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the
way to safety, food,
health and education
Since
olden times, people have been longing to live together in peace and
happiness. When we think about the societies and cities of the past,
we see that people believed that monumental buildings, erected for
the gods (and for the rulers) would bring guaranteed happiness for
the people. Daily life developed in areas where cities had been
founded around these monuments, and where they hoped that ideally,
the divine, the gods, would manifest themselves.
We
can imagine that throughout history, a great deal has been thought
about the concept of ‘the ideal city’ and that many projections
have been made. Sometimes this was done through abstract concepts,
sometimes by active attempts, taking all aspects of life into
account. Sometimes philosophers and thinkers worked only
architectonically. Many people have diligently occupied themselves
with ‘the organisation of happiness’, which we may, after all,
call the principle of the ideal city.
The
mere words ‘ideal city’ demonstrate a longing for perfection,
for wholeness, for which people have always been striving. We see
around us how they have tried to consolidate this wholeness,
sometimes real, sometimes imaginary, in a social organisation with
justice, peace, freedom and love as its point of departure.
The modern prototypes: communism and capitalism
From Akhenaten to Le Corbusier and from Plato to Wijdeveld
(the architect of Renova), thinkers have suggested that the ‘ideal
city’ could become reality on the basis of simple concepts. Our
modern society is the final expression of a number of these
projects. Lofty human values underlie them, which sometimes return
in the motto of certain countries like that of France: ‘Freedom,
Equality, Brotherhood’. Two main streams of the twentieth century,
communism and capitalism, which largely determined the organisation
of our modern society, were born from the idea of finding ultimate
happiness. We have to draw the conclusion that neither has been
successful.
The
communist model says: ‘The happiness of the group will be
reflected by each individual, while each individual is wholly
subservient to the goal’, but we have seen that this philosophy of
collectivity and sharing of all possessions resulted in the death of
hundreds of millions of people. And the capitalist counterpart
states: ‘Acquiring power, possessions and means of production
contributes to individual happiness. If the individual is happy,
society will consequently also be so.’
We
cannot yet wholly take stock, but there are enough signs
(colonisation, the arms race, pollution of the environment, lack of
respect for the laws of life on earth, excessive exploitation of
natural resources, breaking up of the family, inner-city violence,
credit crisis…) to be able to speak of a disastrous result.
Yet,
both systems stem from the same longing: the striving for happiness
and freedom although, ultimately, both resulted in the opposite of
their primary goal, namely in the use of force. In one case by a
state that imposed its laws in a dictatorial way, in the other by
the economic market that imposed its laws by creating needs,
resulting in the ‘dehumanisation’ of the human being. This is
why a former president of the French Republic said: ‘I am
convinced that liberalism is destined to experience the same failure
as communism and that it will lead to the same excesses. Both are
excesses of the human mind.’
We
can imagine that the collective subconscious strongly resists this.
There are people who withdraw in virtual ‘cities’: they create
‘ideal’ living conditions through drugs, information networks,
‘second life’ or through astral travel. In this way, they hope
to satisfy the longing for happiness that is continuously nagging as
an eternal homesickness and that is interpreted as: living happily
in a world without the use of force.
The four fundamental human problems
In the meantime, we will have become aware that there is a
difference between our longing for ‘the one true life’ and the
world in which we live. This is why nowadays everyone agrees that a
profound change is necessary. But what would be the characteristics
of this change? Should we change institutions, laws, society?
For
a long time humanity has, in its striving for perfection, believed
that ‘progress’ would be a logical movement to ‘ever
better’, to ever more, ultimately leading to the perfect human
being in a happy and peaceful world. However, when we consider the
attempts of culture, philosophy or religion of the last 6500 years,
we can only admit that the long-expected stage of the perfect human
being will still have to wait for quite some time. Does so-called
‘developed’ human civilisation not show an alarming number of
egoistic, unconscious, strange, violent, complicated or
irresponsible people?
Almost
systematically, humanity always seems to fall victim to new
problems, which prevent it from realising its ideals. Below, we
would like to present a broad outline of these seemingly inevitable
pitfalls.
We
begin by analysing the problems of the cities of antiquity and the
Middle Ages. They were confronted with four great difficulties. The
rulers of the cities and countries had to make treaties with other
states, cities and rulers, while reinforcing their cities against
raids. They had to take measures against famines, like filling the
granaries and stimulating trade. They knew small as well as large
health problems and had to control plague, cholera and other
epidemics as well as possible. They also had to occupy themselves
with the education and training of new generations, so that they
would in the future be able to safeguard the prosperity of the
city-state and its citizens.
Therefore,
the points of departure were:
1.
guaranteeing safety
2.
proper management of resources
3.
safeguarding the health situation
4.
guaranteeing a functional system of
education and training
Are
the problems in developing countries in 2010 very different? Let us
look at a number of problems, with which African states are
confronted. They have to find a way to end armed conflicts between
tribes and nations, which cause thousands of casualties. They must
be self-sufficient with regard to their primary vital needs and
develop a better-equipped agriculture. There is a never-ending
struggle against the HIV virus and AIDS. The quality of water and
its accessibility as well as the infrastructure of these countries
should be improved. Reading and writing are of great importance and
the children are, generally speaking, very inquisitive, but there is
a great lack of education; schools must be set up and teachers must
be trained.
We
therefore still encounter the four pillars: safety, management of
resources, health, education.
We
might now easily be tempted to conclude that these countries are
still ‘developing’ and that so-called ‘developed’ countries
do not have these problems. If this were correct, modern countries
would, therefore, not have to spend much financial and human energy
on these aspects. However, the situation is rather grim.
Worldwide,
the developed countries are responsible for seventy percent of all
military expenses (the whole of Africa 2.5 percent).
North
America and Europe are the largest energy consumers. North America
has the same energy consumption as the whole of Asia, with 8.6 times
fewer inhabitants.
Public
expenditure on health care per inhabitant (expressed in US dollars)
was in 2003:
Germany:
2506
France:
2273
United States
2548
Norway:
4167
Afghanistan:
4
Bangladesh:
4
Burundi:
4
Democratic Republic Congo: 4
Education
and training belong to the top expenditures of European countries
(for instance, France: 60 billion euro in 2006, the equivalent of
15% of the total national budget).
Therefore,
our conclusion is: the more developed a country is, the more it
spends in the fields of military security, use of resources, health
and education.
The
four fundamental problems still prove to be the same, regardless of
place, era or system of government. However, the developed countries
often obscure these problems more or less successfully by
investments of billions of unsecured dollars. Also in the 21st
century, security, management of resources, health and education are
still the four major aspects of worry in the world. An environment
of perfect happiness proves to be an unattainable goal, yet people
continue striving for it – because they cannot do otherwise.
©
Lectorium Rosicrucianum 2010.
From Pentagram No
4, 2010 |