Political Affairs of Whole World

 

China is not the world’s other superpower


In February 1972, Richard Nixon went to China and restored Sino-U.S. relations that had been broken for 23 years. During that visit, Nixon held a series of critical meetings with China’s premier, Zhou Enlai, and they discussed the broad strategic framework that would guide bilateral relations. President Obama’s meetings with President Xi Jinping this weekend have the potential to be a similarly historic summit — but with an important caveat.
China has always played a weak hand brilliantly. When Mao Zedong and Zhou met with Nixon and Henry Kissinger, China was in the midst of economic, political and cultural chaos. Its per capita gross domestic product had fallen below that of Uganda and Sierra Leone. Yet Beijing negotiated as if from commanding heights. Today, it has tremendous assets — but it is not the world’s other superpower, and we should not treat it as such.
The United States has been accused of having a confused, contradictory foreign policy, as each administration reverses its predecessor. This is often a mischaracterization, never more so than with China policy. Since Nixon and Kissinger opened the door, U.S. foreign policy toward China has been remarkably consistent over 40 years and eight presidents. Washington has sought to integrate China into the world, economically and politically. This policy has been good for the United States, good for the world and extremely good for China.
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But many of the forces that pushed the two countries together are waning. For the first two decades of relations, Washington had strategic reasons to align with Beijing and shift the balance of power against the Soviet Union. While China was in its early years of development, it desperately needed access to U.S. capital, technology and political assistance to expand its economy. Today, China is much stronger and is acting in ways — from cyberattacks to its policies in Africa — that are counter to U.S. interests and values. For its part, Washington must respond to the realities of Asia, where its historic allies are nervous about China’s rise.
That’s why the meetings between Obama and Xi are important. Both countries need to take a clear-eyed look at the relationship and find a new path that could define a cooperative framework for the future, as Nixon and Zhou did in 1972. Both sides should seek to create a broad atmosphere of trust rather than to work through a “to-do” list.
Some Americans want to see these meetings as a “G-2” alliance of sorts between the world’s largest economies. That would not serve U.S. interests nor those of broader global stability and integration.
China is the world’s second-largest economy and, because of its size, will one day become the largest. (On a per-capita basis, it is a middle-income country, and it might never surpass the United States in that regard.) But power is defined along many dimensions, and by most political, military, strategic and cultural measures, China is a great but not global power. For now, it lacks the intellectual ambition to set the global agenda.
The scholar David Shambaugh, who has always been well-disposed toward China, put it this way in a recent book: “China is, in essence, a very narrow-minded, self-interested, realist state, seeking only to maximize its own national interests and power. It cares little for global governance and enforcing global standards of behavior (except its much-vaunted doctrine of noninterference in the internal affairs of countries). Its economic policies are mercantilist and its diplomacy is passive. China is also a lonely strategic power, with no allies and experiencing distrust and strained relationships with much of the world.”

 

 

 

MIRSII

 

 

Manifesto of the Communist Party

A spectre is haunting Europe — the spectre of communism. All the powers of old Europe have entered into a holy alliance to exorcise this spectre: Pope and Tsar, Metternich and Guizot, French Radicals and German police-spies.
Where is the party in opposition that has not been decried as communistic by its opponents in power? Where is the opposition that has not hurled back the branding reproach of communism, against the more advanced opposition parties, as well as against its reactionary adversaries?
Two things result from this fact:
I. Communism is already acknowledged by all European powers to be itself a power.
II. It is high time that Communists should openly, in the face of the whole world, publish their views, their aims, their tendencies, and meet this nursery tale of the Spectre of Communism with a manifesto of the party itself.
To this end, Communists of various nationalities have assembled in London and sketched the following manifesto, to be published in the English, French, German, Italian, Flemish and Danish languages.

Chapter I. Bourgeois and Proletarians(1)

