simplistic political mantras echo throughout the public sphere, distorting the complex nature of the issues at hand, constraining public perceptions, and aggravating partisan divisions. In such a climate, it is virtually impossible to solve complex, multidimensional social and environmental problems." (141)

The result? The old Roman technique of pacifying the mob, oppress all you want but give the ignorant masses their bread and circuses. Make food cheap, in other words, and offer exciting spectacle, and the masses will quiet down and accept the status quo. Politics is just another circus to distract us. Unfortunately, as Karlberg points out, we need problem solving on a wide level, not reductionism or pacification. The problems confronting the world are complex and pressing and old tactics of divide and conquer, bread and circuses, are just not enough anymore.

Underlying it all is Jesus critique of Roman hegemony, the question, "What profiteth it a man to gain the world and lose his soul?" The solution that Karlberg, following the House of Justice, offers is more sophisticated than this aphorism but essentially the same in spirit. If we are at all aware of our spiritual nature and destiny we will never be satisfied with "bread alone," meaning the "isms," distortions and reductionist pap that dominates a godless, secular political agenda.

"Other challenges associated with competitive politics are less tangible, but no less important. These are the spiritual costs of partisanship and political competition. Again, these problems stem directly from the assumptions that underlie the model: that human nature is essentially selfish and competitive; that different people tend to develop conflicting interests; and that the best way to organize democratic governance is therefore through a process of interest-group competition. By organizing human affairs according to these assumptions, we are institutionally cultivating our basest instincts. In the process, we become what we expect of ourselves. The Universal House of Justice has observed that `it is in the glorification of material pursuits, at once the progenitor and common feature of all such ideologies, that we find the roots which nourish the falsehood that human beings are incorrigibly selfish and aggressive. It is here that the ground must be cleared for the building of a new world fit for our descendants.'
"These culturally formed expectations, however, have no solid basis in the social and behavioral sciences. In these fields, the emerging new consensus is that human beings have the developmental potential for both egoism and altruism, competition and co-operation -- and which of these potentials is more fully realized is a function of our cultural environment. This insight is also familiar to many of the world's philosophical and religious traditions. Metaphors that allude to humanity's "lower" and "higher" nature, or "material" and "spiritual" nature, convey this insight, as does the Eastern concept of "enlightenment." However, contrary to the theory and practice of political competition, the primary impulse behind these philosophical and religious traditions has been to cultivate these more co-operative and altruistic dimensions of human nature. (144-145)

We will continue with more of Karlberg's excellent distillation of the Baha'i understanding of the political state of the world at a future date.

My son, and friend

http://ontario.bloguje.cz/703906-lovec-hadu.php

http://ontario.bloguje.cz/img/had3.jpg

These are from his mother's blog, in Czech.

I entered lots of photos for our fall fair with indifferent results, but this, taken by Marie, of a stupid, ordinary dandelion (pampaliska, in Czech), won first prize. Go figure...

From The Taylors etc.

Karlberg II

Democracy's Invisible Twin


Michael Karlberg, "Western Liberal Democracy as New World Order?" in The Baha'i World 2005-2006 (Haifa, World Centre Publications, 2007), 133-156. (http://bahai.haifa.ac.il/pdf/mk-cv.pdf)


As promised, let us take a closer look at Michael Karlberg's discussion of liberal democracy in the Baha'i World. This subject is on everybody's tongues in North America this year, since both Canada and the U.S. are both having national election campaigns this fall. Therefore it would be wise for Baha'is to go over this article in detail, as I will try to do today on the Badi' Blog. Before, we briefly outlined Karberg's thesis that struggle is both root and branch of the current order of things,


"Western liberal democracy, at its core, is based on the premise that democratic governance requires individuals and groups to compete for political power. The most recognizable form that this takes is the party system. Political competition also occurs without formal political parties in many local elections, and when independent candidates run in provincial (or state) and national elections. In all of these cases, however, the underlying competitive structure is the same, and it is this underlying structure that has become anachronistic, unjust, and unsustainable." (Liberal Democracy, p. 134)


In politics there is a clash between two great worldviews, not unlike that in cosmology between Copernicus's sun-centered concept of the motions of the spheres and the older earth centered one. In this case the dominating theory is that nature determines who we are, while the Baha'i challenge takes God to be at the center. In the West the Master did not specifically criticize Western Liberal Democracy, but instead habitually offered an alternative model for emulation, that is, a God who is all loving and who encourages us to imitate His loving ways. If we do not imitate God, the only alternative is to imitate is what surrounds us, that is, nature. There is no way around it, the human soul is a mirror. It has no choice but to reflect and emulate conditions around it. Whatever we see is soon “natural” to us.


The only question is, what nature do we imitate?


Yes, there is a great deal of co-operation and co-evolution going on in nature; but this is a man's world and men are deeply fascinated by fighting, the sort of struggle and competition that goes on constantly in nature. As a result we imitate not just any part of nature but its "male" rather than "female" side. In a male dominated society, it seems only natural to see this way. We associate with the wrong crowd, we avoid the cute and cuddly, the co-operative, sharing aspects of nature and instead take to heart the Hobbesian side, the Mad Max gone wild, nature "red in tooth and claw." Thomas Hobbes in the 13th chapter of his Leviathan famously called this the "condition of war." In nature we must fight to survive. The weakest can kill the strongest. In this war, life ends up "nasty, brutish and short." Hobbes points out that,


"Whatsoever therefore is consequent to a time of war, where every man is enemy to every man, the same consequent to the time wherein men live without other security than what their own strength and their own invention shall furnish them withal. In such condition there is no place for industry, because the fruit thereof is uncertain: and consequently no culture of the earth; no navigation, nor use of the commodities that may be imported by sea; no commodious building; no instruments of moving and removing such things as require much force; no knowledge of the face of the earth; no account of time; no arts; no letters; no society; and which is worst of all, continual fear, and danger of violent death; and the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short."


As Hobbes says, natural conditions of war are inimical to everything that human civilization stands for. As the Master put it succinctly, war is death and peace is life. Ours is a war paradigm. We are essentially warlike, built for competition. This permeates our thinking and determines what our democracy is. Democratic institutions, then, become a new sort of Leviathan who is not an individual (God) but a collectivity. He does not mandate peace but continually breeds war, like a referee dressed in a striped shirt, pitting groups of solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short fellows against each other in eternal conflict. Strife conditions our attitudes and the tone of political discourse. Karlberg writes,


"Statements such as these raise legitimate concerns about the state of partisan discourse, but they obscure the underlying problem of political competition. According to these views, political competition and political parties are the natural, normal, and inevitable way to organize democratic governance; the problem arises only when partisan rhetoric becomes too adversarial or mean-spirited. As the socio-linguist Deborah Tannen states, `A kind of agonistic inflation has set in whereby opposition has become more extreme, and the adversarial nature of the system is routinely being abused.'" (Liberal Democracy, 135)


What a lovely term, "agonistic inflation"! Struggle for mere existence gone wild, acting like monetary inflation in the economy to devalue all getting and spending. Karlberg cites what Baha'u'llah said in the Proclamation to the Kings, "No two men can be found who may be said to be outwardly and inwardly united," saying that this lack of inner and outer unity gives birth to what one female political scientist, using another gorgeous turn of phrase, calls "adversary democracy." Adversary democracy, subject to agonistic inflation, is the fruit of bad DNA; our profoundest conceptions of human nature assume that we are in essence selfish and competitive. We also presume that "different groups of people will naturally develop different interests, needs, values, and desires, and these interests will invariably conflict." Furthermore, "given a selfish human nature and the problem of conflicting interests, the fairest and most efficient way to govern a society is to harness these dynamics through an open process of interest-group competition." (136) As a result, elections are nothing better than cockfights; extremely boring cockfights but cockfights nonetheless. No matter what the issue, it is squeezed into and subordinated to the logic of competitive contests. The "goal of winning trumps all other values" and, as one authority cited by Karlberg points out,


"Parties may aim to realize a programme of `ideal' political principles, but unless their activities are based on systematic strategies for achieving electoral success they will be doomed to insignificance. Accordingly, parties become transformed, above all else, into means for fighting and winning elections." (137)


Reading about this competitive model conjured up the image of a very large man squeezing into a tiny box. He starts out with a head, two arms and legs, his natural form. However after the election he ends up in a small cube form and cannot move a muscle. That is why political institutions are immobile in the face of increased threats like nuclear war and worsening climate change. We lose an entire dimension of humanity because our worldview will not let us budge.


