The Right to Tutelage

Counsel as Right and Obligation

The Next Chapter of Cosmopolis, Volume One

By John Taylor; 2010 Oct 25 Ilm 07, 167 BE

In the previous chapter we looked at how a democratic world republic can avert the danger of increasingly warlike technology by introducing an inherently pacific technology, the cornerstone of which is the stele robot. This promulgating machine can act as the main interface between our living, human word and inanimate cyberspace, both virtual and physical. The software "DNA" of the robotic stele is a personal information manager (PIM) and, for institutional steles, a group information manager (GIM). Every tool and machine will follow the stele's lead, having legal and ethical inhibitions built into it. The transparent security of the cosmopolitan condition will give rise to a new architecture and infrastructure; the second volume of Cosmopolis will concentrate upon that massive design makeover of the built world. For the balance of this volume, I will linger on the PIM and GIM software runs the stele, specifically the aims and grounds, both philosophical and humanitarian, upon which all cosmopolitan citizens will have to agree upon as they manage this "ghost in the machine."

As an educator, John Amos Comenius held that a world government can only come about if it is upheld by universal education. We all are born with brains, so schooling must be available for all, young and old, rich and poor, to grow those brains as much as possible throughout life. In developed countries this is no longer as controversial as it was for Comenius in the 17th Century. However, a close reading of Panorthosia reveals that Comenius went even further. He upheld a kind of "right to counsellors," where everyone, even those who are not full time students, has the right to the best advice available -- in fact we obliged to take full advantage of sage advice.

Theatres of Wisdom

Comenius proposed hiring sage coaches and advisors to increase the chances that each and all will do the right thing at the right time. Like Plato, Comenius understood that wisdom is best taught indirectly, through music and the arts. As a tool for this he suggested what he called "theatres of wisdom,"

"I mean that all men should be wisely guided from the earliest age and constantly thereafter through the theatres of wisdom, and should all have endless opportunities of exercising their senses, their reason, and their faith." (Comenius, Panorthosia II, Ch. 9, para 11, pp. 146-147)

These theatres might be a combination of drama, simulations, games and experiments designed to allow each new generation, as Comenius puts it, to see the world with all their faculties, sense, mind and faith. Once we see all aspects of life from this balanced perspective, wisdom comes naturally.

Today we can do much more with this idea of "theatres of wisdom." Interactivity and social networking could enable our Stele mediators to inculcate in everybody an intimate appreciation of what Comenius called "pansophy," being wise universally, taking the entire human race as the grounds of identity.

Long after Comenius, Buckminster Fuller in the mid Twentieth Century experimented with what he called the World Game, a simulation using data about global resources designed to help youth grasp the complexities of running an entire planet. More recently, Jane McGonigal, director of games research for Institute for the Future at Palo Alto, California, has suggested that we tap into the vast pool of time and talent expended by gamers -- according to her there are now half a billion gamers who average 25 hours a week solving difficult problems. (Serious Fun, by Samantha Murphy, New Scientist, 22 May, 2010, p. 37)

McGonigal points out that we would do well to tap the resource of games and the army of gamers who have grown out of computers and the Internet to solve some of the technical challenges of the present hour. For example, she points out that stopping climate change demands painful sacrifices right now for benefits that tend to be delayed, uncertain and for most all but invisible. It demands major lifestyle adjustments for few immediate rewards.

Such problems were mastered long ago by the authors of computer games. They are experts in tying long term needs with short term incentives in compelling ways. So effective are their techniques that their games can be addictive for some.

Certain computer and video games have already been made available that are specially designed for direct global problem solving. Among these are "Chore Wars," an online game designed to bring the clever incentives of computer games to the common domestic problem of persuading reluctant family members to help with the housework. Other games being developed include "World Without Oil," which makes players think about how to adapt to oil shortages, "Food Force," for disaster relief, and "Fate of the World," where players steer the planet through 200 years of a warming planet.

McGonigal makes an excellent suggestion to enlist this large unused army of online gamers, who are clever problem solvers, to alleviate creeping climate de-stabilization. No doubt the PIM's in the Stele could incorporate interactive games to encourage such creative responses and adaptation in most people's lives. But the technical aspects of global warming are only the visible part of problem. The greater part is lack of wisdom.

Professional Tutelage an Obligation

Comenius held that the right to counsel will have to involve more than plays and games, important as they may be. We will always need personal contact with professional tutors. It is desirable to have at least one generalist teacher in our lives for each of the three main tasks of life, which are one, to maintain a good relationship with oneself, two, relations with other people and, three, with our God -- perhaps for non-believers this could be relations with long term, future considerations. Each relation needs to be well maintained in order to live a full, balanced and creative life.

Like Comenius, Plato recognized that we have an internal three-fold responsibility that extends out into social relations, "A legislator should have three aims in his enactments -- the society for which he makes them must have freedom, it must have amity with itself, must have understanding." (Laws, 701d) A good consultant in one of the three areas would need to be a non-specialist, wise in dispensing advice, but also have enough training to recognize when more specialized advice is required.

Most countries already recognize a limited version of the right to counsel, for example when a person is threatened by serious illness or a long prison sentence. Court systems in developed nations today recognize a limited right to counsel; the state appoints a lawyer for poor or disadvantaged persons who are charged with a serious crime. Similarly, when threatened by illness most countries see to it that paying for medical fees is not the primary consideration. What Comenius suggested was that we broaden this right to counsel by assuring that every citizen has full access to what he called pansophy, universal wisdom.

As it is today, large companies and institutions spend huge sums for lobbyists and consultants of all kinds; celebrities, athletes and the wealthy routinely edify themselves by hiring fitness coaches and every kind of consultant, whose pricy services assure that dependable advice is ready to hand. At first glance, to have the public purse pay for such advisors for the poor seems like an extravagant expense. However, it is the same chain of reasoning that persuaded governments around the world that a good education is cheaper in the long run than courts and prisons, and that preventive medicine is more economical than drugs, surgery and other interventions.

The United States is the only developed nation to reject this reasoning. Michael Moore's documentary film, "Sicko," dramatizes how the American health care system, the most expensive in the world, fails by pinching pennies and intervening only when health is in rapid decline. As the film depicts, much poorer Cubans end up healthier overall by spending on keeping patients healthy in the first place. Similarly, it is cheaper to teach young people how to avoid wrongdoing than to pay for an oversize police force, lawyers, trials and prisons that result. As the recent British statistical study, "The Spirit Level," shows, societies that eliminate extreme inequalities avoid situations where crime tends to occur. Egalitarian nations are better off by almost every measure.

A wise leadership has to go beyond providing timely legal and medical advice. It should see to it that all, rich and poor, can retain appropriate advisors of every kind, and at every stage of life, from cradle to grave. A universal right to advice would not only avert dangers to life and limb, such as accidents, illnesses, and even unhappiness, it would also tend to eliminate outright folly, the long string of bad choices that lead to addiction, suicide and other sorts of disastrous decline.