[German Original]
The history of all hitherto existing society(2) is the history of class struggles.
Freeman and slave, patrician and plebeian, lord and serf, guild-master(3) and journeyman, in a word, oppressor and oppressed, stood in constant opposition to one another, carried on an uninterrupted, now hidden, now open fight, a fight that each time ended, either in a revolutionary reconstitution of society at large, or in the common ruin of the contending classes.
In the earlier epochs of history, we find almost everywhere a complicated arrangement of society into various orders, a manifold gradation of social rank. In ancient Rome we have patricians, knights, plebeians, slaves; in the Middle Ages, feudal lords, vassals, guild-masters, journeymen, apprentices, serfs; in almost all of these classes, again, subordinate gradations.
The modern bourgeois society that has sprouted from the ruins of feudal society has not done away with class antagonisms. It has but established new classes, new conditions of oppression, new forms of struggle in place of the old ones.
Our epoch, the epoch of the bourgeoisie, possesses, however, this distinct feature: it has simplified class antagonisms. Society as a whole is more and more splitting up into two great hostile camps, into two great classes directly facing each other — Bourgeoisie and Proletariat.
From the serfs of the Middle Ages sprang the chartered burghers of the earliest towns. From these burgesses the first elements of the bourgeoisie were developed.
The discovery of America, the rounding of the Cape, opened up fresh ground for the rising bourgeoisie. The East-Indian and Chinese markets, the colonisation of America, trade with the colonies, the increase in the means of exchange and in commodities generally, gave to commerce, to navigation, to industry, an impulse never before known, and thereby, to the revolutionary element in the tottering feudal society, a rapid development.
The feudal system of industry, in which industrial production was monopolised by closed guilds, now no longer sufficed for the growing wants of the new markets. The manufacturing system took its place. The guild-masters were pushed on one side by the manufacturing middle class; division of labour between the different corporate guilds vanished in the face of division of labour in each single workshop.
Meantime the markets kept ever growing, the demand ever rising. Even manufacturer no longer sufficed. Thereupon, steam and machinery revolutionised industrial production. The place of manufacture was taken by the giant, Modern Industry; the place of the industrial middle class by industrial millionaires, the leaders of the whole industrial armies, the modern bourgeois.
Modern industry has established the world market, for which the discovery of America paved the way. This market has given an immense development to commerce, to navigation, to communication by land. This development has, in its turn, reacted on the extension of industry; and in proportion as industry, commerce, navigation, railways extended, in the same proportion the bourgeoisie developed, increased its capital, and pushed into the background every class handed down from the Middle Ages.
We see, therefore, how the modern bourgeoisie is itself the product of a long course of development, of a series of revolutions in the modes of production and of exchange.
Each step in the development of the bourgeoisie was accompanied by a corresponding political advance of that class. An oppressed class under the sway of the feudal nobility, an armed and self-governing association in the medieval commune(4): here independent urban republic (as in Italy and Germany); there taxable “third estate” of the monarchy (as in France); afterwards, in the period of manufacturing proper, serving either the semi-feudal or the absolute monarchy as a counterpoise against the nobility, and, in fact, cornerstone of the great monarchies in general, the bourgeoisie has at last, since the establishment of Modern Industry and of the world market, conquered for itself, in the modern representative State, exclusive political sway. The executive of the modern state is but a committee for managing the common affairs of the whole bourgeoisie.
The bourgeoisie, historically, has played a most revolutionary part.
The bourgeoisie, wherever it has got the upper hand, has put an end to all feudal, patriarchal, idyllic relations. It has pitilessly torn asunder the motley feudal ties that bound man to his “natural superiors”, and has left remaining no other nexus between man and man than naked self-interest, than callous “cash payment”. It has drowned the most heavenly ecstasies of religious fervour, of chivalrous enthusiasm, of philistine sentimentalism, in the icy water of egotistical calculation. It has resolved personal worth into exchange value, and in place of the numberless indefeasible chartered freedoms, has set up that single, unconscionable freedom — Free Trade. In one word, for exploitation, veiled by religious and political illusions, it has substituted naked, shameless, direct, brutal exploitation.
The bourgeoisie has stripped of its halo every occupation hitherto honoured and looked up to with reverent awe. It has converted the physician, the lawyer, the priest, the poet, the man of science, into its paid wage labourers.
The bourgeoisie has torn away from the family its sentimental veil, and has reduced the family relation to a mere money relation.
The bourgeoisie has disclosed how it came to pass that the brutal display of vigour in the Middle Ages, which reactionaries so much admire, found its fitting complement in the most slothful indolence. It has been the first to show what man’s activity can bring about. It has accomplished wonders far surpassing Egyptian pyramids, Roman aqueducts, and Gothic cathedrals; it has conducted expeditions that put in the shade all former Exoduses of nations and crusades.
The bourgeoisie cannot exist without constantly revolutionising the instruments of production, and thereby the relations of production, and with them the whole relations of society. Conservation of the old modes of production in unaltered form, was, on the contrary, the first condition of existence for all earlier industrial classes. Constant revolutionising of production, uninterrupted disturbance of all social conditions, everlasting uncertainty and agitation distinguish the bourgeois epoch from all earlier ones. All fixed, fast-frozen relations, with their train of ancient and venerable prejudices and opinions, are swept away, all new-formed ones become antiquated before they can ossify. All that is solid melts into air, all that is holy is profaned, and man is at last compelled to face with sober senses his real conditions of life, and his relations with his kind.
The need of a constantly expanding market for its products chases the bourgeoisie over the entire surface of the globe. It must nestle everywhere, settle everywhere, establish connexions everywhere.
The bourgeoisie has through its exploitation of the world market given a cosmopolitan character to production and consumption in every country. To the great chagrin of Reactionists, it has drawn from under the feet of industry the national ground on which it stood. All old-established national industries have been destroyed or are daily being destroyed. They are dislodged by new industries, whose introduction becomes a life and death question for all civilised nations, by industries that no longer work up indigenous raw material, but raw material drawn from the remotest zones; industries whose products are consumed, not only at home, but in every quarter of the globe. In place of the old wants, satisfied by the production of the country, we find new wants, requiring for their satisfaction the products of distant lands and climes. In place of the old local and national seclusion and self-sufficiency, we have intercourse in every direction, universal inter-dependence of nations. And as in material, so also in intellectual production. The intellectual creations of individual nations become common property. National one-sidedness and narrow-mindedness become more and more impossible, and from the numerous national and local literatures, there arises a world literature.
The bourgeoisie, by the rapid improvement of all instruments of production, by the immensely facilitated means of communication, draws all, even the most barbarian, nations into civilisation. The cheap prices of commodities are the heavy artillery with which it batters down all Chinese walls, with which it forces the barbarians’ intensely obstinate hatred of foreigners to capitulate. It compels all nations, on pain of extinction, to adopt the bourgeois mode of production; it compels them to introduce what it calls civilisation into their midst, i.e., to become bourgeois themselves. In one word, it creates a world after its own image.
The bourgeoisie has subjected the country to the rule of the towns. It has created enormous cities, has greatly increased the urban population as compared with the rural, and has thus rescued a considerable part of the population from the idiocy of rural life. Just as it has made the country dependent on the towns, so it has made barbarian and semi-barbarian countries dependent on the civilised ones, nations of peasants on nations of bourgeois, the East on the West.
The bourgeoisie keeps more and more doing away with the scattered state of the population, of the means of production, and of property. It has agglomerated population, centralised the means of production, and has concentrated property in a few hands. The necessary consequence of this was political centralisation. Independent, or but loosely connected provinces, with separate interests, laws, governments, and systems of taxation, became lumped together into one nation, with one government, one code of laws, one national class-interest, one frontier, and one customs-tariff.
The bourgeoisie, during its rule of scarce one hundred years, has created more massive and more colossal productive forces than have all preceding generations together. Subjection of Nature’s forces to man, machinery, application of chemistry to industry and agriculture, steam-navigation, railways, electric telegraphs, clearing of whole continents for cultivation, canalisation of rivers, whole populations conjured out of the ground — what earlier century had even a presentiment that such productive forces slumbered in the lap of social labour?
We see then: the means of production and of exchange, on whose foundation the bourgeoisie built itself up, were generated in feudal society. At a certain stage in the development of these means of production and of exchange, the conditions under which feudal society produced and exchanged, the feudal organisation of agriculture and manufacturing industry, in one word, the feudal relations of property became no longer compatible with the already developed productive forces; they became so many fetters. They had to be burst asunder; they were burst asunder.
Into their place stepped free competition, accompanied by a social and political constitution adapted in it, and the economic and political sway of the bourgeois class.
A similar movement is going on before our own eyes. Modern bourgeois society, with its relations of production, of exchange and of property, a society that has conjured up such gigantic means of production and of exchange, is like the sorcerer who is no longer able to control the powers of the nether world whom he has called up by his spells. For many a decade past the history of industry and commerce is but the history of the revolt of modern productive forces against modern conditions of production, against the property relations that are the conditions for the existence of the bourgeois and of its rule. It is enough to mention the commercial crises that by their periodical return put the existence of the entire bourgeois society on its trial, each time more threateningly. In these crises, a great part not only of the existing products, but also of the previously created productive forces, are periodically destroyed. In these crises, there breaks out an epidemic that, in all earlier epochs, would have seemed an absurdity — the epidemic of over-production. Society suddenly finds itself put back into a state of momentary barbarism; it appears as if a famine, a universal war of devastation, had cut off the supply of every means of subsistence; industry and commerce seem to be destroyed; and why? Because there is too much civilisation, too much means of subsistence, too much industry, too much commerce. The productive forces at the disposal of society no longer tend to further the development of the conditions of bourgeois property; on the contrary, they have become too powerful for these conditions, by which they are fettered, and so soon as they overcome these fetters, they bring disorder into the whole of bourgeois society, endanger the existence of bourgeois property. The conditions of bourgeois society are too narrow to comprise the wealth created by them. And how does the bourgeoisie get over these crises? On the one hand by enforced destruction of a mass of productive forces; on the other, by the conquest of new markets, and by the more thorough exploitation of the old ones. That is to say, by paving the way for more extensive and more destructive crises, and by diminishing the means whereby crises are prevented.
The weapons with which the bourgeoisie felled feudalism to the ground are now turned against the bourgeoisie itself.
But not only has the bourgeoisie forged the weapons that bring death to itself; it has also called into existence the men who are to wield those weapons — the modern working class — the proletarians.
In proportion as the bourgeoisie, i.e., capital, is developed, in the same proportion is the proletariat, the modern working class, developed — a class of labourers, who live only so long as they find work, and who find work only so long as their labour increases capital. These labourers, who must sell themselves piecemeal, are a commodity, like every other article of commerce, and are consequently exposed to all the vicissitudes of competition, to all the fluctuations of the market.
Owing to the extensive use of machinery, and to the division of labour, the work of the proletarians has lost all individual character, and, consequently, all charm for the workman. He becomes an appendage of the machine, and it is only the most simple, most monotonous, and most easily acquired knack, that is required of him. Hence, the cost of production of a workman is restricted, almost entirely, to the means of subsistence that he requires for maintenance, and for the propagation of his race. But the price of a commodity, and therefore also of labour, is equal to its cost of production. In proportion, therefore, as the repulsiveness of the work increases, the wage decreases. Nay more, in proportion as the use of machinery and division of labour increases, in the same proportion the burden of toil also increases, whether by prolongation of the working hours, by the increase of the work exacted in a given time or by increased speed of machinery, etc.
Modern Industry has converted the little workshop of the patriarchal master into the great factory of the industrial capitalist. Masses of labourers, crowded into the factory, are organised like soldiers. As privates of the industrial army they are placed under the command of a perfect hierarchy of officers and sergeants. Not only are they slaves of the bourgeois class, and of the bourgeois State; they are daily and hourly enslaved by the machine, by the overlooker, and, above all, by the individual bourgeois manufacturer himself. The more openly this despotism proclaims gain to be its end and aim, the more petty, the more hateful and the more embittering it is.
The less the skill and exertion of strength implied in manual labour, in other words, the more modern industry becomes developed, the more is the labour of men superseded by that of women. Differences of age and sex have no longer any distinctive social validity for the working class. All are instruments of labour, more or less expensive to use, according to their age and sex.
No sooner is the exploitation of the labourer by the manufacturer, so far, at an end, that he receives his wages in cash, than he is set upon by the other portions of the bourgeoisie, the landlord, the shopkeeper, the pawnbroker, etc.
The lower strata of the middle class — the small tradespeople, shopkeepers, and retired tradesmen generally, the handicraftsmen and peasants — all these sink gradually into the proletariat, partly because their diminutive capital does not suffice for the scale on which Modern Industry is carried on, and is swamped in the competition with the large capitalists, partly because their specialised skill is rendered worthless by new methods of production. Thus the proletariat is recruited from all classes of the population.
The proletariat goes through various stages of development. With its birth begins its struggle with the bourgeoisie. At first the contest is carried on by individual labourers, then by the workpeople of a factory, then by the operative of one trade, in one locality, against the individual bourgeois who directly exploits them. They direct their attacks not against the bourgeois conditions of production, but against the instruments of production themselves; they destroy imported wares that compete with their labour, they smash to pieces machinery, they set factories ablaze, they seek to restore by force the vanished status of the workman of the Middle Ages.
At this stage, the labourers still form an incoherent mass scattered over the whole country, and broken up by their mutual competition. If anywhere they unite to form more compact bodies, this is not yet the consequence of their own active union, but of the union of the bourgeoisie, which class, in order to attain its own political ends, is compelled to set the whole proletariat in motion, and is moreover yet, for a time, able to do so. At this stage, therefore, the proletarians do not fight their enemies, but the enemies of their enemies, the remnants of absolute monarchy, the landowners, the non-industrial bourgeois, the petty bourgeois. Thus, the whole historical movement is concentrated in the hands of the bourgeoisie; every victory so obtained is a victory for the bourgeoisie.
But with the development of industry, the proletariat not only increases in number; it becomes concentrated in greater masses, its strength grows, and it feels that strength more. The various interests and conditions of life within the ranks of the proletariat are more and more equalised, in proportion as machinery obliterates all distinctions of labour, and nearly everywhere reduces wages to the same low level. The growing competition among the bourgeois, and the resulting commercial crises, make the wages of the workers ever more fluctuating. The increasing improvement of machinery, ever more rapidly developing, makes their livelihood more and more precarious; the collisions between individual workmen and individual bourgeois take more and more the character of collisions between two classes. Thereupon, the workers begin to form combinations (Trades’ Unions) against the bourgeois; they club together in order to keep up the rate of wages; they found permanent associations in order to make provision beforehand for these occasional revolts. Here and there, the contest breaks out into riots.
Now and then the workers are victorious, but only for a time. The real fruit of their battles lies, not in the immediate result, but in the ever expanding union of the workers. This union is helped on by the improved means of communication that are created by modern industry, and that place the workers of different localities in contact with one another. It was just this contact that was needed to centralise the numerous local struggles, all of the same character, into one national struggle between classes. But every class struggle is a political struggle. And that union, to attain which the burghers of the Middle Ages, with their miserable highways, required centuries, the modern proletarian, thanks to railways, achieve in a few years.
This organisation of the proletarians into a class, and, consequently into a political party, is continually being upset again by the competition between the workers themselves. But it ever rises up again, stronger, firmer, mightier. It compels legislative recognition of particular interests of the workers, by taking advantage of the divisions among the bourgeoisie itself. Thus, the ten-hours’ bill in England was carried.
Altogether collisions between the classes of the old society further, in many ways, the course of development of the proletariat. The bourgeoisie finds itself involved in a constant battle. At first with the aristocracy; later on, with those portions of the bourgeoisie itself, whose interests have become antagonistic to the progress of industry; at all time with the bourgeoisie of foreign countries. In all these battles, it sees itself compelled to appeal to the proletariat, to ask for help, and thus, to drag it into the political arena. The bourgeoisie itself, therefore, supplies the proletariat with its own elements of political and general education, in other words, it furnishes the proletariat with weapons for fighting the bourgeoisie.
Further, as we have already seen, entire sections of the ruling class are, by the advance of industry, precipitated into the proletariat, or are at least threatened in their conditions of existence. These also supply the proletariat with fresh elements of enlightenment and progress.
Finally, in times when the class struggle nears the decisive hour, the progress of dissolution going on within the ruling class, in fact within the whole range of old society, assumes such a violent, glaring character, that a small section of the ruling class cuts itself adrift, and joins the revolutionary class, the class that holds the future in its hands. Just as, therefore, at an earlier period, a section of the nobility went over to the bourgeoisie, so now a portion of the bourgeoisie goes over to the proletariat, and in particular, a portion of the bourgeois ideologists, who have raised themselves to the level of comprehending theoretically the historical movement as a whole.
Of all the classes that stand face to face with the bourgeoisie today, the proletariat alone is a really revolutionary class. The other classes decay and finally disappear in the face of Modern Industry; the proletariat is its special and essential product.
The lower middle class, the small manufacturer, the shopkeeper, the artisan, the peasant, all these fight against the bourgeoisie, to save from extinction their existence as fractions of the middle class. They are therefore not revolutionary, but conservative. Nay more, they are reactionary, for they try to roll back the wheel of history. If by chance, they are revolutionary, they are only so in view of their impending transfer into the proletariat; they thus defend not their present, but their future interests, they desert their own standpoint to place themselves at that of the proletariat.
The “dangerous class”, [lumpenproletariat] the social scum, that passively rotting mass thrown off by the lowest layers of the old society, may, here and there, be swept into the movement by a proletarian revolution; its conditions of life, however, prepare it far more for the part of a bribed tool of reactionary intrigue.
In the condition of the proletariat, those of old society at large are already virtually swamped. The proletarian is without property; his relation to his wife and children has no longer anything in common with the bourgeois family relations; modern industry labour, modern subjection to capital, the same in England as in France, in America as in Germany, has stripped him of every trace of national character. Law, morality, religion, are to him so many bourgeois prejudices, behind which lurk in ambush just as many bourgeois interests.
All the preceding classes that got the upper hand sought to fortify their already acquired status by subjecting society at large to their conditions of appropriation. The proletarians cannot become masters of the productive forces of society, except by abolishing their own previous mode of appropriation, and thereby also every other previous mode of appropriation. They have nothing of their own to secure and to fortify; their mission is to destroy all previous securities for, and insurances of, individual property.
All previous historical movements were movements of minorities, or in the interest of minorities. The proletarian movement is the self-conscious, independent movement of the immense majority, in the interest of the immense majority. The proletariat, the lowest stratum of our present society, cannot stir, cannot raise itself up, without the whole superincumbent strata of official society being sprung into the air.
Though not in substance, yet in form, the struggle of the proletariat with the bourgeoisie is at first a national struggle. The proletariat of each country must, of course, first of all settle matters with its own bourgeoisie.
In depicting the most general phases of the development of the proletariat, we traced the more or less veiled civil war, raging within existing society, up to the point where that war breaks out into open revolution, and where the violent overthrow of the bourgeoisie lays the foundation for the sway of the proletariat.
Hitherto, every form of society has been based, as we have already seen, on the antagonism of oppressing and oppressed classes. But in order to oppress a class, certain conditions must be assured to it under which it can, at least, continue its slavish existence. The serf, in the period of serfdom, raised himself to membership in the commune, just as the petty bourgeois, under the yoke of the feudal absolutism, managed to develop into a bourgeois. The modern labourer, on the contrary, instead of rising with the process of industry, sinks deeper and deeper below the conditions of existence of his own class. He becomes a pauper, and pauperism develops more rapidly than population and wealth. And here it becomes evident, that the bourgeoisie is unfit any longer to be the ruling class in society, and to impose its conditions of existence upon society as an over-riding law. It is unfit to rule because it is incompetent to assure an existence to its slave within his slavery, because it cannot help letting him sink into such a state, that it has to feed him, instead of being fed by him. Society can no longer live under this bourgeoisie, in other words, its existence is no longer compatible with society.
The essential conditions for the existence and for the sway of the bourgeois class is the formation and augmentation of capital; the condition for capital is wage-labour. Wage-labour rests exclusively on competition between the labourers. The advance of industry, whose involuntary promoter is the bourgeoisie, replaces the isolation of the labourers, due to competition, by the revolutionary combination, due to association. The development of Modern Industry, therefore, cuts from under its feet the very foundation on which the bourgeoisie produces and appropriates products. What the bourgeoisie therefore produces, above all, are its own grave-diggers. Its fall and the victory of the proletariat are equally inevitable.
Chapter 2: Proletarians and Communists
1. By bourgeoisie is meant the class of modern capitalists, owners of the means of social production and employers of wage labour.
By proletariat, the class of modern wage labourers who, having no means of production of their own, are reduced to selling their labour power in order to live. [Engels, 1888 English edition]
2. That is, all written history. In 1847, the pre-history of society, the social organisation existing previous to recorded history, all but unknown. Since then, August von Haxthausen (1792-1866) discovered common ownership of land in Russia, Georg Ludwig von Maurer proved it to be the social foundation from which all Teutonic races started in history, and, by and by, village communities were found to be, or to have been, the primitive form of society everywhere from India to Ireland. The inner organisation of this primitive communistic society was laid bare, in its typical form, by Lewis Henry Morgan's (1818-1861) crowning discovery of the true nature of the gens and its relation to the tribe. With the dissolution of the primeval communities, society begins to be differentiated into separate and finally antagonistic classes. I have attempted to retrace this dissolution in The Origin of the Family, Private Property, and the State, second edition, Stuttgart, 1886. [Engels, 1888 English Edition and 1890 German Edition (with the last sentence omitted)]
3. Guild-master, that is, a full member of a guild, a master within, not a head of a guild. [Engels, 1888 English Edition]
4. This was the name given their urban communities by the townsmen of Italy and France, after they had purchased or conquered their initial rights of self-government from their feudal lords. [Engels, 1890 German edition]
“Commune” was the name taken in France by the nascent towns even before they had conquered from their feudal lords and masters local self-government and political rights as the “Third Estate.” Generally speaking, for the economical development of the bourgeoisie, England is here taken as the typical country, for its political development, France. [Engels, 1888 English Edition]


The Problems of this World Today
We face today an unprecedented set of problems relating to The Environment, The Coming One World Order and the ongoing process of Spiritual Decline. We stand at the Abyss, at the steadily approaching threshold of unimaginable chaos, calamity, death and destruction. But there exists a lasting solution to these issues facing humankind. It derives from the notion of the power of ideas and an idea so powerful that it’s effect upon the World will be most profound.
This chapter is about the problems that we, together as the human race, face in present times. It concerns some of the ominous circumstances of the current age that threaten not only the well being of collective humanity but also, perhaps, the very Environmental and Ecological systems that support life on Earth as we know it today. We’ll be showing that there exists an answer and an antidote to the ills of the Planet.
So what are these most significant problems of the World? I find it useful to group these very major issues into four broad categories. We'll list them here in outline and then elaborate upon them more fully.
The first category relate to the Environmental and Ecological problems of the World. Which includes issues relating to ecological destruction, resource depletion and atmospheric change, i.e. Global warming. I also included in this category the problem of over population which exacerbates these environmental issues though this might equally well be considered as a Social and Political problem.
The second category relates to the Problems in the Social, Economic and Political Spheres of human activity. Including problems relating to the 'Coming One World Order', that is the issues relating to the ongoing integration of all humanity into a single cohesive whole. We live in a World partly characterized, unfortunately, by corruption, oppression, exploitation, conspiracy and injustice. And a world riddled with division, conflict, terrorism and mutual distrust.
The third category concerns the spiritual problems of present times. This relates to the issues surrounding the process of Secularization and the reaction of Religion in the face of the rise of Scientific Rationalism, i.e. its falling away into Secular Humanism and degeneration into Religious Fundamentalism.
The fourth and final category concerns the problems of the age relating to the realm of ideas. That is the problems and puzzles which vex Scientists, Philosophers and Theologians. At first it may seem a little incongruous to consider these more academic problems in the same discussion as some of the more apparent issues mentioned earlier i.e. the Socio-Economic, Political and Environmental problems of this World. However as we’ll later be showing, there is a fundamental relationship between the more abstract problems in this World in the realm of pure ideas and those that might be considered more concrete. That is, we’ll be discussing how ideas can and do impact on human affairs in powerful and often determining ways. Towards the latter part of this Chapter I show how ideas, and one idea especially, have the power to potential produce a lasting solution to the problems of this World.
So we shall now examine each of these problem categories in more detail..

