Decisions II

Decisions and the Moderation Imperative

By John Taylor; 2007 July 23

Yesterday our family went to Hamilton's Baha'i picnic at Battlefield Park in Stony Creek. After that my mission was to buy a new computer for Grampa, whose computer's on/off switch had been crushed and disabled by Silvie's accusatory finger. A minor repair but he wanted an excuse to get a new one. So I waded through the confusing mass of new computer options, paid for, delivered and installed it for him, in exchange for a shot at his old machine.

The store was empty and I had an enthusiastic young salesnerd all to myself for an hour and a half. He showed in great detail how bewilderingly broad the choice really is, from laptops to media machines. The more I knew, the further I seemed to be from knowing what to do. I was aware that I was in a position of trust and restrained myself from going hog wild, buying a supercharged machine that Grampa did not need. In the end I chose what seemed to be a middle course, considering I did not want to spend weeks on this decision. I settled on an HP computer with 22 inch LCD HP Monitor, for about 1200 bucks, purchased from Office Place. Prices have been dropping. Even a few months ago, it seems, this system would have cost hundreds more.

In making my relatively uninformed decision, I had to balance my knowledge and my feelings, my sense of what was the right thing to do. What I really needed to keep it all in my head was some kind of visualization computer program for simplifying and visualizing the interplay of factors, considerations and emotions inside me. Such a program would connect to disinterested experts, as well as the inner imponderables, perhaps by wire connections to my vital signs. It would mediate buyers in the broader computer market, as well as local dealers for those, like me, who like to carry the purchase home right away.

Although it would be relatively easy to make up such a computer program, the basic problem is that corruption and immoderation are built into the very core of our law and values. It would not work for the same reason that you cannot make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. Our inner reality is just too corrupt to arrive at such a system. For example, the first human rights document, the French "Declaration of the Rights of Man," Article #5, states that,

"Law can only prohibit such actions as are hurtful to society. Nothing may be prevented which is not forbidden by law, and no one may be forced to do anything not provided for by law."

This was useful at the time in curbing a despotic legal system that made everything illegal until proven otherwise. But think about the huge implications of what it says. The only real restraint is an established legal barrier. Thus it implies: do whatever you please, and as long as there is no law against it nobody can say boo. As a result of this attitude, now we are being choked to death by a thousand grey issues. We are breathing grey air and nobody has a right to say anything against it. The past two nights I have had to shut all of our windows to keep the acrid coal smoke out of our house. I feel like the Jews on the first Passover eve. The mist, the spirit of death lurks outside. What about the poor animals in the forest, they cannot shut themselves away from it. Their health is compromised by decision makers who have felt so pressured by finances that they chose the most environmentally damaging choice imaginable, burning coal for electric power. If that is how responsible decision makers are in the richest place on earth, imagine what is going on in poor countries! And because there is no law saying they cannot do that, nobody can say a thing, we just can shut off our doors to this latest plague of Egypt.

But still, I like to think about this hypothetical consultative, self-moderating decision-making program. Who knows?, maybe one day we will be mature enough to invent it. It seems to me that the one expert to turn to in a moderation issue is the philosopher of moderation, Aristotle. He gave the first consideration for tough decisions very briefly, in the following:

"In all arts and sciences both the end and the means should be equally within our control." (Aristotle, Politics)

If the end and the means are not in our control, it is not an art or a science. It is superstition. And since Baha'is believe in harmony of faith with science, we would agree with this restraint; especially since Aristotle gave the overall goal of ethics over to religious values.

"We are not studying in order to know what virtue is, but to become good, for otherwise there would be no profit in it." (Aristotle, Nichomochean Ethics, 2.2)

Although my choice of a computer yesterday was outwardly a technical process, I would have been wasting my time if I had not been mostly concerned with doing something that would make me a little bit closer to being a good man. I have a long way to go, I know, but a baby step is better than nothing, and better than too much. Such a leaning toward moderating extremes is essentially what justice is, as Baha'u'llah says,

"Whoso cleaveth to justice, can, under no circumstances, transgress the limits of moderation. He discerneth the truth in all things, through the guidance of Him Who is the All-Seeing. The civilization, so often vaunted by the learned exponents of arts and sciences, will, if allowed to overleap the bounds of moderation, bring great evil upon men. Thus warneth you He Who is the All-Knowing. If carried to excess, civilization will prove as prolific a source of evil as it had been of goodness when kept within the restraints of moderation." (Baha'u'llah, Gleanings, pp. 342-343)

Since Baha'u'llah mentions the word "moderation" no fewer than three times in this paragraph, we should probably refer to this as His Moderation Imperative. If this imperative were instantiated in a communally run, open-system computer decision-making program, we might counteract the inherent tendency towards immoderation that is choking like a plague of Egypt our planet's atmosphere and all who must breath it.

 

G&E

On Good and Democratic Evil

By John Taylor; 2007 July 21

I imagine Baha'u'llah, looking down on this servant from on high, laughing and saying to the denizens of the Abha Paradise, `This guy thinks he knows the basic facts of the Baha'i Faith, let us just see about that.' So last night I was handed what is easily the toughest teaching test, at least intellectually, that I have ever had. What happened was that R, a freshly minted graduate of McMaster Theological Seminary, is now the CEO of the youth center and has asked me to become a volunteer there. To do that I had to sign a document acknowledging that they hold to the Apostle's Creed. Surprisingly, I only had to strike out two sentences from it, and put question marks next to a couple of others. Other than that, a Baha'i agrees completely with that traditional credo of Christians. Anyway, R said right off last night that he wanted to hear more about this Baha'i Faith, so I said yeah, sure, I'll be happy to oblige. Unfortunately, the only chance we got was while hitting the ping pong ball back and forth. So it went something like this:

"So, PING are the PONG Baha'i teachings PING naturalistic PONG in emphasis?"

In a sense I was prepared by my daily two hours of physical training, hitting the table tennis ball against the raised backing of my ping pong table while listening to books on tape. But, as I found out, it is one thing to separate out your left brain listening faculty from your right brain spatial calculator, and quite another to indulge in Q&A while hitting against a living, moving target. I did surprisingly well for a while, in fact probably better than I would have otherwise, since hitting the ball forces you to be concise and avoid mud puddles that bog the likes of me down. If I were the glib sort who is satisfied with pat answers, I would not be writing daily essays designed to stamp out the brushfires of my inadequate understanding. But then R zeroed in on the problems theodicy and good and evil.

Having just listened to the concise but highly opinionated primers "St. Augustine in 90 Minutes," and "St. Thomas Aquinas in 90 Minutes" I could say with confidence,

"Baha'is agree with Augustine in that we believe in relativistic but not absolute evil. Evil is not an absolute force, since God has all power, all the time. But there are ample examples in Baha'i history of very bad people, who out of envy try to commit the ultimate atrocity, which is to force a schism or split in a Faith designed to unify the world. The ego-force that motivates them, and all of us at times, is undeniably evil, though in relation to God it is the shadow of a shadow. But the condition of these people is communicable. If you associate with them you are liable to catch the same thing no matter how spiritually healthy you may be, so I guess you could say that we believe in the disease or viral theory of evil."

