By Dr. A. K. Merchant*
Every year on 23 January the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists set the Doomsday Clock, which is a symbolic representation of how close humanity is to global catastrophe, with midnight representing that point which was set to 89 seconds for this year.
This is the closest the clock has ever been to midnight, signifying the highest level of global danger since the clock’s inception. But six months later with a new war between Israel and Iran it appears that the dangers have increased manifold and any minute the situation could escalate into a World War 3.
The decision of these Nobel Laurates taken in 1947 was influenced by escalating global security risks, including war, nuclear threats, climate change, shifting geopolitics, and the advancement of disruptive technologies. Even a cursory survey makes it evident that the human race, or civilization, as we know, is experiencing a universal commotion of a scope and intensity unparalled in the annals of humankind.
The world socio-economic-political-military equilibrium is being violently deranged. A vast majority of the population seized with fear and agonizing suffering because of decisions of global leaders, be they secular or religious. With wild unbelievable perversity, these misguided leaders are plunging the planet into the abyss of self-annihilation. Every form of media–print, electronic, social–provides us with real time dangers and catastrophes.
The rule-based architecture to resolve major global disputes through the United Nations System that was assiduously built at the conclusion of the WW2–to avert a repetition, now appears to be just in ruins. The consequences may turn out to be quite apocalyptic. Even though no one would really like it that way. Nevertheless, as an optimist, I believe that world peace is not only possible but inevitable.
Broadly speaking, vast sections of populations in almost country today is certainly distracted, and compared to an absolute standard of normalcy, somewhat demented, and even those who claim some semblance of sanity as concerned and reasonably informed persons are far from being what they should be. It seems to me that a combination of a number of dysfunctionalities act as brakes for the survival and progressive march of civilization.
Further reflection on the shortcomings of present-day society reveals that belief in the Divine, the Creator and the Sustainer of the universe, has become so commodified and commercialized that the gullible masses are greatly confused as to where to turn for guidance. The simple truth is that although the soul or the atman flows from the Creator, most people are suffering from all the diseases caused by spiritual attrition.
Sorely disillusioned, humanity has chosen false idols of–casteism, racism, materialism, consumerism, hedonism, ideologism and a host of other “isms”. These fetishes exert no restraining influence; although they often arouse the misplaced idealism of their adherents, their handmaids are hatred, pride, fanaticism and ruthlessness. They put no brakes on the personal appetites of men and women, they exert no ethical influence outside the field of their defective philosophies.Today is the day of all the wrong freedoms and none of the right.
A person is free to be rabid anti-Semite or dark-race-hater, lower caste jiber, free to be a nationalist at the expense of the rest of the world, free to be a burning protagonist of any totalitarian system, free to follow one’s animal passions, free to be abusive, free to divorce, free to get addicted to drugs, free to become an alcoholic, in many places free to become a terrorist or guerrilla fighter.
It is terribly sad to think that these black freedoms should be so widespread when one is no longer free to be virtuous without being found unstylish and peculiar, free to not drink without being looked upon as a social pariah, and above all, free to be happily and comfortably spiritual or religious without being considered mentally deficient or emotionally unbalanced.
In some countries today people are no longer free to enjoy the most innocent of all freedoms–tolerance–to be tolerant is to be disloyal. There is no middle ground. This is certainly the Age of extremes! A strange and paralyzing contradiction has developed in human affairs.
Arguably, many of the global leaders have succumbed to the proposition that human beings are incorrigibly selfish and aggressive and thus incapable of erecting a social system at once progressive and peaceful, dynamic and harmonious, a system giving free play to individual creativity and initiative but based on cooperation and reciprocity.
Dispassionately examined, the evidence reveals that such distorted perceptions on the part of arbiters of human affairs reveals that they are lacking in capacity for consultative action. For, “the maturity of the gift of understanding is made manifest through consultation.”
There is a deep-seated conviction of the inevitable quarrelsomeness of humankind, which has led to the reluctance to entertain the possibility of subordinating national self-interest to the requirements of world, and in an unwillingness to face courageously the far-reaching implications of establishing a united world authority.
Overcoming the paralysis of will; turning away from false assumptions regarding individuals, societies and nations when intractable problems have been fused into one common concern for the whole world, must be carefully examined and resolutely dealt with. “Whether peace is to be reached only after unimaginable horrors and devastation precipitated by humanity’s stubborn clinging to faulty patterns of behaviour , or to be established on the basis of mutual cooperation and wellbeing of humankind is the choice before all present-day leaders and peoples of the world.”
On the other hand, Agenda 2030–Sustainable Development Goals number 16, way back in 2015, endorsed by all the member states of the United Nations mandated the promotion of peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels.
It called for reducing all forms of violence and related death rates everywhere; promoting the rule of law at the national and international levels and ensuring equal access to justice for all; broadening and strengthening the participation of developing countries in the institutions of global governance.
With just five years left and almost 80% goals of Agenda 2030 remaining unfulfilled the peoples of the world are seized by various ordeals and hardships daily struggling against incurable ills; despair and hopelessness and uncertainty about future as well as erosion of the bonds of trust have continue to exacerbate the manifold crises, especially among many young people around the world.
The situation reminds us of an individual standing at a fork in the road, voluntarily inconveniencing himself or herself by acting as a signpost. The individual points right with a sign that reads “Safety–This Way” and left is marked “Danger, Precipice”, but unfortunately most people today rush towards the high road to the precipice and very few take the little unattractive path to safety.
If humanity has come to a point of paralyzing conflict it must look to itself, to its own negligence, to the siren voices to which its has listened, for the source of the misunderstandings and confusion perpetrated over the past centuries, but more particularly post World War 2.
A candid acknowledgement that prejudice, war and exploitation have been express of immature stages in a vast historical process and that the human race is today experiencing the unavoidable tumult which marks its collective coming of age is not a despair but a prerequisite to undertaking the stupendous enterprise of building a peaceful world. That such an enterprise is possible, that the necessary constructive forces do exit, that unifying social structures can be erected is what the global leaders need to urgently and unitedly agree upon and act.
Last September [2024], the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted the Pact for the Future, the Global Digital Compact and the Declaration on Future Generations. Therefore, it is certainly possible for the comity of nations rooted in the timeless values and principles of the Charter of the United Nations and international law, and in the dignity and human rights of every person.
At the same time, it is clearly evident that millions of people of goodwill are involved in community-based initiatives of social action focused on education and many other initiatives such as mobilization of youth for a wide-ranging activity such as agriculture, health, the environment, the empowerment of women, and the arts.
In country after country, grassroots social workers are struggling to provide succour to the suffering millions. Discarding what doomsday soothsayers have said or written, in the past or in recent times, the generality of humankind must not lose faith and remain hopeful as to the positive outcome of the horrendous upheavals and devastation.
The stark truth is that the prevailing world order appears to be lamentably defective and that past several generations of global leadership and those at the helm of affairs are responsible for the terrific mess and diabolical situation that will further convulse the nations, stir the conscience of the world, acutely disillusion the masses, and precipitate a radical change in the very conception of present-society, or the civilization, as we know it.
Humanity, this is my firm conviction, can confront today’s world-engulfing crises, for the emergence of a new World Order, synonymous with what is stated in some of religious Scriptures as “Ram Rajya” or the “Kingdom of God on earth.” (1542 words)
*The author is a social worker, independent researcher & member of the Baha’i Community of India. Views expressed are personal.