Graph Summarizing the Problems and Time Scales of the Next 40 years and also the coming of the Technological Singularity

1./ The Environmental and Ecological problems of the times. A Planet in Peril
It is generally acknowledged that in the World today there are potentially calamitous problems relating to environmental destruction, resource depletion, global warming and over population. The natural resources of this planet, its forests, fisheries and crop lands are already being used at such a rate that is unsustainable. We are already using the planets renewable resources faster than what the planet can replenish. This trend is related to the ongoing and accelerating process of species extinction and the destruction of natural habitats such as the tropical rainforests, whole ocean ecosystems, rivers and coastal wetlands. This gradual destruction of the earths biosphere, its animal and plant species together with their complex webs of self sustenance, is certainly set to continue as human population growth and increased economic activity imposes more pressures on the planetary ecosystem. The worlds population at an estimated 7 billion people today, is projected to grow to over 10 billion people as early as 2050. This is coupled with massive growth in economic activity lead by the surging economies of China and India and further boosted by economic growth in the rest of the World as well. If the Planet is already struggling to cope with the demands placed upon it by the human race currently, when we also factor in these other considerations, then certainly we are heading for some interesting times. The United Nations Environment Programme and the World Wildlife Fund for Nature issued a joint report in 2000 that said, 'The World's seas, fresh waters, forests and croplands are being exploited at such a rate that nothing will be left by 2075'. Also food shortages and food price hikes that were experienced by the World in 2008 may be the shape of things to come.

Global Warming
Another major problem that looms on the horizon and one that probably is already upon us and exerting its effects, is the phenomenon of Global Warming. It can be argued endlessly whether Global Warming is man made or whether it's a naturally occurring phenomenon, however the empirical evidence certainly shows that Global Warming is indeed occurring. This is made manifest in the melting glaciers and polar ice caps, the increase in hurricane activity (with category 4 and 5 hurricanes, the most intense, doubling in frequency over the past 50 years), changing rainfall patterns and of course the actual increases in measured surface temperatures.
The majority verdict of the scientific community points towards the notion that Global Warming is at least partly man made and brought about through the emissions of so called green house gases such as methane and carbon dioxide, which causes the earths atmosphere to retain more heat. Also based on computer climate models, it is projected that Global Warming will continue with potentially dire consequences for vast numbers of people living on this planet. These predictions vary with some scenarios describing temperature rises of 1 or 2 degrees centigrade coupled with sea level rises of 80cm or so. Other models predict temperature rises of 3 to 5 degrees centigrade coupled with sea level rises of 7m! At the extreme end we find truly doomsday scenarios where the earths atmosphere is changed to such an extent that it becomes similar to that of the planet Venus, with surface temperatures way above the boiling point of water, that is 250 degrees celsius together with sulphuric acid rain. Though seemingly far fetched, the world renowned scientist Stephen Hawking cited this scenario as a distinct future possibility.
Even without considering these future predictions we are already being affected by climate change in a way that is detrimental to human life and well-being. It is estimated that over 27,000 died as a direct result of the 2003 freak heat wave that was experienced over Western Europe. Those that died were many the very old and the very young. The deaths that have resulted from crop failures in The Third World, brought about as an indirect consequence of climate change, may number into the millions. Hurricane Katrina which a few years ago hit the Southern coastal city of New Orleans in the USA is estimated to have killed over 1000 people.

Water Scarcity
A problem that is related to Global Warming concerns the availability of water resources to the worlds people. It has been estimated by the United Nations that due to population growth, pollution and global warming the average persons water supply will be cut by a third over the next 20 years. This would be a major inconvenience in the developed and industrialized countries but in the Third World where 90% of the water supply is used for agriculture, the consequences will be disastrous. Even in Australia which at the time of writing this, is in a drought that has lasted 6 years, is facing the ruin of large swathes of its agricultural industry. It has been said by strategists that in the future wars will be fought over water, this most essential of requirements for sustaining life. For instance, King Abdullah of Jordan has said ‘future potential conflict in our area is not over land, it is over water.' It is a certainty that the problems deriving from water scarcity will increase sharply over the years to come.

Peak Oil, Peak Gas and Peak Uranium
A serious problem looming over the horizon is that of fuel shortages due to the peaking in production and subsequent decline in output of three of the Worlds most important energy sources, that is Oil, Gas and Uranium Ore. The Worlds output of all these commodities is described by what’s known as the Hubbert Curve, which describes how the output of each of these energy resources will peak at a certain point in time but thereafter production of the commodity go into terminal decline. At the same time the World demand for the same commodity will either grow or remain constant thereby producing a supply shortfall, pushing up prices and producing a state of scarcity for that resource. This can lead to Political instability, Economic problems and even War when countries use force of arms to try to secure their energy supplies. The dates for these eventualities are around 2010 for Peak Oil, though some commentators think we have already got there. The estimates for the time of Peak Gas range from around 2020 to 2030 and that for Peak Uranium at around 2025 to 2035.
2./ The Social, Economic and Political Problems of the World, And the Coming One World Order
Without a doubt, like no time before in recorded history, the world is becoming one place. This phenomenon is variously labelled the Global Village, the process of Globalization or the Coming One World Order. It is characterized by an integration and coming together of all the people and spheres of human activity around the world through trade, economic integration, political union and cultural exchange. This process of the coming together of humanity is facilitated by modern technologies such as the Internet, the Jumbo Jet and the other facets of the world logistical transport and communication system, which is gradually making into a single entity the entire human race.
However this coming togetherness of humanity is accompanied by a host of difficulties and seemingly intractable problems that derive partly from cultural, ideological and religious differences, but also from the perceived injustices of this world, its iniquity and the exploitative nature of some international relationships. Though humanity is coming together, we still live in a world of ideological and religious differences, mutual distrust and enmity. A world of racial and ethnic disharmony and one characterized by massive disparities in wealth and availability or access to the basic resources needed to sustain human life. These are the roots that give rise to some of the problems of the Coming One World Order.
This second problem category relating to the Coming One World Order really concerns all the problems of this World relating to issues of Political, Economic and Social organization and behaviour. This problem category would include problems arising from social divisions, either racial, religious or national etc. but also economic issues to with trade disputes, labour exploitation and Wealth or income disparity. Then are general problems relating to tyranny, oppression, social injustice and inequality. It is the case that the coming One World Order or Global Village can be accurately described as a Social, Economic and Political entity; naturally therefore it would seem sensible to group these Social, Economic and Political problems of the World under a single category. We’ll explore some specific problems which exist in this category.
Global Terrorism
We are faced with the problem of Global Terrorism which has been called the shadow of the process of Globalization. As the world is becoming one place, so it is that the effects of terrorism have global effects. Also it may be understood that the causes of this global terrorism are likewise global in nature, with disaffected individuals and groups caught up in ideologies of global scope and participating in causes that transcend international and even inter-continental barriers. We see this particularly in the Muslim world, where issues in Palestine, Bosnia, Afghanistan or Iraq can mobilize people on the other side of the world to want to make interventions. This process is followed by international powers such as the United States, which in order to protect its people and economic interests, is compelled to make its own global interventions to counteract perceived threats and in the process perhaps exacerbating the problems these measures were designed to remedy in the first place.
Globalization and Problems of Economic Integration
A major facet of globalization is the massive increases in international trade that we have witnessed in recent years. This process has been encouraged by institutions such as the World Trade Organization, boosted by regional trading blocks such as the European Union, the North American Free Trade Agreement, the ASEAN (Association of South East Asian Nations) and further facilitated by trade agreements between individual nations. The benefits of international trade are many, i.e. competition, lower consumer prices, increased consumer choice and the increased availability of goods and services.
So generally speaking international free trade is a good thing. There are however problems which accompany this increased global flow of goods, services, ideas and people. Even though international trade benefits the vast majority of people in this world overall, there will at the same time be winners and losers. In a globally competitive market place some firms, those that have the most attractive products and services, will see an increase in business. While those with products and services that are less appealing to the consumer will see decreases in demand for their output and will be forced to improve, diversify or else go bust. Also the same is true for entire nations. Countries which have established entire industries in for example coal mining, car manufacture or certain types of agricultural produce, may find these sectors of their economies under threat in a world market. Other nations may enjoy competitive advantages in these industries which allow them to produce more efficiently, more cheaply or to a higher standard, thus enabling them to win out in the market place. This competitive pressure is often cited as one of the benefits as firms and corporations focus their efforts on making their products and services better. The winner of this process is the consumer on a local, national and international level. However there are limits to how far individual firms and certain industries of specific nations are able to compete and so inevitably firms will go bankrupt and countries may have entire industrial sectors decimated. This results in painful transitions and people losing their jobs. Sometimes the effects can be severe causing mass unemployment and serious social upheaval.
One of the direct results of globalization and the international market is the flow of labour around the world as people migrate to find work. This mass migration of people is made up of those people going to countries where their skills are most in demand and those people who are escaping poverty and countries with high unemployment. This is accompanied by problems of labour exploitation and difficulties arising from the integration of guest workers into foreign lands. Also friction can emerge from the competition for jobs and resources such as housing, between local populations and the migrants.
There are many other problems relating to the planet wide economic integration, but it is beyond the scope of this article to go into all of these in any depth. A brief list of these issues might include things like unfair trade practices, tariffs, quotas and government subsidies.
The Global Conspiracy and Potential World Tyranny
We'll now talk about another major issue in relation to the Coming One World Order. It concerns the distinct possibility that all of humanity is being brought together into an all encompassing and planet wide tyranny. This is a serious problem if the entire human race is brought under the control of a tiny self serving minority at the expense of individual freedoms and the greater good of the majority. The modern economic system is one where the rich tend to become even richer and further consolidate and extend their economic power through the exercising of political power. In a world where political power is increasingly self serving, gained through financial power and used for financial gain, then certainly it is true that economic power also buys political power. It would appear that we are perhaps heading towards a corrupt One world tyranny, headed by a dynastic elite, who may one day have total control over the Political, Judicial, Economic, Law enforcement and Military institutions of the entire World; perhaps even key Religious ones as well.
This may seem the stuff of conspiracy theories but without a doubt economic and political advantage is gained through unscrupulous and devious means which have to be kept secret from the wider public. For example, through the creation of wars accompanied by lucrative sale of arms and/or financing of these conflicts; through the over throw of foreign governments followed by the installation of 'friendly' regimes and also through the formation of secret societies and cabals which serve the interests of its members at the expense of non members and the common good. However it is true that a part of the human makeup is a certain fixation on power, influence and status. And certainly humans spend a lot of time, energy and resources to come up with ways and means to gain power over other humans. So if we take this human tendency, extrapolate it to a global scale and take it to its logical conclusion, then it is not unreasonable to conjecture that there are those who, if given the opportunity, would like to rule the World. Also given that the World is gradually becoming one economically and politically integrated unit, together with all the ingenious, corrupt and conspiratorial means through which power may be obtained, extended and consolidated; then an evil self serving world tyranny is definitely a distinct possibility.
3./ The Problems of this World relating to Belief and Ideology: The Universal Decline of True Religion and the Rise of replacement Doctrines
We turn now to consider some of the difficulties of this World relating to matters of Religion and Spirituality. Of course all through history there have always been problems associated with Religion. What makes the present situation unique are the unprecedented conditions which have come about through the equally unprecedented rise of Scientific Rationalism over the past few centuries, accompanied by emergence of the modern technological age. Taken together with the Coming One World Order and the environmental/ecological problems of this World, then these are circumstances in which the religions of this world find themselves. So we'll be talking about the spiritual problems that have arisen from this overall context.
Secularization
The rise of Scientific Rationalism and the emergence of the modern technological age have in turn instigated a process that sociologists call Secularization. This is characterized by a falling away from Religion and an increased tendency towards Atheism and Agnosticism, i.e. an increase in the number of people who no longer believe in God or else don't know one way or the other. So in various parts of the World we have seen a decrease in the numbers of people who would consider themselves religious in any sense of the word. The rise of Scientific Rationalism can be seen as a challenge to traditionally held assumptions about life, the world, existence and even morality. This has lead to a state of affairs sometimes referred to as the Postmodern Condition, which is characterized by a sense of uncertainty, nihilism or meaninglessness, doubt in traditional values and also a certain feeling of malaise. The age of reason and the advancement of science has led to the abandonment of many of the beliefs and tacit assumptions that made life meaningful and gave a sense of purpose to a lot of people. Some of these beliefs, especially in the religious context, also gave people a sense of security and a certain comfort. At the same time, while these existing beliefs became discarded, nothing satisfactory came along to replace them. Science gave us a cold and sterile clockwork universe and the loving creator God was replaced by Darwin's Theory of Evolution working through the process of Natural Selection with nature all red in tooth and claw. Ourselves the chance outcome of a long series of cumulative changes brought about through random mutations in our genetic material. The scientific world view is one devoid of purpose, ultimate meaning and one with no room for traditional ideas about God.