I had in mind this passage from an essay by the saintly Marzieh Gail, which I lately came across in my study of the early days of the Faith in America. She is talking about the base betrayal of Amin Farid, the Master's nephew-in-law.

"Fareed's efforts to destroy the Master (who had seen to his education from childhood) make a page of triple darkness in the annals of human evil. The Baha'i Faith does not teach that there is no evil -- only that there is no absolute evil. Relative evil is, however, very strong. We see Jesus and Judas, Muhammad and Abu-Lahab, the 'Father of Flame' -- Baha'u'llah and Siyyid Muhammad of Isfahan. Evil is the shadow cast by the light." (Marzieh Gail, Arches of the Years, 95)

So far so good, but when it came to answering R's questions about Baha'i theodicy, justifying God's ways to men, I had to cast my paddle on the table and accept defeat. This is a mystery of God that it takes a lifetime to understand. I have not lived a lifetime yet so I cannot summarize it, even briefly. Besides, Thomas had come over to complain of a breakdown on the table soccer machine that he and Silvie were playing. Soon afterwards, Tommy wanted to play Frag -- a board game inspired by first person shooter video games. There were few others in the Youth Centre, so I had to play too, though I do not enjoy that kind of amusement these days. Thus ended our conversation about the Baha'i Faith for that night.

The unfinished thought about the disease theory of evil stuck in my mind, though, and I want to try to complete it here, today. Baha'u'llah put it forward, front and center, when He addressed the only constitutional monarch in the world at the time, Queen Victoria. Specifically, here he addressed elected leaders, perhaps the only time in all of His Opus. Here He suggests that parliamentarians use the disease theory of evil as a world view. This is the best way to grasp the problems of the world in this age. Humanity is not evil, or attacked by evil forces, but only sick, albeit sick unto death.

"O ye the elected representatives of the people in every land! Take ye counsel together, and let your concern be only for that which profiteth mankind and bettereth the condition thereof, if ye be of them that scan heedfully. Regard the world as the human body which, though at its creation whole and perfect, hath been afflicted, through various causes, with grave disorders and maladies. Not for one day did it gain ease, nay its sickness waxed more severe, as it fell under the treatment of ignorant physicians, who gave full rein to their personal desires and have erred grievously. And if, at one time, through the care of an able physician, a member of that body was healed, the rest remained afflicted as before. Thus informeth you the All-Knowing, the All-Wise." (Summons, 90-91)

Here is a major correction to modernism and the Enlightenment Project. Rousseau and his "grandchildren" of both right and left held, same as this, that all men are born good. Individuals are not inherently evil (as the church taught), au contraire, there is no original sin. But they continued to hold that there is positive evil, only they shifted their original sin over to the collectivity, saying that civilization itself is inherently evil. Civilization is the problem, it is inherently corruptive. This, Baha'u'llah is saying, is a grave mistake. The body of mankind was healthy and can be healthy, if only it is cured. True, He concedes elsewhere, civilization taken beyond the bounds of moderation can become a breeding ground of evil, but that is true of everything, everything in moderation. But the fact is that civilization is not evil in and of itself. The real source of the problem is ignorance, He says here, is clear and specific. A sick patient treated by ignorant physicians whose cures are making the illness worse.

And, Baha'u'llah implies right off the bat here, the root of the problem is in the heads of democratic leaders. He says, "Let your concern be only for that which profiteth mankind and bettereth the condition thereof." Now that the majority of governments are democratic, our world is run by the very elected leaders being addressed here. We can see on a grand scale that apathy and parochialism suddenly the major element of the crisis of our age. The earth's climate is out of hand, the people are suddenly galvanized for change, demanding it, but our democratic leaders are mesmerized. They never cared for the profit of mankind -- as opposed to the narrow interests of the constituents who elected them -- and they probably never will, without some huge shock.

Concern for humanity is just not in them thar genes.

If you want to talk about evil, this is as pure, as despicably evil as it gets. We face famine, disease, disaster on a scale unheard of in history, the imminent demise of literally billions of people, and the democratic leaders care nothing, do nothing, think nothing about it.

Lest you imagine that democratic leaders in spite of all this do give a hoot, let me point you to the fifth chapter of Peter Singer's "One World," called "One Community." This will disabuse you of that very quickly. Singer of course is a professional ethicist who, unlike virtually all of his peers, avoids vain hair splitting and goes for the jugular. He actually talks about the ethical implications of things that matter, like foreign aid.

Years ago governments agreed that 0.7 percent of GNP would be a good start for solving problems on a planetary scale. Scandinavian lands give more than that these days but dead last among all is the "Great Democracy of the West," which at the time this book was written, in 2002, was sunk at a truly pathetic 0.1 percent. I fall to my knees and thank God that at there is at least one ethicist ethical and courageous enough to point out the gross apathy, the moral turpitude of such democratic leaders. If there were a truly planetary court, these hard hearted leaders would be hauled before it and charged with criminal negligence, with high treason to the collective good of humanity. They have by no means "scanned heedfully." As for those who elect them, we all should hang our heads in shame. The evil, or the disease if you will, is in all of us. We should all cry out for our sovereign remedy, and take it.

 

Mankind's Master

Mankind's Master; Immanuel Kant's Sixth Cosmopolitan Thesis

By John Taylor; 2007 July 20

Kant begins this thesis by stating right off: "This problem is the most difficult and the last to be solved by mankind." What problem do you think he is talking about? Okay, from a Baha'i point of view, how would you answer this question? What would Baha'u'llah say is the toughest task?

Hint: in my opinion, Kant's answer is identical to what Baha'u'llah says the problem is. So, what could possibly be the final problem ever faced by the human race? Well, keep your own answer to these questions in your head while we go on to see what Kant thought our ultimate quandary is.

"The difficulty which the mere thought of this problem puts before our eyes is this. Man is an animal which, if it lives among others of its kind, requires a master. For he certainly abuses his freedom with respect to other men, and although as a reasonable being he wishes to have a law which limits the freedom of all, his selfish animal impulses tempt him, where possible, to exempt himself from them." (Kant, Cosmopolitan History, p. 254)

Exactly. Mankind requires a master if we are ever to hope for law and justice, because rule by our peers is inherently frail and corruptible. The Master put this same point even more broadly when He explained to Laura Clifford Barney, "When we consider existence, we see that the mineral, the vegetable, the animal and human worlds are all in need of an educator." (SAQ, 7) This universal limitation, this dire need of an educator applies not just to humans but to all of creation.

Therefore, the "master" whom Kant says we are in dire need is clearly the Manifestation of God, the only Being so wholly not of this world that He is not subject to selfish corruption, rather he explodes outward, like an atom split. He transcends, instantiates, radiates. Just as the mineral and other forms of life subsist by submission to the atomic fusion reactor we call the sun, so humans need a supernatural Will, inherently powerful, to educate us. In Kant's terms, only His Will is "universally valid."