The roots of this imperative are found in wisdom literature. The Bible, for example, advises: "Hear counsel, and receive instruction, that thou mayest be wise in thy latter end." (Prov 19:20-22, KJV) Similarly, Plato held it a basic aim of rule of law to uphold wisdom. "... it was ignorance, in its greatest form, which at that time destroyed the power we have described ... it follows that the lawgiver must try to implant in States as much wisdom as possible, and to root out folly to the utmost of his power." (Plato, Laws, R.G. Bury, tr., 688e) Another translation seems to put it more emphatically: "A legislator's aim must be to create all the wisdom he can in a community, and with all his might to eradicate unwisdom." (Laws, 688, Collected Writings, p. 1283)

Pansophy and Perception

Our chief aim must be to establish wisdom and to steer away from folly. The way to do this is systematically to uphold Comenius's pansophy, or universal wisdom. Pansophy is orders of magnitude more powerful than desultory wisdom, wisdom some of the time for a chosen few. Perhaps most persuasively, Comenius held that universal wisdom would completely eliminate corruption. Its first effect, Comenius believed, is that it would clear our perceptions, since folly corrupts both mind and soul.

"Since human nature has been blinded by its corruption, my Universal Education discussed how it should be safeguarded from downfall by wise guidance, and all its senses kept open to everything..." (Comenius, Panorthosia II, Ch. 9, para 11, pp. 146-147)

As technology advances, Comenius' prescience becomes ever more evident. Science today clarifies and magnifies our senses with astonishing efficiency. We can set up an almost unlimited array of sensors, RFID devices, dials, readouts and other indicators to enhance our senses; ever cheaper and more capacious computer memory allows us to store reams of data and retrieve it when needed. As electronics becomes more miniaturized and sophisticated, sensory devices become cheaper and more common.

Comenius would point out, though, that rivers of data input and output does not necessarily add up to wisdom. Indeed, a flood of enhanced sensory data at our fingertips only increases our need for clever intervention by human sages. Even if wise experts are programming the PIM's of the steles that organize our lives, still, nothing can take the place of human contact. Each of us needs a skilled teacher and role model at every stage of our development, someone who is ready to dispense just the right advice at exactly the right time.

What Price Universal Consultancy?

The promulgation of a universal right to advice would empower each new generation to put an end to dangers that now seem engrained in human nature. For example, according to the World Health Organization, the two most mortal killers are tobacco and alcohol -- with other kinds of substance abuse, legal and otherwise, following close behind. Essentially, this marks a failure of advice; the fact that such a danger to human health does not soon disappear on its own is a sure sign that wisdom is being systematically blocked out by folly.

What youth, properly guided, would ever voluntarily choose to sacrifice not only his or her own well being but that of friends and family by becoming an addict? What perpetuates this blight to human health? Nothing but naked folly. Yet every day young people around the world blunder into a new cycle of addiction. In view of the loss of life and trillions of dollars wasted every year by addiction, we stand to gain a great deal by only a slight reduction of addiction rates to tobacco, alcohol and other substances. Even a large expenditure for advisors for everybody could be justified by this potential gain alone.

If we all concentrate upon the harmonies of wisdom, we will find joy in justice. Prudence and long term thinking will become our default.

Redefining the GNP Robert Kennedy

Cyber-Steles and the Universal PIM

The Promulgating Robot

By John Taylor; 2010 Oct 21, Ilm 06, 167 BE

In an earlier chapter, "Man of Stele," we broached the idea of an electronic interface between people and institutions called the stele, a latter day update of an almost four thousand-year-old technique used by ancient kings, the best known of whom was Hammurabi of Babylon. Steles are finger-shaped stone monuments standing about two metres high, with a codified version of the laws inscribed around their "skin." By this means ancient kings of this era pioneered the rule of law by erecting steles in prominent places, tacitly declaring that it was not their whim that ruled the land but immutable, comprehensible laws. The "fingernail" of one surviving stele on display in the Louvre features a portrait of Hammurabi himself, in the act of handing down the "rod" of his law.

The stele fulfills a major precondition of justice: in order for a law to be fair, it must be promulgated, that is, publicized and made comprehensible to all. Steles were designed to assure that even foreigners and non-literate peasants had as much access to a codification of the laws as possible, so that all could be held to account for their actions. Ignorance was no longer an excuse in the eyes of the law.

We no longer use steles today, in spite of the fact that we are called upon to conform to far more laws and much more complex rules, norms and regulations. In place of steles, it could be said that we spend as long as twenty years in school learning what society expects of us. At the same time, multiculturalism has intensified; rapid travel and the Internet are melding all cultures into one global civilization. This makes promulgation a much more important and difficult challenge today than in Hammurabi's time.

Fortunately, it is possible to build steles based not on a legal code written in cuneiform script etched in stone, but rather computer code "etched" into silicon chips, in particular a genre of software known as a personal information manager, or PIM. PIM software is now routinely used by executives to schedule appointments, organize projects, and simplify interactions with complex databases of contacts. The PIM can be used to guide the investigation, aspirations and plans of individuals, displaying visuals as they check off achievements, mark milestones. They also issue warnings when an action falls short of self-declared goals and ideals. PIM's often have standard plug-ins to coordinate activity with similar software planners of groups and institutions. The interaction of PIM's already informs the protean structure of daily life.

For the individual, a PIM-based cybernetic stele could start where software PIM's leave off. It can act as a core interface to cyberspace, and as a sounding board for setting out one's goals in life. Such information management could become the concern of a new science called "lifestyle engineering," since they start with a unique individual's personal style and carry that forward into what Socrates called the "examined life." We will discuss the details of this future science in future sections of Cosmopolis.

For institutions, similar steles will mediate and negotiate among the many PIM's of members, clients and guests. Standard group information managers would coordinate ideas and distribute services among members, clients and guests, while maintaining due security by clarifying and proclaiming the rules, standards and purposes not only of that group or institution in particular, but of all similar ones around the world.

Like the ancient stele, cyber-steles would make written constitutions open and accessible to all. In order to do this most effectively, these steles and PIM's would need to conform to the legal conventions of open systems software, as laid out in the Creative Commons and the Open Frontiers Foundation. This would not only make the stele's PIM software free, concise, open and confidential, it would also make it safe. Every line of open systems code is freely available for scrutiny by any who care to download it. This makes it impervious to the back doors, worms and other security threats that seem inherent to proprietary software.

The most distinctive feature of the open systems PIM in the stele is the cosmopolitanism standards built into it. Every time a person swings out of balance, the stele would alert the aspiring Homo Universalis of insipient danger. Its universal standards are the product of a consensus of opinion among philosophers, senior citizens, believers, workers and teachers around the world on what is needed to become a sane, balanced person, and how that person fits into the social whole. As Plato puts it,

"A community should be at once free, sane, and at amity with itself, and ... these are the ends a legislator must keep in view in his enactments." (Plato, Collected Dialogues, The Laws, 693b, p. 1282)

Thus the cosmopolitan PIM is the product not only of computer programmers but also the collective wisdom of legislators, philosophers, elders and every other kind of expert. It is our fundamental heritage as humans in a united world. Once a stele is linked to the totality of human experience available on the Internet, it can act as a sort of DNA for cosmopolitan faith, learning and citizenship.

Implementing the Stele Ideal

Emerging robotics technology should allow electronic steles to aim at much more than passive promulgation. They can potentially become the face and focal center of the built world, including all tools and technology. As mentioned, the stone monuments of old were shaped like oversized index fingers with a stone mosaic portrait of the monarch on their "fingernail." In a similar way, a robotic stele would feature a computer monitor as its "fingernail." It can interact with us using a voice interface, as well as the usual computer input and output devices, a mouse, speakers, webcam and so forth. Most importantly, it will be mobile.