Spiritual Longing and the 'God shaped hole'
It was the French Existentialist philosopher Sartre who coined the term 'The God shaped hole'. It describes an essential aspect of our being that demands some sort of relationship and understanding of the eternal and transcendent. It cannot be satisfied with worldly success, material possessions or Scientific Rationalism. When this need isn't met then we are left with a feeling of incompleteness, unease and lack of fulfillment. Religion was famously described as the 'opium of the people' by Karl Marx, but it is also perhaps a very necessary opium or balm for easing some of the pain, anxiety and suffering of the human condition.
In recent times, study after study has demonstrated the power that Religion has to help people cope with stress and adversity. Many psychiatrists and psychologists have come to accept that having a religious belief is one of the best predictors for people making a full recovery from clinical depression. Furthermore it is recognized that being actively involved in a religious faith is also an important factor that helps prevent people from becoming clinically depressed in the first place. The celebrated psycho-analyst Carl Gustav Jung once said that the primary cause at the heart of many of his patients' mental problems was a lack of a religious outlook. The World Health Organization estimated a few years back that in a world of 6.7 billion people, perhaps 1.2 billion or so were suffering from a diagnosable psychiatric problem at any one time. Most of these will be stress and anxiety related. Could this be partly symptomatic of the process of Secularization and the malaise of the post modern condition? In years to come when the people of the world are faced with the accumulating problems of this planet then surely the need to fill the 'God shaped hole' will become more and more apparent.
The Scientific World View and Problems with it
Along with the process of Secularization described earlier there are problems associated with the Scientific World View that is closely associated with it and which has largely put in motion the process of Secularization in the first place. So we now discuss certain beliefs that have become strongly associated with the Scientific World View but which are not necessarily implied by Science. For instance most Scientists take the position that the Universe is purposeless and devoid of ultimate meaning. Apart from leading to Existential Nihilism which is the view that life as without meaning, purpose, or intrinsic value. Worse still it can give rise to Moral Nihilism where morality is seen as mere human construct and therefore completely arbitrary and mutable. But when these commonly held views are coupled with a narrow and limited perspective on the Theory of Evolution that is dominant in the World today then this can generate or exacerbate problems in the Social, Economic and Political realms of human existence. This dominant view of Evolution sees the emergence of life and its gradual transitioning over time into new forms and species, as a complete random and purposeless process; and where the only dynamic at work is the ‘Survival of the Fittest’ and the idea of ‘Selfish Genes’.
It can easily be shown how this misguided, one sided way of interpreting the process of Evolution, will almost inevitably lead to a lot of adverse effects on the affairs of human beings. There is the real danger that the widespread adoption of the idea of ‘Survival of the Fittest’ and ‘Selfish Genes’ as the belief about the real nature of things, may encourage selfish behaviour and even promote conflict. The doctrine of Selfish Genes is merely a conjectured facet of the broader theory of evolution which is itself incomplete, and one which completely ignores the complementary role played by the process of cooperation and symbiosis. When the selfish genes idea and the notion of ‘The Survival of the Fittest’ is mistaken to be all there is to the process of Evolution and as immutable truths about life then some unhealthy ideas can emerge as a natural consequence.
For instance, in the field of Evolutionary Psychology, which tends to adhere to the Selfish Genes point of view, altruism has been explained as merely existing to serve the function of helping one’s own genes to survive. So the idea goes, when we feel an inclination to help somebody then this is because that other person would in a lot of circumstances, possess many of the same genes that we do and when we’re helping that person we’re also promoting our some of our own genes. So therefore altruism makes more sense if we help those who are more genetically similar to ourselves over those people who are less so. i.e. if we believe this then we should of course favour ourselves first, then members of our immediate family, then our clan and then our race in that order. Of course this is the perfect scientific rationale for selfishness, nepotism, racism and corruption.
It is informative to note that Nazis were influenced by ideas about Eugenics or ‘racial hygiene’ which derived directly from a narrow Materialistic interpretation of Evolution and Darwinism. Unless this viewpoint is balanced by evolutionary perspectives that emphasize co-operation and mutual codependency, then this one sided way of looking at things will most certainly lead to more greed, selfishness and corruption in the Social, Economic as well as Political realms.
Religious Fundamentalism
Another of the spiritual problems of the modern age I'd like to discuss now is something of an opposing response to the process of secularization brought about by the rise of Scientific Rationalism. We are talking about the rise of Religious Fundamentalism particularly in Christianity in the West and in Islam in the Middle East. If the New Age and the rise of various cults is characterized by a search for alternatives then Religious Fundamentalism may be seen as a retrenchment and an attempt to maintain the status quo, indeed to preserve the past. If the discoveries of
Science and the onset of the age of reason forced a reassessment of Religion, its ideas, institutions, rituals and beliefs; then Religious Fundamentalism is a total denial that there is anything amiss with existing assumptions and long held articles of faith. It is reaffirmation of traditional dogma and an unwillingness to question existing tenets as a resistance to the progression of modernity and the steady advancement of human understanding.
Indeed Religious Fundamentalism goes much further than merely insisting on the preservation of existing religious doctrines. In many cases Religious Fundamentalism asserts a literal reading of scripture as the absolute truth without any room for flexibility of interpretation. So for instance a Fundamentalist Christian will more often than not believe in the idea that the world was literally created in 6 days and that there was literally a Garden of Eden where lived Adam and Eve and from whom every human being alive today is descended. It is a view of religious scripture which does not recognize the usage of allegory or metaphor in the conveying spiritual and metaphysical ideas, and certainly not in the respective texts of the Fundamentalists i.e. Bible, Koran etc. This Literalism is also combined with a belief in the infallibility of canonical religious writings. The Religious Fundamentalist sees books like the Bible or Koran as the direct words of God without any recognition of human mediation and therefore unaffected by human imperfection. This Literalism, the literal interpretation of religious scripture as the infallible word of God, because of its denial of allegorical or hidden meanings, is therefore also a denial of the higher truths contained within the World's religions. Instead, put in the place of higher truths are the fantasies and fairy tales which were really invented to suggest indirectly these transcendent truths about ourselves and God. This situation is akin to an unwavering fixation on the finger instead of the object towards which the finger is pointing. In this way the Religious Fundamentalist may be ever hearing but never understanding and ever seeing but never perceiving.
It has been suggested that the rise of Religious Fundamentalism derives from a need in people for certainty in reaction to the metaphysical doubts, moral uncertainties and questions raised by the rise of Scientific Rationalism. So instead of a questioning of faith and revision of dogma in the response to scientific discoveries and a rational analysis of religion, we find in Religious Fundamentalism a strict adherence to what are believed to be certain and infallible views derived from religious scripture. Religious Fundamentalism is therefore characterized by a complete rejection of any revisionism. In fact quite the opposite, we see a desire to return to the 'Fundamentals' of a religion, those ideas, customs and moral perceptions which are deemed by the Religious Fundamentalists to form the original basis of their religion as they see it. What is more, sometimes in its extreme form, Religious Fundamentalism manifests itself as a backward retrogression, which seeks to turn back time and to practice a certain religion as it is imagined to have been practiced at around the time of the original founder. So a case in point is the fundamentalist movement in Islam called Wahabi'ism. This highly puritanical sect in its tenets and codes of behaviour, tries to recreate Islam as it was at the time of Muhammad, rejecting all innovations and later additions to the faith. The irony here is that to a large degree, the teachings of Muhammad were progressive and forward looking as it is generally the case for all the great spiritual teachers. Seen in this light Religious Fundamentalism can therefore be the very antithesis of what is one of the purposes of religion, i.e. the advancement of humankind towards perfection. Also, where true religion is characterized by tolerance, compassion and peace, all too often Religious Fundamentalism is characterized by intolerance, enmity and conflict. And so it is that Religious Fundamentalism, while giving some of its adherents a sense of certainty, purpose and reassurance, at the same time can work against the ideals of progress, harmony and integration.

The New age and Occult
With the abandonment of many of the traditional religious beliefs held by a great many of the people it is natural, considering the spiritual needs humans have, that new ideas should emerge to take their place. The past few centuries have witnessed a rapid proliferation in the number of new religious movements, sects and cults. The weakening hold that traditional religious institutions have had over people as a direct result of the challenge of Scientific Rationalism, has led to opportunities for new world views and beliefs to flourish. While from the time of the Enlightenment onwards, many have opted for an Atheistic Secular Humanist outlook, at the same time many others have rejected this world view absent of spirit and devoid of God. Instead this longing for an alternative spirituality has led to the popularity of the New Age, the Occult and other spiritual movements in the form of fringe cults. There is diversity here that is myriad and would comprise things like Theosophy, Mormonism, Scientology, Moonies, Witchcraft, Wicca, UFO cults, Satanism to Magic, Fairies and Crystals energies. While benefit may be derived by some of the adherents of these sorts of beliefs, at the same time all that glitters isn’t gold. While religion and the spiritual outlook has always involved a degree of suspension of disbelief, and an openness to unexplained mysteries taken on faith, some of the ideas making the rounds on the New Age circuit or the world of Cults, lend credence to statement by the writer G.K. Chesterton who famously said that, ‘When a man stops believing in God then he doesn’t believe in nothing, he believes in anything’.
Also, a flaw in the whole New Age enterprise is that due to its rampant commercialism and fixation on material gain, there is a tendency for the prophets of the New Age to tell people what they want to hear rather than what they need to know, in order to sell more books, workshops and merchandise. All too often New Age gurus are less interested in freeing the Spirit, rather more focused on liberating the contents of peoples wallets.
Taken together these spiritual problems of the present age, i.e the falling away from religion into Atheism, the emergence of Religious Fundamentalism and the degeneration of spirituality into certain aspects of the New Age and the world of Cults, can be seen as a general decline in World Religion. The age of reason and the rise of Secular Humanism has brought with it an age of spiritual darkness, as characterized by the process of Secularization, the rise of Religious Fundamentalism, Cults and fringe Sects; along with the superficiality, not to mention the crass commercialism of the New Age.

4./ The Problems of this World in the Realm of Pure Ideas, i.e. in Science, Theology and Philosophy
The problems contained in this fourth and final category seem a little abstract and less immediate than those of the first three. However as we will be demonstrating later in this Chapter, there is a tight relationship between the Problems of the World in the realm of pure ideas and the more apparent ones facing humankind. For there is a causal relationship between what exists in the realm of pure ideas and the other problems of the World. In that abstract ideas become formulated into Political, Social and Economic Ideologies which in turn can give rise to the corresponding Political, Social and Economic Problems of the World, and in turn the Environmental and Ecological ones.
But what are these problems in the realm of pure ideas. They are comprise the as yet unanswered questions in Science, Philosophy and Theology and some of them are also the deepest puzzles that have occupied human minds since time immemorial. Questions such as what is the meaning of Life, what is the Nature of God, the nature of Existence, the puzzle of Time, the mystery of the Beginning of the Universe and the Nature of Consciousness and the question of Epistemology or what is knowledge, etc. More recent big questions in the Realm of Pure ideas include What is the relationship of Mathematics to Physical Reality, What is the destiny of the Universe and the exact workings of the process of Evolution of life.

Interim Summary
We have just presented a survey of some of the major problems of this world today. We discussed problems that fit into four broad categories, firstly the problems relating to the environment and world ecosystem, secondly the problems concerning Social, Economic and Political matters including the coming One World Order. Thirdly we talked about some of the major Ideological Problems including the spiritual problems of the current age. In our fourth and final category we listed some of the outstanding and most major Scientific, Theological and Philosophical questions that are still waiting for an answer. We explained how what happens in this more abstract realm of pure ideas affects the formulation of Ideologies which in turn can impact on the Social, Economic, Political, Environmental and Ecological Problems of the World.
Of course it would be quite an undertaking to present an exhaustive list of the worlds problems. What we have tried to do is to describe some of those problems which are most global in scope. We could also include issues such as Nuclear Proliferation or the emergence of super viruses and their potential for causing pandemics that could kill many millions of people. Though our survey is not exhaustive, nonetheless it does cover a very significant proportion of the most pressing concerning facing humanity today.
There is a special reason why we have chosen the particular problems that we have included in our quite comprehensive, though not exhaustive, survey of the World Problems. Furthermore there is a reason why we have categorized these problems in the way that we have and also for the order in which we have presented these problems categories; i.e. from the most concrete problems relating to the Environment and Ecosystems to the more abstract ones relating issues in the human quest for knowledge and understanding. This is in order to put ourselves in a position to describe a proposed solution to all these Problems of the World deriving from and underpinned by the idea that Everyone is God and the notion that the Prophecies are Now.

The above diagram shows two forks which correspond to two possible future outcomes for the Problems of the World Today. The Left Fork shows the continuation of the currrent trajectory that we’re finding ourselves in and is a dystopian social and environmental nightmare. The Right fork is what we’d like to happen with a scenario corresponding to a satisfactory outcome to the present predicament and the solution to the Problems of this World.