From a technical point of view, I admire how Karlberg introduces at just the right moment the alternative, the purely co-operative democracy in the Cause of God. That is how the Master taught and it cannot be improved upon. I also admire how he squeezes the entire paper essentially between these two famous statements of Baha'u'llah:


"No two men can be found who may be said to be outwardly and inwardly united..."


And at the end of the paper,


"The winds of despair are, alas, blowing from every direction, and the strife that divideth and afflicteth the human race is daily increasing. The signs of impending convulsions and chaos can now be discerned, inasmuch as the prevailing order appeareth to be lamentably defective. (Baha'u'llah, Tablets, Maqsud, p. 171)


The paper shows how our lack of inner and outer unity gives birth to our referee Leviathan, and how he eventually causes despair – how close His analogy of “winds of despair” is to the climate change that threatens to be our undoing.


Before closing, let us consider another consequence of competition, lack of gun control and the consequent proliferation of weapons both with and between national borders. A headline in the New York Times says, “U.S. Arms Sales Climbing Rapidly; Sales of weapons to foreign governments have risen to more than $32 billion, up from $12 billion in 2005.” Instead of building friendships among nations and strengthening international ties, “The Bush administration is pushing through a broad array of foreign weapons deals as it seeks to rearm Iraq and Afghanistan, contain North Korea and Iran, and solidify ties with onetime Russian allies.” One of the military salesmen for the Americans explains, "This is not about being gunrunners. This is about building a more secure world." This, then, is about the same logic that says you are safer if you pack a gun and store guns in your house than if there were fewer guns overall, and most were in the hands of the police. Recall what Baha'u'llah said about being unified even in ourselves – then consider the statistics which show that with a gun around your chances of shooting yourself are between four and seven times greater. The same has to be true on the international level with weapons of mass destruction.


“The United States has long been the top arms supplier to the world. In the past several years, however, the list of nations that rely on the United States as a primary source of major weapons systems has greatly expanded. Among the recent additions are Argentina, Azerbaijan, Brazil, Georgia, India, Iraq, Morocco and Pakistan... In many cases, these sales represent a cultural shift, as nations like Romania, Poland and Morocco, which have long relied on Russian-made MIG-17 fighter jets, are now buying new F-16s, built by Lockheed Martin. In the Persian Gulf region, much of the rearmament is driven by fears of Iran.”


Thomas Hobbes, who was born prematurely due to his mother's shock at the coming of the Spanish Armada, said of himself that his “twin brother was fear.” The same thing could be said of the 21st Century. Its twin brother is fear. The greater the fear, the better the sales of arms. The argument that Americans in Afghanistan had to fight insurgents using older US arms does not hold water, since fear forces the weapons makers to make newer and more fearsome arms. And the great thing about fear is that, like an invisible twin brother, it pushes competition to ever higher levels. The Pentagon's weapons seller points out the logic perfectly. With so many nations now willing to sell advanced weapons systems, the United States could not afford to be too restrictive in its own sales.

"Would you rather they bought the weapons and aircraft from other countries?" he said. "Because they will."

why peace?

"A before and after picture of Paghman Gardens, Kabul Afghanistan taken 40 years apart, reflecting the results of 20 years of war."

As the Master said, war is death and peace is life.

If you cannot see both pictures in your browser, go here:

http://pixdaus.com/single.php?id=65437

tpo New feature: Cheap Comments on the News

In the news

Wikipedia has a daily feature called "in the news" with a series of headlines from recent developments; so here on the Badi Blog I would like to offer a new feature called "Cheap Comments on "In the News." No need to comb the world for a smart–alecky loudmouth to make inane comments on your headlines, just surf on over to the Badi' Blog.

A series of five bomb blasts rocks various sites in Delhi, killing 30 people, and injuring 90.

Comment: No details on this, but we can be sure that these are not accidents but a form of political commentary. The fanatic's veto in action. How hard is it to get yourself into world headlines? Well, let me see, in India the going price is some gunpowder and 30 dead bodies and 90 injured ones.

A mudslide caused by an illegal mine in Linfen, Shanxi province, China kills at least 254 people.

This is especially galling, coming as it does on the eve of "mid-Autumn day," a celebration where families get together and eat "moon cake," a circular confection like a ring symbolizing eternal unity in the family. Some of my pilot buddies got together and bought our family a moon cake for tomorrow's mid-autumn day festivities.

As for a solution to this mass murder, the cause is corruption and illegal activity. Cure it the same you would treat the tragedy in India mentioned above. First, unleash the legions of peace, silently. Call in all religious leaders involved to the world religious parliament, make them responsible for eliminating the root causes of wrongdoing. At the same time, assure that the press does not feed off the free publicity caused by terrorist acts. As long as human life is held up to ransom for attention getting devices involving bombs, the profession of journalist will continue to be a form of prostitution rather than a benefit to society.

In rugby union, New Zealand team the All Blacks defeat Australia to win the 2008 Tri Nations Series at the Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane, Australia.

This is not news. If sports must be reported, report statistical losses or gains in health measures in large segments of the world population. Make it exiting and people will be as concerned as they now are for the particular fortunes of particular athletes.

A collision between a passenger and a freight train in Los Angeles, California, kills 18.

Hmm. An accidental death of only 18 makes it into world headlines, whereas it takes considerably more deaths and considerably more dire, dastardly causes to be reported if you live in India or China. Again, if it is an accident, report only statistical rises or drops in safety, not individual events. Anything less is journalistic whoredom.

Negotiations in Zimbabwe lead to an agreement between President Robert Mugabe (pictured) and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai.

The Wiki article on this distressing quandary in this strife torn land explains the details well. Suffice to say, unity is the most valuable commodity in the world. Peace is the one and only job and goal of anybody in politics. If you are not an expert in peace, get out of politics. Although the disunity here is extreme, all states are failed states as long as they work in a vacuum, without a strong world government to say what is standard, and what can be left to local variance.

The first particle beam is successfully steered around the Large Hadron Collider accelerator ring at CERN near Geneva, Switzerland.

Here is an idea. The results from the experimentation at the LHC will not be in for a year, so until that time let other science news into the headlines, not this story.

In tennis, Serena Williams and Roger Federer win the women's and men's singles titles, respectively, at the 2008 U.S. Open.

Again, enough things go on in the world without giving space to non-news headlines.

Martha on China

China-ward, II

By John Taylor; 2008 Sep 12, 05 Izzat, 165 BE

Hand of the Cause Martha Root had her eye on China from the very beginning of her teaching mission. In May of 1924 the following was reported in Star of the West (SW, Vol. 15, p. 47),

"Baha'u'llah's son, 'Abdu'l Baha, always wished to come to China. He said if these principles for world peace could be explained to a few of the thinkers of China, they themselves would take them to their people. He stated that the Chinese had a great capacity and China would be the country of the future. `When Religion,' 'Abdu'l-Baha said, 'shorn of its superstitions and unintelligent dogmas, shows its conformity with science, then there will be a great unifying, cleansing force in the world, which will sweep before it all wars, disagreements discords and struggles, and then will mankind be united in the love of the love of God.' Sons of the earnest young Chinese, Miss Root said, were writing to Shoghi Effendi, grandson of Abdu'l-Baha and guardian of the Baha'i work, asking him to come to China and lecture in universities and normal schools on the universal principles... " "In writing of her work she says, `I know of no country in the world where the people are so ready and where the opportunities are so vast. It is a favor and bounty from God to have the privilege to do anything for China. I do not think one of you will ever come here who will not love the Chinese.'"

Toward the end of her world-embracing teaching campaign, in the 1930's Martha Root spent about a year in China. At around this time she wrote the following article:

==========

Chinese Culture and Baha'ism, by Martha L. Root from: Star of the West, Vol. 21, pp. 262-267

The Baha'i Movement is beginning to bring a new orientation in China, this wonderful nation with 500,000,000 souls. What China does later, may have its effect in every country of the globe. If she should become a military nation, who can say, how with one fourth of the population of the globe involved, she might be the balance that would sink all civilizations.

If China comes out strongly for Baha'u'llah's universal principles she might lead the world, in a century or two, to a new undreamed of international cooperation! Dr. Sun Yat sen, the "George Washington of China," the immortal Father of the new Republic, listened with interest to the Baha'i Teachings when I met him in Canton in 1924. He asked to have two Baha'i books sent to him. He was a great idealist; his program was based on cooperation rather than on competition, and his ultimate aim was universal peace.