In order to work, electronic steles would be ubiquitous, placed prominently wherever humans go, and fit in with the machines around it, for which it acts as interlocutor. Offices can put mobile robotic steles to work as receptionists and public relations representatives. One can be stationed at the center of a workplace or at the entryway, making sure who everybody is and that everybody knows where they are going, and understands the rules, roles and expectations of the institution in question. A domestic stele acts as a doorman, guide and factotum at the gate of a family compound. Institutional steles would be stationed at gates and entryways to neighbourhoods, city blocks and apartment complexes. Throughout the cosmopolitan city, steles are placed at entry points, street corners and squares of a city, village or town.

The most important of all steles is the personal stele. Individuals will station their robotic stele at the doorway of their bedroom or other private space. When they are away from home, it autonomously maintains and protects the home, working as butler, maid, receptionist, secretary, answering machine and security guard. When the resident arrives home, it acts as their workstation and interface to the Internet, as well as tutor, student and companion. Because it is so influential, it may turn out that in future the work that teachers, doctors and other professionals do will involve less direct interaction with students and more tweaking and adjusting of the software running their respective steles. Such intervention would be less intrusive and may prove more effective.

To begin with, a stele need be little more than a tall, rolling computer with an LCD monitor on its "fingernail." Already many hospitals have "helpmate" robots plying the corridors, delivering medications and performing other menial tasks. Such devices can also act as stand-ins for flesh and blood human beings. At least one office has a telecommuting boss who works from home thousands of miles away from his company. He is represented there by a robotic proxy, a remotely controlled, mobile robot with a video image of his face on its monitor. This virtual boss's authority resembles that of Hammurabi's steles, except that employees can actually speak and interact with his avatar image in real time on the robot's monitor.

Even with the rudimentary robotics technology available today it would not be overly expensive or difficult to mass produce at least the outer shells of robotic steles, allowing the software PIM within it to be constantly updated over the Internet as experience increases. As more data and opinions are fed back into their software, steles would get better by the minute. Most citizens of developed countries are already heavily invested in personal computers, broadband links, and many other kinds of Internet connected devices; a stele would connect with these and integrate them through standard ports.

A world government can declare owning at least one standard cyber-stele as a basic human right. By declaring a goal of "one person, one stele" within a decade or two it would jumpstart a massive industry. This would also change how we understand law itself, and for that matter judges and lawyers. The global law promulgated by steles would not be the sort of dead letter that we have become used to. In place of sanctions that are little changed from Hammurabi's harsh, inflexible laws, the rules of steles will be entirely personalized and ever more flexible, capable even of reprogramming itself in real time, adapting as circumstances change.

Of course, the introduction of steles would have to be slow and graduated. For example, it is true that we cannot yet entirely trust the competence of robotic drivers on the open road -- although Google and some military contractors have been quietly experimenting with prototypes. Autonomous feedback technology is advancing at a furious pace, however. Soon autonomous vehicles will be much more reliable than human drivers, and will probably take over the wheel.

The real obstacle is not technical but ethical.

We fear intelligent robots, probably for good reason. Like a world government itself, we have to get it absolutely right before we implement it, since a bad product might be impossible to change or remove. If we are to put robotics to good use, we must first address legitimate fears by eliminating the root cause.

As Immanuel Kant pointed out, only a world order would be completely secure, since as long as competing centers of power exist, they will continually struggle for hegemony, even in so-called peacetime. Our nationalist order is therefore inherently warlike and competitive. As a result, we have come to expect that advances in robotics will automatically lead to a nightmare scenario where robots take over, or, as depicted in the "Terminator" movie series, where murderous robots wage eternal war with humanity. It is already possible to buy an off-the-shelf autonomous, drone fighter that can be launched from anywhere; completely stealthy, these drones can attack and destroy just about anything, anywhere, without being detected. Such killing machines only work if they are programmed to destroy without qualm. The more intelligent they become, the more inherently dangerous they are.

I see a PIM-based robotic stele, regulated by a cosmopolitan world order, as the only sure way to avert this clear and present danger built into technology. Everything depends upon the permanent peace enforced by a democratic world government. Once that is established, however, it will be possible to build the highest of human ideals and values right into all technology, from chip design to software to the hardware shell without.

Already the first "moral" robot has been built. Named "Nao," its programming is based on ethical principles that allow it to make elementary choices about which of several tasks it takes on first while serving the residents of a nursing home. (Michael Anderson and Susan Leigh Anderson, "Robot be good; Independent minded machines will soon play a big role in our lives. It's time they learned how to behave ethically." Scientific American, October, 2010, p. 72). With increasing sophistication, ethical robots placed in new situations should be able to answer the most difficult ethical quandary, if only by sending out a wireless "informational crowd sourcing" query on the Internet. For the same reasons that autonomous vehicles will be safer than flawed human drivers, as long as such robots are in touch with the Internet, their ethical savvy should rapidly become as good or better than a human.

Once steles can be relied upon to maintain core human values themselves, the next question is how they would help humans do the same -- which of course is the main goal of promulgation. The fact that they are shaped like steles, the first technology that instantiated the rule of law, would remind everybody that the law is the basis of peace on earth. Then it will not be unreasonable to expect higher probity from our machines than any human authority figure. Anybody who interacts with a stele would realize that this is no mere machine, it stands for the sum of our collective wisdom.

At the same time, users of steles will soon be made aware that unlike older legal systems, cosmopolitan laws are not a Fait Accompli. The experience of an individual with PIM's feeds back into its software and constantly changes the defaults. If there are enough exceptions to a rule, new subsections can be written into the law. In this way, steles and PIM's will change the professions, especially the teaching profession. Instead of working directly on their students, teachers can spend most of their time adjusting and tweaking a student's PIM to make it more responsive to his or her particular temperament, interests and personality.

We are used to many freedoms that the near future will probably regard as license; for example, the obesity rate over the past few decades has slowly climbed to a large majority of the population without many alarm bells going off. The stele would prevent that, although many of us today would find the subtle incentives and disincentives that it uses too intrusive for comfort. Be that as it may, a little intrusiveness in daily life is a far sunnier prospect than an epidemic of chronic illness caused by obesity, not to mention the gloomy scenario explored in the Terminator movies.

The Gecko my son wants us to purchase

Plato's Job Sharing Scheme

Today's Badi' Blog Essay

Here is today's Badi' Blog post.

Political Job Sharing

By John Taylor; 2010 Oct 17, Ilm 02, 167 BE

A feature in the Globe and Mail discussed last week how few women there are in the parliament of Canada, something like 22 percent. Even countries like Rwanda (56%) and Afghanistan boast of higher percentages of female parliamentarians than us. Of course, the number of woman parliamentarians in some such countries is aided by affirmative action quotas, which Canada does not have. The article reports that Canadian women came together at conferences to look at how to change this sorry state of affairs. They tossed around many suggestions for putting more females into power. How can you make the job of Member of Parliament more female friendly?

The Globe and Mail thought that the best idea of all was to institute some kind of job-sharing scheme. This idea is working well in other areas, such as education. Sharing a job, it seems, allows busy wives and mothers to juggle a half time career in as well. My son in grades two and three was taught by two women teachers, who shared his class on alternate days. As a parent, I remember some confusion at times, getting matters straight with one teacher while the other was not around, but this was a fairly minor problem. Would job sharing work for elected representatives? The reporter did not think so.