The Solution to the Problems of this World
The major problems of this World are many and varied. From problems to do with the Environment and Planetary Ecosystem to those to do with Conflicts, Political Organization and Social Injustice. Also from issues relating to the process of Globalization and the coming One World Order, to those deriving from the often incompatible and sometimes contentious doctrines of some of the World’s major religions. In isolation these problems may seem at best incredibly difficult and at worst completely intractable. When the inter-locking and mutually reinforcing nature of the Problems of this World are taken into account then any overall solution to any of these main concerns of the present age may seem like an impossible dream. However, when we deeply analyse all the problems of the World and fully understand the causal relationships that exist between them, then we discover a central problem from which all the other problems ultimately derive. Once we identify this critical point and underlying vulnerability, then we can clearly see a way that all the really difficult and major problems of this World do indeed unravel into tractable ones that yield to perfectly feasible solutions. And conversely we also come to realize that without tackling this root cause of the problems of this World, then any proposal at any sort of lasting solution would be futile and doomed to failure. So where lies the ultimate solution to the problems of the World today?
The key idea being proposed here is that the root cause of the major problems of this world lies in the realm of ideas and with what people believe. In order to fix the problems of this World then it is necessary to fix the ideas that rule this World and which shape human attitudes and behaviour. Which in turn influences Social organization, Economic activity and Political policy. For it is the ideas held in peoples minds, which cause them to do what they do. In order to change the World, change how people behave, in order to change the way people behave change what they think and in order to change what people think you have to change what they believe. The only way to change what people believe is to present them with compelling and convincing new ideas. Therefore the solution to problems of this world lies in the power of the idea.
Many people are familiar with the aphorism that ‘The Pen is Mightier than the Sword’. And it’s also often true that the Sword fights on behalf of the Pen. What this means is that it is the ideas expressed by the Pen which have a power which is more effective and far reaching than the power of physical force and even whole armies. So in order to solve the problems of this World we need to evoke the power of the idea. For as Victor Hugo wrote, ‘Nothing is as powerful as an idea whose time has come.’
But of course the idea without action is impotent, just as action without the idea is often misguided. And action on its own without the idea behind it, isn’t sustained. Also the idea is more powerful than action on its own because the idea alone can inspire people to act and motivate further action. Furthermore ideas can be communicated and thereby inspiring more and more people to take action. And ideas can spread quickly, this is especially true in the Age of Information, The Age of Modern Mass Communications and the Age of the Internet.
For it is ideas that really rule this World. Ideas shape Politics, structure Economic Activity, influence Social Organization and determine Human Behaviour. So in order to solve the problems of this World you really need to evolve or replace all the bad, sometimes terrible and often outdated dominant ideas of this World, from which these problems are ultimately derived in the first place and from which they may also have their maintenance.
So the process of truly solving the problems of this world, involves a battle in the realm of ideas. If you lose this battle then all is lost. If you can win this battle then everything becomes much easier. Everything including bringing about World Peace, Saving the Environment and World Ecosystem, Prevent a Global Tyranny and creating a better more Just World.
This battle in the Realm of Ideas and the struggle to fix the problems of this World is really a battle for hearts and minds. And it’s also really a battle to change the behaviour of people of a sufficient number of people such that they become part of the solution rather than part of the problem. We said it earlier but will reiterate that, behaviour derives from thoughts, and thoughts derive from beliefs and these beliefs derive from and consist of ideas. So in order to change peoples behaviour and get them to act in ways that are conducive towards solving the problems of this world, then you need to give people powerful, exciting and relevant new ideas. It’s really ideas that change us and it’s really ideas that can transform society. By changing the ideas we believe we change what we think and we change what we are. If you change the thoughts of enough people then you can change the world.
But what sort of ideas can put this process into motion? Arguably no ideas have had more power to alter the course of human history than ideas about God and ideas about human destiny. What we have in the belief that ‘Everyone is God and the Prophecies are now’ is the ultimate truth about God and the recognition that we are at the conclusion of human destiny. So what effect may this have on this planet? How may the belief that ‘Everyone is God and the Prophecies are Now’ be the key to solving the problems of this World? We will be showing, step by step and point by point, show how all this will be so.


How does the idea that Everyone is God help to solve the Problems of the World?
How might the ancient and recurring idea that ‘Everyone is God’ be the necessary and essential key to unravelling the problems of this World? An idea that lies at the heart of all World religion and enables their unification as discussed in the Chapter 1. Also an idea that is the key to the unification of Science with Religion, as discussed in Chapter 5, and one which answers some of the deepest questions in Philosophy. An idea of Oneness and Unity that shows that we are all not merely of one flesh but also of one Soul.
At first sight it may seem quite unlikely that the metaphysical assertion that a person’s real identity is ultimately God can have any sort of bearing or impact on the major problems of the World as outlined earlier. An ancient mystical idea seems far removed from the unfolding of current events. But as we will be showing, this obscure belief is the key that unravels the Gordian knot symbolizing the intractable and interlocking problems of the World today. The reason for this is that the problems of the World may be represented using four dominoes with each domino corresponding to one of our problem categories as outlined earlier. The dominoes are arranged in a certain order where the problem categories range initially from the abstract to the progressively more concrete. In fact going from left to right, the dominoes are arranged in reverse sequence from the order in which the problem categories were first presented in this Chapter.
So the first Domino represents the Problems in this World that exist in realm of pure ideas, which will be the sort of problems which vex Scientists, Philosopher and Theologians. This may not seem as relevant or significant as some of the more obvious problems that face humanity and the planet, but as we will show, solving certain key problems in this category and toppling the first domino is the point of power which will bring down the other dominoes and solve the more apparent issues that we are facing today. Continuing our description of our four dominoes corresponding to the four problem categories, our second domino represents the problems of this World to do with Ideology and Belief, which includes the problems of Religion, Morality, Psychology and Human Behaviour. The third domino and problem category has to do with problems of Political policy, Social Organization and Economic Activity. They are the problems of this world relating to how the people of this planet conduct and organize themselves as a whole. This is a large category which includes things like War, Oppression, Over Population, Social injustice etc. The fourth and final problem category or last domino, represents the problems of this World relating to the Environment and our fragile World Ecosystem, i.e. things like Global Warming and destruction of natural habitats etc.
We have already made the assertion, which we’ll fully elaborate upon a little later, that by toppling the first domino and tackling certain key problems in the realm of pure ideas then you can instigate a chain reaction which will lead to the toppling of all the other dominoes and the solution to all the other more obvious problems of the World. But equally important is the fact that the Problem categories represented by each Domino arise from and are derived from the lower Problem category represented by the preceding domino. So for instance going the other way from top to bottom, in order to tackle the fourth problem category relating to the Environment and World Ecosystem then it is obvious that no effective solution can ever be obtained unless we address the problems of the third category represented by the preceding domino. i.e. it is obvious that the problems of the Environment and Ecology derive directly from human Political, Social and Economic activity. So it makes sense that real solutions to the Environmental and Ecological problems of this World come about through tackling the Socio Economic and Political problems that are their source. For example this could include Population control measures, encouraging energy efficiency, introducing legislation to limit pollution and to safe guard natural habitats such as rain forests,
Also with political will is so distracted with tackling Global terrorism and when so much material resource is diverted to armaments then this necessarily diverts away from efforts to save the planet. So Unless we address the problems of category three then we’ll never solve the problems of category four. Put another way it is futile to try to topple the final domino without also trying to topple the one preceding it.
Taking this line of reasoning further then we can see that we can’t solve the problems of the Third Problem Category relating to Political, Social and Economic issues without addressing the problems of Ideology and Belief. For instance we can’t find ways of reconciling the Religions of this World then we will be forever faced with Religious Conflicts and Sectarian Divide. Also, political and economic problems will often derive directly from mutually incompatible or misguided ideologies and beliefs. For instance the forms of Communism which were implemented in some countries in the latter part of the 20th century weren’t good for the people living in those countries and often not so good for the environment either. Also the fashion for a style of largely unregulated free market capitalism that emerged in the 90s and which became dominant especially in the United States and the United Kingdom, is being reconsidered in the light of seeming short comings that have recently emerged, i.e. during the 2008 banking crisis.
So therefore tackling domino three and truly solving the Worlds Political Social and Economic issues will necessarily involve tackling the issues represented by domino two. It will involve addressing the problems relating to the ideologies and beliefs which give rise to and sustain the Political, Social and Economic problems of this World in the first place.
How then can we possibly fix all the significant problems and incompatibilities relating to all the myriad Religious, Social, Political and Economic doctrines of this World? How do we topple the second domino? The answer lies in being able to topple the first domino relating to the problems existing in the realm of pure ideas. For it is ideas that become Ideologies and Beliefs which become manifested as Organized Religion or implemented as Political, Social and Economic Policy, which in turn is the source of the Environmental and Ecological problems of this World.
But then that raises the seemingly even more difficult problem of coming up with a solution to all the fundamental problems in the realm of ideas, that will enable us to topple the first domino and in so doing also topple the rest, thereby solving the problems of this World. What possible solution can there be, which will enable us to answer all the deepest philosophical questions, resolve satisfactorily all the major theological issues and doctrinal differences in Religion, together with providing solutions for some of the biggest remaining questions at the forefront of Science? Well there is an ultimate and unifying solution to all these problems, Philosophic, Theological and Scientific, and that is what this book is centrally about. For this answer does exist and the key to it is the timeless and recurring notion that a person’s real identity is God or that ‘Everyone is God’. For all humankind’s diverged lines of inquiry in Science, Religion and Philosophy have converged on the same mystery. All the separate puzzles are really different pieces of the same puzzle and all the separate mysteries are really different aspects of the same mystery. So that one answer contains all the answers and one key unlocks all the doors.


The Unification of all human understanding
The ancient metaphysical assertion of the essential Unity between a Person, the Universe and God is the foundation from which a unified Scientific, Religious and Philosophical Truth may be formulated. This unifying truth holds within it the answer to all the deepest and broadest questions in Science, Religion and Philosophy. This is what this book is about and in earlier Chapters we put forward arguments relating to how the idea the ‘Everyone is God’ is able to give us a unified truth and answer some of the biggest questions in the humankind’s quest for understanding. For example, in the Chapter entitled, ‘Everyone is God’ I showed how this idea is the common and unifying truth behind all World Religion. In the Chapter, ‘Science and Religion’ I explained how Science is able to fully accommodate the idea that Everyone is God and how the idea actually augments Science. I put forward the idea that the Mystery of Consciousness and the Mystery of God are one and the same and that this is the same as the God in the Gaps, i.e. a way of looking at the notion of God that is completely compatible with Science. In the Chapter titled ‘The Nature of Reality’ I showed how the substrate and ground of all existence is actually Consciousness and also how it may reduce to a single Unitary Consciousness, which may appropriately be called God. Then later on in the Chapter entitled, ‘The Nature of God’ I presented a Unifying Cosmology which integrates what we know from Science together with universal and ancient spiritual ideas concerning the nature of the Universe and God.
Taken together these interlocking ideas which we described, provide us with a powerful and unified view of God and the Universe. At the same time it is not a new perspective but rather an ancient and timeless one, but expressed in and using modern Scientific, Mathematical and Philosophical concepts. What we have then is a way of bridging Science, Religion and Philosophy using an ancient mystical notion that ‘Everyone is God’. And one that also is able to bring together all of World religion in the process. I believe that this gives us an all encompassing tightly inter-related set of ideas which can be presented to people in a convincing and compelling way as the truth about Existence, the Universe and God and be accepted by large numbers of people as an all encompassing and definitive answer to the greatest questions in Science, Religion, Philosopher and life in general. I believe the Scientific, Philosophical and Theological propositions being put forward in this book are fully capable of Solving the great problems in the realm of ideas, and so continuing with our dominoes metaphor, topple the first domino. In effect, what is happening is that the ultimate truth about who we are and the Nature of God, i.e. that we and everyone is God, is also the critical vulnerability, strategic apex and central point of power, which may set in motion a process which leads to the toppling of all the Dominoes and the Solution to the Problems of the World.


