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A Guru's View of World Government (Cont.)

(With world government being such a controversial subject these days, given the United Nations' abject failure to address humanity's problems, World Citizen News continues the serial reprinting of Guru Nataraja's 1956 Memorandum on World Government, which treats the subject holistically or, as he wrote, "geo-dialectically." Viewed within the context of the guru's wisdom-though he passed away in 1973 and despite his gender-exclusionary language-readers can enjoy a fresh and timely perspective on an engrossing subject.)

SECTION III

UNIQUE AND POSITIVE QUALITIES

1. What the World Government is not

We have already stated in passing that the World Government is not based on power with the weapon of threats of punishment. Its authority is derived from humanity's need for it and from its rightness and justice. It has been mentioned also that it has no territorial ambitions or designs. It does not propose to arrogate to itself any functions that are being fulfilled already correctly by existing governments. No overlapping or duplication of functions in the scheme presented here. Neither is diarchy or a parallel form of government contemplated. However, in spite of this opposition, World Government will not be second to any other government. It will consciously avoid functioning even as a supra-state in the usual sense. If we should want to think of the political theory on which it is to be based, it can be said here in advance that it does not subscribe to the laissez faire doctrine. Much less does it adhere to the doctrine of 'might is right', which, though more positive, is still outmoded. The Benthamian doctrine of 'the greatest happiness of the greatest number' is also not in keeping with the principles of the present Government. It does not think quantitatively at all. That would make it fall into the capital error of being mechanistic or relativistic in its approach, which we have stated to be the very drawback we wish to avoid. It is based on a dialectical approach to world problems. What this implies we shall clarify as much as possible below.

2. Based on a solemn pact

The World Government is based on a solemn pact between the people of the world and their dialectical counterpart in the form of a wise lover of humanity representing the general good of humanity as a whole. Although stated in the form of two aspects, these counterparts form the obverse and reverse of the same coin called Absolute Happiness, Goodness, or Justice of Humanity. This is a unitive central value whatever the order-stimulus employed may be. Moreover, it is essentially a human value in keeping with the dignity of the human species. Bread and freedom will be provided for all when such a Government comes into its full swing of effective and efficient working, by the conscious co-operation and understanding of the people of the world. Stated in the most general terms, the task of the World Government will be the intelligent ordering of human life activities in a manner normal and natural to man, without violating his own innate dispositions, legitimate interests, or aspirations.

3. The World Government must govern its subjects actively or positively

It must be practical and effective in its functioning. Mere pious hopes like that of waiting to establish the kingdom of heaven on earth will not improve matters. A government worth the name must deliver the goods or benefits belonging to the domain of politics. It must make human life on earth less full of humiliation, helplessness or suffering. While this is right, the World Government must guard itself from falling into the opposite error of getting involved in a maze of overt actions which will fan feelings of rivalry and create more warring camps than ever. To avoid war, to guarantee collective security, to make co-existence possible or to practice the virtues of the pancha-sila of non-interference, or to cultivate an attitude of positive neutrality, have been the recommendations of some of the world's politicians for improving human affairs. These recommendations, though good as far as they go, embody the negative side of the virtue of international life. To leave matters well alone and not to make more rules than are necessary, are cardinal virtues for the World Government to cultivate. Stopping at harmless virtues which are still relative will not make a World Government function normally. The positive program of World Government has at every stage to balance or cancel out the negative, so as to strike the just mean between war and peace, activity and passivity, hot and cold attitudes, co-operation and competition. A constant pressure has to be maintained between these opposing tendencies so as to throw up constantly a higher value as an ideal for humanity.

4. Positive pressure and vertical ascent

A man becomes a better man by intensely and consciously wanting to be good. When he is good he should mind his own business and not interfere with others. His own inner urges as a man, in so far as they are in keeping with human nature as understood scientifically in all its bearings, have to get the full play of expansion and expression normally, without clashing with others who want to have the same changes. Those deep-seated specific qualities which distinguish man and make him unique and unrivaled, must be brought out into creative expression instead of lying dormant or unfulfilled. If virtues such as these apply to the individual, they could apply equally to families as normal human life units. Rural or urban units could have personalities cultivating the same virtues or moral principles in keeping with a science or philosophy of human life. Bloated amorphous political units must also attempt to conform to the requirements of this geo-dialectical absolutist morality When all formations follow the same laws, the order which constitutes World Government can be expected. No feverish horizontal activity is here involved. A certain positive pressure resulting in a vertical ascent is what needs to be constantly maintained in human life. This pressure can also be compared to a moral or spiritual heat or to the magnetizing influence of a current of electricity. The principle of double negation and double assertion as known to scholastic philosophy in Europe should be understood as implicit here. Only a fuller treatise on geo-dialectics itself can clarify such matters more completely or elaborately.

...to be continued


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