From: rakRKOt@fhJX3cY0I.com   
      
   PROUT Gems - 18   
      
   Welcome to another edition of PROUT Gems. Again this issues looks at vital   
   progressive principles that reflect the higher development of human   
   consciousness and its impact on social structures and policies while also   
   contrasting to those lower tendencies that are stifling human progress.   
      
   Dharma   
      
   --   
      
   Neohumanist Perspectives on World Peace   
      
   by Ac. Vimalananda Avadhuta   
      
   The attainment of world peace challenges human talent and ingenuity but is   
   not an impossible or utopian dream. World peace is attainable; it may even   
   be imminent.   
      
   Consider two events that caught humanity by surprise: the fall of the Berlin   
   wall on November 9, 1989 and the World Trade Center attack on September 11,   
   2001. The vulnerability of the mightiest nations on earth have drastically   
   altered world perception, and the world is still changing, especially   
   politically. An ideological confusion prevails and humanity once again   
   searches for an ideology.   
      
   Let us affirm humanity's smooth transition into a new era. Indeed, "humanity   
   has already crossed the threshold of a new era," claimed P.R. Sarkar in His   
   New Year's message in 1987-88.   
      
   Despite our advancements in various fields, we have yet to overcome   
   psychological complexes that interfere with social harmony. Social   
   psychology is guided by a combination of sentiments and complexes, which   
   affects our towering world leaders as much as common people. The world has   
   witnessed devastating wars and conflicts brought on by geo-patriotic   
   sentiments, socio-sentiments, feelings of racial supremacy, etc. We were all   
   thankful when the cold war came to a rapid, bloodless end.   
      
   The ideologies that guide people in their personal lives also guide them in   
   formulating social constructs and attitudes. Ideologies may be   
   matter-centered, self-centered, dogma-centered or spirit-centered. Let us   
   look at socio-political systems born from these ideological types.   
      
   The Marxist doctrine is essentially matter-centered. Nevertheless, it failed   
   to reliably deliver even potatoes and milk to its infants and people after   
   its 72-year-long experimentation behind a iron and concrete curtain. People   
   rejected Marxism and tore down the infamous Berlin wall. Today people live   
   in a prevailing ideological vacuum in the erstwhile communist states.   
      
   Capitalism is self-centered and mirrors the lopsided Darwinian law of   
   evolution where only the strong have the right to prosper. A capitalist   
   social structure works on the illusory ethos of mutual exploitation. "I am   
   free to exploit you and you are free to exploit me." In reality, the power   
   to exploit remains concentrated in the hands of the privileged. For the   
   majority, life in self-centered social structures degenerates into an   
   endless struggle for existence amidst plenty. It becomes insecure and   
   artificial, full of contradictions and uncertainties. One is forced to   
   question the glory of a prosperity that excludes so many.   
      
   Religious power structures are based on dogma-centered ideologies, which are   
   purposefully devoid of human rationality. Such structures use fear to coerce   
   support from the people, yet are incapable of meeting the basic needs of   
   their subjects. Dogma-centered social structures have never been   
   self-sufficient, but survive as parasites on socio-economic systems guided   
   by the other two ideologies.   
      
   While matter-, self-, and dogma- centered systems have come and gone, no   
   attempt has yet been made to create a social structure based on   
   Spirit-centered, universal, neohumanistic, and cardinal values. The Indian   
   philosopher P.R. Sarkar outlines such a possibility in his discourses on   
   Progressive Utilisation Theory (ie PROUT). Sarkar claims that humans are   
   inherently universal and spirit-centered by nature. While recognising that   
   humans have a lower nature due to the process of evolution, he recognises   
   that human beings are evolving and that evolution is always towards their   
   higher nature. However, throughout our history of collective living, our   
   leadership often promoted self-centered, dogma-centered and matter-centered   
   ideas. We must now move on to higher vistas.   
      
   No doubt, many are reluctant to sacrifice their political egos for cardinal   
   human values. Ignoring the most noble human wisdoms, they continue to push   
   their self-centered agendas. But it's too late for their games: individually   
   and socially we have reached a critical point on the curve of social   
   evolution. At this juncture, there may be only two options left: change our   
   value system or perish as a civilization.   
      
   What is Sarkar's Neohumanism, and how does he envision a spirit-centered   
   neohumanistic social structure? First, let us look at what it is not.   
   Neohumanism is free from the following three major shortcomings of the   
   prevailing political ideologies:   
      
   1. Geo-sentiment (nationalism, geo-patriotism);   
      
   2. Socio-sentiment, which promotes social inequality via, lets call it (i)   
   leftist matter-centered ideologies as these fail largely to take account of   
   the higher human nature and all subtle concepts associated with   
   consciousness, the denial of which will ultimately crudify humanity and lead   
   to inequity, and (ii) hatred related to largely right-wing, dogma-centered   
   philosophies including religious hatreds as well as racial, ethnic and   
   gender-based inequality; 3. Pseudo-humanistic sentiment, an essentially   
   self-centered outlook used to justify the continued plunder and degradation   
   of the environment. This can be seen as a type of warfare against other   
   species and the planet itself.   
      
   In contrast, Neohumanism is a happy blending of spirituality and   
   rationality, a move beyond left and right ideologies. Religious leaders who   
   forgo rationality invent dogmas and capture the allegiance of people by   
   infusing them with inferiority complexes and fear. Progressive rationality   
   without spirituality is dry and heartless. It creates matter-centered   
   structures, such as communism, which enslave and tortures humanity.   
   Neohumanism acknowledges the need for an approach that recognizes both the   
   spirit and the intellect. Leftist thinking is today tending towards the same   
   self-centredness systemic to capitalism, eg feminism is being demoted to   
   looking good in the corporate world and getting up the ladder at the cost of   
   the others.   
      
   Political ideologies throughout the ages have changed little, although the   
   collective psychology of humanity is yearning for an altogether new social   
   structure. Political ideologies are still polarized, amongst the masses and   
   within the leadership, at both local and global levels. Just recollect the   
   "balance of power" theory of the Cold War era. The polarization or   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)