Solving Key Problems of this World relating to Belief and Ideology
We’ll now discuss the effect that our unified and all encompassing Cosmic perspective will have on the Problems of the World existing in the Second Category, i.e. that of Belief and Ideology. We’ll talk in turn about how our unified truth based on the idea that ‘Everyone is God’ is able to solve the problem of the fall of Religion, be an antidote to Religious Fundamentalism and also counter act a Nihilistic Scientific World View devoid of meaning or purpose where the only principle is Survival of the Fittest. So we’ll start with the Problem of reviving World Religion and how to instigate a Spiritual Revival on this Planet.
How to Restore Religion
The restoration of Religion is broken down into three separate processes. The first involves giving Atheists, Secular Humanists and Agnostics a definition of God that is relevant, correct and convincing to them in their eyes. The Second process relating to the Restoration of Religion entails revising or augmenting the beliefs of people who are already Religious. This means presenting Religious Fundamentalists and more conventionally Religious people with doctrines that are closer to those of the founders of World religion and which are compatible with Science and Reason. The Third process involves reconciling and ultimately unifying the World’s Religions. There can be no restoration of Religion until there is Peace and Unity among the different religions for one of the basic purposes of true Religion is to promote harmony between peoples of this World and to bring them together as one. We’ll tackle these problems in turn.
How to revive Religion for the Atheist, Secular Humanist and Agnostic
At first this may seem like an impossible objective. How do you make an Atheist accept a definition of God if that person doesn’t even accept that there is a God. Things will be more straightforward in the case of the Agnostic and some Secular Humanists who are more open to possibility of a future, and to them satisfactory, definition of God. In the case of the Atheist and worse still with the Militant Atheist, then the idea of reviving Religion for them may seem like an obvious contradiction in terms. However there is a way. For even though an Atheist may utterly reject the idea of a God and even reject any notion of an Ultimate or Absolute, still the Atheist will not reject the idea of his or her own Consciousness. This would be to negate their very essence. So the solution to the problem of reviving Religion for the Atheist becomes the process of explaining to them that the Mystery of Consciousness and the Mystery of God are one and the same Mystery. More than one prominent Atheist has waxed lyrically about the correctness of their stance while also expressing a profound awe for the Mystery of Consciousness. If you can solve the riddle of Consciousness for Atheists and show that it is Consciousness that the likes of Jesus, Muhammad and Buddha were going on about all along then you can show them the Truth about God . You demonstrate to them that Consciousness is not just some epiphenomena of the brain but rather the Ground and Substrate upon which the brain and the entire physical Universe has its manifest existence. I went some way to explain this in a previous Chapter called ‘The Nature of Reality’.
How to restore Religion for the Faithful and rescue it from Religious Fundamentalism
In the World today the faith of the conventionally faithful is being severely tested. While the absolute faith of the Religious Fundamentalist is focused on fantasies and fairy tales. So how do we augment the faith of the more conventionally religious while at the same time provide a remedy for the misguided beliefs of Religious Fundamentalism which is more often than not based on the literal interpretations of Scripture. The answer comes from the return of the Esoteric Inner Mysteries of Religion which contain the Core truths of Religion. It is these truths which give rise to Religion in the first place and it is this aspect of Religion which is completely compatible with Science. This was explained more at length earlier in this book in two separate Chapters called ‘Everyone is God’ and ‘Science and Religion’. By fully elucidating and revealing these formerly hidden aspects of World Religion, but also showing their compatibility and convergence with Scientific ideas, then we can present to the faithful a faith coupled with understanding. We can present to the already religious a religiosity that is substantiated by Science instead of being contradicted by it. In this way existing Religion becomes augmented and restored by returning to Religion the Inner Mysteries which was the original heart and core of World Religion anyway. Also automatically this recognition of the Inner Mysteries of Religion and their promotion necessary negates the views of the Religious Fundamentalists by restoring the real meanings behind the allegories and parables which they only know to interpret literally. Religious Fundamentalism can be viewed as a fixation on the finger that points to the truth rather than the truth itself. The finger is Religion together with Religious Scripture and the Truth is God. In the process of returning the truth of God contained in the core Inner Mysteries of Religion then we directly expose the spiritual blindness of Religious Fundamentalism and give people a much better alternative. An alternative that is compatible with Science and Reason. Also one that is closer to the original uncorrupted truth behind Religion.
How to Unify World Religion
The Reconciling of the Religions of the World with each other and their eventual Unification will be a goal with far reaching consequences. But before we show how this will come about, first we’ll discuss how it won’t happen. Religion will not become one through a process by which everyone converts to one of the existing religions, as Fundamentalist Christians, Militant Muslims and the Pope might hope. And World Religion will not be unified by someone starting a new Religion with the hope that all Jews, Christians, Muslims and Buddhists etc. will turn to the new faith. I don’t believe these scenarios will ever happen. However what is feasible and can come about is this. If we can show to Christians the original truth of Jesus, show to Muslims the original truth of Muhammad, show to Jews the original truth of Moses, show to Buddhists the original truth of Buddha etc. and then go on to show that the original truth of Jesus, Muhammad, Moses and the Buddha etc. are all really one truth and the same truth; then this I believe will be the key to the Unification of World Religion. It is really the process of emphasizing the common truths that are shared by all World Religion. These common truths were discussed earlier in the Chapter, ‘Everyone is God’, where we showed that the mystical notion that ‘Everyone is God’ is the common truth behind all World Religion; and also in the Chapter ‘The Mystery of Eternal Life’, where we showed that the belief in Reincarnation is really common to all the Worlds Religions, even though sometimes it has been made heresy and suppressed. Furthermore this process of introducing these common unifying truths to people, is made much easier when it is also demonstrated that these core truths of World Religion are completely reconciled with Science and Reason. This I made some efforts to show in the Chapters, ‘Science and Religion’, ‘The Nature of Reality’ and ‘The Nature of God’.
Addressing Nihilism and ‘Selfish Genes’
Earlier in this Book we described how certain ideas have attached themselves to the Scientific World view but are themselves not necessarily implied by Science. For instance we have the notion that the Universe is devoid of purpose and ultimate meaning. This naturally leads to a Nihilistic outlook where life is considered as meaningless and even morality is seen as arbitrary. Associated with these sorts of views are narrow interpretations of Darwin’s theory of Evolution by Natural Selection which sees life as a completely random and purposeless process where the only principle is the ‘Survival of the Fittest’ and the propagation of ‘Selfish Genes’. We also discussed earlier how these views may naturally be used to justify not only Selfishness, Nepotism, Racism and Greed but also, as history has shown, even War and Genocide.
So therefore we need to balance out this one sided and limited view of the Universe and the process of Life with one that sees the bigger picture and also incorporates Spiritual Values. This is what we presented in the chapter ‘Science and Religion’, which described a Universe that is purposeful and also showed how the process of life is meaningful. So that Evolution instead of being random and meaningless, is otherwise seen as being purposefully guided and set up to produce predefined outcomes. The evolution of the Universe is seen as an ordered process whereby parts become wholes, and which then go on to become greater wholes, until all the parts and intermediate wholes of the entire Cosmos become integrated as a one singular all encompassing whole. So that in relation to this eventual Unity, all life in the Universe has it’s meaning and purpose in being part of the process by which this emergent wholeness is recreated. This counters Nihilistic notions because it provides an Absolute, i.e. the manifest whole, from which we can derive notions of Purpose and Meaning.
The Cosmic view described in this book also provides an alternative to views on life and the process of Evolution which can only see a process of the ‘Survival of the Fittest’ and a contest between ‘Selfish Genes’ or mere ‘Meat Machines’. Instead this widely held but limited perspective is balanced out with notions of Cooperation and Symbiosis. That we exist, compete and evolve not to merely serve our ‘Selfish Genes’ but rather to serve the purpose of the Greater whole from which we derive our sustenance and very existence. In the human realm this relates to our relationships with each other, with society, with all life on Earth and with the Planet.
In the Chapter ‘The Nature of God’ I showed how everything in the Universe and all life forms emanate and owe their very being to the All Encompassing Wholeness at the end of time that is God fully manifest in the Temporal realm. And also that the very process of life and Cosmic Evolution in turn serves the purpose of reconstituting the All Encompassing Wholeness that is at the end of Time. Therefore the meaning of life is to partake of the process by which this Cosmic Wholeness or Integrated Oneness re-emerges out of a disordered and initially unpatterned Universe. Through this process of emergent complexity, parts come together to create bigger wholes, eventually leading up to the coming together of all Matter in the Universe. It is this process of Coming togetherness that is the over arching process that is happening in the Universe.
So instead of Selfishness and ‘Selfish Genes’ the true principle of the Universe is Cooperation, Symbiosis and Selfless Genes. And instead of being mere ‘Meat Machines’, we are all manifestations of the one God, made in the image of the Divine and existing to serve the higher Cosmic purpose. We are not merely here to serve our ‘Selfish Genes’, which translates as serving ourselves, our families, our clan, our race and in that order.
Therefore what we are describing in this book is a tonic for the post modern malaise that has been brought about by the rise of Scientific Rationalism. An answer to the Relativists, Nihilists, Militant Atheists and narrow minded Evolutionists, who too often in a manner similar to the Religious Fundamentalists of this World, believe that their truth is the only truth and can see no other viable alternative way of looking at things. And importantly we are not trying to undermine the Scientific method but merely negating a set of unnecessary and unhelpful assumptions that has accumulated around Science over the years and which has become closely associated with the Scientific World View. The commonly held idea of a purposeless Material Universe that came into being through an ‘accident’, where life is seen as a random and meaningless process; is destined to go the same way as the Flat Earth concept and the notion that the Sun revolves around the Earth. What will come in its place is a Cosmic view that integrates Science and Spirituality. This new perspective, by counteracting Nihilism and notions of ‘Selfish Genes’, will undermine certain problematic behaviours and Political, Economic and Social doctrines, which can derive from these misguided viewpoints and therefore contribute positively to the process of Solving the Problems of this World.

Solve the Social Economic and Politcal Issues to Sovle the Environmental and Ecological Problems of the World

Solving the Social, Economic and Political Problems of this World
Of course the Social, Economic and Political Problems of this World are myriad and varied. It may seem over simplistic and too ambitious to suggest a single solution to all the problems that could be included in these rather broad categories. However it is possible to identify root causes and see if we can address them. Also while a single specific solution may not be able to appropriately tackle all the multitude of different problems in all these realms of human activity, we can however suggest a meta-solution or a single seed solution that has the potential to stimulate in people the motivation to generate solutions that are tailored to their locales and jurisdictions. This meta-solution would be the key that puts all the specific solutions into motion. This meta-solution acts as a template and provides principles by which Social, Economic and Political life can be modelled in a way that fully incorporates spiritual or humanist notions such as Justice, Fairness, and Equality.
In order to generate this sort of master solution to the problems of this World in Social, Economic and Political realms then this really comes about through tackling the problems of this World in the realm of pure ideas and the closely associated domain of human beliefs and Ideology. We’ll be discussing why this is the case. These problems of the World in the realm of pure ideas and Ideologies comprise our first two dominoes that we described earlier. If we can satisfactorily topple the first two dominoes then we may instigate a process that inevitably leads to the toppling of the third domino represent the Social, Economic and Political problems of the World.
In what follows I’ll be discussing how it is that once we have addressed the first two problem categories satisfactorily, i.e. firstly the problems in the realm of pure ideas and secondly the problems relating to Ideology and Human Beliefs, then there are implications for the problems of this World in the Social, Economic and Political Realms. In particular, we’ll be explaining how the sorts of ideas we have been discussing earlier and in this book generally, are directly relevant to issues such as Social Justice, Social Equality, Economic Disparity and also promote certain ideals such as Meritocracy, Human Rights and Peace.
A natural property of the Unified World View, we’ve been discussing earlier, is its ability to bring people of this World together as One while at the same time being able to help in the struggle against a Global World Tyranny described in the previous chapter. We’ll now show how our Solution to the first two problems categories, concerning the Problems of the World, i.e. our Unified World View is able to address all these Social, Economic and Political issues.
In Support of Equality, Meritocracy and Justice for All
The idea that Everyone is God, which is the foundation of our Unified World View, apart from being the ultimate self affirmation, is also the ultimate statement about the sanctity and importance of human life. On this fundamental truth we can not just base a unifying metaphysical outlook that is able to bring together Science, Religion and Philosophy, as well as bringing together the World’s major Religions. The idea that Everyone is God can also be used as the foundation for moral thinking. It can also be the basis and key assumption on which we formulate our Social, Economic and Political policies.
For instance, once we accept the perennial idea that ‘Everyone is God’ then certain other ideas follow. For instance the Universal idea called the Golden rule which states that we should treat other people as we would like to be treated makes perfect sense because when we understand that we’re all God and therefore one, then there is only really ultimately one person or being. So we treat the other person as we’d like to be treated because the other person is us.
When we see the human being as also being God then the idea of Inalienable Rights, Justice for all and Social Equality become truths deriving from the truth that ultimately we are really one and the same. We start to see that everyone matters and what happens to the individual is also what is happening to Society. It reaffirms the idea that everyone is deserving of justice because injustice inflicted on anyone is also injustice inflicted on everyone.
However the idea that everyone is God doesn’t imply that every human being is the same and equal. For in our abilities and in our physical attributes obviously we are very different. However the recognition that at our core essence we are absolutely one and the same is the ultimate basis for ideas of equality and equal opportunity. While at the same time recognising that in our attributes and in our abilities we are very different. What this means is that it is in our propensity and inclination to use our various powers at our disposal, physical, intellectual or otherwise to help others and serve society that we should be ranked and whereby status is achieved. In other words Meritocracy. The idea that Everyone is God, though of unequal physical and mental endowments or attributes, goes hand in hand with and supports the idea of Meritocracy and Equal Opportunity.
The Coming World Order, Global Tyranny and Problems associated with it
All through recorded there has been an on going process at work whereby humanity has been coming together and merging. Though riddled with conflict, this process has seen humans become more and more integrated and living in harmony with one another in ever larger systems of social organization. Tribes have come together to form Kingdoms and Kingdoms have come together to make Nation States. And this process has continued to form even larger Social, Economic and Political entities where people live together in relative harmony. However this Coming Togetherness process doesn’t imply that these conglomerations of peoples will necessarily be Just, Fair, Equal or free from Tyranny and Oppression. Still we can see that if this process is taken to the planetary limit then indeed we would have a single One World Order. This all encompassing Global Social, Economic and Political entity would form the basis for a united humanity, free from conflict and existing without borders.
But there’s a catch. For we may end up with a One World Order that’s a Global and Corrupt Tyranny serving a select few. A world without borders but one full of social divisions and animosities kept in check by a vast security apparatus, one huge world wide police state. A World without war but only because all the soldiers have become policemen. A world full of racism, hatred and mistrust and a disharmonious humanity forced to integrate in a single World Society controlled from the top down by a global Elite with little sympathy for the rest of humankind. And this future state for the World may be run by a vast and corrupt Global Bureaucracy serving this Global Aristocracy but also serving itself at the expense of the oppressed and excluded multitudes. Where the entire human race has become a single unified monkey status hierarchy. The fitting together of all humankind into a global social Pyramid of rank, with a persons position, defined by your bloodline, your wealth and your connection to the system. A future world where notions such as Justice, Freedom, Meritocracy, Equality and Human Rights are mere echoes from a sentimental past.
I believe this is what we’re heading for, the way things are going on the planet right now. The trajectory of human kinds current evolution is leading to the dystopian nightmare of the much feared One World Tyranny. However there is an alternative. There is a way by which humanity can be brought together as One in a way that doesn’t resemble the above. A World without war and without borders can be created that is Just, Equal, Free from Tyranny and Corruption and one that respects the Rights and Freedom of all its inhabitants. And also one where there is reconciliation between the Religion and harmony between the different races comprising humanity.
How to create a Unified Humanity that isn’t an all embracing World Tyranny
The key to bringing about a unified humanity is through a message of Absolute Unity. A message that unifies and brings together all as One. A message that not only shows us how all Religion is One along with how all Religion, Science and Philosophy are one. But also a message which makes people realize that we are all One. And not merely of one flesh but also ultimately of One Soul and One Being. That the person, Society, the Universe and God are really one and the same. These are the natural ramifications of the Perennial idea that ‘Everyone is God’.
The full and explicit revelations of the truth that ‘Everyone is God’ is the key that puts in motion a process which will inevitably lead to the coming together of all humanity into one peaceful and harmonious World Community. But this is not a process imposed from the Top-Down by Politicians and Bureaucrats but rather a process whereby Humanity is made one from the Bottom up. This sort of unification is not achieved through Political Edicts, Invading Armies or the imposition of Ideologies. Instead this sort of bottom up unification comes about through people accepting and experiencing the truth that ‘Everyone is God’ and that we are all one. Which creates in people the desire for Oneness and a World of Trust, Love, Peace and Unity.
So this alternative process of a Unified Humanity coming into being comes about through the gradual development of Trust and Mutual Understanding, Trade and Economic Inter-dependency, Tourism and Cultural exchange. Racism replaced with the recognition that Genetic Diversity is Genetic Strength. Nationalism replaced with Globalism. Religious Bigotry, Fundamentalism and Exclusivism replaced with Universalism, the belief in One God that is the same God for all true Religion. And a World without borders naturally emerges through the encouragement of labour mobility, regulated emigration and the steady translocation of the World’s people over time. This steady process of building up a World of trust and mutual inter-dependency counteracts human kinds primitive instinct for War and mutually detrimental conflict.
This bottom up way of unifying the World does not require some Hierarchical Top Down Authority to dictate and legislate the process of unification. Which is a great thing because this would bypass and negate a great way to create a Global One World Tyranny. Also the idea that ‘Everyone is God’ is one which actively opposes tyranny of any sort. The idea that ‘Everyone is God’ is the recognition that ultimately we are all the same, so the idea of a totally dominant person perhaps of a special bloodline who is born to rule or the idea of a ruling class with the right to lead becomes anathema. Instead we replace these notions of inherent rank among persons, with notions of equality and meritocracy. No one should be in a position of importance merely through birth right but instead people should be respected and giving rank according their abilities and inclination to serve the rest of humanity. The idea of Tyranny is completely incompatible with idea that ‘Everyone is God’.
Another way that the idea that ‘Everyone is God’ opposes Tyranny and therefore World Tyranny, comes about because of the way this mystical metaphysical notion empowers people. It has been said that ‘The Truth shall set you free’. The truth also sets people free from fear. When people know in their eternal nature they’re no longer afraid of death. It is the fear of death from which all our other fears derive. So if people are not afraid then it makes it much harder for Tyrants to control and use them. Because Tyrants and Oppressors control people and wield their power primarily through the use of fear.
The Importance of Addressing Selfish Genes and other Narrow Evolutionary Ideas with respect to tackling the Social, Economic and Political Problems of this World
Earlier we discussed how there is an alternative to the existing and widely held Scientific World View of a random and purposeless Material Universe where the only principle at work is a view of Evolution that is itself random and purposeless. Arguments presented in this book show that this is only a narrow and limited view of things that isn’t necessarily implied by Scientific Reasoning at all. Just useless Philosophical baggage that attached itself to the Scientific World view and has become closely associated with it. Notions such as ‘Survival of the Fittest’ and ‘Selfish Genes’ are in turn closely associated and allied with this Materialist and Nihilistic view of the Universe.
We now discuss why it is so extremely important to address these sorts of viewpoints which are widely held, widely promoted and considered incontrovertible by many Atheists and Secular Humanists. It is because when these notions are accepted by people then they can have a powerful effect on their views and ideas about Social, Economic and Political Organization.
We have already discussed that the idea of Selfish Genes when taken as an absolute truth, can and will influence the way people think. Even Richard Dawkins himself the originator of the term has said words to the effect that you can’t base any system of morality on these sorts of narrow minded evolutionary ideas. The trouble is people do, for it is inevitable that people should behave according to how to see the World. And if they see the world in terms of Selfish Genes and Survival of the Fittest then they’ll behave according, i.e. the notion of Selfish Genes justifies Selfishness, Nepotism and Racism. Examples of Social and Political Ideologies that found their support in primitive Evolutionary ideas include, as also mentioned earlier, Nazism and Eugenics. Also both Karl Marx and his collaborator Friederich Engels, the originators of Communistic Socialism, read Darwin’s Origin of Species weeks after its first publication and congratulated themselves on how their own ideas seemed so in accord with those of Darwin. Also in Capitalist Systems, the notion of Selfish Genes may encourage the creation of Free Markets and Systems of Free Enterprise that are only driven by Selfishness, Personal Gain and Greed. This can be at the expense of the Consumer and also at the expense of the System itself.
When taken as Gospel, narrow perspectives on Evolution can be used to support notions about Social Organization such as Caste, Apartied and Class based on Race and Heredity. If Evolution and the process of Life in the Universe is seen purely as a random game involving the competition between Genes for dominance and survival, then naturally people should orientate their behaviour in order that their own Genes and those with Similar Genes should Dominate and Survive even if the expense of people with Genes that are less Similar.
If the process of life is completely reduced to a competition for survival and dominance between Selfish Genes then naturally the ultimate expression of this idea is in the formation of a Global All Ruling World Tyranny, that exists to serve and sustain the dominance, survival and power of an Elite Set of Selfish Genes, contained either within a single Bloodline i.e. Family, or perhaps within a set of exclusive and inter-breeding Bloodlines or Clans. In which case this would be the inevitable conclusion for the Human Race according to the doctrine of Selfish Genes if taken as the Justification for Social and Political Organization. If humanity as a whole comes to accept that the idea of Selfish Genes and Survival of the Fittest is the true nature of things and the whole truth, then a perpetual Global Tyranny and corrupt One World Order is what humanity deserves.
It is for these reasons that it is so important to tackle head on the limited and misguided notion of Selfish Genes and Evolution as a purposeless and random process devoid of meaning; which inevitably will, and have greatly in the past, influenced Social, Economic and Political thinking often creating big problems in these areas. In Secular Society today we witness a huge resurgence in people’s willingness to accept existing Evolutionary Theories as final and incontrovertible truths, accompanied by a viewpoint that sees the Universe as Purposeless, random and accidental. I believe in years to come we shall reap the negative effects of these beliefs in the Social, Economic and Political Spheres. That is why the establishment of the opposing idea of a Purposeful, Symbiotic and Holistic Universe based also on the idea of Cooperation and the recognition of mutual inter-dependence and the sacredness of life, is such a necessary tonic to Selfish Genes and Nihilistic perspectives which are becoming more and more prevalent today. If we can counter-act the Purposeless, Random, Meaningless view of the Universe of Selfish Genes and the Survival of the Fittest. If we can do just this with the ideas and rational spiritual outlook presented in this book, then we would have made a contribution to helping to solve the Problems of the World, together with providing a Spiritual Doctrine that is directly opposed to the formation of a Tyrannical One World Order.
So to conclude this sub-section, the real solution to the Social, Economic and Political problems of this World involves a Meta-Solution which is able to generate all the other myriad specific solutions that are required in all these disparate areas of human activity. This Meta-Solution addresses the root cause of all these problems which ultimately derive from misguided Ideologies and the incorrect beliefs that people hold. The implementation of this Meta-Solution essentially involves the revival of key spiritual and humanistic values coupled with view of life that’s Sacred and a Universe that is Purposeful. These beliefs themselves will be backed up by a new all embracing and Unifying Cosmic view which is able to solve the deepest problems in Science, Theology and Philosophy. This will itself be based on and made possible by the ancient notion that Everyone is God. This perennial idea is the key to answering all these problems in realm of pure ideas, while at the same time unifying all Religion, together with unifying Religion with Science and Philosophy.