"He thus requires a master, who will break his will and force him to obey a will that is universally valid, under which each can be free. But whence does he get this master? Only from the human race. But then the master is himself an animal, and needs a master." (Kant, Cosmopolitan History, p. 254-255)

So, to obey Him, the Holy Delegate of God, is the only kind of slavery that is the same as freedom. Slavery and freedom are antinomies, mirror opposites. Well, at least they are as long as we posit that our master is on the human level. If he is, equality is affronted. Either he is raised too high, or we lower, abase ourselves in relation to him.

"Let him begin it as he will, it is not to be seen how he can procure a magistracy which can maintain public justice and which is itself just, whether it be a single person or a group of several elected persons."

But if our master is a Manifestation of God, it is different. His submission to God is of a different order, since He is God, virtually. When that love is reflected back into Mankind by obedience to His Law, the logic of power changes utterly. Then our slavery has nothing to do with abasing ourselves before another man, or group of men. Submission becomes exaltation, adoration, exultation. We were made for this, and without it our minds cry out for completion from above.

"For each of them will always abuse his freedom if he has none above him to exercise force in accord with the laws. The highest master should be just in himself, and yet a man. This task is therefore the hardest of all; indeed, its complete solution is impossible, for from such crooked wood as man is made of, nothing perfectly straight can be built."

Our mind needs a higher power to supervise our exercise of freedom; as soon as we think we are alone, without a master, we abuse liberty. Kant appends a remarkable footnote here, saying that our role in exercising force is for us artificial, not natural. Maybe someday we will discover other civilizations on other planets. It is conceivable, that for some of these forms of intelligent life it will be natural, they may somehow be immune to our inherent susceptibility to power's corruptive force. Maybe individuals there will be attain their own destiny independently. But for human beings, "only the race can hope to attain it."

To me what Kant has done is like an intellectual explorer climbing a plateau. Fighting the incline, over rocks and through the underbrush of our collective nonage, Kant has broken through, albeit briefly. He is walking on the level, sunlit uplands of our collective maturity. It is a brief glimpse of the final solution to the last problem, that is, the last problem of youth: attaining to adulthood. So it will be, as soon as we all break out into true freedom.

"That it is the last problem to be solved follows also from this: it requires that there be a correct conception of a possible constitution, great experience gained in many paths of life, and far beyond these -- a good will ready to accept such a constitution. Three such things are very hard, and if they are ever to be found together, it will be very late and after many vain attempts." (Cosmopolitan, 255)

To conceive, experience and accept a universal constitution, these three necessary pre-conditions of our maturity, both collective and individual, are united together in the first paragraph of the Kitab-i-Aqdas. And the first challenge to live up to that sublime, final act of childhood's end had been laid down in the first paragraph of the Bab's Qayyumu'l-Asma, written on the first evening of the Baha'i Era, "O concourse of kings and the sons of kings, lay aside your dominion which belongeth unto God." (Selections, 41)

 

Challenge

The Baha'i Speaker’s Challenge

By John Taylor; 2007 July 19

One of my original goals in starting this Badi' Blog was to offer research materials that will assist Baha'i speakers to present the Message of Baha'u'llah. Though no orator myself, I am an independent researcher and much of what I produce here can be made suitable for public presentation. My career has this little theme or motto: I do not seek out what is new, I concentrate on what is old, what is already known, but which should be better known by your average world citizen. I record the details and pathways of my research in an unfinished essay format not to make original discoveries but just to trample down the underbrush on overgrown trails in order to make the path easier for presenters to walk down. Today I want to address this particular purpose of the blog more directly and explicitly than usual.

I have been searching for some time for a book on PowerPoint that goes beyond the usual list of features of the program and talks about how to use it in real-life presentations. This has been a surprisingly long and difficult quest. At last I found what I was looking for in one of the smaller libraries in Hamilton this week. It is, "Using PowerPoint 2000, Special Edition." This older book is not obsolete; it is excellent in what it sets out to do, to show you how to make computer-aided shows.

As anybody who strolls down the computer book section of the bookstore knows, the "Using" series sets out not only to cover the subject but also to produce vast tomes that can double as bricks, paperweights and doorstops; so I jumped over the first five hundred pages and am reading the final quarter of the book, called "From Concept to Delivery." The text of this edition is not available online, but the complete, identical text of the following edition, "Using Powerpoint 2003," is available at:

<http://www.ubookcase.com/book/Microsoft/Que.Special.Edition.Using.MS.Office.PowerPoint.2003/source/0789729571_part07.html>

It is nice to look at a book that has been around for a while. I looked over reader reviews of this book on the Web and discovered that people tend to love this guy's theoretical approach or hate it. I am among those that love it. The author of this section, by the way, is Tom Mucciolo. Many readers seem to dislike his humor, but again, it works for me so far. Humor theorists confirm one of his first points, that a presentation depends wholly upon the person presenting it. If you dislike the person, chances are you will not like the jokes. Consider what he says early on, that "communication is about people." In a section called "Putting people first," he says,

"One thing all the experts can agree on is that the success of communication is dependent on the presenter. That would be the person in the front of the room trying to keep the audience awake. The visuals are secondary to the concept, which is subject to the delivery skills of the person. All three elements are important, but without the person, you really can't call it a presentation."

He continues this theme in a following chapter, "Making a Lasting Impression,"

"People remember people, not data. Very few people will come up to you at the end of your presentation and say, `You know. The third pie chart? The fourth slice? Loved it! The other slices, nahhhh, but the FOURTH slice, wow!' No way! But a person might say, `You know. The story you told about the young woman and the two kids? I'll never forget that!'"

If this is true in the practical world of business, how much more must it be for teaching the Baha'i faith! Religion is essentially mystical, and ultimately the most you can hope to communicate to your audience is the spirit of what you believe. Listening to the Baha'i speakers at firesides, I notice that even when they avoid personal testimonials, the usual "How I became a Baha'i" story, people afterwards always ask to hear them, even if they have heard the story a thousand times.

So whether we want it or not, every talk is bound to be some sort of bearing witness. This makes it hard, since few veteran believers remember the particular facts and data that led us into faith. Nor do we know exactly the facts and data that will lead others into the same pathway. But if we concentrate on personal stories, we are more likely to hit the nail on the head.

Another thing I learned was that although you are there to convey and demonstrate personal love and get people to understand your point of view, that does not necessarily mean that you always need to shy away from polarizing your audience. A good speaker does this soon, even right off the bat by using what he calls a hook. I will talk more of that later. You use a hook basically to do what the Book of Revelation says: "Be ye hot or cold, but if ye be lukewarm, I will spew thee out of my mouth."

Mucciolo holds that there are two kinds of talk, linear and non-linear. Non-linear is more like a conversation, you talk as long as you need to, and about whatever subjects time and occasion seem to demand. Linear talks are more systematic, and he says that there are only five types.