Visiting Canton again in September, 1930, five years after the passing of this great man, I had the honor to meet His Excellency Chen Ming Shu, the Governor of Kwangtung Province. He was formerly one of the great generals of China; he has stood at the front and faced death many times. He is a man of vision and one who thinks deeply. He said:

"I did not know much about this Baha'i Movement until you sent me a booklet two days ago, but as I read it, I believe Baha'u'llah was a Prophet and China has need of a Prophet in these days. Such Teachings at their lowest estimate could not harm any nation and at their highest they could do a great good in China and in every other country. No nation is more fitted to receive these Teachings than China, for the base of Chinese civilization is universal peace. Just now we are going through great disturbances, but when China is righted and we are on an equal footing with other nations, China will take her place in all international welfare."

Governor Chen Ming Shu, although he is such a busy man, visits the schools and sometimes speaks to the students just as did the late Dr. Sun Yat Sen. Governor Chen knows which schools are the most progressive, which teachers have the broadest outlook, and no one realizes more than he that force (cannot) convert China (but) peace. The ideal alone can conquer in the end.

While in Shanghai, the writer had the joy of meeting again Dr. Y. S. Tsao, former President of Tsing Hua University (this is the Boxer Indemnity Institution) He is one of the keenest educationists in China and a distinguished writer of Chinese affairs. Speaking with him about the relation of Chinese culture to the Baha'i Movement, he stated among other points:

"An analysis of Chinese culture shows that the Eastern philosophers when in trouble dig deep down into their souls. This Baha'i Movement is a new way of 'digging down' and the Teachings supply the help they are seeking.

"China is calling, in fact the whole world is calling for Light. That is why people are taking such an interest in these Baha'i Principles and the books explaining them. There is a need, there is an approach, and there is a fulfillment.

"This is a new Message of great value; it is liberalizing, quickening. It makes religion more dynamic to solve world problems. For all this there is a need, and the deep thinking men of China all realize this great necessity; for we cannot go back to the old stereotyped, half dead creeds. This Baha'i Message supplies a new ideal and the world cannot win against it. The older religions may struggle on till they are dead: they may never attain to the goal of accepting this. The world may sink farther and farther down until it drinks the last dregs and then it will come up again. Chinese history has been like that. After a number of years of suffering some ruler or teacher appears and for several hundred years there is progress. Then a relapse comes, but in these modern times China cannot afford a relapse. Confucius himself taught that about every five hundred years or so a great teacher or reformer will come.

"These Baha'i Teachings carry universality and supply the educational, the economic and the social solutions for this new epoch," said Dr. Tsao. "Not alone China, but the whole world needs these Teachings. China needs them specially because her leaders are groping for Light."

"How will the Chinese people take these Teachings? I sometimes ask myself," he continued, "among the Eastern people there are some that take religion much more seriously than does the West or China. People of the Near East and many in Central Asia make religion their very life, they are desperate in their religion. My question is will the Chinese people take this Baha'i Movement so seriously as the peoples of the Near East? According to history in the past, the Chinese people have rarely taken religion so very earnestly unless it was encouraged by government or by some sovereign.

"Judging from the modern spirit of the new rulers in China, they have learned so many and modern Western ideas that the present Government and its leaders have not yet looked to a religious teacher or a new religious movement to help in the solution of China's affairs. However, they have not made as rapid improvement in the direction of the affairs of state as they had hoped, so the earnest thinkers and leaders who are endeavoring to dig deeper into the human soul, and looking for a guiding spirit from the spiritual Heaven, appreciate and understand the value of this new Message from Baha'u'llah, inasmuch as this new movement not only fulfills the needs of the present day, but supplies as well an ideal for the future of mankind. Through their sufferings, through their wanderings, the Chinese people may see a Light here.

Dr. Tsao graciously is assisting in the publication of the Chinese version of "Baha'u'llah And The New Era," a Western book written by Dr. J. E. Esslemont, giving the history and the Teachings of the Baha'i Movement.

"Common sense, which runs like a thread through China's long history shows that the common ideal of China is the peace of the world. Much literature condemning war had been written by China's thinkers. She entertains no wild ambitions towards any other country, so when her house is put in order, she will stand ready to cooperate with the world in material and human resources according to her former traditional spirit and morality."'

Dr. C. T. Wang, Minister of Foreign Affairs was in his office in the capital, Nanking, and when I asked him about China's aim for world peace he answered,

"We have always stood for world peace. We have never been an aggressive power, this has been an historical fact for four thousand years. We have stood for cultural and peaceful development; the Mongolian race fought, but not the Chinese. If we have something good, we let the world have it, if it wishes, but we have never forced our customs or laws on other people. We never conquered Japan, never intended to, but they took our written language and our culture."

When I spoke of the French Revolution by way of comparison, saying that it took that country small as it is when one thinks of China's vast millions, one hundred years to restore peace, he said:

"Times are different now, it will not take China one hundred years to develop peace in her domains."

Dr. Paul Linebarger, legal adviser to the National Government of China called upon me at my hotel in Nanking. He said that he had worked for eighteen years with the late Dr. Sun Yat sen and that the latter's great
aim was universal peace. Dr. Linebarger, who was given the degree of Doctor of Laws in the National Central University the week I was in Nanking (and this honor has only been bestowed upon one other scholar either Chinese or foreign in this young University) said to me:

"You Baha'is are most welcome in China. We like to see you introducing the Baha'i Teachings here."

The Minister of Education, Dr. Mon lin Chiang, who studied in the University of California in 1912 and took his Ph. D. degree in Columbia University, has always specialized in education. He said that since the revolution in 1911, several times there have been two governments, but education has never disintegrated. During all this time instructions about education could be sent to any province.

I asked Dr. Chiang about the teaching of religion in the schools, because at the moment there is a great furor among the foreign missionaries.

He answered: "So far as the public schools are concerned there is no teaching of religion in these schools; it is the same as in America. We go a step farther and include the private schools no matter by whom established, whether by private individuals, societies or missionary organizations; in the lower schools below junior middle school no religious training shall be given. However, above junior middle school, and this means the normal schools, colleges and universities where students are old enough to think for themselves religious teaching is optional. Teachers cannot enforce attendance. The missionaries are too drastic, but our program is much more moderate than in some countries."

I gave Dr. Chiang one or two books about the Baha'i Principles and we spoke of Baha'u'llah's Teachings and what the new universal education should be. All great educationists are interested in these Teachings which proves what Dr. Tsao said that the Teachings of Baha'u'llah offer a new solution for education, and the economic and social welfare of mankind.

These solutions have not been brought forward in former religions.

The great universities of China just as the Western universities were opened to lectures on these Principles. Their International Clubs also arranged for more talks. The writer spoke to two thousand young men in the National Central University in Nanking, October sixth, on "International Education For the New Age," a lecture based on Baha'u'llah's plan for the new universal education. The Chancellor in his letter said: "You are heartily invited to give us a speech." After the lecture in Hong Kong University which was well attended and enthusiastic, a beautiful girl of nineteen years came forward and asked what she could do to promote the Baha'i Cause in Singapore, her home city.

They said she is one of the brightest girls in the university, and whatever life work she undertakes she will bring to it extraordinary capacity. There is absolutely no prejudice in China. They are open to investigate truth. The Director of Broadcasting in Canton said that the people of China would be very interested in these universal principles. Three lectures were given over the radio, and the "Canton Municipal Daily News" in its issue of September 23, 1930, had two full pages with photograph of 'Abdu'l Baha in the Special Supplement Section.

On these two pages were (1) a story about the visit to Canton; (2) Lecture broadcast on "New Universal Education; (3) "Esperanto As a Universal Auxiliary Language" and (4) the broadcast speech on "What Is the Baha'i Movement?" Each Baha'i broadcast in Hong Kong was given in full in six newspapers the following morning. The West on the other hand, could with profit examine the basic foundation of Chinese culture and ask itself whether the great civilizations of China contain elements which can contribute toward international co-operation. China has seen the rise and fall of many dynasties, China has had her discoverers and inventors, men of fine arts, philosophers and poets and scholars, while we in the Occident were still savages on the plains.

Highest of all, China had the great sage and Prophet Confucius, born in 551 B. C. who taught the central doctrine of being sincere in thought so as to rectify the heart, to cultivate the person, to order well the state, and to pacify the world. He taught also that `all within the four seas are brothers.'

