As the political and media world are gripped with the issue of immigration and resurgent nationalism, it is ever more important that a clear spiritual vision is set out that offers a constructive way forward for humanity.
The Power of “Us”
The words “us” and “our” are emotionally very powerful just as their opposites, “they” and “their” are. We look after our own, don’t we? It’s our home, our family, our land. The populist Right say of immigrants that they are invading our country, coming to destroy our way of life, assault our women – the list goes on and on. The standard Progressive reply is to emphasise the immigrant contribution that they make to our society and so on.
Though the Populist Right and Progressives have opposing views, but they share the same fundamental way of thinking based on “us” and “them”.
It’s time to rewrite the script.
It’s time to rewrite the script.
Our Humanity First
We can decide “us” refers to all humanity, all the billions of souls on this planet and beyond; that our first loyalty is to our humanity, all humanity. Humanity not only in the sense of all the peoples of the world but also in the sense of compassion, decency, kindness. It means a fundamental transfer of our primary loyalty away from our country to a wider concept of “us” that included all humans as well as our own sense of humanity.
And to do that, we need to break the psychological and political hold the nation state has over us. We need to rethink our traditional allegiance to “our country”, above all in face of the saying “our country right or wrong.”
The nation state is the evolutionary equivalent of adolescence. Peoples who in ancient times were once part of great empires or tribal groups – their ‘parents’ – broke away to develop their own identity and become ‘nation states’. They develop their own cultures, institutions, language and so make their unique contribution to humanity. All this is a part of our evolutionary process. The key point is that the nation state is a staging post, not the end game, any more than adolescence is. We keep growing.
The nation state is the evolutionary equivalent of adolescence.
A Union of Free Peoples
And the next stage? It is a coming together of the nation states of the world in a Union of Free Peoples. It is a recognition that to deal with the challenges this planet is facing – such as climate change, poverty, war and the resulting mass migration – we need to work together as one humanity. As a planet we have the resources to meet everyone’s basic needs – such as food, warmth and shelter – and by co-ordinating our efforts we can and should. We need to get beyond the narrow short-term interest of this or that country and deal with global issues from the perspective of humanity as a whole and find long term solutions. Only by working for the good of all the peoples of the world will finally end the needless suffering and destruction that has blighted so much of our history.
What we seek is a union of free peoples: not an empire, not some bureaucratic system imposed on unwilling subjects, but freely entered into by democratic nations with the expressed consent of their citizens. There would be no loss of identity: Canada would still be Canada, Cambodia would be Cambodia, but part now of a wider union. Using the principle of “subsidiarity”, decisions would be taken at as local a level as practicable to fit the task in hand. We need a global approach to rising sea levels, but we wouldn’t want our local seaside resorts to be micro-managed by some supra-national government!
So we may well witness a gradual coming together, step by step, till the world is one.
A union of free peoples is a process: there are many parts of the world where people are not free to express their voice; there are peoples whose desire to have a country of their own has been supressed. These are stages that cannot be skipped over; these are injustices that have to be put right. We are in an evolutionary process and not every people or country are at the same stage. So we may well witness a gradual coming together, step by step, till the world is one.
Creating the Path for Humankind
As humanity’s consciousness shifts, institutions are created that reflect it. In the aftermath of two World Wars, European thinkers and political leaders came together to shape an economic community that would, they hoped, end forever the scourge of war. Today it is the European Union which, despite its flaws, has maintained the peace amongst its members over the decades. In my own family, I have seen its tangible effect. My French grandfather, Pierre, fought in two wars against the Germans. His great grandson, another Pierre, married a German woman who gave birth to wonderful Franco-German children.
A Union of Free Peoples is a step change from what has gone before, but unions like the EU, the United States of America or the Swiss cantons give us something concrete to build on.
A Journey of a Thousand Miles…
I have no idea when a country called earth will come into being. But I do know it will. When I say know, it is not simply a hope or wishful thinking. I can sense it with every fibre of my being. There are forces at work that guide humanity’s spiritual evolution and they are ultimately irresistible. What will happen can be delayed for a while, but it in the end cannot be denied. Our choice is whether we chose to contribute to this great unfolding of our common destiny or stand idly by and do nothing or, worse still, seek to work against it. That is where our free will comes in.
Today we can all listen to our highest calling and take part in this great journey of humankind. We can choose to focus on a positive vision and support this movement towards A Country Called Earth.
More about this vision can be found in We Are One - A Manifesto for Humanity by Simenon Honoré.
The views expressed in this article do not necessarily represent the views of Spirit of the Rainbow as whole.
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