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Integral Politics |
| It seems that we are on the verge of civilizational conflict and collapse precipitated by competition for scarce resources and ecological friendly habitat. The very survival of life as we know it is at stake. Many institutions are failing dramatically in their ability to meet the changing life conditions. |
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A new higher order of
complexity can occur as a system becomes more disordered and chaotic.
This systemic change is evidently occurring at the moment and will
include and impact all the many political, environmental educational,
economic and spiritual institutions on the planet.
The following questions may serve as catalysts for thinking. 1 What is the nature of this crisis? How
do we redress the gaps in inequity? and How do we deal with the
various life conditions who are trapped in restrictive cultural
settings On social, environmental and health fronts,
we are confronting a critical transition. We are facing the results
of an epistemology which focuses on material and rational values,
human supremacy and competition for domination. Will this transition
be into chaos and destruction or will it be into a new paradigm
based on spiritual, ecological connectedness and co-operation? Dr C G Jung in The Undiscovered Self
said 'The psyche is endowed with dignity, which philosophically
gives it a dignity equal to a human being. Consciousness must
be granted this status of human existence and the individual,
who is only the source of consciousness, must be allowed a corresponding
significance in society. Institutions of ideology and religion
permit individuality only in so far as the individual does not
oppose their dogmas, otherwise he is condemned as a heretic and/or
eccentric". Similarly the modern state with its industrial,
military complex in the hands of a comparatively few people has
a tendency to dictate the course of society and to suppress any
full expression of individuality amongst the mass of the population.
It is a dangerous habit of our age to think only in large numbers,
mass organizations and mega deaths. In order to resolve international conflict and
understand our place in the universe, we require a renaissance
in consciousness, ethics and values and a new epistemology if
we are to sustainably survive. The largest gathering of heads of state in history was held at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio in June of 1992. In November 1992, the following statement was issued by 1,600 senior scientists:
World Scientists' Warning to Humanity signed by 1,600 senior scientists including half of all Nobel Prize Winners and representing 71 countries, 18 November 1992. Humankind has reached a state of development in which old modes of thinking and behaving threaten to destroy our planet The old modes of thinking and behaving or the
old paradigm is being forced on us to an even greater extent by
the neo-conservative Orwellian, economic rationalist regime of
Western Society. This gradual intrusive process is by its very
nature eroding creativity and freedom of expression of art and
culture. Nutritional and stress factors play an important role in the causes of the three major Global killer diseases of Cancer, Cardiovascular and Infectious disease.REF1 Over the past three decades there has been a virtual explosion in information in medical and scientific literature relating nutrition, lifestyle and depression to disease.REF1 This is why we see so many patients with their immune systems compromised by stress and depression and pharmaceutical treatment. Stress and depression in one in five people in Australia are surely signs that in terms of community, support and caring we are losing out. People are competing for survival and work rather than creating friendships and developing mature relationships and families. Unless governance becomes more participatory
and people have a real say at what they want in terms of their
dreams and how they can express themselves in terms of real values
and positive attitudes, our society will become run by a bureaucratic
elite and watched over by a very wealthy minority. We have to realize that the kind of life that we currently live is not conducive to happiness, health and wellness when we are surrounded by a world full of conflict and wars. We are in a global crisis in terms of population, health and environmental degradation. We live in a disenfranchised world and communities with massive health problems Within this society there is tremendous emphasis on wealth and consumerism where the emphasis is on economics which is utterly unconcerned about the wellbeing of the individual . Economics is only concerned about the rationale for the accumulation of wealth no matter what the consequences for the people or environment. When people feel uncared for the result is illness. Economic rationalism is an expression of how we are losing our sense of community and connection with all of life. In general there has to be a massive change in consciousness if we are to survive. Consciousness is also the key word when it comes to taking responsibility for healing one self and healing the planet. It is an indictment on the ruling hegemony of the world, politicians and presidents, governments and CEOs of large organizations that they allow and even condone conflict within their own politicking as well as between rivals and have no knowledge of the significance of the social determinants of well being and health.REF3 It seems that the military industrial complex, the multiplying wars, the pollution of our rivers and seas and skies, the inhumanity of man against man and global inequity and poverty are having tremendous deleterious effects on the state of the world creating an eroded planet and a dis-eased Humanity. If we do not address the basic social and environment and nutritional determinants of health we are only going to further inflame our present global crisis to the extent of creating an increasing spiraling of global disease and stress. Of course the stress, anxiety and depression can manifest itself in the way nations respond to each other and the way they are not able to manage conflict resolution or look at things in a calm long term view. The minds of people who are leaders in the Global community should be able to see things wisely and with compassion, However it seems that they are experiencing mental processes which can only create dissonance and poor decision making. It is therefore time that we begin to bring healing into the context of society on a global and political level if we are to create a more sustainable and happy humanity. 