THE CRISIS OF VALUES AND ATTITUDES ON THE PLANET

Dr Michael Ellis © 2003

INTRODUCTION

The Crisis of Values and Attitudes on the Planet

Humankind has reached a state of development in which old modes of thinking and behaving threaten to destroy our planet. This is becoming patently obvious to people of all political and religious persuasions. We are living through a global crisis in which only a profound revolution can save us from total self-destruction. Those of us who are dedicated to the preservation of life must play a prominent part in this revolution, which calls for a substantial change in our manner of thinking
In place of peace as the product of many nations we have a marginalised UN, its legitimacy questioned and, its existence challenged

People all over the planet are now realizing that what is at stake is not just the fate of the people of Iraq but a deep fear of the consequences of an unprecedented hegemony in the history of international relations where we are faced with a monopolar order……
The war against Iraq has already cost over one million lives of innocent civilians, including a great number of children before the current war started. Fifty percent of the people in Iraq are under 15 years of age
The fear of ''terrorism'' has led to launching a new worldwide set of military, political, economic and juridical measures which pretend to combat terrorism but which in fact assert the supremacy of the new monopolar order
A hegemony of values is the greatest risk which humanity now faces because it only counts on the might of military power which will leave no room for diversity nor for democracy in real terms of human rights , individual freedom and cultural freedom. With a monopolar order the greatest loser of all will be human civilization, in terms of dignity and peace……

BASIS FOR ACTION

We have to re-evaluate ourselves as the prime cause of the problems we are facing, and rediscover the profound value inherent in every single human being. This is something that the United Nations conferences, as yet, have not really addressed.
An open dialogue is the key to our success because it addresses differences, difficulties and barriers, and creates co-operation

The suggested process involves:

· the creation of a planetary peace and ecological culture, i.e. a sustainable civilization
· evolution of consumption and macro economy as a result of changes in consciousness, value system , need structure, education reform and human development
· human development as a prerequisite to the development of true civilization
· an understanding of the power of the human potential, including the power of the mind to devise appropriate technologies
· the communication technology and the media.
· the integration of scientific disciplines and scientific knowledge with consciousness
· the use of innovative forms of education which recapture the essence and heart of education
· economic empowerment of the developing world by the rich countries by mobilising human development

The U.N.'s failure is that it does not represent the populations of the world but instead represents national entities alone and then grants to the biggest powers a veto right (which means that the superpowers can control the UN through the undemocratic mechanism of the Security Council). Only a more visionary UN will actually work--not one based on powers using that body to advance self-interest of nations, but one based on a shared commitment to protect the planet and its peoples and to enhacne their
opportunities to actualize their human capacities.

POLITICAL STATE OF AFFAIRS

Ten years after the Rio Earth Summit, we are still far from the prevention of a global ecological catastrophe and the creation of a solution to urgent ecological, social, economic and political problems which affect billions of people. No visible and substantial results have been achieved.

We currently live in a global political system, which has changed from the polarisation of USA vs USSR to a monopolar order completed after September 11th. The monopolar system is not sustainable by definition. The process which is known today as globalisation is a mono-polarisation. A genuine globalisation is the transformation of our globalised world to a cooperative, united, human family.

Our world faces a global threat - the danger of ecological catastrophe, which threatens equally every human being, every nation and every social group. The contradictory interests of a multitude of cultures and nations often camouflage and confuse the problems we are facing, because the information is not available through the mass-media.

The current war in Iraq will have devastating human and environmental consequences. According to military and health experts a conventional war could kill over 200,000 people, mainly civilians, and a further quarter of a million could die from famine and disease (MEDACT). If war escalates to involve chemical or nuclear weapons the death toll could even run into millions

MACRO ENVIRONMENTAL GLOBAL ISSUES

The Global ecological threat is apparent in numerous known and unknown phenomena to the extent that we are on an extinction curve, more pronounced than at any time since the extinction of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. extinction. This extinction threat is compounded by cultural and religious conflict and international political ompetiton for scarce resources such as oil and water.

Klaus Toephler, Director of the UN Environment program, Nairobi, Kenya in the United Nations Environmental Study 2002 Report states, 'the Planet is poised on a precipice, and time is running out for making tough, economic and political choices that can pull it back from disaster.' .

THE MILITARY INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX

The neo conservatism evolving out of the monopolar order unilaterally rules on arms control, environmental regulation and international criminal law,. The unchallangeable might of the military industrial complex has produced only a more righteous determination to use it. The ideology of democracy of The American Dream has become so self centred and its reputation so corrupted, that its ability to export liberal democracy either by example or by force now looks to be non-existent.

No threat is greater than the threat of nuclear war. There are still between 40,000-50,000 nuclear warheads in the world today - enough to destroy 60 times the Earth's population. In addition to India and Pakistan, 15-20 developing countries will have nuclear capability in the next 10 years.