1. Matching Ideals
2. Main Points
3. Question and Answer
4. Meeting Needs
5. Problem-Solution

I will talk more about these specifically later. What happened was that for me this was bedtime reading last night. I read over these theoretical points just before dropping off to sleep and when I awoke I had in my head an exercise, a way to apply these five theoretical points to the problems of Baha'i speakers everywhere.

What we need is a standard Baha'i text long enough to turn into five model talks about the faith, one for each of the five kinds of talk spoken of in "Using PowerPoint." It should be illustrated, recently updated, authoritative and easily available to speaker and listeners alike. There is only one such document right now that has all of these qualifications, the magazine slash pamphlet called, "The Baha'is, A Profile of the Baha'i Faith and its Worldwide Community." For one thing, just like "Using PowerPoint," the entire text, as well as its photos and graphics (though in low rez format, unfortunately) of "The Baha'is" is available online at:

<http://www.bahai.com/thebahais/pg5.htm>

Not only that, but it is available for cheap, about three or four dollars in bulk, and thus can be handed out to all comers at any talks we may give. I have not read it myself but my contact was impressed by the copy we gave him and he read most of it. The pictures and illustrations can easily be placed into a PowerPoint presentation.

Speech Challenge

So, here is the Baha'i Speech Challenge: make up five talks, one for each of the five kinds of speeches listed above, using only the material, visuals and text in "The Baha'is." Use my motto, nothing new, concentrate on what should be common knowledge. While your contents are standard, based upon The Baha'is, your creativity will be strained to the limit by the hook you use at the start, and by the personal testimony interspersed throughout. That, as we established before, is the lifeblood of every Baha'i talk, like it or not. The topics discussed in "The Baha'is" are:

1. The Baha'is
2. Unity in Diversity
3. Baha'u'llah
4. Social and Moral Teachings
5. Spiritual Beliefs of the Baha'i Faith
6. A System for Global Governance
7. A Century of Growth and Expansion
8. New Approaches to Old Problems
9. Towards the New World Order

So, to answer the challenge all you have to do is pick out five of these headings, and regurgitate it in a way that would please the audience at a fireside or public meeting. To better understand the five types of talk, consult the online text of "Using PowerPoint 2003" that I pointed to above. Then give your own stamp to the material.

I too will strive to do this. I will write five essays here. I also promise to share here any talks or essays that you may wish to send to me. Ideally, the product of all our labor would be shared openly with other potential Baha'is speakers in PowerPoint format somewhere on the Web, perhaps at a Baha'i speaker's website. So, while I am straining my powers to come up with five essays, you do the same, and may the results prove fructuous.

 

Home

Where is Your Real Home? Some final notes on Curtis Kelsey’s Biography

By John Taylor; 17 July, 2007

Curtis Kelsey often said, “It is better to wear out than rust out.” This bit of wisdom has been confirmed by thousands of medical studies, all of which found beneficial effects from social activity, diet, exercise, even board games and card games. Keep active. Your brain, like your muscles, works on the principle of “use it or lose it.” Kelsey also often quoted the Master’s saying, “without struggle life has no meaning,” and another, that “this life is a workshop, not an art gallery.” (Story of Curtis Kelsey, p. 175) I especially like these since I read lately such little saws are among the most remembered lessons that parents can give their children. They are our biggest legacy, more impressive than any money or property we can leave them. They live on in their minds and are used long after we are dead and buried. So do as Curtis Kelsey did, remember your proverbs, memorize your quotations and repeat them liberally whenever there are children or young people around.

And – if I may offer you some advice – when you think of your retirement, think of being ten times as socially active as you were when you were working. That is the ideal way to spend long sunset years. Do not sit alone in your room and vegetate before the television, as many oldsters I know do. That is dying before you die, as Baha’u’llah Himself implied.

After the passing of the Master, one of the first things Shoghi Effendi did, after the Will had been read and it was known that he had been appointed Guardian, was to express his gratitude to Curtis Kelsey for his work installing the new lighting system in Bahji and on Mount Carmel. This simple expression of appreciation gave the young man an important lesson in leadership, one that we could all learn from. Here is how Nathan Rutstein describes the incident,

 

“In a few days, Shoghi Effendi was back among the friends, recovered from the initial shock of being appointed Guardian, but obviously a young man with a lot more on his mind than when he arrived in Haifa.

One evening, Shoghi Effendi noticed Curtis in the street and asked that he join him in a walk on Mount Carmel Avenue, which led to the Shrine of the Bab. Curtis knew that it wasn't going to be an ordinary walk, for the young man walking beside him was now more than a faithful grandson of 'Abdu'l-Baha: he was the Guardian. Maybe, he wondered, the Guardian would give him a special assignment. Curtis didn't know what to expect.

As they walked up the road, children were dancing in the shadows cast over the street by the floodlight perched at the base of the Shrine. Electricity was new to the people of Haifa. No one had it in their homes. Seeing shadows in the evening was odd; and the children turned them into a form of recreation. Of course, none of them knew that the man who made the shadows possible was in their midst and beside him was the 'sign of God' on earth.

As they walked up the mountain, Shoghi Effendi turned to Curtis and thanked him for the wonderful work he had done in installing the three electrical plants and pointed out how much the Master appreciated his efforts.

The praise made Curtis uncomfortable; and he blushed, saying, 'Well, Shoghi Effendi, I was very happy doing the work for the Master, and I want no credit.'

The Guardian stopped walking and looked into Curtis' eyes and said firmly, 'Nevertheless appreciation goes with your service.'

When Curtis tried to make light of his work, the Guardian grew firmer, making an issue of the importance of sincerely thanking a person for the services he renders. For Curtis it was an important lesson. After that experience, he always made sure to share his gratitude with the person who did I work for him, however small the task.

Several days later Shoghi Effendi was gone, off to Germany, and then Switzerland, for an unspecified amount of time, where he would be alone, fortifying himself for something he had never planned on doing. Someone other than himself had committed him to a life-long challenge that he had not consciously prepared for; it would be a time of sorting out his thoughts, in discovering, with God's help, how to direct an infant World Faith toward maturity.

With Shoghi Effendi in Europe, the Greatest Holy Leaf took charge. Curtis and Husayn had virtually completed the lighting project. Only a few superficial things were left to fix. There was nothing more to do. The Guardian hadn't given Curtis any assignments. The thought of returning to America began to surface. Strange, but Curtis didn't think of that powerful nation across the Atlantic as home. In his heart, Curtis knew that his real home was in Haifa and Bahji. He remembered how his mother, who had never been to the Holy Land, would comment on how her real home was where the Master dwelt.”

(He Loved and Served, The Story of Curtis Kelsey, by Nathan Rutstein, George Ronald, Oxford, pp. 104-105)

 

Roy Wilhelm was an exemplary teacher of the Faith insofar as his student in the Faith, Curtis Kelsey, became his life-long friend as well as his student. Thus in order to fully understand Kelsey you have to grasp something of his teacher. So, here is the story of Wilhelm’s conversion and pilgrimage, as well as a fascinating tongue-lashing he got from the Master, as described in Rutstein’s biography of Kelsey.