I did a double take after reading this article, because I realized that this is precisely what Plato seems to have had in mind in his Laws. I doubt that he was thinking of women in particular, although he did allow female students into his Academy. However, he certainly had the needs of amateur politicians in mind. His idea for choosing posts that involve specialized skill, such as magistrates and commissioners, was to combine free elections with selection by lot. The former he considered to be the people's choice, and the latter the choice of the gods. Naturally, choice by the people and God is better than just one or the other.

Thus, instead of our system of having parties preselect their leaders and having a "first past the post" election to decide which candidate heads the government, Plato's selection process is entirely open. Voters name whoever they please on their ballots. Depending on the job, the top several hundred names that get the most votes become the "candidates." Random selection among them then narrows that number down further. Since these select individuals are the most able members of the community, they have many obligations. They will be busy with their families, farms and business enterprises. And that is where the job sharing comes in. Depending on the nature of the position, many candidates share their duties on alternate days or weeks.

This spreads direct job experience as broadly as possible. Those job sharers who are not on the job at the moment still keep in touch and meet periodically in counsel. Thus a large group makes the major decisions about how the job is done. By spreading the burden of work among many hands, busy people would not be overly burdened, and direct, practical experience with leadership would be common and widespread in society.

This would avoid the fallacy now being foisted on California voters by a billionaire businesswoman. She is saying that her total lack of political experience is a plus, and her job experience as a CEO in private industry "creating jobs" makes her better qualified than her rival, Jerry Brown, who, poor fellow, only has thirty years experience in government on his side. Knowledgeable commentators are saying that business experience has not in the past translated well into government.

Be that as it may, Plato's system would probably do both, it would spread throughout the population a deeper understanding of how different leadership in government and in the private sphere really are. Plus, by having amateurs, chosen by God and the people, spread throughout government and civil service, there would be less of a gap between the average person and the narrow, specialized realm of professionals and experts. In fact, why not have both? Why not have amateurs work alongside qualified experts in most important jobs? A game changer would seem to be modern social networking technology. This should make it easy for dozens of amateurs and experts to share a single public service position, and for one person to work at several jobs, with each member alternating at random. Done right, the sum of many elected and chosen workers serving in the same capacity may well add up to much more than the sum of its parts.

Notes

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/margaret-wente/what-if-men-and-women-really-do-want-different-things/article1759488/

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/time-to-lead/women-in-power/women-half-the-population-a-fifth-the-seats-in-parliament/article1754326/

::

Google Docs makes it easy to create, store and share online documents, spreadsheets and presentations.

Citizens of the World Documentary

Cheng Lin performing Citizens of the World Music

Benefits of the Consistory

The Right to Convert and the Free Market of Faith

By John Taylor; 2010 Oct 15, Mashiyyat 19, 167 BE

Nowhere is good governance more lacking than in religion. There is frightening diversity of opinion and beliefs. Faith groups have been isolated from one another for centuries, resulting in vast differences of expression. At the same time, the world desperately needs universal, eternal values that all can agree upon as working principles. Daunting as it may be, every thinking person has a duty to try to narrow the gap between religions. Otherwise, in everything that concerns the eternal aspects of existence, including the long term interests of humankind, we will be trying to count without numbers, as Comenius' put it.

Without detailing theology or philosophy, there is one sense in which everyone, no matter what belief they profess, is a person of faith. This, in one sentence, is a stepping-stone upon which all can tread:

Everybody who dares get out of bed in the morning to face the unknown dangers of the day is a believer and demonstrates a modicum of faith, hope and charity.

That is it. For this reason alone, each of us can consider ourselves a believer. As believers, we should consider it a sacred duty to participate directly in some way in some faith group, and, on a broader level, to participate in at least one consistory, or parliament of religions. If consistories are designed as both neutral and ubiquitous they will become an integral modality of institutions at all levels, without permitting meddling and interference by narrow minded leaders. As the consistory influences every center of power, from the family to the world government, it will change the ethical and spiritual landscape. It will narrow the gaps among beliefs and first principles.



Everybody has a basic right to believe. But we also need to exercise that right. We have a right to change our mind about what we believe, should conscience dictate. As believers we should uphold the right to convert -- a right that is implicit in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, but which has yet to be implemented by the U.N. or any other international body. Once the law is affirmed everywhere individual adherents will no longer be subject to bullying or other arbitrary measures by leaders of their own religion. Just as companies are forced to compete with one another for customers in a free market, the right to convert establishes an open "marketplace" of beliefs and opinions. Religious leaders have no choice but to treat their adherents fairly, if only for fear of losing them to a more enlightened alternative faith.

As believers, we uphold our rights by voting in the members of the Consistory of Holiness. Beyond this, we also should support the consistory directly through voluntary donations, and also by regular payments, alms or tithing, above and beyond whatever charitable donations we contribute to our own religion. By thus upholding an umbrella institution, no matter what religion or lack of religion we profess, each one of us gains a say in the totality of religious expression in our locale.

Unalienable constitutional provisions would make the consistory wholly dependent for votes and funding upon the population it serves. This is a fundamental requirement of good government. By depending only upon the believers under its jurisdiction it is not beholden to any group, religious or otherwise -- including the other two wings of government, the political and scientific. It has the power to outlaw unfair or corrupt practices by faith groups under its jurisdiction. While upholding the freedom to believe, the consistory can lay down sanctions for harmful practices or wrong-headed dogmas that infringe upon the rights of others. It can prevent religious leaders from propounding hate speech, and even "holier than thou" attitudes. It upholds such standards, like any other government, through laws, required training and licensing. For example, it can use a faith group's tax exempt status as a condition of compliance.

Aside from law enforcement, the consistory can promote and amplify many of the positive benefits of religion. By encouraging universal involvement in interfaith activities it make service to others and all the health benefits that this gives, a normal part of life. A local consistory can sponsor service projects that encourage cooperation among faith groups -- in the same way that a local college of light will strive to involve workers and professional associations, and the dicastery will make citizens and political groups actively involved in broadening the bases of peace.

Consistory of Holiness

The Consistory, Why it is Needed and What Makes it Unique

By John Taylor; 2010 Oct 13, Mashiyyat 17, 167 BE

Times Out of Joint

We must be able to rely upon one another, but not overmuch. If we could somehow center our inner balance around a few fundamental principles there could be agreement upon principle by all. That way, peace and world government would come about easily and naturally.

As I mentioned in a recent chapter, my children have a toy which they call Raccoon, a vibrating hard plastic ball connected to a plush tail. Placed on a smooth surface, the ball's vibration and a built-in imbalance gives it a crazy wobbling motion. Like Raccoon, too many unbalanced individuals give a similar unpredictability to groups and organizations. Too many unstable leaders with stereotyped worldviews can put an entire government out of whack, pushing it towards tyranny, an inordinate concentration of power into the hands of a few. At the other extreme, the leadership may lose faith in the individual completely, causing over-reliance on bureaucracy, which is efficient but clumsy, faceless and heartless. In this way, officials and institutions sink into corruption, injustice, war, rumours of war, revolutions, reaction or upheaval.