For a fracture of arms spending, (over $1trillion dollars annually), sanitation and clean water could be supplied to all the deprived peoples of the world. Wide spread diseases could be prevented and schooling and medicine provided.

The global military complex which has emerged for the defense of nations and people has become more dangerous that the threat it should prevent. If only a fraction of the financial and scientific resources it consumes were used to prevent the potential ecological catastrophe a sustainable civilisation could be built.

THE MEDICAL SYSTEM

The domination of the pharmaceutical industry in the health system ignores nutritional, environmental, preventative and lifestyle management of illness through health promotion. Due to inequities in global health care, a child dies of avoidable disease every three seconds. The global community faces morbidity from the growth of AIDS, a resurgence of other infectious diseases such as Hepatitis, and Malaria, particularly in the developing world. The developed world is faced with cardiovascular disease, cancer and diabetes.

A GLOBAL CRISIS OF SOCIAL VALUES

When we speak of confronting "Empire," we need to identify what "Empire"means. Does it mean the U.S. Government (and its European satellites), the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the World Trade
Organization, and multinational corporations? Or is it something more than that?

In many countries, Empire has sprouted other subsidiary heads, some dangerous by products - nationalism, religious bigotry, fascism and, of course terrorism. All these march arm in arm with the project of corporate globalization. As the disparity between the rich and the poor grows, the fight to corner resources is intensifying.

The global crisis is symptomatic of the inadequacies of our social values. Ethical and moral value systems have not evolved properly to keep up the balance with our growing material needs and technological inventiveness. We are living through a civilisation crisis in which only a profound social epiphany leading to a paradigmatic shift, unlike any other in history, can save us from total self destruction.

Our basic requirement is for ecological peace and health which means a complete shift of the paradigm involving science, education and health to a complete understanding of humanity and its relationship with the cosmos.

THE GENESIS OF ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS

THE MEASURES AIMED AT PREVENTING ECOLOGICAL CATASTROPHE AND TRANSITION TO SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT, WHETHER IT BE TECHNOLOGICAL, ECONOMIC AND OR ECOLOGICAL, WILL BE DOOMED TO FAILURE UNLESS WE FREE OURSELVES FROM THE OLD SCIENTIFIC, INTELLECTUAL PARADIGM.

THE NEW PARADIGM INTEGRATING SPIRITUALITY AND SCIENCE

EINSTEIN, 50 YEARS AGO, SAID 'IF HUMANITY IS TO SURVIVE, THERE HAS TO BE A SUBSTANTIALLY NEW MANNER OF THINKING.'
In this respect, the new frontier is the new paradigm that encompasses a consciousness of oneness where all of life on Earth is connected and not separate.

Our civilization is changing rapidly. As a result, we are entering the so called post-industrial or the information society.

The computer information and technological revolution now occurring should be accompanied by new ways that actualise the global mind and vastly enhance the creative potential and access to freedom for all humanity.

What is needed, we believe, is a new science that can integrate the mind and its abilities with the whole phenomenon of human productiveness,
technology and the environment.. This paradigm should become the basis for new education systems, new information policies, and a means to building relationships between people, nations, social groups etc.

SUMMARY

The time has come for the world community to recognize that war, rather than an instrument for the elimination of terrorists and aggressors, is a crime against humanity. It is itself an act of aggression that threatens human life, and the environment on which human life vitally depends.
With this preliminary Statement "War: A Crime Against Humanity" the Club of Budapest is launching a debate on the right of national states to declare and wage war as a means of settling issues of foreign policy. Warfare must be replaced by dialogue leading to mutual understanding as a basis of multilateral cooperation in regard to relations among nations in the political as well as in the economic and the ecological spheres.

Our planet is in vast need of being healed and yet healing is currently being done on a band-aid approach without any concern to psycho-social and human relationship issues. The human species at this stage in our global society seems to have become utterly subject to its own emotional and power needs and seeks further to alienate itself even from the very Self of the human psyche.

Our plant is engulfed in overt and exploitative machination of an elite of neoconservative economic rationalists .The vision is extremely narrow and is based on a monopolar order seeking Global Hegemony. In the process we get a clash of civilisations East and West, Christian and Moslem and the World is also premised on the consumer motive brainwashed by media circuses so the the ordinary citizen can fall easily into a sea of cultivated delusion.

It is also a clash between the bureaucrats of the World and the many of us who want Peace! We need LOVE and LIGHT, and GOODWILL ! urgently!

"All that man has here in multiplicity is intrinsically One. Here all blades of grass, wood and stone, all things are One. This is the deepest depth. And thereby am I completely captivated". Meister Eckhart (1260-1327)