According to the School of Physiocrats, one writer says: "The whole teaching of Confucius aimed at restoring to human nature that first radiance that first beauty, which it had received from Heaven, and which had become obscured by ignorance and passion. He therefore exhorted his countrymen to obey the Lord of Heaven, to honor and fear him, to love their neighbors as themselves, to overcome their inclinations, never to make passion the measure of action, but rather to subject it to reason, and not to do or think or say anything contrary to reason."

The essential part still remains to be done, to bind it upon the brows of earth, and this was the task of Confucius, to bring men back to the original divine state of nature. What has happened to China in the lapse from Confucius' teachings, has similarly come upon the West in its neglecting to live the teachings of Jesus Christ. These great Prophets and Manifestations and such an One is Baha'u'llah come to this earth from age to age to "renew religion," and Their Teachings carry the great Creative Power to change men's hearts and lead them up. Just as I am finishing this thought, at six o'clock this morning, here in Shanghai, I see with my very eyes a symbol of what the Bahai Teachings will do for China.

From my high window, I view the black clouds over China, over the sea and over the Yangtse River. It looks as if it would be a day of "night" and depression; but something is happening behind this grim, floating blackness: a mighty orb of light steadily arises behind all this, and slowly but surely the black clouds drop down out of sight or are melted through magic, into white beauty. It is the glorious full sun uprising in dazzling brilliance!

What can withstand the rays of such a light! Today breaks into glad sunshine and all the blackness passes away and will be remembered no more. So arises Baha'u'llah to these thinkers of China who, in the early morning watch of a new epoch just breaking, glimpse the Sun of Truth!

--

email: badijet@gmail.com blog: http://badiblog.blogspot.com/

That Sweet Double Victory

A Review of "What White People Like"

I have been reading the new bestselling satire, Christian Lander's "Stuff White People Like." (http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/stuff-white-people-like-the-book/) It has a wince per page rating of about three. He does not lampoon all whites, but the sort of liberal, college educated American-ruling-class totally distinguished non-conforming conformist kind of white person -- hence the subtitle "The definitive guide to the unique taste of millions," the sort of person who buys into every rebel sell going, at least until too many other whites buy into it, at which point they go after new stuff. The author admits in an interview on this site that he is talking more about a particular generation than a race; when asked "Is the blog really about race or is it more about money and social status?" he replies,

"It's partially about race, but it's fundamentally about class. It's about a generation and class that values authenticity and credibility more than monetary wealth."

So if you are over forty-five you are no longer truly white, it seems; at least Lander does not satirize your taste in music, though most other cultural relics are recognizable. This is a younger generation of the incredible whiteness of being. His assertion that every white person has read Fast Food Nation applies to me, though. He satirizes our love for farmer's markets, which I only wish were universal among whites, and all other races and classes.

Nor does he neglect whitey's religion: the second essay in the book is on the decorative brand of spirituality that passes for faith. This is of interest to any Baha'is who would teach the Faith to a White person:

"White people will often say they are "spiritual" but not religious. Which usually means that they will believe any religion that doesn't involve Jesus. Popular choices include Buddhism, Hinduism, Kabbalah and, to a lesser extent, Scientology. A few even dip into Islam, but it's much more rare since you have to give stuff up and actually go to Mosque. Mostly they are into religion that fits really well into their homes or wardrobe and doesn't require them to do very much." <http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/2008/01/18/2-religions-that-their-parents-dont-belong-to/>

As he points out, the advantage of so-called "spirituality" over religion is that it does not require any commitment or ask for donations. You get all the good feelings that religion can offer without any of the work or sacrifice! This kind of best of both worlds approach is absolutely essential to being white. Although, one thing he satirizes towards the end of this blog entry (this is the first release by a major book publisher to start off as a blog, which is one big reason I am reading it) does hit home to me:

"When a White Person tells you `I am a Buddhist/Hindu/Kabbalahist' the best thing to do is ask how they arrived at their religious decision. The story will likely involve a trip to Thailand or a college class on religion." (p. 2)

In my case it was a Grade 13 English course with a component on religion and an assignment on the religion of our choice -- my choice was the smallest Baha'i book a Baha'i could find for me, "The Reality of Man", which I guess qualifies mine as a white person's religion. Especially when you consider that the cover of that edition of "Reality of Man" was lily white.

Another entry that had me both angry and rolling on the floor laughing was the entry called "Awareness." This is the kind of biting satire that has not been seen since Addison, Steel and the Spectator.

An interesting fact about white people is that they firmly believe that all of the world's problems can be solved through "awareness." Meaning the process of making other people aware of problems, and then magically someone else like the government will fix it. This belief allows them to feel that sweet self-satisfaction without actually having to solve anything or face any difficult challenges. Because, the only challenge of raising awareness is people not being aware. In a worst case scenario, if you fail someone doesn't know about the problem. End of story. What makes this even more appealing for white people is that you can raise "awareness" through expensive dinners, parties, marathons, selling t-shirts, fashion shows, concerts, eating at restaurants and bracelets. In other words, white people just have to keep doing stuff they like, EXCEPT now they can feel better about making a difference. Raising awareness is also awesome because once you raise awareness to an acceptable, arbitrary level, you can just back off and say "Bam! did my part. Now it's your turn. Fix it." So to summarize - you get all the benefits of helping (self satisfaction, telling other people) but no need for difficult decisions or the ensuing criticism (how do you criticize awareness?). Once again, white people find a way to score that sweet double victory. (pp. 21-22)

In other words, servility disguised as political concern, the reverse of everything that we on this Badi' blog stand for, the Cause of God, universal reform, planning, sacrifice, cosmopolitanism, all negated by an annoying cop-out by persons of non-colour. Make people aware and you can congratulate yourself on having done all that can be done. How sorely we need the teachings of the Master!

-- John Taylor

email: badijet@gmail.com blog: http://badiblog.blogspot.com/

Badi the Rapper

Badi Performing his song "Fate Of The World" at the ABS Conference Mainstage in San Diego... DJ Sabzi of Blue Scholars and Common Market Fame is backing him up. (August 30th 2008)

Badi "Fate Of The World" : Live At The ABS Mainstage
Uploaded by nextmovement

Must See Film

If you see only one film this century, this would have to be the one: Amazing Grace.
I was just astonished by this film, on many levels. For one thing it is the best political film I have ever seen. If you are a Baha'i, you gotta see it. After all, the one thing that Baha'u'llah praised any king for doing was Queen Victoria for the events depicted in this film. Think about it. Everything that any politician or other public figure accomplished was unworthy of mention by the Lord of the Age, but this exploit, outlawing the slave trade, was given the highest praise. That alone makes this one of the most important movies ever made. Are you or have you ever met a person with white skin? Well see this film, because it describes the one morally worthy act this race ever attained to. As a person of English heritage, ditto, the one thing I am most proud of, thanks to Wilberforce and his buddies...

Reason for the Coming

Why were the Bab and Baha'u'llah sent to the world?

Here is why:

"The purpose of the one true God in manifesting Himself is to summon all mankind to truthfulness and sincerity, to piety and trustworthiness, to resignation and submissiveness to the Will of God, to forbearance and kindliness, to uprightness and wisdom. His object is to array every man with the mantle of a saintly character, and to adorn him with the ornament of holy and goodly deeds." (Baha'u'llah, Gleanings, p. 298)

How to learn a foreign language

This is advice from a guy who used this method to learn several languages fluently. I was with a guy from a southern region of China and we chatted with this fellow on Skype and afterwards my friend said that this Canadian linguist speaks Mandarin better than he does himself. Since Baha'is are encouraged to learn the local language, I pass this on:


http://www.pickthebrain.com/blog/learn-foreign-language/

politics and prayer

Competitive Democracy; Reliability; Morning Chants and Midnight Yowls

By John Taylor; 2008 Sep 05, 17 Asma, 165 BE

In this morning's email was the daily mailing from the New York Times. As a fan of Noam Chomsky I gained an appreciation for what he calls the "elite press." How bracing to be subtly -- and as often as not not so-subtly -- lied to. What a fun game to pick out which garden path you are being asked to stroll down. Here is the quote for the day from today's electronic edition of the New York Times:

"Let me just offer an advance warning to the old, big-spending, do-nothing, me-first, country-second crowd: change is coming." - Senator John McCain, the Republican presidential nominee.