 

The fact that Curtis (Kelsey) was helping him build a woodworking shop didn't surprise Roy (Wilhelm). Not because he had forgotten what he had said to Curtis ten years back when they were alone in the Kelsey basement. No, he had not forgotten. But Roy, despite his pragmatic nature, had learned that what is mystical can be real. He became convinced of that through an experience that shook the very roots of his conservative sensibilities.

Roy's mother was a Baha'i, one of the earliest believers in the United States. But Roy, though tolerant of his mother's beliefs, couldn't see himself fitting into the Baha'i pattern. He was satisfied with his life-style. He was financially secure, a respected entrepreneur. So he pursued life as he had done for years.

You might say he was a creature of habit. Every work day Roy would get up at the same time, wear dark conservative suits, buy the Herald Tribune from the same newsstand, and take the same train to Wall Street. When he returned home in the afternoon, he would take the same train, and stop off at the same flower shop to buy his mother flowers. Upon arriving home, he would regularly go to his room, remove his suit coat, replacing it with a dinner-jacket, sit on his bed to remove his shoes and put on slippers.

One day that pattern was altered, but what happened was purely involuntary. He was sitting on his bed, changing his shoes, when his room was suddenly transformed. The walls were whitewashed, and there was a divan. Standing next to Roy was a majestic figure with a long black beard, dressed in what appeared to be an oriental gown. The figure approached Roy, taking off His ring and placing it on Roy's finger and removing Roy's ring and placing it on His finger.

Roy was riveted to the bed, too startled to feel fear, so awed that he couldn't utter a word. When whatever had developed before him faded away, he tried to analyze what had happened, but he was baffled. This practical man was not prone to psychic experiences. Visions were things he heard his mother's friends talk about; and he secretly felt that half of them were less than mentally balanced.

Roy didn't tell anyone about the experience. Certainly not his friends, because they would most certainly consider him crazy; and had he related the incident to his mother, she would resume her campaign to draw him into the Baha'i Faith. But eventually he shared his secret, despite the fact that he had planned never to reveal it. A power greater than him unlocked his heart.

When Roy's mother received word that she could go to the Holy Land to see 'Abdu'l-Baha, she asked if her son would escort her. It didn't take much to persuade him to go along, because he didn't want his mother travelling alone to a strange and dangerous place halfway around the world.

Seeing the Master in 1907 was difficult, because he was still a prisoner of the Ottoman Empire. So when they reached the Haifa area, they had to be smuggled into the Master's house at night, lest the enemies of the Faith and the Covenant-breakers spotted the Wilhelms. When 'Abdu'l-Baha saw Roy, He approached him with outstretched arms and hugged him so hard that Roy thought several of his ribs had been cracked. The very proper and Victorian Roy had never been hugged by a man before. It happened so swiftly that he didn't have time to retreat from the Master's embrace. Besides, the hug convinced him that he was most welcome, and whatever reservations he had about the safety and sanity of the place vanished.

Upon the urging of the Master, Roy went to 'Akka and Bahji. Before reaching Bahji, the carriage he was riding in stopped at the Garden of Ridvan. There, one of the Persians led him to a small white house where Baha'u'llah had stayed whenever He visited the Garden. As he entered, he sensed that he had been there before. It was the same room in which that extraordinary figure exchanged rings with him. Roy jumped back, retreating quickly to the garden, shaken. He could no longer hide the secret; he felt a strong urge to share his experience with 'Abdu'l-Baha - nobody else.

You had a spiritual experience,' the Master told Roy. 'had wedded you to His Faith.'

From that day on Mr Roy C. Wilhelm was a Baha'i, never entertaining even the thought of divorcing himself from the Faith.

Curtis learned from Roy, mostly by example. Steadfastness and firmness in the Covenant seemed to be reflected in almost everything Roy did. The Faith was the primary force in his life. He knew what Baha'u'llah represented to the world; without Him there was death. And he understood 'Abdu'l-Baha's relationship to the Blessed Beauty. What the Master said was what Baha'u'llah would say. When 'Abdu'l-Baha asked Roy to do something, he did it without hesitation. And the Master knew how strong Roy's faith was. That's why he was often called upon to do what most other believers weren't mature enough to do.

During one of the Master's visits to New York City in 1912, he called Roy at his office, asking him to come to the Hotel Ansonia where He was staying. Roy left immediately. When he entered the presence of 'Abdu'l-Baha, he noticed a number of friends, including several Persians, seated around the room. The Master had Roy sit in the middle of the room, and began to talk to him about the importance of obedience, in a reprimanding manner, waving his finger at Roy. Most other people would have whimpered and cowered, or stomped out of the room; but Roy didn't flinch. He was puzzled, but never questioned the Master.

Actually, 'Abdu'l-Baha had Roy submit to the tongue-lashing in order to reach a Persian believer who was in the room and needed spiritual shoring-up, because he was drifting toward Covenant-breaking. The true target of 'Abdu'l-Baha's Message was reached and he remained firm in the Faith. In time, Roy learned what purpose he had served that day at the Hotel Ansonia.

from: He Loved and Served, The Story of Curtis Kelsey, by Nathan Rutstein, George Ronald, Oxford, pp. 24-27

 

Charter

Charter for a Universal Civic Society

By John Taylor; 2007 July 16

"The greatest problem for the human race, to the solution of which Nature drives man, is the achievement of a universal civic society which administers law among men." (Opening sentence of the fifth thesis of Immanuel Kant's Cosmopolitan History)

Immanuel Kant was describing the central question of a vast movement of history. Wars, environmental degradation and the climate crisis are outer symptoms of our collective failure to come to grips with our deepest nature, a nature which impels us to raise up a universal civic society (UCS).

Because a UCS is the sole object of human evolution, the ultimate expression of our nature as human beings, a commitment to the UCS on all of our parts would be the only conceivable way to equality, justice, rule of law, prosperity and freedom. This cannot be ignored or put off. Every movement of history pushes towards it with the slow, relentless energy of a glacier. Everything we do either hits or misses according to how it addresses the singular goal of our age, upholding the UCS.

Kant himself did his part by drawing up a first draft of a UCS constitution, the Cosmopolitan History, and later a preliminary outline of a constitution for world government, his Sketch for a Perpetual Peace.