2 Are the religious traditions practiced by the vast majority of human kind in their current forms able to recognize the change in the dramatic nature of life conditions we are in? and Are they in a condition to be ready, able and willing to respond to them? Religion plays an enormous role in people's lives. Nations rise and fall on the beliefs and value systems that they cultivate. Faith plays an enormous part in people's lives. In the renaissance period in Western society we saw ourselves as being the centre of the universe and the cultivation of the self exploded in a tremendous variety of creative art, literature and new technologies. Most of the world's religions originated at a time when the population of the planet was much less than it is now. Only in the 1850s did the world population reach one billion, Before that time our countries and peoples were separated by great distances, insulated from each other by vast areas of land and sea. In those terrains ,systems of culture and belief developed dependant upon value systems and ways of making sense and creating meaning in a hostile environment. With the beginning of agricultural settlements, 10,000BC a more ordered tribes, societies and civilizations began to develop with the emphasis on nationalism and overriding religions which galvanized the faith and values of the participants. In China we see the rise of Confucianism and the Tao. In India we see the rise of Brahmanism and the Vedas followed by Buddhism. Within the context of all the religions which often were subject to the power needs of the ruling elite or aristocracy there was always an underlying esoteric strand which expressed human kind`s inextricable relationship with society and the land on a non local level. It has even been postulated that Neanderthal human was very psychic, an expert in the field of non local communication. Certainly Shamanism is one of the oldest spiritual traditions in the world. With the rise of Homosapiens, 50,,000-100,000 years ago, the enhanced size of the neo cortex gave rise to a complicated often linear and logical way of thinking which went against the earlier more superstitious cause and effect process. Of course it took time for the scientific mind to become predominant and now in this day and age science is the pervading religion. This is to such an extent that the latest headlines in Time Magazine ask the question, Is God Dead? And this is the problem we face, Can the Monotheistic religions and hierarchical Eastern religions survive or even aid our survival in time where the whole of humanity is interlinked and globalized to the extent that in a very tangible frame of reference, the individual psyche is in the collective psyche just as much as the collective psyche is in the individual psyche. The old religions were there to help us survive as tribes and clans and to create values and coherence within the social framework of the community. The religions were often expressed in terms of patriarchy or matriarchy with a prevailing notion of gods and goddesses being superior beings that were empowered to control the lives of the participants. This of course was important to enhance the power of rulers of countries and nations. The essence of privilege seems to be the disempowerment of the masses through the subtle manipulation of infantile desires. We have now reached a stage in the history of humanity where a new science has appeared which is called quantum mechanics. It shows that the whole universe is in fact a plenum of connectedness and relationship and that the universe itself exists on information and is a self referential biological system. This is certainly not a personified god but represents a gigantic domain shift in thinking and being away from the traditional religious format. It is therefore conceivable that we should be looking at the nature of our relationships based on understanding and expressing and embracing the sanctity of all of life and realizing that we are all connected and what happens to a poverty stricken person and war ravaged person in a developing world has an immediate effect on the privileged, wealthy people in the developed world. This new religion is hardly a religion but is an expression of the hidden potentials within all of humanity and all of life. It is an integral phenomena of relationship with the living universe which sees a commonality to esoteric traditions found in all religions. This new religion needs to have an uplifting vision of inclusiveness, respect for science and reason, compassion, generosity, love hope and humility. It stands for the esoteric and the hidden expressed and externalized as a vehicle for new ways of looking at things, a commitment to cooperative ways of living, a philosophy of oneness, where war as a way of resolving conflict is seen as archaic and anathema to the human condition. 3 What are the capacities and democratic
responses that will be required in order that human beings meet
these new life conditions? What is a practical response? The current system is not working. Every day
we hear news of the effects of climate change and more horrors
in continuing wars and threat of nuclear war The official announcement of the latest move
is : We need a basic change in culture and in our
relationship with all human beings and also with all of life.
This requires an entire philosophical revolution. This is a cause
that people need to fight for in terms of a non violent peace
response from the very heart of humanity. Such a response requires us to think peace,
act peace and be peace. And it also requires many leaders in many
fields to come together to discuss the new paradigm .Such people
would include representatives of non governmental organization,
citizens groups, politicians, and leaders in industry and economics.