Solving the Environmental and Ecological Problems of this World
We now come to our final and most tangible problem category, represented by our final domino, i.e. the Worlds Problems relating to the Environment and Ecosystems. To some people this is the most urgent and pressing of all the Worlds problems. The physical manifestations of the problems in this category are probably the most graphic and grand scale. There is in the World today an increasing awareness of the what’s happening to the Environment and natural habitats. For instance issues such as Global warming, the extinction of rare animals and the destruction of the tropical rain forests, are some of the issues that have become popular causes. There is a natural and spontaneous reaction in people to want to do something about these sorts of problems. But without tackling the root causes of Environmental and Ecological problems then we’ll only ever by mitigating the Symptoms rather than curing the disease itself.
The real cause of the Environmental an Ecological threat really arises from the unenlightened Economic and Political activity of Humankind. The threat of Global Warming has been brought about through the cumulative process of Wealth creation that involves ever increasing levels of Economic activity and Energy consumption. This problem has partially come about and been compounded by a lack of Political will and Social awareness or acceptance of detrimental effects that this Economic activity has in terms of Global Warming, Acid Rain, Resource depletion and Destruction of Natural Habitats. Furthermore another factor which has added to the Environmental and Ecological problems is the unchecked problem of population growth which can be seen as a Social problem influenced by Economic and Political factors. The problem of population growth, which is approaching the limits of what the planet is able to sustain, in turn adds to the Environmental and Ecology problems of the World. As inevitably extra demands are made on the Earth’s finite resources.
Another huge problem for the Environment and World Ecological system derives directly from the Political problem called War. When nations go to war then not only do people suffer but in the age of modern Warfare it is often the Environment and Natural habitats that suffer too as recent conflicts have demonstrated, for instance the long term pollution caused by the use of Defoliants such as agent Orange during the Vietnam war and the radioactive remnant of depleted Uranium munitions as used in very recent Middle East conflicts. Of course the biggest threat to the Environment and the Ecosystem of the planet is the use of Nuclear Weapons. Though the threat of all out Nuclear conflict seems to have receded since the end of the Cold War, nonetheless Nuclear weapons and Nuclear Proliferation remain as one of the greatest threats to not just the Environment but also to the very viability of life on Earth.
Having established that the ongoing and potential problems in the Environmental and Ecological sphere are in turn brought about by problems in the Social, Economic and Political domain. How then would the solutions for the problems in former category that we proposed earlier help in solving the problems of the latter. Or continuing with our dominos metaphor, why should the toppling of the first domino representing problems in the realm of pure ideas, to do with Scientific, Philosophic and Theological problems, lead to the toppling of the final domino representing the Environmental and Ecological problems of the World?
The main reason why this should be so derives from the process of Unification that we talked about earlier. We’ve discussed in this book how the idea that Everyone is God and that we are all One, is the key to Unifying Science, Religion and Philosophy and also the Unification of Religion. We also discussed earlier in this chapter how this new doctrine of Unification and integrated World view is in turn the basis for a bottom up Unification of Humanity, in a way that isn’t a World Tyranny, and we gave reasons for this. It is when we have this bringing together of all humankind into a unified World society and shared identity, together with Economic and Political integration that we can start to see how to effectively tackle the Environmental and Ecological problems of this World. For the simple fact of the matter is that without a Unification of humanity with shared goals and a shared purpose then any attempts to properly address the huge and potentially cataclysmic problems relating to the Environment and Ecosystems of the World, will necessarily be limited and probably inadequate. A humanity at war with itself, where so much money is wasted on Armaments and Defence spending, where so much Political Will is expended on tackling Global Terrorism, where unenlightened national self interest causes so much discord and political gridlock; is a humanity which will fail in solving the urgent and critical problems of this World relating to the Environment and its Ecosystems.
However if we can unify humanity into a single sphere of mutual self interest, cooperation and inter-dependence; an integrated World Society based on Spiritual and Humanistic values with shared hopes and a Unified Political, Social & Economic infrastructure in place to realize humanities common objectives. It is only then that we are in a serious position to tackle things head on and resolve the Environmental and Ecological problems of this World. What we are in effect doing is removing the main obstacle in the way of this happening, which is the conflict, disunity and mutual distrust that exists in this World. If we can solve this central problem with our doctrine of unity, that unifies Science, Religion and Philosophy and also unifies Religion, which states that humankind is not merely one flesh but also one Soul, then we would have put the conditions place to make effective and substantial all the myriad specific solutions that are required to solve the immense Environmental and Ecological problems that we’re faced with today. i.e. widespread use of renewable energy sources, energy conservation measures, laws that directly protect natural habitats, anti-pollution measures, sustainable farming methods, etc.
With a united World, much of the money and resources currently wasted on Arms and Defence spending can instead be diverted to the cause of dealing with Environmental and Ecological problems. All the Scientific and Technical talent engaged in weapons research can instead be researching and designing Technologies with more productive, life enhancing and Environmental problem solving uses. The man power and manufacturing capability that is used up in the making up and equipping of the World’s armed forces can then be used to build an economic infrastructure that is sustainable and create agencies that work towards the preservation life and the Environment and its Ecosystems, rather than towards their destruction.
Also the Political will expended on dealing with the manifestations of a divided World, i.e. wars, global terrorism, competition over scarce resources and trade disputes; can instead focus on the bigger Environmental and Ecological issues which go unresolved and insufficiently addressed because of the needless disagreement and conflicts which arise from a state of divided humanity.
So it is by tackling the third domino and creating an integrated humanity living in a united World that we will be able to finally, effectively and definitively tackle the monumental, progressive, cumulative and potentially cataclysmic Environmental and Ecological problems that we have in the World today.


The Worlds problems in relation to the Prophecies found in the Major Religions
There is a very interesting relationship that exists between the Problems of the World today and the conditions of the World described by the Prophecies found in the World’s major faith traditions. We’ll first outline what this relationship is and then go on to elaborate on it more fully a little later. The special relationship is this. It seems that there exists a certain correspondence with the general conditions of the World that are described by the Prophecies on the one hand, and the actual problems of the World on the other. In an earlier chapter called ‘The Prophecies are Now’ we described prophecies from the major Religions of the World which seem to correspond with the unique and unprecedented conditions of the World in which we live today. The suggestion we are now making is that these special unprecedented conditions of the World are also the Problems of the World. Though some of these Problems of World have always existed in one shape or form, it is their global and total nature which are described in the Prophecies. So for instance these Prophecies, as described in the earlier chapter, talk about a Planet in Peril, a Universal Decline in Religion and also Political happenings occurring on a Worldwide scale. And so it is that the Problems of the World which are described in the present chapter are similarly global and worldwide problems, certainly unprecedented in their scope.