The Enlightenment project of the 18th Century openly proclaimed universal human rights and wrote them into constitutional law for the first time. Unfortunately, the Enlightenment also saw a divorce. It tore apart the very idea of a complete human being. Formerly, it was expected that an accomplished seeker of truth would be a balanced, well rounded person. The Renaissance Man was named after that age and movement. After the divorce there could be no "Enlightenment Man." As a result, from then on close harmony among government, science and religion became all but impossible. Each struggled with the others, giving a wonky ride to all. John Amos Comenius described the result, which was already apparent in his day,

"For here lies the real difficulty, that most men, even if educated in the ordinary way, are like blind men judging between colours without first knowing what degree of truth there ought to be in anything so that they can judge whether it is there or not; and in so doing they are exactly like men attempting to count without number, to measure without a measuring scale, or to weigh something without a weight and a balance." (Panorthosia, Ch. 11, para 5, p. 176)

We now think of science, belief in God and political activism as separate activities, if not permanently antipathic to one another. Although higher education still takes place in institutions we call "universities," we no longer expect Homo Universalis to come out of them. Not even the most accomplished scholar attempts to balance all three. Even the invention of the Internet, which places virtually all human knowledge at our fingertips, has not raised our expectations.

As a result, it is a rare citizen who even tries to cultivate a broad outlook or cosmopolitan concern. Human faculties are so bifurcated that it is impossible to conceive of world government as anything but a nightmare. Even as the environment degrades and survival threats raise their heads by the dozen, the obvious solution of a strong, democratic world government remains out of the question.

The Need for a Consistory

A case in point was American newscaster Walter Cronkite. After he retired, Cronkite gave a speech to a group of world federalists. He announced that now that he was out of the public eye, he felt it his duty to throw aside his "objective" stance and side with advocates of world government. As we have seen, in doing so Cronkite was joining the global majority opinion. However, so virulent is the climate of suspicion in his country, spread largely by religious reactionaries, that he felt it necessary to declare openly,

"If being for world government means sitting at the right hand of Satan, then I am happy to sit right up there next to him." (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inu9vKXsrFA)

This antipathy is not a recent phenomenon. Much of the blame for the Enlightenment split lies with petty leaders of religion who rejected anything that might diminish their parochial sway and refused to embrace a cosmopolitan outlook.

Faith leaders fought among themselves, meddled with politics, and initiated bloody wars and persecution. As a result, secular thinkers came to think of religion as inherently fractious. Issues of faith were either excluded or marginalized from the public forum. All this happened in spite of the majority opinion. As we have seen, most of the world's peoples desire order and a stable world government. And, then as now, the vast majority of the population believes in God. Thus science, religion and even democracy clashed among themselves. From the ashes emerged a monolithic nationalist state that by its very nature cannot satisfy the aspirations of most people.

This is why the voice of John Amos Comenius rings so true today, more perhaps than in his own time, over three hundred years ago. Comenius wrote just before the great split took place. His experience as an educator of broad, balanced individuals made it conceivable for him to envision a comprehensive world government resting on three equal pillars of science, religion and politics.

The Originality of the Consistory

Comenius put a great deal of thought into how each of the three representative institutions would rely upon one another to help build Homo Universalis, and how they would build upon what he or she stands for. In order to involve everybody in all three institutions, the religious, the political and the religious, each citizen could be enfranchised not with one vote, but three. Thus an aspiring Homo Universalis could vote in three elections, one for the philosophers of the College of Light, one for politicians whose goal is peace, and one for interfaith representatives on the Consistory of Holiness. Each expresses an essential part of the heritage of all humanity. All three councils are necessary not only in themselves but in order to balance out the other two aspects of Homo Universalis.

"It is not enough that Man should merely be set beside God by bringing him to his everlasting blessedness; we must have him likened unto God even here on earth. Pythagoras was quite correct in defining philosophy as likeness unto God, but he went too far in giving philosophy the whole credit for a result which it cannot wholly achieve by itself alone. Politics and religion must come to its assistance, playing their part in such a way that philosophy likens Man unto God through the light of his mind, religion through the purity of his heart, and politics through control of his actions. This will come to pass if Man has knowledge of good and evil, and wishes only the good and not the evil, and controls himself in his choice of the good and rejection of the evil with all possible zeal." (Comenius, Panorthosia II, Ch. 10, para 40, pp. 168-169)

The first challenge was to get over the egregious behavior of leaders of religion. Comenius himself, along with his church, the Moravian Brotherhood, had been forced to flee their homeland because of such persecution. But Comenius sought a solution not just for himself or his own church, but to all bullying among faith groups, for all time. It was also necessary somehow to make religion palatable not only to believers but also to the small but important minority of political leaders and scientists. In order to do this, Comenius proposed that we elect a parliament of religions that he called a "Consistory of Holiness." This interfaith parliament would be directly supported by all citizens and believers. It would act on behalf of God and all humanity, setting aside parochialism and sectarian loyalties in order to uphold the highest spiritual aspirations of all groups with a claim to truth, spirituality, ethics or piety.

The fact that this Consistory was elected by everybody would give it a higher moral authority than any one faith group, no matter how energetic, including the one whose members are in a large majority. A broader mandate allows it to restrain religious leaders from fractious or fanatical behavior, and from inciting followers to violence, parochialism or even "holier than thou" attitudes.

At the same time, unlike some interfaith churches and other faith groups that are active today, the Consistory would not allowed to act as a religion itself. It is a neutral regulatory commission with strict constitutional provisions to prevent it from competing with the organizations that it oversees. For example, Comenius envisioned the consistory operating at every level, including the individual and the family. Thus the consistory might see to it that every individual can make room in their dwelling for an alter or place of worship or meditation of some kind, and that every household have a room that can be used for group devotions at least some of the time. However, it should have no say over the form and content of these sacred places and ceremonies; this should left entirely up to the individuals and families involved, and whatever faith group they choose to affiliate themselves with.

Ultimately, the goal of all three institutions, the consistory (interfaith religion), the college of light (science) and the dicastery of peace (politics), is the same, single and utterly compatible object: to free us all from the tyranny of the material world. This, in Comenius' Biblical phrasing is the "one thing needful."

"If one could reveal to men the meaning of the saying 'One thing is needful' and the importance of partnership with God, they would quickly free themselves from the dizziness of the material world with all its darkness and terror. This would be a real possibility if we could find true philosophy, true religion and true politics." (Panorthosia, Ch. 1, para 16, 17, p. 50)

Similarly, Plato wrote that,

"all these branches of study will be found fair and becoming, if only by further laws and institutions you expel illiberality and commercialism from the souls of those who pursue them thoroughly to their profit; otherwise, you will be surprised to find that you have produced not a philosopher but a regular knave..." (Collected Dialogues, p. 1331)

It is true that Plato in the sixth book of his final major work, the Laws, made provisions for what he called "local gods and spirits," shrines to who which should be established by his ideal state. He would not have had a state religion replace or interfere with pre-existing religious groups, but where they do not already exist Plato wanted the state to set up its own religion roughly based upon the Delphic Oracle, the closest thing to a universal religion in the Hellenic world. This idea has some similarity to Comenius' consistory, and Comenius may well have read the Laws for all I know. In any case, the rise of Christianity and Islam changed the moral reflexes of humankind forever, making the faith expressions that Plato assumed all but unrecognizable to most people. For that reason we should pay attention to Comenius' consistory first.

Nonetheless, we should give serious consideration to several of Plato's suggestions for the uses of faith groups and holy places. For example, he held that votes should be held only in holy shrines (Laws, 753c), where presumably a meditative atmosphere would prevail during elections with greater attention to rules of reverence and decorum. He also suggested that voting be compulsory and that a democratic system be based upon a combination of democratic elections and, when that option is too clumsy or inequitable, random selection -- that is, drawing lots to determine who rotates next in filling a given post. Choice by lot, he said, is an appeal not to the will of the people, but to that of God.