But it was not until 1987 when the Brundtland Commission, or World Commission on Environment and Development, took it to the next level by calling for a collectively written guide for sustainable development. This would be a commonly agreed-upon world charter, a declaration of determination to have new universal norms for human activity. The 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro drew up a draft version of this document, which it called the Earth Charter. The Earth Charter website, at: http://www.earthcharterinaction.org/ offers the following capsule history of what happened after the Earth Summit,

"In 1994, Maurice Strong (Secretary-General of the Rio Summit) and Mikhail Gorbachev, working through their organizations (Earth Council and Green Cross International respectively), restarted the Earth Charter as a civil society initiative. The initial drafting and consultation process drew on hundreds of international documents. Messrs. Strong and Gorbachev convened an independent Earth Charter Commission in 1997 to oversee the final development of the text and to come to agreement on a global consensus document. After numerous drafts and after considering the input of over 5,000 people, the Earth Charter Commission came to consensus on the Earth Charter in March, 2000, at a meeting held at UNESCO headquarters in Paris. The Earth Charter was later formally launched in ceremonies at The Peace Palace in The Hague."

Since then, they tell us, the Earth Charter has been endorsed by many individuals and over 2400 organizations representing millions of people, including global institutions like UNESCO. The preamble to this charter is quite inspiring, so I will cite it in full:

"We stand at a critical moment in Earth's history, a time when humanity must choose its future. As the world becomes increasingly interdependent and fragile, the future at once holds great peril and great promise. To move forward we must recognize that in the midst of a magnificent diversity of cultures and life forms we are one human family and one Earth community with a common destiny. We must join together to bring forth a sustainable global society founded on respect for nature, universal human rights, economic justice, and a culture of peace. Towards this end, it is imperative that we, the peoples of Earth, declare our responsibility to one another, to the greater community of life, and to future generations."

In future essays here I will be examining in more detail what is quite possibly the most important document ever devised by, for and on behalf of the human race and all that we stand for. Not the detail it deserves mind you, but at least I will be giving it more attention than I have in the past. It is a tragedy for us all that the masses flock around rock stars, athletes and movie and television stars, while most have never even heard of the Earth Charter, and that those few that have (such as myself) do not follow the progress of its fortunes as closely as a fan follows his favorite idol or sports team.

 

TC's Shape

Polar Governance

By John Taylor; 2007 July 15

"Through war, through the taxing and never-ending accumulation of armament, through the want which any state, even in peacetime, must suffer internally, Nature forces them to make at first inadequate and tentative attempts; finally, after devastations, revolutions, and even complete exhaustion, she brings them to that which reason could have told them at the beginning and with far less sad experience, to wit, to step from the lawless condition of savages into a league of nations." (Immanuel Kant, Cosmopolitan History, Seventh Thesis, p. 256)

Let us imagine that Kant's prediction plays out and that a world government has been set up at the South Pole by a human race with no time for pomp, ritual or ceremony, with a sense of urgency and of deep disappointment with its "sad experience" with nationalism, war and the systematic rape of our fair planet. This feeling is reflected in the design and architecture of Terra City (TC).

Under the central geodesic dome of TC, around its outside edge live and work continental delegates and other staff, most of whom rotate in, are rapidly trained, consult upon specific goals for a few months, and then return to consummate their service on the continental level. High turnover is designed into the genes of this institution not just to reduce inertia but mostly to spread the spirit of polar governance to as many statespersons, civil servants, educators and specialists from as many walks of life as possible. They come, get their work done and return home to implement what they came here to initiate. Unlike past parliaments, this is a degree granting institution. If they succeed in their goals for coming here, they are automatically awarded a special accreditation, as world citizen, as world-class civil servant, or some other form of specialist diploma.

The first task at TC in these early years is to build data central for the planet earth, to orchestrate a plan to combat its many human, environmental and climate crises. Especially at first, our world government concentrates on planning and lets each continental union implement the plan according to local conditions. Relieved of the burden of performing executive functions, TC concentrates on establishing standards for whatever is world-class in every specialty and walk of life, starting with the character and lifestyle of the average world citizen. This, it is agreed, is the only realistic way to reduce our collective environmental footprint enough to survive as a species.

For now, rules and laws are not prime concerns; these are made on the continental, national and local levels. Terra City specializes in standardizing and coordinating lawmaking, not on legislation itself. It has a direct interface with the Primus Cities on each continent where it sets the agenda for officially run forums and conferences dealing with every general problem, crisis and issue facing the human race. Like veins and arteries pumping blood in both directions through a heart, these conferences, held locally, nationally and continentally, feed information, experience and wisdom back and forth, both to and from the world capitol. TC circulates blood, it does not use muscle.

Residential and recreational units around the edge of the main dome surround several large conference rooms resembling ancient Greek theatres; on stage is a large screen that acts as a two-way link to a media center and computer room backstage. This overhead screen is mediated by the most technologically sophisticated conferencing software in the world.

In the conference rooms many conversations are always going on at once, but only those directly concerned see them. Each delegate has a computer screen at her desk; a larger screen connects her with about a dozen neighbors, who are coworkers specially chosen for the occasion. Then on a large screen overhead is a screen displaying information needed by all present. On each display a delegate sees a unique split-screen display customized to his or her purpose for being there. When a conclusion from a given group's deliberations is arrived at, this goes to the whole room, where broader decisions are discussed and voted upon. All final results go directly to a data processing farm backstage called Media Central.

Media Central is both a sound and video production studio and a software laboratory. The scene here behind the main screen resembles the mission control room of a space mission. Here the fruits of the on-going conference are turned expeditiously into finished presentations distributed immediately to continental capitals and the media at large.

 

Mentions

Baha'i Mention, and Other Mentions
By John Taylor; 2007 July 14

Distinctive Devotion
Baha'i Economist
Email Book Service
Work and Happiness
Baha'i Mention in "Earth in the Balance."

I promised to look into an excerpt from a 1992 book by Al Gore called Earth in the Balance. But first some other notes.

This man's Feast of Kalimat dissipated into thin air. Weeks ago our diligent secretary determined that everyone had previous engagements -- myself, I thought that since we were all born after 1844 when the Badi' calendar was set up, that we could not have any previous engagements, but such it seems is not the case. The only ones in all of Haldimand able to attend were myself and Silvie and Thomas. Even Marie could not be there, since she is working evenings.

So last night we hopped in the car, stopped in at my old pal Larry McPhee's place in the East End, and took him to the Kalimat Feast of my former home community, Hamilton. I had found out about the event in their on-line calendar, which includes a lovely poem about Baha'i elections. At Kalimat I had the chance to get the author's permission to share the following poem here. Leave it to Baha'u'llah to inspire a young heart with, of all things, an election. So, without further ado:

Distinctive Devotion
By Lucy Vorobej, (age 16)

Many have come, gathered to see
The election of a new assembly
The room goes quiet, not a sound is made
For this moment delegates have thought and prayed
The Task before them, so important a goal
Has the power to uplift and move the soul
One by one their names they do hear
Step by step they walk, steady and clear
With a kiss goodbye and a touch to their heart
Their vote goes in more beautiful than art
The voting continues and tears arise
The power of this election reaches the skies
For Baha'is, Baha'u'llah has given this gift
From His most excellent decree we must not drift
To vote and live in this most spiritual way
Will help to bring about the glorious New Day