This stirring call for change signals a shift in tactics on the part of the leader of the Republican party. The headlines are full of it:

Headline One: McCain Vows to End 'Partisan Rancor'; "Seizing Theme of Change From Rival, Senator John McCain sought to move from a convention marked by an effort to reassure the party base to an appeal to a broader electorate." Headline Two: The Party in Power, Running as if It Weren't; "Partly by his nature and partly by calculation, John McCain is sounding a call to topple the establishment." Headline Three: The Resentment Strategy; "The G.O.P. is selling the politics of resentment; you're supposed to vote Republican to stick it to an elite that thinks it's better than you."

This third article, by one of my favourite economists, Paul Krugman, is notable for coining the Spiro Agnew-esque expression, "raging rajas of resentment." Whether the rajas are raging or not, the trick is to take a step back and ask: how did this situation come about? How is it that resentment of the political process is being made into fuel for political gain within that very system? This is like trying to build a car that shoots forward a tube to attach to the tailpipe of the vehicle in front in order to use its wasted heat and other emissions as fuel. Can a system get more corrupt than trying to run on anger against its dominance? As a remedy for this, allow me to suggest the writings of an American Baha'i lawyer by the name of Michael Karlberg. I came across this refreshing fellow in the latest volume of the Baha'i World,

Michael Karlberg, "Western Liberal Democracy as New World Order?" in The Baha'i World 2005-2006, Haifa, World Centre Publications, 2007, 133-156

Carlberg opens by suggesting a re-think of the entire rotten structure of democracy.

"But there is an alternative perspective. Could it be said that Western liberal democracy -- or what might more accurately be called competitive democracy -- has become anachronistic, unjust, and unsustainable in an age of increasing global interdependence? "The signs of impending convulsions and chaos can now be discerned," wrote Baha'u'llah, "inasmuch as the prevailing order appeareth to be lamentably defective."'

This term "competitive democracy" is perfect. There it was in front of our noses all the time and we did not think to come up with a name for it! Carlberg continues,

"Western liberal democracy, at its core, is based on the premise that democratic governance requires individuals and groups to compete for political power. The most recognizable form that this takes is the party system. Political competition also occurs without formal political parties in many local elections, and when independent candidates run in provincial (or state) and national elections. In all of these cases, however, the underlying competitive structure is the same, and it is this underlying structure that has become anachronistic, unjust, and unsustainable." (p. 134)

I hope in the near future to examine the rest of this article, and Karlburg's other works, in more detail.

==========

"O people! The goodliest vesture in the sight of God in this day is trustworthiness. All bounty and honour shall be the portion of the soul that arrayeth itself with this greatest of adornments."

This is today's selection from the Writings from a "reading for the day" email service that I subscribe to. In spite of what it says about trustworthiness, this service does not bother to give you chapter and verse. From a scholarly point of view, very untrustworthy. Very irksome. Normally I would look the source up for you and include it here, but this summer has been my first "Oceanless" summer in many years. That is, I switched over to this iMac and, because Ocean is Windows-only, I no longer have that indispensable database of the Writings at my beck and call. Not that that is an entirely bad thing. Like a wino whose life revolves around the bottle, I had become overly dependent on Ocean. It owned me, I did not own it. It was a relief to get away from it all and change my methods for a while.

It took a lot of time and struggle to get this iMac working as a writing tool at all, and although I overcame a dozen obstacles, several niggling annoyances remain, some insuperable. For example, portability. We do not have air conditioning here and I would like on hot days to move this writing operation to our deliciously cool library. Otherwise I am caught in this slowly warming oven of a house like a fly on flypaper; I end up in a semi-stupor, often sleeping away my afternoons entirely. Grampa recently gave my daughter a laptop, but she prefers to use this larger iMac. Maybe a swap can be arranged.

Anyway, we were talking about trustworthiness. Going through the Virtues Guide together with Silvie and Tomaso this summer, a series of questions about trustworthiness was asked, one of which was: "Name somebody you know personally who you think is trustworthy." To my surprise, nine year old Tomaso named me. "I wish..." was my reply, but I took the compliment to heart. Maybe there are some respects in which I am trustworthy. It is true that I am the world's most unreliable administrator (migraines unpredictably excoriate me, leaving me afterwards disinclined to think about, much less follow up on whatever it was I was doing when the attack hit; this explains why this blog jumps around in subject matter so randomly). Still, when it comes to these kids, I guess I am reliable. No matter how bad the migraine, their needs are urgent and love pushes me back to serving their needs. If only my response to love of career and service to God were that immediate and stable!

I responded to Tomaso's encouraging word about reliability by being thorough in daily tasks, praying for strength, by preparing assiduously for our vacation and courage in carrying out the thousand other little jobs that this household demands. Each morning I pray for strength and steadfastness in the face of the assault of daily burdens, plus the even more insidious assault of that all erasing squeegee that wipes away every emotional tie to life's challenges, the periodic migraine attack.

That is why, perhaps, I was so affected by the chanting at the morning prayer sessions at Louhelen. What a strange, haunting thing these chants are. They change you, deep down. These monotonous intonations are utterly counterintuitive to the Western mind. They are haunting, distant, beautiful. Like - if I may say so without insulting anybody - the night-time caterwauling of cats or the chorus of wolves in the wilds of Algonquin, this no happy sound but an utterly lonely cry, the utterance of one deprived, bereft, longing for God, the One True Beloved. To me the cry of cats and the howl of dogs and wolves is an utterly demonic sound, the utterance of lost souls writhing in the fires of hell. And why not? Dogs and cats are intelligent creatures. Of all animals they have had the most intimate contact with humans; they co-evolved with us, so why should not their sounds reflect our agony, we who are spiritual beings stuck in a world of materiality?

Yes, I know, Arabic and Persian chants are not just the result of nameless, animal longings. They are a direct response to the Law of God, a clever invention devised to allow obedience to a peculiar set of rules put in place for Islamic holy places. Some of these restrictions are carried on into the Baha'i Faith, in our Mashriqs and at the Feast. Specifically, no instrumental music is allowed in the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar and no repetitions are permitted while intoning the Holy Word in the spiritual section of the Feast.

We are blessed with a singer in our community who supplies us with music for the spiritual part of the Feast. Over the years it has become obvious that the only way for us to have Western music then is systematically to ignore the law about repetitions. So that is just what we do. With our musical repertoire of Holy Writ put to music there is simply no other alternative to repetitions other than to remove music completely. Repetition seems utterly ingrained in everything musical that we do. Actually, there is an alternative, the down and out, Eastern "intone O my servant" chant. That and nothing else that I know of will legally stand in the spiritual section of the Feast.

In any case, having listened to these lonely intonations every morning for several days, I no longer listen to the night cry of wolf, dog and cat with the same ears. Now I think not of lonely agony but of the wonderful relief they must feel afterwards, and the effect the sound has on their surroundings. The same must be so for us. "...the scattering angels of the almighty will scatter abroad the fragrance of the words uttered by his mouth and cause the heart of every created thing to throb..."

--

email: badijet@gmail.com
blog: http://badiblog.blogspot.com/

China

China-Ward

By John Taylor; 2008 Sep 04, 16 Asma, 165 BE

With intense pleasure this summer the world received the news that in the Olympic gold medal race China had beat out the much vaunted United States. This came sooner than many expected but it was inevitable given that there are five times more Chinese than Americans. As long as the quality of education in China continues to rise we can expect the Chinese to surpass America in every other area of human endeavour. Baha'is have known this from the beginning, ever since Abdu'l-Baha wrote in 1875,

"Observe to what a degree the lack of education will weaken and degrade a people. Today, from the standpoint of population the greatest nation in the world is China, which has something over four hundred million inhabitants. On this account, its government should be the most distinguished on earth, its people the most acclaimed. And yet on the contrary, because of its lack of education in cultural and material civilization, it is the feeblest and the most helpless of all weak nations. Not long ago, a small contingent of English and French troops went to war with China and defeated that country so decisively that they took over its capital Peking. Had the Chinese government and people been abreast of the advanced sciences of the day, had they been skilled in the arts of civilization, then if all the nations on earth had marched against them the attack would still have failed, and the attackers would have returned defeated whence they had come." (Abdu'l-Baha, The Secret of Divine Civilization, p. 110)

Thus the Master contrasted the so-called "Boxer Rebellion" and its utter humiliation of a China sunk in ignorance, dissension and Chauvinism with that of Japan, which at the time had just started out on its spectacular entrance to prominence on the world stage.