Why we need a consistory

Whence the Wobble

By John Taylor; 2010 Oct 08, Mashiyyat 12, 167 BE

In the century after John Amos Comenius' death, a divorce took place in Europe between religion and politics. Decades of bloody sectarian war showed how deadly interference of religion and politics with one another could be. As an educator, spiritual leader and peace negotiator, Comenius strove all his life to prevent such a breakup, not only with politics but also of religion and science. He enthusiastically propounded Francis Bacon's arguments that the new science is sanctioned and inspired by the Bible. Had Comenius greater influence in France and the English speaking world, the 18th Century Enlightenment would have included religion, which as we have seen he held up as one of the three paths of the human spirit to enlightenment.

In enduring ways, this tragic parting of the ways stunted human potential. The worldview of educated people was permanently put out of whack. By and large, religion learned to exclude itself from the public forum. Increasingly narrow minded religious leaders gloried in triumphalism, exclusivism and vigorously opposed liberal principles. They chose disputation and sectarian rivalry over responsibility to the good of all. Thus secularism was born; anti-theists openly hacked at the pillars of belief. The wealthy and educated few parted ways from the poor majority of humanity, most of whom were and still remain heavily invested in God and religion.

At the same time, science remained to some extent excluded from public policy as well. Research and experimentation was restricted to private pursuits, the professions and, increasingly, the university. Even the government supported laboratories initiated by Napoleon tended to engage largely in research and development with military applications. Scientists themselves had and still have no direct say in public policy; the failure of governments to respond to global warming makes this glaringly clear.

Our True Center of Gravity

As mentioned, the preponderating majority of the population on a global level believe in God, in spite of being weighed down by extreme poverty -- or perhaps because of it. That was the majority opinion in the 17th Century, and it remains so today. As a result, when faith was removed from the public forum, most of humankind was marginalized. It opened up a gap in our collective worldview. Liberalism, belief in the prime importance of freedom, became the exclusive domain of a small, secular elite, in spite of the glaring fact that the very idea of liberation comes from the Bible. The exodus of Hebrew slaves initiated by Moses, and the brash declaration of a social outcast that "the truth shall set you free," are difficult to ignore.

The result? Without general agreement upon first principles, it was difficult to summon up concerted, consistent action in the interest of all. Omitting the concerns of faith from the concept of freedom introduced an eccentric bias not only to the liberal agenda but to its proudest product, democratic government. Crazily enough, by rejecting the conviction of the poor majority that God is relevant, liberals were doomed from then on to be inherently anti-democratic. Their popular support thus weakened, liberals were overly influenced by a cynical elite, whose only faith is in greed or absolute power. These secret partisans lobbied to set the agenda, applying ever more sophisticated tactics of divide and rule.

Thus was born in partial liberalism a predatory breed of democracy that gave a voice only to some, that allowed almost unlimited freedoms for a few while condoning gross inequality for most. On a world level, "democratic" governments tend to be the most vehement and violent opponents of freedom for the poor South. Immanuel Kant pointed out that there is a contradiction at the heart of majoritarian democracy,

"Of the three forms of the state, that of democracy is, properly speaking, necessarily a despotism, because it establishes an executive power in which "all" decide for or even against one who does not agree; that is, "all," who are not quite all, decide, and this is a contradiction of the general will with itself and with freedom." (Kant, Sketch of Perpetual Peace, First Definitive Article; The Civil Constitution of Every State Should Be Republican")

Even representative democracy encourages the general will to clash with itself. The inevitability of contradiction on a certain level is why questions of faith cannot be ignored or suppressed, for only in the sacred are opposites reconciled. Plato reasoned the argument like this: all good governance is ultimately the outcome of the moderating effect of many friendships actively changing society. Religious ceremonies promote varied and mixed relationships.

"A legislator should avoid the slightest interference with (sacred traditions); he should assign every district its patron god, or spirit, or hero, as the case may be ... His purpose in this will be that the convocations of the various sections may provide for the satisfaction of their various needs, and that the festivities may give occasion for mutual friendliness, familiarity and acquaintance." (Plato, Laws, 738d, Collected Writings, p. 1323)

Relationships formed in the rarefied atmosphere of reverent spirituality tend to involve the fortunes of the many with the few. They temper the diversity and truculence of human opinion -- for the same reason that we all adapt what we have to say to the person we are speaking to. Nobody speaks in the same tone to a boss as to an underling, to a mother as to a son or lover. Thus a vital religious faith is, in Plato's view, a prerequisite for democratic ways of thinking.

"There is indeed no such boon for a society as this familiar knowledge of citizen by citizen. For where men have no light on each other's characters, but are dark on the subject, no one will ever reach the rank or station that he deserves, or get the justice which is his proper due. Hence in every society it should always be the endeavor of every citizen, before anything else, to prove himself to all his neighbors no counterfeit, but a man of sterling sincerity, and not to be imposed upon by any counterfeiting by others." (Laws, 738e, pp. 1323-1324)

This essential duty of a citizen to other citizens can only be aided by broad recognition of an unknowable, loving God Who is willing to show us the way forward. This general recognition smoothes out contradictions and allows society to roll straight forward towards universally acceptable goals. Next time we will discuss the public institution, the Consistory of Holiness, that Comenius designed for furthering this purpose.

The Big Brother Pizza Shop

Moving Like Raccoon

Moving Like Raccoon

By John Taylor; 2010 Oct 06, Mashiyyat 10, 167 BE

When my children were young, they had a favourite toy which they called their "raccoon" (they are sometimes marketed as "Weazel Balls"). Raccoon was a yellow plastic ball connected to a fluffy, brown and white "tail". When they placed it on a smooth surface and flipped its switch, it vibrated furiously, rolling forward, sideways, every which way. Wobbling erratically, there was no way to guess which direction it would go next, to the consternation of Malley, our cat, and the children's delight. Raccoon's gyres and gimbals amused childish minds while exasperating the ordered feline imagination; in Hamlet's words, it made the "unskilful laugh but the judicious grieve." We all wondered how Raccoon got its strange, stutter step. When the batteries ran down we opened up the yellow sphere and found its secret. The erratic motion came from a clever design; an off center electric motor did nothing but vibrate while opposite were its batteries, which acted as a counterweight. The gyrations came from alternating balance and imbalance between these two weights.

Raccoon's mechanism is an apt metaphor for the incomplete, economic globalism that is putting our times out of joint. The ordered mind wants our thoughts and actions to synchronize and our world to roll straight forward. But an invisible misalignment in the design forces a wobble. If our education does not produce balanced citizens, if it trains only narrow-minded specialists who are sophisticated technically but clueless in ethics, philosophy and spirituality, is it any surprise that lives are unbalanced and politics disruptive? Institutions and interests work against one another in a crazy spin it is impossible to say in what direction events will roll.

One result is globalization. Quicker transportation encourages free trade across borders, making the economy more global. Meanwhile most peoples' hearts and minds are glued to one location, set in the past. At the same time, the Internet pushes hearts and minds into instantaneous travel in cyberspace, which is far faster than any transportation could ever become. As a result, individuals spin around their own "batteries" instead of the center of the whole. The source of energy aligns with us not the whole. Fanatics and partisans proliferate. They earnestly support causes which, one way or another, contradict one another. As a result, our global center spins, bursts forward, halts and turns in a completely different direction. Instead of world order everything resolves into a flittering Brownian motion.