Baha'i Economist

I had always imagined the world bank as taking place in some fiery boardroom in the nether regions of hell, chaired by Satan himself, surrounded by a staff of sniveling, groveling demons. But it turns out that at least one former member is a Baha'i, one Gregory Dahl. He is the author of "One World, One People," and on a morning business television show gives a brief summary of the importance of social service to globalization at,

<http://www.firstbusinessx.com/webex/0707/0702webexSocialResponsibility.html>

I stumbled upon the following service that may interest some of my readers. This breaks up public domain books into parcels and sends them at intervals by email, thus allowing you to read books you might never have otherwise. You can sign up at: http://www.dailylit.com/

I chose Thomas More's Utopia, but I found quickly enough that emailed books are not a good idea for me right now. But if you are on my Badi' list receiving my long essays every day chances are that this could work for you. What we really need is for somebody to break up Baha'i books and offer the same service, especially with the Writings. My friend Joe has long experience in Baha'i bookstores and was telling me a couple of weeks ago that there is one reliable constant: Baha'is will buy anything except the Holy Word. New books fly off the shelves, but the publishing trusts have even lowered prices for scripture to the point where they are selling it at a loss, but still the merchandise is not moving. Maybe if we spoon-feed ourselves with email scriptures we will establish better reading habits.

Back on the 20th of September, 2002 I wrote an essay called, "On the Parable of the Talents; Ethical Economics, Part IV" where I did a detailed analysis of the implications of the following reported statement by the Master:

"Perfection of work is man's greatest reward. When a man sees his work perfected and this perfection is the result of incessant labor and application he is the happiest man in the world. Work is the source of human happiness." (SW, Vol. 13, p. 152)

It turns out that scientists and medical experts have been making discoveries confirming this wisdom, according to the following report in a local newspaper.

"Want to be happier? Work longer hours," by Joanna Frketich
"You're in early. You stay late. The hours are piling up. Congratulations! Workaholics are less likely to suffer from depression. Statistics Canada reports that those working fewer than 30 hours a week suffered more depression than workers clocking more than 40 hours. Though nobody is quite sure why. Maybe because workaholics don't have time. "People working 40 hours meet the norms and expectations of society and feel they're doing something useful said Vish Baba, professor of management at McMaster University. "If I'm, working less hours, my sense of self worth is threatened. I might feel the skills I have are not wanted.
"Others suggest it has more to do with being passionate enough about your work to put in the extra time. They have a strong sense of mission to their work:' said Peter Bieling, manager of the mood disorders program at St. Joseph's Healthcare. "It's work that matters to them. Then again, the answer could be simply that people suffering from depression can't work as many hours. "Someone who is healthy is more likely to work longer hours," said Heather Gilmour, analyst in the health statistics division of Statistics Canada." (Hamilton Spectator, A1, 13 Jan, 2007)

Such is the problem with scientific confirmations, you never know if people are happier because they are working, or whether they are working because they are happier. There is an element of faith in both, in being happy and in working, which is why they are of such benefit. As Paul said, "Every man's work shall be made manifest." (1 Corinthians iii. 13)

Anyway, here is the excerpt from Al Gore's book that mentions two Baha'i quotes. It is about these quotes that I want to talk for the rest of today:

from: Earth in the Balance, pp. 261 - 262

One of the newest of the great universalist religions, Baha'i, founded in 1863 in Persia by Mirza Husayn Ali (Baha'u'llah), warns us not only to properly regard the relationship between humankind and nature but also the one between civilization and the environment. Perhaps because its guiding visions were formed during the period of accelerating industrialism, Baha'i seems to dwell on the spiritual implications of the great transformation to which it bore fresh witness:
"We cannot segregate the human heart from the environment outside us and say that once one of these is reformed everything will be improved. Man is organic with the world. His inner life molds the environment and is itself deeply affected by it. The one acts upon the other and every abiding change in the life of man is the result of these mutual reactions."
And, again, from the Baha'i sacred writings comes this:
"Civilization, so often vaunted by the learned exponents of arts and sciences will, if allowed to overleap the bounds of moderation, bring great evil upon men."

In the first part of this, Mr. Gore cites a paragraph from a lesser known letter of the Guardian to an individual. The only source for this in the Ocean database is the UHJ Research Department's October 1989 "Conservation of the Earth's Resources" compilation (Compilation of Compilations vol. I, p. 63) under a section called "Approaches to Protecting the Environment." Here is the complete quote, only the first part of which Mr. Gore cited.

"We cannot segregate the human heart from the environment outside us and say that once one of these is reformed everything will be improved. Man is organic with the world. His inner life moulds the environment and is itself also deeply affected by it. The one acts upon the other and every abiding change in the life of man is the result of these mutual reactions.
"No movement in the world directs its attention upon both these aspects of human life and has full measures for their improvement, save the teachings of Baha'u'llah. And this is its distinctive feature. If we desire therefore the good of the world we should strive to spread those teachings and also practice them in our own life. Through them will the human heart be changed, and also our social environment provides the atmosphere in which we can grow spiritually and reflect in full the light of God shining through the revelation of Baha'u'llah."

This was written on the Guardian's behalf on 17 February, 1933. A second selection from a letter of the year before is included right after in this compilation,

"We need a change of heart, a reframing of all our conceptions and a new orientation of our activities. The inward life of man as well as his outward environment have to be reshaped if human salvation is to be secured." (1932)

This is a perfect capsule summary of the Baha'i understanding of salvation. Not wholly personal, not wholly social, but both, each in interplay with the other, like the flaming torches of a flaming-torch juggling juggler. This, as was said of Aristotle, is moderation taken to an extreme. Without moderation or wisdom to keep us out of the mire of contradictions, one sinks into the mud. Caught in that, the only thing one can do is stand paralyzed, immobile, perplexed. Around this same time the Guardian wrote in a letter intended for much broader consumption,

"Europe, hitherto regarded as the cradle of a highly-vaunted civilization, as the torch-bearer of liberty and the mainspring of the forces of world industry and commerce, stands bewildered and paralyzed at the sight of so tremendous an upheaval. Long-cherished ideals in the political no less than in the economic sphere of human activity are being severely tested under the pressure of reactionary forces on one hand and of an insidious and persistent radicalism on the other." (Shoghi Effendi, World Order of Baha'u'llah, p. 31)

Reactionaries and radicals crush us like a vice; Yeats, in 1919 looking in horror at the same anarchic forces, used a different image, that of a falconer whose falcon flies so high that it can no longer hear his orders. "The center cannot hold ... the best lack all conviction while the worst are full of passionate intensity." Now science has actually documented how this destructive process works. Researchers such as Axelrod have found that perfectly rational behavior on an individual level leads to utter destruction, "mere anarchy" on a collective level, unless something gives, until someone sacrifices.