"Stranger even than this episode is the fact that the government of Japan was in the beginning subject to and under the protection of China, and that now for some years, Japan has opened its eyes and adopted the techniques of contemporary progress and civilization, promoting sciences and industries of use to the public, and striving to the utmost of their power and competence until public opinion was focused on reform. This government has currently advanced to such a point that, although its population is only one-sixth, or even one-tenth, that of China, it has recently challenged the latter government, and China has finally been forced to come to terms. Observe carefully how education and the arts of civilization bring honor, prosperity, independence and freedom to a government and its people." (Abdu'l-Baha, The Secret of Divine Civilization, p. 110)

No doubt the new generation of Chinese leaders have cracked the history books, examined how Japan managed this feat in the 19th Century and now is applying the lessons of the Japanese example. I have not studied Japanese history in detail but one thing stands out even for the superficial observer: Japan made its huge and rapid leap forward by coming to a broad consensus among its teachers as to how to reform the nation. They started with agricultural reform, as well as building friendships (what we have been calling comity here) with all levels of society. Its teachers and professors realized that they had a great deal to learn from the West and they set about studying, then, in co-operation with a supportive government, reforms were implemented.

For over a century Americans have avidly expected a similar rise of China to happen "real soon now." For example, during the Second World War Winston Churchill was continually exasperated by American officials repeating the mantra: "China is the land of the Future." He replied that that may be so, but not the immediate future. Unfortunately, Churchill proved to be the better judge of the situation and the rise of China was retarded for many decades, until this year, perhaps, with the Olympic games.

This temporary static interlude in China has not deterred the Baha'is from optimism. Indeed Abdu'l-Baha Himself has been quoted as saying: "China is the Country of the Future." (more on this in a future instalment). The leadership of the Faith remains sanguine about the prospects of this potentially greatest of nations. Only a few years ago they wrote,

"Gradually, too, the message of the Faith began to find a welcome in many parts of China and among Chinese populations abroad. Baha'i literature was translated into Mandarin, university audiences in many Chinese cities extended invitations to Baha'i scholars, a Centre for Baha'i Studies was established at the prestigious Institute of World Religions in Beijing, which operates within the Academy of Social Sciences, and many Chinese dignitaries have been generous in their appreciation of the principles they discover in the Writings. In light of the high praise of the Master for Chinese civilization and its role in humanity's future, one begins to anticipate the creative contribution that believers from this background will make to the intellectual and moral life of the Cause in the years ahead." (Commissioned by the UHJ, Century of Light, 9.25, p. 105)

When I was in Louhelen this past weekend I met an American Baha'i who had visited the same Chinese school where Martha Root had taught. Martha Root, as most of my readers well know, was the most successful teacher of the Baha'i Faith, probably ever. Here is an excerpt from a memorial published just after her death. It indicates certain qualities that Martha saw in the Chinese that only now are starting to push them into prominence,

"Later on we find she had a signally successful and happy year in China, where she learned to have a real love and admiration for the Chinese and their civilization. We recall her enthusiastic reports from that land, and how she always stressed the kindness of the Chinese, their peace-loving qualities, their brilliant and penetrating intellects, their patience and self-control and that they have absolutely no egotism. In one of her stories about China, she says: `They have in China what they call a day of Humiliation. They say, "if our country is not what it should be, if the military caste is over riding it, we do not blame the militarists or the bandits. We blame ourselves, and we ourselves will change China and restore our country through education."'" (SW, Vol. 15, p. 373)

Coming up in this series are more quotes from the Writings on China, plus an article on that land written by the great teacher, Martha Root, herself.

--
email: badijet@gmail.com

blog: http://badiblog.blogspot.com/

Prayer by the Chair

What We Did On Our Summer Vacation



By John Taylor; 2008 Sep 03, 15 Asma, 165 BE



This summer we spent our week-long vacation in Michigan. For the first half we visited my big brother Bob in Chelsea, the second half we spent at Louhelen Baha'i School near Flint. I needed to get away and now my energy is restored, my spirits renewed.





Bob was a better host than we could have hoped for. He lives in a beautiful state park, the roads embowered in trees in a very pretty home with several gardens, all of it surrounded by four rows of pine trees. Roads are never covered over by trees here in Ontario; this is unusual to see. Hereabouts, any tree that dares show its face near a road or power line is shot on sight. When that does not stop them we take chain saws and mutilate them as an example to the recalcitrant. I asked my American sister-in-law, Louise, if they ever have ice storms in Michigan. It seems that they do, but all they do is take another route home. How very non-violent an attitude to tree-kind! And what a pleasure it was to sleep in a place that does not have the ubiquitous, unavoidable traffic noise that plagues my life! The night darkness and utter tranquility was worth the trip alone.



Bob showed us around both their properties, the house in Chelsea where we stayed and another small farm-like lot in Leslie. The highlight of the visit for nine-year-old Tomaso was the golf cart that he could ride himself around the grounds. He was also kind enough to take us to the Henry Ford Museum, a huge campus full of antique cars (the bicycles were the highlight for me), trains, farms, houses, workshops, on and on. The greatest pleasure for me was a much-anticipated tour through the only surviving Dymaxion house designed by Buckminster Fuller. This model was made just before he backed out of the project and, instead, invented the geodesic dome. I videotaped the whole spiel by the tour guide, a very well-informed woman who impressed me when she said afterwards that she had met Allegra Fuller, the great man's daughter.



My 14 year-old daughter Silvie and I went to see some legitimate theatre at the Purple Rose Theatre Company. Showing was "Panhandle Slim and the Oklahoma Kid," a play written by Jeff Daniels of "Dumb and Dumber" fame. Turns out the guy is not as stupid as he looks; he wrote the music as well as the words to this play, and, having seen the film, I recognized that the screenwriter of the "Dumber" film had certain turns of phrase that were recognizable. The acting in this production was far and away better than anything I have ever seen in person. A very enjoyable experience for both Silvie and myself.



What can you say about Louhelen? It was Homecoming weekend; even now I am not sure what that is, but it seems to be a good thing. A family thing.



Mornings were when we had speakers.



The featured speaker, artist Otto Don Rogers, was ill and could not come, but his place was ably taken by his son-in-law, another painter, Sky Glabush, a lecturer at Western. I learned a lot about art from him and was very pleased with what he had to say about the role of creativity in Baha'i life. The next speaker was a surprise, June Thomas, the author of Planning Progress, a book we reviewed extensively on this blog a couple of years ago. Her husband, a lecturer in American History, spoke the next day about the contributions and struggles of early Black Baha'is in America.



In the morning of the last day, Ernestine Tedla engaged us in a very stimulating session called "Spiritual Conversations." Basically the group just shared stories about our teaching experiences, problems and successful strategies. Some of the audience member's stories had me choking back tears all through the coffee break. Then her husband, Mehdun Todla spoke about obedience to the institutions and the stories he collected while teaching the Baha'i Faith in Ethiopia, mostly in the 1960's. He is very much old-school Baha'i, very spiritual, full of stories of past victories in the Cause. He shared some visuals about the principles that I hope to share later on this blog.



It was our first time at this remarkable institution and everything was new and very impressive. It has good people, nice accommodations, large play structures and a prayer refuge featuring a chair -- well, I will talk about the chair anon; spacious, beautiful halls decorated with art and statues, buffet meals and a large dining area, well-appointed conference rooms, a large "Unity" auditorium, ample recreation facilities and grounds with nature trails; a lovely old Baha'i library packed with rarely-seen books; an extensive Baha'i bookstore right next to it, packed with books priced to sell.



Especially prayer books.



Here in Canada our publishing trust seems to think, hmm, people have to pray, it is like food, so gouge them all you can. In the States they seem to think, people have to pray, it is like food, so let us price prayer books low to encourage more prayer. Our Haldimand Baha'i community, starved for prayer books, asked me to purchase twelve prayer books for them when we were there. Some of the prayer books I saw there, by my calculation cost as little as a fifth of what we pay here.



The library featured two computer terminals, a mixed blessing for me as a parent. On one hand it made it easy to find them. They did not wander off and I could be sure exactly where to find my kids on the huge grounds. On the other hand, just as at home I constantly had to be dragging them out of cyberspace and forcing them to join the human race.