::

Man of Stele

By John Taylor; 2010 Oct 04, Mashiyyat 08, 167 BE

Hammurabi (d. 1750 BCE) was a king of Babylon best known today for a code of laws that he promulgated in Akkadian (the language of the common people) throughout his dominion on clay tablets. Because these tablets were accessible only to a literate elite, he also had steles, stone monuments or pillars about as tall as a person, placed in the center of public places in every town. On the surface of these pillars were written, in cuneiform script, some 281 concise laws, each laying out a specific transgression followed by its punishment, which was usually severe by today's standards. Hammurabi proclaimed that anyone complaining of an injustice need only go and consult the writing on the stele in order to find out what recourse there was in his law.

In 1901, a "diorite stele in the shape of a huge index finger, 2.25 m or 7.4 ft tall" with nearly the complete code written on it was uncovered near the ancient capital of Susa, and it is now on display in the Louvre Museum. (see <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hammurabi>, and, <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_of_Hammurabi>) The idea of using a stele to publicize the content of laws had been around for centuries when Hammurabi came along. Nonetheless, because of the perfect condition of this "finger stele," we now associate this technique with him. The "fingernail" of the stele's finger contains bas relief images as well as text. That means that the citizens of 1700 BCE had a more immediate multimedia experience in reading their laws than we do with our far more complex modern legal systems.

I think that it is highly significant that Hammurabi, or whatever leader it was that originally came up with this idea, chose his index finger as a symbolic display for his codex. Actually, I do not think that this is even a symbol or metaphor -- it is exactly, literally what we do with our index fingers. We use them to give instructions, to indicate direction, to assert authority, threaten punishment or even to express puzzlement, saying "Wait a second here." We wag our index finger when a right is violated, and we curl it when we want someone to come hither. This is our first and main pointer.

So natural does such use of the index finger seem that when I had small children I remember being surprised that I had to teach it to them. When they asked where something was, I sometimes had to literally take their face in my hand and turn it so that they would look at my finger. When performing a search they seemed to expect verbal directions as a matter of course while I, being lazy, prefer non-verbal indicators. Even now that they are 11 and 16 years old I sometimes have to say to them, "Look at my finger," before they will look in the right direction. So, evidently, did Hammurabi.

The index finger also seems to be tied into written language. It would be very clumsy to write with a pen without using the index finger, though perhaps less so to wield a hammer and chisel to inscribe the ancient cuneiform script into a clay tablet. It is interesting that in some of the pre-literate languages of the oldest culture in the world, the Aboriginals of Australia, the need for relative pointers like the index finger was largely eliminated. Instead of learning concepts like "left" or "right," it is expected that everyone will constantly maintain a mental compass in their head. For example, instead of warning someone that there is a bee approaching their left foot, they will say, "Look out, there is a bee approaching the northwest of your foot." Since the first thing most people do when they hear such urgent news is to spin around in panic, the Aboriginal way seems more practical in such situations. Only when agriculture helps a population grow large and the people trade with and mix with foreigners, as they did in Mesopotamia, is there a clear necessity to throw out implicit assumptions about what others know and lay down the law by combining written symbols with non-verbal indicators, as does the finger-shaped stile.

I think that we need to revive the stele, and not only in promulgating laws but for just about every serious, directed purpose. Now that computers and the Internet are ubiquitous, we can use stiles not only as displays but also as interfaces, as points of interaction with every center of power and authority.

Three Directions of the Stele

The electronic stele would be indispensible in a Comenian inspired cosmopolis. The finger can point in three dimensions, upwards towards Platonic, eternal forms and ideals (art and religion), sideways towards other people (politics and peace studies) and inwards or outwards, to the depth dimensions of enlightenment, science and education. Just as the stele indicated for the ancient Babylonians what the law was on any given issue, an electronic stile interface, with a computer monitor where the "fingernail" is placed, can indicate which modality of governance is involved, the consistory, the college or the Dicastery. Hence, to repeat,

The stele's finger pointed upwards is religion, the interfaith consistory of holiness, which deals with whatever extends beyond the time scale of this particular generation. The classic images are Michelangelo’s (1475-1574) portrait of Plato, pointing heavenwards, or of the creation, with God pointing an index finger directly at the drooping hand of Adam.

The stele pointing sideways is practical politics, the Dicastery of Peace, dealing with our worldly relations with other human beings. This dimension is concerned with practical end results, which conduce to wisdom, harmony, reciprocity and, in a word, peace. Michelangelo’s image is of Aristotle, extending an outstretched hand palm down, indicating the broadness and moderation that is the foundation of this entire dimension.

Finally, there is the stele pointing in the inward or outward dimension, towards enlightenment, philosophy, education and science, which are the jobs of the College of Light. The concern of this stele is to deepen our understanding and to express that in our service. An example in the same artist's work may be the recently discovered self-portrait of Michelangelo in "The Crucifixion of Saint Peter." (1550) Here he looks along the arm and pointed finger of another horseman, pointing in the direction of the feet of the saint being crucified upside-down.

Another image that springs to mind is the war recruitment poster of a stern man pointing his index finger directly at the viewer, captioned, "Uncle Sam needs you."

As our technology becomes more sophisticated it will become wholly interactive. One day I see children raised and educated in regular dialogue with robot stiles -- situated in their own room, in the family household, in the community and everywhere they go. These stiles will be designed to explicate rules and laws of world governance, pointing in the three directions and dimensions that were laid out by John Amos Comenius, and others.

Toward Inherently Diversified Power

By John Taylor; 2010 Oct 02, Mashiyyat 06, 167 BE

We have seen some of Plato's ideas about wisdom and corruption in the Laws. Here he offers the thesis that only by wisdom does a society become stable; power corrupts and therefore, "it is wrong to establish overpowerful or unmixed sovereignties..." (Plato, Collected Dialogues, The Laws, 693a, p. 1282). Most of Panorthosia, or Universal Reform, is concerned with reforms that avoid corruption by diversifying the bases of power, starting within the individual, continuing on up to the highest level.

Only at the end of Panorthosia, in two short closing chapters, does Comenius deal with the details of world government. Once corruption is under control, we can safely set up a global government by either electing or appointing representatives from each continent to come together in a universal gathering, an intercontinental constitutional conference. Although Comenius does not offer as many details as one might expect, he does paint the general outlines of what he expects would emerge.

At the global convention, organizers would give each delegate a condensed version of Panorthosia as supplemental reading. The delegates would then choose from among themselves the members of standing world institutions, including a senate and parliament, who would stay and meet permanently at a world capital -- he suggested London. Initially, the members of the international institutions, one set for each continent and one for the whole world, would be appointed or at least ratified by national governments. After everything is set up, elections would take place again every decade. Once a working, dependable global election process is in operation the appointment of delegates can stop, since the world's people have primary moral authority. At that point Cosmopolis Earth will have come into being.

Because wisdom is only possible when every part of the whole participates in due proportion, this can be no ordinary conference restricted to narrow, limited ends. It would involve experts of all kinds, who would devise international standards including not only weights and measures, but the much more difficult question of an official world language. Today, we would include many more areas to be regulated, including ocean fisheries and mines, and climate change issues, eliminating carbon and soot emissions, and development and wildlife conservation goals. Educators would devise standards for school curricula designed to encourage diversity while removing artificial barriers of class and culture. An economic section would seek ways and means of narrowing the gap between rich and poor, and so forth.