Al Gore has gained such renown because his film "An Inconvenient Truth" showed with charts and graphs how close is the deluge. In the words of the Master, "all the phenomena of (European) culture come to nothing." At the same time that the Guardian wrote all the above, he had also just come out with a revised translation of Secret of Divine Civilization, which includes the fateful passage I just alluded to:

"All the peoples of Europe, notwithstanding their vaunted civilization, sink and drown in this terrifying sea of passion and desire, and this is why all the phenomena of their culture come to nothing. Let no one wonder at this statement or deplore it. The primary purpose, the basic objective, in laying down powerful laws and setting up great principles and institutions dealing with every aspect of civilization, is human happiness; and human happiness consists only in drawing closer to the Threshold of Almighty God, and in securing the peace and well-being of every individual member, high and low alike, of the human race; and the supreme agencies for accomplishing these two objectives are the excellent qualities with which humanity has been endowed." (Abdu'l-Baha, Secret of Divine Civilization, p. 60)

Polity IV

From Politics to Polity; Polity IV

By John Taylor; 2007 July 13

Back in May I wrote a fair bit about polity. Some of that writing material was left over. It has been taking up space in the back of my refrigerator and is starting to go bad. So, dear friends, let me serve up a dish of leftovers today. Do not worry, though, I have added extra spices to smother the smell.

Polity is Unitarian

Polity is by nature unitary. It is the unity in diversity. There is only one polity, just as there is only one God and one humanity; polity is the one good among them all. It hovers, like spirit. A lover of the polity follows Jesus' teaching to "seek first the Kingdom, and all else will be added unto you." To even think of polity is daunting.

Let us pray for intercession to Thornton Chase, first Western Baha'i, a nondescript insurance salesman so transformed by contact with the Master that his coworkers -- now they would be called cubicle denizens -- remembered years later how he shot electricity into a room whenever he entered, how he infused a new life into the atmosphere wherever he went. Unlike most white collar workers in his mileau, Chase did not run the rat race in sole search of the almighty dollar. He was, as a Hadith cited by Baha'u'llah puts it, "hidden in the clothing of radiant poverty,"

My daemon in the Abha Kingdom -- I suspect -- is in cahoots with Thornton Chase. It has been urging me to explore "polity," a word, it tells me, that fills a crucial need in understanding the relationship between the Baha'i Faith and politics, and in understanding authority and infallibility. I have learned the hard way to pay close attention to my daemon. I do what it asks, no matter what, no questions asked. When I ignore it, everything gets blocked and is frozen in place. So, whether I want to do it or not, here is my latest attempt to butt down the brick wall of polity.

The Spirit of our Times

If you want to sum up the spirit of the age in a four word slogan, here it is: "From politics to polity." Take political relations, throw them in the processor of consultation, and you get polity. If we are ever going to get over this climate crisis, we have to do this, see this. Polity is the party of all parties, parties without borders, or the party that is a wholly, or a holy if you will; or, as Victor Hugo famously put it, the party of civilization:

"I represent a party which does not yet exist -- the party of ... civilization. . . There will come from it first a United States of Europe, and then a United States of the World. . . There is nothing more powerful than an idea whose time has come."

Well, it exists now. This party, if any party ever was, is the party of God. At least Baha'is think so. Ruhiyyih Khanum wrote,

"The Baha'is, as Shoghi Effendi said so aptly, belong to no political party but to `God's party'. They are the agents of His Divine Polity." (Ruhiyyih Khanum, The Guardian of the Baha'i Faith, p. 185)

According to this definition, then, a Baha'i is an agent of divine polity; and like any agent, Baha'is have special training. We are privy to knowledge that others do not have. As the Guardian put it, "...They alone are aware of the silent growth of that orderly world polity whose fabric they themselves are weaving." (Shoghi Effendi, World Order, 194) Unlike the organization of other institutions, this ordered polity is organic. Organic growth is more difficult to grasp than mechanical expansions. Organic growth expands and grows at the cellular level, it lives, excretes and breaths according to its own needs, not the whim of the people within.

Thus a Baha'i, an "agent" of the polity, must care about polity first. If ego or lower interests eclipse our first loyalty, the basis of our statesmanship, one is a Baha'i in name only. Polity defines "Baha'i-ness." Similarly, Aristotle insisted that a king should not be called a king if he looks to his own interests before that of the polity. That makes him a mere tyrant.

"For a man is not a king unless he is sufficient to himself and excels his subjects in all good things; and such a man needs nothing further; therefore he will not look to his own interests but to those of his subjects; for a king who is not like that would be a mere titular king. Now tyranny is the very contrary of this; the tyrant pursues his own good. And it is clearer in the case of tyranny that it is the worst deviation-form; but it is the contrary of the best that is worst." (Aristotle, Nichomachean Ethics)

Polity and Infallibility

Consider the following passage, which I think is one of the most brilliant and original analogies that have been drawn by the collective mind of the House of Justice. They say that organic growth is a fundamental principle to understanding the pattern that Baha'u'llah wishes society to evolve towards. This,

"... requires that detailed developments, and the understanding of detailed developments, become available only with the passage of time and with the help of the guidance given by that Central Authority in the Cause to whom all must turn. In this regard one can use the simile of a tree. If a farmer plants a tree, he cannot state at that moment what its exact height will be, the number of its branches or the exact time of its blossoming. He can, however, give a general impression of its size and pattern of growth and can state with confidence which fruit it will bear. The same is true of the evolution of the World order of Baha'u'llah. (UHJ, letter, "Separation of Church and State, 27 April, 1995)

What better explanation than this could there be of the nature of leadership and authority in the Baha'i Faith, of the divine, infallible guidance that we get from the Center of our Faith? The House guides us without being endowed with the absolute omniscience of the Bab or Baha'u'llah, but, in the sense explained above, they are still infallible.

The technical term for this kind of organic growth that natural processes like stars, clouds and tree branches undergo is, I believe, stochastic. Stochastic processes happen when reason embraces the randomness of ephemeral being and gently guides it towards order. Human institutions and constructions are not stochastic. They are static, brittle and unchanging. They are built on a crackling pile of twigs, human opinions. Human opinion is, as a pre-Socratic philosopher put it, "the mere play of children."

Stone buildings, and human derived institutions cannot grow stochastically because they are made of inorganic materials, the hard, unyielding rock of finite, limited, material understanding. The "foundation" of a tree is its living root system, which goes down into unseen earth and living rock; by so doing it also supports the trunk and all above. In the same way, the roots of Baha'u'llah's organic polity run deep into another World, where human understanding dare not presume to go.

As a result, its processes resemble a tree, not a building. It grows and changes. At the same time that the roots deepen, the visible tree slowly rises to the heights, like the mustard seed in the parable.

The only way to radically change a stone building is to tear it down and build a new one. That is why human reform is so often violent, impulsive, continually repeating the same cycle of revolution and reaction. Aristotle explained exactly why this happens: we are more attached to our passions than to truth.

"For he who lives as passion directs will not hear argument that dissuades him, nor understand it if he does; and how can we persuade one in such a state to change his ways? And in general passion seems to yield not to argument but to force. The character, then, must somehow be there already with a kinship to virtue, loving what is noble and hating what is base." (Aristotle, Ethics)