Afternoons were spent in a variety of activities, including crafts, which kept Silvie and Marie active, and athletics, which almost killed me, especially the two-on-two three-minute basketball tournament. Somehow I persuaded Silvie to join me; I knew we had no chance, but it was fun we were after. Basketball is my worst sport. I could take two or three hundred shots and get none in. So I tried charging our opponents from the start, hoping maybe for a scoreless tie. It worked for about a minute, they were nonplussed, until my body hit its limit and I remembered about pacing oneself. We lost three to zero. There were several good volleyball games in those hot afternoons too. Plus, I showed some youth how to play Ping-Pong using something like the real rules of the game. These active afternoons destroyed my stereotype that Persians are not athletic. They really are, the men at least. Not a woman was to be seen though, now that I think of it.



For me the heart and soul of the weekend was the early morning prayer sessions in the Refuge, an entire building devoted to, well, devotions. Usually only one or two other non-Iranians turned up, and I had all that gorgeous Persian and Arabic chanting to myself. My appreciation increased with contact. Before leaving I bought a CD collection of chants by a vocalist named Jena; I have been listening to her chants, accompanied by the sitar, every morning since then. It is quite addictive, this strange, un-western sort of devotional expression.



Oh yes, the chair. I saw that a sign was sitting on this black rocker indicating along with a pillow and ribbon that you better not sit there. These bureaucrats, always coming up with rules for things you cannot do; what is the point of a chair if you cannot sit on it? The room being full of silent worshippers I was not so crass as to go up and read the sign, so for the first day I just sat down on the surrounding benches and prayed and meditated with the others (to my annoyance, even here in silent meditation you could still hear the dull roar of those never to be avoided automobiles whizzing by on the highway outside).



The next day I sat nearer the chair and felt a desire to wait until everybody was gone and say alone the long healing tablet, one that I suddenly realized that I had hardly said much at all since my desperate days of never-ending migraines back in the 1980's (again, one reason is that it is not in the prayer book I had). Accommodatingly, a migraine was creeping up on me again, so I had good reason to say the tablet, and here the long healing prayer was here in this prayer book all along and I had not noticed it. I plunged into this seemingly endless tablet and, even more annoyingly, a couple guys, a father and son, wandered in when I had barely begun. Was I being selfish? Then, worse, I found myself choking up periodically; I would stop, pause for a time, calm down, and continue. How sad and hopeless were my spirits when last I read these words! This tablet is my last resort in difficulties, and here I was reading it by this empty black chair and these two impatient souls who obviously came just to pray the minimum and get out and on with their lives. All the bad times, the oceans of despair through those years came back to me and it was hard times wrapped up in a nutshell again. Hard as it was, the incipient migraine was alleviated a little when I walked out of there.



The next day I again waited until the end, hoping to be alone with that chair. I knew that there must be a good reason you cannot sit on it, and that it probably had something to do with the Master. I knew that but did not want to think about it. Patiently, I waited, in silent meditation. Finally the only other person left was this bent over, crippled old Persian woman who got around with the aid a walker. She obviously was waiting to be alone too. Hey, put me one on one with a bent old crippled woman and I can out-wait her anytime. I sat, my eyes closed. Finally, she waddled over and gently, reverently approached the chair. I opened an eye briefly and glimpsed her gently kiss the back of the chair, then, quietly, she left. Okay, if I had any doubts about whether the Master sat in that chair, they were dispelled now.



I was alone, finally.



At last, my prayers and reflections over, I went over to read the sign. Yes, the Master had sat on this chair in Philadelphia. The sign points out that sitting on this chair is where the Master made his famous declaration about the destiny of spiritual leadership rather than economic and socio-political global hegemony that is America's. But that, interesting as it is, is not what popped into my mind. I immediately remembered the very unusual photograph of the Master which was taken in Philly. It is the only portrait I know of where he is reaching His elbow way over to rest it on an end table. Is this the chair? I suppose He sat on more than one chair in that town, but I will include the shot here if I can, just in case it is. (Upon closer examination of the photo I found that it is a different type of chair.) I have a feeling that it may be the one.



Before we left Louhelen I dragged the rest of the family over to the Refuge to at least visit the place once before they left. Silvie read the first prayer from the new prayer book that I bought for her (the best in the bookstore, for only TEN DOLLARS), thus giving a prayer book the best "launching" you could ask for. Hey, they break Champaign on the bow of ships, so why not say the first prayer from a new prayer book in a place thus sanctified by a souvenir of the Master?





--

email: badijet@gmail.com

blog: http://badiblog.blogspot.com/

Monbiot on Fruit

George Monbiot's column is not to be missed. The latest is "Strange Fruit," which is about something every Baha'i should be concerned about, the corruption of agriculture, in this case, the sorry state of fruit that is available.

"A hard commercial logic dictates that the only way to get good fruit today is to grow your own."


http://www.monbiot.com/archives/2008/09/02/strange-fruit/

Video: 'Abdu'l-Baha - The Glance of Destiny

Video presentation done for Baha'i Summer School 2007 of South Australia.

This is a brief account of one of the early believers of the West, Howard Colby Ives, describing how Abdu'l-Bahá offered His Father's Message to those He encountered.

The audio track was taken from the CD entitled "Portals to Freedom" - The Story of Howard Colby Ives adapted by Phillip Hinton (Australian actor and playwright) from the book of "Portals to Freedom" By Howard Colby Ives. And the music intro and ending is entitled "Abdu'l-Baha".

http://www.ourbahaitube.com/video-teaching-69657-_abdu_lbaha_the_glance_of_destiny

Obedience Cartoon

One of the joys of our daily Baha'i children's class is seeing the original pictorial representations of whatever it is that we are studying. These kids are teaching me the art of illustration. We are going through the Virtues Guide. When our current virtue was obedience, Silvie came up with this comic -- totally hypothetical, by the way.

Sexuality Conference

One of the most vexed questions that we, as teachers of the Baha'i Faith, confront these days is that of homosexuality. Yesterday I heard a believer admit that she is afraid to teach the faith for fear that some liberal will bring up the Baha'i position on homosexuality and criticize it. This blog has paid some attention to this issue, followed by a spate of negative, critical comment from the same bunch of liberal thinkers. I learn in the most graphic terms how wrong and indeed evil I am as a human being for disagreeing with the standard wisdom.

Anyway, Hamilton's McMaster University is soon going to feature an entire conference on this. A must see. Here are the latest details:


Spiritual Identity as a Path for Transcending Differences

A Conference on Spirituality and Sexuality

When?

Sat. Oct 4th 9-10pm (registration to begin at 8:30am)
Sun Oct 5th 9-12:30pm

Where?

Room 3020 at Michael DeGroote Learning Centre, McMaster University,
Hamilton, Ontario

$20 per person

($25 after September 20, 2008) or $15 per student
($20 after September 20, 2008)
On-campus parking fee in effect


Sponsored by the LSA of the Baha’is of Hamilton, BNASAA (Bahai Network for AIDS, Sexuality, Addictions and Abuse) and CABS (Campus Assoc. for Baha’i Studies - McMaster]

Cheques made payable to:
the Local Spiritual Assembly of
the Baha’is of Hamilton,
mail c/o Beth Fachnie,
129 Woodview Cresc.,
Ancaster, ON, L9G 1E8,
Phone: 905-648-3782

email Task Force - Spirituality & Sexuality Conference


Bring Brown Bag lunch and dinner, or eat at local restaurants (list will be provided).
Hotel listing available upon request.

(from an earlier letter on this conference)


Dear Friends,

As we approach more and more diverse peoples through Outreach, not only people of different racial and ethnic backgrounds, but individuals with personal, social and family issues of physical, sexual and/or substance misuse or abuse, couples living in common-law, people practicing gay and lesbian lifestyles, etc,. it is important that we not exclude such individuals from approaching Baha’u’llah because of our own feelings or misunderstandings of the processes of change and transformation. This seminar is to start exploring the notion of tolerance and what it means to really appreciate and respect and support the process that leads people to approach Baha’u’llah and His teachings; to recognize the commonality and similarities of all our journeys as we face our humanity and struggle with the veils that keep us from attaining His Presence .

The Universal House of Justice has said, “The mission of the Prophets of God has been to train the souls of humanity and free them from the thralldom of natural instincts and physical tendencies…” and “The impression given…can be that the Baha'i teachins on sex and homosexuality are puritanical and need rethinking. It does not draw the vital distinction between the high standard that Baha'i’s must uphold in relation to themselves and the forbearance they must show towards others. In this connection there is a very important passage [from Baha’u’llah: Tablets of Baha’u’llah pp 169-70] “The heaven of true understanding shineth resplendent with the light of two luminaries: tolerance and righteousness. O My friend! Vast oceans lie enshrined within this brief saying.””