Comenius had good reason for devoting so little space to the details and setup of a world government. He had seen first hand the truculent peace negotiators in Amsterdam, trying to end the Anglo-Dutch war. It is folly to fill a room with angry, greedy partisans and expect productive results. The clashes of blathering bigots can only prolong conflicts. This is because, as Plato asserts in the Laws, it is impossible to be a partisan and a citizen at the same time. It is crucial, no matter how the global constitutional convention is organized, that the meeting room be filled with citizens concerned with the welfare of all, and that partisans be kept away. Plato and Comenius would be horrified to find out that today's democracies require of those who wish to become politically involved that they join a political party. That is like forcing cadets to join the Mafia in order to become police officers.

For all these reasons, Comenius chose to devote over 90 percent of his text to the question: how do we involve everybody as sober, balanced and vigorous citizens, without degrading anyone into a fanatical partisan? That is, how do we mix power relations? His answer was to make every world citizen a member of three guiding institutions, each specialized according to a fundamental human purpose. In our lives we are called upon to balance three basic expressions or reasons for being through three relations, with nature, God and with our fellow man.

First, we maintain a relationship with nature and the physical world; through science and education, we seek enlightenment through a philosophy of life. Therefore, each of us can be a card carrying member of what Comenius calls the College of Light.

Second, we all have a relationship to God, or at least seek a place in eternity and infinity. No matter what our beliefs, all in some way enjoy or participate in expressions of music, art and religion. As such, we have the right to be voting members of the Consistory of Holiness.

Third, each of us relates with our fellows. Every human, therefore, has an interest in the establishment of peace, reciprocity and political harmony in the world. This qualifies every individual as a functionary of the Dicastery of Peace.

We express this triple human right and responsibility by serving in affiliated institutions -- a college of light, a consistory of holiness and a dicastery of peace -- at every level, especially local ones, the family, neighbourhood and the workplace. That way, instead of a monolithic state, each level of governance, from family to neighbourhood right on up, bifurcates according to Comenius' three chambered model, each branch of which is affiliated with a global franchise. Every government at every level of society, from the global right down to the family and the individual, expresses in its own way each of these three pursuits. As a result, the narrow democratic principle of "one man one vote" grows into, "one person, three votes."

Beyond Monolithic Power

By John Taylor; 2010 Oct 01, Mashiyyat 05, 167 BE

John Amos Comenius proposed that we consciously make power structures diverse and inherently decentralized, in accordance with the dictum of Christ to "call no man master" or father, only our Father in heaven. Otherwise, power is unrestrained as a cancer; it becomes an idol by arrogating to itself the absoluteness of God. And, as we saw in Plato's teaching last time, absolute or disproportionate power inevitably results in corruption. Because of this constant danger, we must see ourselves as servants to all humanity, remove all emphasis on individual, charismatic leaders and subsume narrow loyalties to universal ones.

Comenius would have all educated comprehensively, trained as world citizens comfortable with each of the big three human needs, our need for contact with nature, for contact with others and contact with God. Each must learn to balance them in all phases of life. No matter how wrapped up in friends, family or work, we still keep a hand in politics, religion and philosophy -- science is too narrow a term, since it does not cover non-natural philosophy and the art of teaching.

"Philosophy deals with books and knowledge and the reasons for things for the purpose of enlightening mankind. Politics deals with rule and authority for the purpose of keeping mankind in order. Religion deals with God and conscience for the purpose of kindling in mankind the flame of faith, charity and hope (or keeping it alight)." (Comenius, Panorthosia, Ch. 13, para 12, p. 205)

This places a heavier burden on individuals than what is expected of us today. Everyone must become, in effect, a Renaissance Man. Instead of being either a "man of faith" or a "man of science" or a "man of action," a Comenian world order lays all three responsibilities on our shoulders. What is more, every individual initiative or group enterprise requires all three, knowledge (science), volition (faith) and action (politics).

It would be impossible for everybody to excel at all three -- by definition. However, we have a duty at least to keep a hand in each; parents and teachers should make each generation more competent and concerned with them than the generation that came before. Otherwise, corruption will set in. Leaders and experts will be prone to becoming unbalanced, narrow, parochial and overspecialized. The general public will be susceptible to fanaticism, fundamentalism and distorted worldviews.

The Abdication of Homo Universalis

I called an early draft of this chapter, "The Plan of a Renaissance Man," but moderns are uncomfortable with the generic sense of "man" that was fashionable in Comenius' day. Today, "man" is commonly misunderstood as excluding women and children. So I looked up the term, "Renaissance Man." Various synonyms turned up, including "jack of all trades," "generalist," "polymath" and "Homo Universalis." "Polymath" and the others describe someone who achieves prominence in several areas of knowledge; it describes a kind of knowing that is more technical than what Comenius had in mind for the world citizen. The most comprehensive term seems to be "Homo Universalis," which does not have sexist overtones. It is also a Latin term, and that is appropriate since Comenius wrote mostly in Latin, although he himself would probably have preferred his own Latin neologism, "pansophism," or universal wisdom. He believed that only by concentrating upon on wisdom in its most universal guise can we strike the needed balance. Still, I will use the term "Homo Universalis" because it is more widely understood today than "pansophist."

The ideal of Homo Universalis is all but lost in modern times. Individuals tend to guard their rights jealously, forget social obligations and remain content if government keeps out of their hair. To us, that is what good government means. It is difficult to picture anything else. As a result of this abdication, we are used to living under a monolithic state where politicians jealously guard their own bailiwick.

Politics is the sole, central power and others are dependents. They make the big decisions, and all taxes go to them. Even in a democracy their power is, if not absolutist, at least predominating. In religious matters, the state either withdraws completely from ethics and faith concerns, allowing groups to dissipate their energy by fighting with one another, or it interferes, setting the rights of one religion over all others. Every other expression of human nature, even essentials like science, economics, education and the arts, must go hat in hand to government for financial support.

Tripartite Governance

The distinctive object of Comenius's proposal is to break up the monopoly of the monolithic state by dividing it into at least three parts. This in my opinion is a stroke of genius as revolutionary for human governance as what Copernicus, Darwin or Einstein did for our scientific worldview. Rather than a single world body, a global constitution would institute three parliaments. In accordance with the triple duties of Homo Universalis, these parliaments address each of the three main concerns of human life, enlightenment, ethics and peace.

One parliament he called the "college of light;" its members are charged with the reform of science and education. The second parliament, the "holy consistory," acts as a parliament of religions. Its job is to encourage cooperation among religious groups while removing fundamentalism and interfaith conflict. A third parliament, the "dicastery of peace," addresses the basic purpose of politics, laying the groundwork for peace on earth.

"These will serve as three universal antidotes to the plagues which have afflicted us in the past... For the college of light will purify the light of understanding ... The holy consistory with intent to maintain the zeal for piety will salt ... against elements of moral corruption (such as impiety and hypocrisy). Lastly, the dicastery of peace will keep the whole political world in order, so that no power either succumbs in face of danger to its possessions or degenerates into tyranny by destroying the possessions of others." (Panorthosia, Chapter 25, p. 142)

Thus, in a Comenian democracy all three houses would be independent and equal, yet cooperating closely with the others -- as the "call no man master" principle demands. Each body is elected and raises taxes independently. Constitutional stipulations assure equality and balance among them. Firm legal protections keep one from lording it over the others. In this way, with power divided externally, citizens can be robust, balanced and unified within themselves and society. Homo Universalis will walk through the broad gates of Cosmopolis Earth.

::