We need to deal with war, violence and inequity and the silent
Armageddon that we are up against which is nature herself in terms
of climate change, and geological catastrophe ..Are we as a species
a cancer on the planet or will we in fact as an activist group,
enhance the immune system of the planet that we survive in new
sustainable and creative ways? This situation requires the ordinary person
to speak out as it is obvious that politicians are much more concerned
with short term gains and personal power rather than with the
overall health and wellness of human kind in general. If we do not address the basic social and environment
and nutritional determinants of health we are only going to further
inflame our present global crisis to the extent of creating an
increasing spiraling of global disease and stress. It is therefore time that we begin to bring healing into the context of society on a global and political level if we are to create a more sustainable and happy humanity The Centre For Change an Australian based non profit organisation proposes the establishment of a Round table of Leading Australians leading to the establishment of a Department for Peace in GovernmentREF4 devoted to new ways of thinking, developing a culture of Healing in Society, and facilitating nonviolent solutions to domestic and international conflict We need to creating a better sustainable world through reappraisal of what it means to be a human being in harmony with the environment. The new creativity occurring on the planet comes from social intelligence and is engendered by the internet. This is associated with what appears to be a grassroots movement in spirituality which is not aligned with conventional institutions or religions. In the States there are about 50,000,000 cultural creatives. This increase in knowledge and exchange of knowledge would appear to be enabling people to question old dogma and institutions which make up the old paradigm. The old paradigm is of course linear, logical, reductive and based on a distinction between the external observable environment and subjective experience. However, the new way of looking at things has been developing since the theory of Relativity in the early 20th Century. So many technological devices now run on quantum principles and the basis of physics is no longer Newtonian physics but Quantum Mechanics in which the observer influences the observed. What we are seeing here is an understanding that there is a spiritual interiority, a basic noesis or inner wisdom which is now being tapped particularly by those people in the developed world who are not desperately surviving from hand to mouth as half the world is. The significant evolutionary context of the crisis is rarely articulated or even understood. WE are basically at the point of singularity where humanity holds the balance of power and evolution of biodiversity on the planet. Obviously for some the next great evolutionary leap is in understanding the nature of human consciousness and how this relates to our relationship with the planet and the biodiversity upon it. We need to look at this new complex adaptive system. Don Beck has called these people the Integrals, forged in the crucibles of conflict and despair and tempered by the realities that human nature consists of many different alloys. What he means is that we can't change people and we have to understand their position and where they are coming from, in fact, we need to understand the nature of their lives. We then set an example through dialogue and by ourselves being the change. In this respect no matter what culture, belief system, race or political persuasion we come from we must be the change, because it is only the human being who can make the change. Integral people are able to understand the nuances
of different peoples` experiences and at the same as well as being
warm hearted are able to be pragmatic and create viable solutions
for so called insurmountable problems. REF 1 Australia. Health targets
and implementation (Health for All) Committee. Health for all
Australians: Introducing the Report of the Health Targets and
implementation (Health for All) Committee. Canberra: AGPS, 1988;
2-4. The health of an individual in society is tied up and inextricably related to, lifestyle change, reduction of stress and the fundamental conditions for resources and health including peace, shelter, education, food, income, a stable eco-system, sustainable resources, social justice and equity. (International Conference of Health Promotion, Ottawa 1986). REF 2 Sir Michael Marmot is Professor of Epidemiology and Public Health and Director of the International Centre for Health and Society at University College London, as well as Adjunct Professor of Health and Social Behaviour at the Harvard School of Public Health Sir Michael Marmot has said that even in the most affluent countries people who are less well off have substantially shorter life expectancies than the rich. Professor Marmot for the World Health Organization defined ten social determinants of health for the World Health Organization. The details are given below. What is significant from these determinants is that stress harms health and people become vulnerable to a wide range of major conditions including, cardiovascular disease, infections and diabetes. It has also been shown that social exclusion creates illness and morbidity. The message is that when people feel loved and are in jobs that they relate to and feel happy with and are in communities that are supporting they are likely to live longer and fulfilling lives. Whereas exclusion within communities and work and unemployment and lack of social support creates a wide range of diseases that we see nowadays in our society including depression, cancer, cardiovascular disease and premature death. The Ten Social Determinants of Health are:
REF 3 Alliance for a New Humanity
- http://www.anhglobal.org/ World Citizens Groups SIMPOL Alternative press Democracy Now - http://www.democracynow.org/ Buddhism Nichiren Shoshu Overseas department
official web site See also LINKS. REF 4 Peace There is no single definition of "peace" which enjoys wide support. This is not, of course, an argument against establishing a Ministry for Peace. All governments have Ministries of Health and yet medical practitioners have different perceptions of what constitutes "health". Ironically, it is easier to identify what constitutes "war" and "illness". Indeed, there is a need for peace - in the current human rights fashion - to be given an "equal opportunity". All governments devote attention to, for example, debating their "defence capacities" - but there is very little attention (let alone equal attention) to debating "peace capacities". Non-discrimination dictates Equal Opportunity
An Australian Campaign
for a Ministry for Peace - A world peace initiative
'We cannot solve the problems of the world with mechanisms,
but only by changing the hearts and minds of men and speaking
courageously'. The highest wisdom has but
one science - the science of the whole - the science explaining
the whole creation and man's place in it. --------------------------------------------------------------- Dr Michael Ellis Dr Michael Ellis is a medical doctor, futurist,
and peace worker, living in Melbourne. Dr Ellis is Founder of The Medical Renaissance
Group. The aim of The Medical Renaissance Group is to create
a new kind of medicine which integrates mind, body and spirit,
society and the environment. He is also Founder of the Centre for Change
which aims to create an openness of dialogue for men and women
of goodwill, in order that we can find a way out of the current
global crisis. It also aims to contribute to the creation
of a planetary peace culture, which affirms our deepest respect
for all life which makes up the biosphere. Dr Ellis has higher qualifications in general
medicine, paediatrics and nutritional medicine. He has a special interest in mind-body medicine and in optimizing the physical, mental and emotional health of the individual. He is a Research Fellow at the Graduate School of Integrative Medicine, Swinburne University, where he is particularly interested in brain longevity and the prevention of dementia. --------------------------------------------------------------- |