The seminar herein announced we feel offers knowledge, insights and practical training that would be of particular benefit to those going door to door on Outreach, as well as those serving on Local Spiritual Assemblies and Counseling Committees. The seminar is offered with the intention of furthering our understanding of the processes of Community Development, inclusiveness and encouragement.

PRESENTER:

Mary K. Radpour, MSSW, LCSW Chattanooga, Tennessee

Mary K., a second generation Baha'i, has extensive experience in the Baha'i community as former Auxiliary Board member for 5 Southern US States and member of the Institute Board. A popular presenter and trainer in both the Baha'i and secular communities she has expertise in the treatment of individuals, couples and families with post-trauma sexual abuse, gay and lesbian issues, gender dysphoria, eating disorders and substance abuse. Race relations and cross-cultural communications are also areas of leadership and she has served on Human Rights and Human Relations Commissions, consults professionally in Afro-American, Hispanic and Asian-Anglo communications and has served on the National Organization of Women.

The seminar/workshop is open to both Baha’is and non-Baha’is; however, it is suggested that any non-Baha’is wishing to attend be familiar with Baha’i law.

This seminar is not an occasion for challenging the Baha'i teachings.

Junior youth aged 12-14 may attend but must be accompanied by a parent.

Reader Contribution on Feast

I am just returned from vacation. Reader Ed has sent some material for the blog and while I unpack and get my head together I will post some of Ed's material to keep you busy.

First off, Ed sends some information about the feast. Here is a letter from the House on the vexed question at every feast: should we read this letter and risk boring everybody to tears, especially those who took the trouble to read the email when it came through?


"As you no doubt realize by this time, enrolling large numbers of new believers in a short period of time brings with it many problems of consolidation, but we are certain that you will be able to handle these problems and move on to even greater achievements.

We note from reading your minutes that the enthusiasm of some of the new believers is being tested by the reading of long, wordy letters at Nineteen Day Feasts, and we think that something should be done about this. While it is important that the believers be informed about important messages from the Holy Land and other imp rtant items, it is true that the reading of messages at Nineteen Day Feasts can become a very boring and trying experience particularly for new believers not acquainted with many aspects of Baha'i administration. We think you should consider other ways and means by which believers could be informed of vital and necessary information, such as through bulletins, institutes and other meetings.

(6 September 1971 written by the Universal House of Justice to the National Spiritual Assembly of the Hawaiian Islands)


Ed also includes a talk the Master gave on the nature of the Feast, given just after returning to England, mere weeks after his visit to North America.


Master talk on Feasts


The Nineteen Day Feast was inaugurated by the Báb and ratified by Bahá'u'lláh, in His holy book, the Akdas [sic], so that people may gather together and outwardly show fellowship and love, that the divine mysteries may be disclosed. The object is concord, that through this fellowship hearts may become perfectly united, and reciprocity and mutual helpfulness be established. Because the members of the world of humanity are unable to exist without being banded together, cooperation and mutual helpfulness is the basis of human society. Without the realization of these two great principles no great movement is pressed forward".

In brief, this is my hope: that the Nineteen Day Feast become the cause of great spiritual solidarity between the friends, that it may bring believers into the bond of unity, and we will then be so united together that love and wisdom will spread from this centre to all parts. This Feast is a divine Feast. It is a Lord's supper. It attracts confirmation of God like a magnet. It is the cause of the enlightenment of hearts.

Every day great feasts and banquets are being spread with the object of material enjoyment and relish of food. People partake of certain delicacies and waters from various fountains, that they may have a good time. Balls and dances follow. All these are for the body, but this fellowship is of the enjoyment of God, for the partaking of spiritual food, for the elucidation of spiritual subjects, for the discussion and interpretation of the teachings and counsels of God. It is absolute spirituality.

It is my hope that the Nineteen Day Feast may become firmly established and organized so that the holy realities are behind this meeting may leave behind all prejudices and conflict, and make their hearts as a treasury of love. Even if there is the slightest feeling between certain souls — a lack of love — it must be made to entirely disappear. There must be the utmost translucency and purity of intention.

They must enjoy the love of God, acquire the power for the promotion of the happiness of mankind and the Word of God. With such high mention must this Feast become an established institution. When they gather in this meeting, all those present must turn their faces toward the Kingdom of Abhá, and from their hearts supplicate, invoke and entreat toward the lofty throne, beg of God's forgiveness for all shortcomings, read the teachings and arise to His service.

Then spread the feast and give refreshments. Assuredly great results will be the outcome of such meetings. Material and spiritual benefits will be assured. All who are present will be intoxicated with the breezes of the Love of God, and the Breath of the Holy Spirit will with tremendous power inspire the hearts.

If this meeting be established on such a rock, it will become a power which will attract heavenly confirmations, be the means of the appearance of the Light of God, and the reality of every subject will become unfolded. Such a meeting will be under the protection of God. It is my hope that you will continually hold these meetings and that each time it will become more and more the centre of all the virtues, the point for the effulgence of God.

May your hearts be enlightened!

May your faces become radiant!

May your spirits be illumined!

May your thoughts find wider range of vision!

May your spiritual susceptibilities be increased!

May the realm of God surround you, and may your hearts become the treasury of heaven!

This is my hope.

(From a talk by `Abdu'l-Bahá given at a Nineteen Day Feast in London, England, 29 December 1912, quoted in "Bahá'í News Letter" 33 (July 1929), pp. 1-2)

Peace Nerd II

On Wings of Comity and Subsidiarity

By John Taylor; 2008 Aug 25, 06 Asma, 165 BE

In yesterday's Peace Nerd essay we talked about the principles of peace as tools for ese small coops, administered largely by farmers, teachers and doctors, would scientifically mediate the shifting needs of the economy at the grassroots level. Farmers would be empowered to ensure that food is grown as close as possible to those who eat it and would oversee every roof, yard and garden in both urban and rural settings. Doctors would see that the lifestyle of all is attuned to optimum mental and physical health. Teachers would oversee an apprenticeship program aimed at involving every local citizen in optimum, productive work, even if it is unpaid, bartered or volunteer service.

Doing as much work as locally as possible is not only ecologically and
culturally sound, it is the application of a principle of federalism
known as subsidiarity. Subsidiarity is, according to Wikipedia, "an organizing principle that matters ought to be handled by the smallest, lowest or least centralized competent authority." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subsidiarity) They cite the OED, which says that it is the idea that "a central authority should have a subsidiary function, performing only those tasks which cannot be performed effectively at a more immediate or local level." Subsidiarity is not mindless delegation, it is the result of the fact that those who are closest to a problem are usually in the best position to solve it.

Subsidiarity means that the three prime physical needs -- food, clothing and shelter -- would devolve by default to the neighbourhood economy. The storage of cars and bicycles in garages would be handled by transportation specialists. Handyman activities would take place in local studios and workshops. Every bathroom would be public property; shower, bath and toilet facilities would be cleaned and renovated according to strict schedules in order to avoid wasted water and assure that sewage is disposed of and composted properly. Kitchens would be cooperative and tied into the products of local growers; incentives, overseen by dieticians, would encourage each citizen to improve their diet. Those not inclined to work in cooperative gardens and kitchens would pay for their meals to be delivered directly to the dining area of their family compound.

Since early human origins, the evening meal has been a source not only of physical nourishment but of spiritual, social, political and
intellectual nutrition as well. Centralization, competition, corporatization and other corruptive influences of our war economy subjugate the primal institution of communal breaking of bread. In this system meals would be treated with the utmost seriousness since from it comes the most essential quality of a peaceful economy: comity.

Comity comes from the Latin word for courtesy and it is defined as civility, a "state of mutual harmony, friendship and respect." Communal meals, properly run, tend to create a spirit of hospitality in local institutions. This propagates and promotes comity in other relations throughout the day. Living in a comity allows for the other Sine Qua Non of peace, polity. Polity, as delineated by Aristotle, is the complementary balancing factor to subsidiarity: it is the willingness of the part to subordinate itself to the interests of the whole. Like two legs that work together in walking, subsidiarity and comity trade off one another. Earlier this summer this blog examined a perfect example of how they go together locally. We looked in detail at Abdu'l-Baha's proposal, given in an address to socialists in Montreal, for local storehouses, where all wealth, including even mineral rights, is fed into a local, public bank, which (applying subsidiarity) assures the welfare of every local worker and enterprise. Then, according to the principle of comity, it surrenders without struggle not some but all surplus wealth to higher levels of government.