More than this, the parallels between the Prophecies and the Problems of this World continue, because there also seems to be a certain correspondence with the final outcome that the Prophecies of World Religion describe collectively and a future scenario for the Planet where all the present major problems that we’re facing today, have been effectively fixed. That is, if the Prophecies can be interpreted to be talking about the World we live in today together with its most major and global problems, then the conclusion that the Prophecies predict can also be interpreted to describe a World in which all of these problems have been solved.
We can take this line of thinking of finding correspondences between the Prophecies and the Problems of this World further. We have spent a large part of this Chapter discussing how the idea that ‘Everyone is God’ may be the key to solving the major issues facing humanity today. We showed how the idea that, ‘Everyone is God’ may be instrumental in putting into motion a process, analogous to the successive collapse of a row of dominos, that leads to the solution to the Problems of the World. At the same time the idea that ‘Everyone is God’ can be seen to be the centre piece of the Prophecies, i.e. the notion of the Final Revelation or Apocalypse. As was explained in the chapter ‘The Prophecies are Now’, Apocalypse literally means, directly translated from the greek language, ‘the unveiling of the hidden thing’. It makes sense this final revealing and exposing of the hidden thing should be the big secret that lies at the heart of all World Religion, i.e. the idea that ‘Everyone is God’. We discussed this in the earlier chapter called ‘Everyone is God’ where we showed that this hidden truth behind all the Worlds Religions is the esoteric idea that a person’s real identity is ultimately God. So if the Apocalypse is the Revealing of the idea that ‘Everyone is God’ then therefore the Apocalypse or Unveiling is also a key factor in the ultimate realization of the Prophecies, i.e. A World where all the major problems we’re facing have been solved.
So we have a neat and interesting correspondence between the Prophecies and the Problems of this World. If the Problems of this World correspond with the descriptions of the general conditions of the World which suggest that the Prophecies are Now; and the solution to the Problems of this World correspond with the fullfilling of the Prophecies; and also that the Apocalypse corresponds with the revelation that Everyone is God; then just as the idea that Everyone is God is the key to solving the Problems of this World, as much elaborated upon in this Chapter, so correspondingly the Apocalypse or ‘unveiling of the hidden thing’, is the critical factor in the realization of the Prophecies.
We therefore have a way of framing the whole question of what are the Problems of this World and what are the Solutions to these problems in a way that sees things from a spiritual and prophetic perspective. Given this interpretation of what’s happening on the planet today, then extra advantages may be gained, especially if this viewpoint is promoted and accepted by large numbers of people. Essentially what we are trying to say is that the notion that the Prophecies are Now is really talking about the Problems of this World and their ultimate Solution. And furthermore, that the mere recognition and acceptance of this viewpoint that we are living in the times collectively predicted by the Prophecies contained in the Worlds major religions, can actually be beneficial in helping to solve the Problems of this World, along with the acceptance of the idea that ‘Everyone is God’, which was discussed earlier. We’ll now spend a while discussing why specifically the notion that ‘The Prophecies are Now’ can exert positive effects on what’s unfolding on this Planet.
How does the notion that the ‘Prophecies are Now’, help to solve the Problems of this World?
We’ll now discuss how it is that the promotion of the idea that the Prophecies are Now can be beneficial and have a positive effect upon the process of solving the problems of this World. Firstly I need to make clear that there are many different interpretations of the Prophecies contained in the World’s Religions and some of these can be quite harmful and actually contribute to the World’s problems. In an earlier chapter called ‘The Saviour is Within and Prophetic Outcome’, we described some different interpretations of the Prophecies from three of the World’s great faith traditions namely, Christianity, Judaism and Islam. We showed how there exist certain sects within these religions which adamantly believe that the Prophecies found within their respective faiths are taking about the present age and current circumstances. And furthermore we described how the particular doctrines and beliefs that have emerged in response these Prophecies have in them the potential for bringing about great harm, calamity and even a major World War. Each of these types of interpretation of the Prophecies, we described, only uses scriptural sources from a single Religion.
Instead what we are promoting in this book is an alternative unified perspective the Prophecies that incorporates ideas and scriptural sources from all the Worlds Religion taken together. We described this original and more encompassing interpretation of the Prophecies and their outcome in two earlier chapters entitled, ‘The Prophecies are Now’ and the other, also mentioned earlier, ‘The Saviour is Within and Prophetic Outcome’. We now go on to describe how the promotion of this particular perspective on the Prophecies is able to help us to solve the problems of this World. There are three ways by which this is so and they are as follow.
The Prophecies are Now as a message of Hope
Firstly this interpretation of the Prophecies, that I am promoting, is able to give reasonable people a positive message of hope in the future. For what we are proposing is a view of the Prophecies which is not supernatural but completely rational. And by the same token what we are also talking about here is a interpretation of the conclusion of the Prophecies, i.e. the Happy Ending, which is realistic and believable, not one which is supernatural and fantasy land. It is a picture of a future state for humanity of Peace, Harmony and Justice supported by the wise implementation of technology and a sustainable way of life. A society based on spiritual values where the goal of life is not money and status but rather love, knowledge and Enlightenment. In other words it’s what we get if we can fix the Problems of this World. So what we are saying is that what the Prophecies are saying is that these major human concerns and issues of the age will be fixed. This is so important to encourage people to believe that things will work out. And if you can do this by evoking the power of peoples belief in things such as prophecy then so much the better. A message of hope and a vision of a better world will be necessary when things seem hopeless and the World seems totally fallen. Also hope is so important because in order for people to act then people need hope. In order for people to hope for a better world and a solution to its problems then people need to be able to hope that the problems of the World will be solved and that things will be made better. Which takes us to the second reason our particular version of the belief that the ‘Prophecies are now’ will help to in solution to the problems of the World.
The Prophecies are Now as a Call to Action
Secondly, if hope gives people the strength to act, then our interpretation of the Prophecies also may get people to act in the first place. As well as providing a positive outlook the viewpoint of the Prophecies we are presenting also promotes positive action as well. A participational view of the Prophecies and proactive response to the belief that the ‘Prophecies are Now’, naturally emerges from and goes hand in hand with the belief that ‘Everyone is God’. For in the same way that we stop looking for God outside of ourselves, so it is that we stop looking for some outside intervention or supernatural agency to intervene and solve the problems of this World on our behalf. Instead the belief of the God within is also the recognition that we are the agents who will bring about the happy ending to the World’s problems that the Prophecies go on to foretell. We realise that the resolution of the problems of the World is in our own hands. To fully accept that you are God is to understand that you create your own reality.
So the idea that the Prophecies are now coupled with idea that Everyone is God leads to the idea that the Messiah and World Saviour, which is representative of the agency that will solve the Problems of the World, is to be found inside all of us. Therefore this interpretation of the Prophecies may serve to stimulate people to participate in the process of Solving the Worlds Problems and be a call to action.
This Version of the Prophecies are Now as a Necessary and Better Alternative to Fundamentalist Fantasies
Thirdly and lastly, related to a point made earlier, there exists in the World many interpretations which are actively harmful or may actually cause people to contribute to making the problems of this World even Worse. For instance Christian Dispensationalist doctrines where Jesus is expected to literally appear in the sky and lift the born again into a the protective bubble of the ‘Rapture’ at the time of maximal calamity. For part of this doctrine is the idea that Jesus will scorch the earth and remake it anew for the benefit of the faithful when they’re returned to the earth. These ideas, which are widely believed by Fundamentalist Christians, have caused some Fundamentalist Christians to belief that it is not necessary to try to protect the Environment and Ecological systems of the World because Jesus is going to destroy it all anyway. Also some Fundamentalist Christian even believe that Nuclear Weapons exist to allow Jesus to ‘Scorch the Earth’ and see their use , all out nuclear war, as a divine intervention that will be to their benefit. Similar harmful beliefs exist in Judaism where some Jewish Fundamentalists believe that active steps should be taken to rebuild the Temple of Soloman for the Messiah whose arrival is believed to be imminent. A process which would necessitate the destruction of the Dome on the Rock, one of the Holiest sites in Islam, thereby potentially triggering an immense amount of conflict, war and suffering. And in Islam there is the Messianic Hojjatieh Sect which is purported to believe that the coming of Muslim Messiah or the Mahdi, can be hastened by creating as much chaos on the planet as possible. These are examples of how prophecies can be interpreted in such a way as to be harmful and problem promoting.
There are also other interpretations of the prophecies, while not being actively harmful, can lead people into states of passiveness which, while though not contributing further to the Problems of the World, actually prevent people from taking a more active part in their solution. For instance there is the belief as mentioned earlier that the UFOs or Aliens will land either to save us or else to take us away to safety. Also there is a belief not uncommon in New Age and Psychedelic circles, which is not totally unlike the Christian Fundamentalist doctrine of the Rapture, where at the end of the Age, people expect to be shifted to another dimension or ‘Higher Vibrational Frequency’ and so escape from the problems of the world.
Though some of these interpretations of the Prophecies seem a little far fetched and irrational, at the same time the problem is that as things on this planet become more perilous and stressed, then it is inevitable that more and more people will want to find hope and escape in these sorts of fantastic interpretations of the Prophecies. So therefore it is necessary to give people a reasonable interpretation of the Prophecies and one that leads to people taking positive action, in order to solve the problems of this World and help to actively bring about the happy conclusion that the Prophecies talk about. So just by giving people an alternative interpretation of the Prophecies which leads people into becoming part of the Solution rather than them becoming part of problem whereby they contribute to the worsening the Worlds Problems; then in this way, a reasonable and positive interpretation of the idea that the Prophecies are Now can help to solve the problems of this World.
The Power of the Idea and the process of Mazeway Resynthesis
An interesting way to view the solution to the Worlds problems being proposed in this chapter is that of Mazeway Resynthesis. Some explanation is needed here. Essentially the solution we are suggesting is that a tight nexus of closely related ideas centred around the idea that Everyone is God and also a recognition that the Prophecies are Now, can form a powerful unifying doctrine that brings together the major Religions of the World, together with the integration of Religion with Science and Philosophy. It is this unified and all encompassing World view which when expressed as a Political Ideology that is then able to oppose some of the dominant and harmful Ideologies of this World, i.e. Various Religious Fundamentalisms, Scientific Nihilism and Selfish Genes interpretations of Evolutionary theory. This World view we are proposing is really a return of the ancient Perennial Wisdom but expressed in the concepts and language of the 21st Century. Through the adoption of a World view which is intrinsically Spiritual in its nature and orientated towards truer notions of God, then the impact on the Social, Economic and Political life, of this planet, will be dramatic. For it will help to create a One World Order that is Just, Equal, Fair and inherently opposed to the idea of Tyranny and Selfishness. In turn this will also lead to the conditions whereby the Environmental and Ecological problems of this World may effectively be tackled. This is as was discussed earlier in this Chapter. But what then is Mazeway Resynthesis?
The idea of Mazeway resynthesis derives from the work of the Anthropologist Anthony Wallace who studied the process of Cultural Revitalization and the phenomenon of Revitalization Movements. These are social movements which emerge during times of crisis when a society is in a period of turbulence and transition, i.e. when things in a society are going terribly wrong and there is a need for change and readjustment. It is during these times that Mazeway Resynthesis occurs. So what is the Mazeway?
The Mazeway, as defined by Wallace, is the total set of beliefs that a person has about herself or himself, all the social norms that the persons adheres to and also her or his views on Society, Culture, Politics and Religion. It is the person’s overall world view through which that person interprets the myriad details of life and also upon which that person bases her or his actions. In Wallace’s own words, ‘The Mazeway is nature, society, culture, personality, and body image, as seen by one person’. Therefore a Mazeway Resynthesis is what happens when a new set of ideas sweeps through a society during a time of crisis because it seems to offer answers and a solution to the problems facing that society. If the old Mazeway was seen as the source of failure, stagnation and discontent then the new or resynthesized Mazeway is seen as something that offers hope for the future.
Examples of Mazeway Resynthesis would be the emergence of new Religions i.e. the Resynthesized Mazeways of Buddha, Muhammad and Jesus for instance which during their time all opposed the status quo. Also various political ideologies such as Deregulated Free Market Capitalism, Communism and German National Socialism can also be viewed as Resynthesized Mazeways. Another example would be the political philosophy that emerged during the Enlightenment that sought to replace Monarchy with Equality, Fraternity and Liberty, and which seeded the French and American revolutions. On a smaller scale the process of Mazeway Resynthesis also occurs within sub groupings of society and on a tribal level as well. Here the Resynthesized Mazeway will likewise seek to address the more local problems facing these social groupings. On a larger level than all of these would be a Global Mazeway Resynthesis that covered all the essential domains of knowledge and belief throughout the entire World and one which in corresponding manner is applicable the World over. This is what is being suggested in this Chapter.
So Mazeway Resynthesis is really the process whereby a society, or for our purposes the World Society, comes to accept a new World view when the old World view isn’t working anymore. When the old ideas on which we base our lives, and which inform our behaviour and the choices we make, are seen to be outdated, incorrect and a handicap on our ability or that of society, to be effective and viable; then this is when human societies may undergo a Mazeway resynthesis. It will be during times of chaos and calamity that this need becomes identified. These are the moments when newly Resynthesized Mazeways emerge to give people a better way of looking at things and inspire new ways of living and organizing.
The Absolute Necessity of Fighting and Winning the Battle in the Realm of Pure Ideas and Ideology, thereby Resynthesizing the Mazeway
The notion of a Battle in the Realm of Ideas may seem rather abstract and academic. It may seemed far removed and of no immediate consequence in relation to the overall aim of trying to solve the problems of this World. However in this chapter we’re tried to show how it is the case that ideas are indeed very powerful and can have and have had in the past, had a very significant influence on History and the course of human affairs. Mainly in this chapter I’ve tried to explain the positive effects that the twin notions that Everyone is God and the Prophecies are Now, may have on helping to solve the problems of this World. We’ll now turn to consider what would be the case if we totally neglected to address the problems of this World in the realm of pure ideas and ideology. We do this in order to further emphasis the importance of winning the Battle in the Realm of Ideas. Or put another way, the importance of Resynthesizing the Mazeway.
In order to make my point I propose a thought experiment which goes like this. Suppose that some agency of extraordinary power was able to completely fix the Environmental and Ecological problems of this World overnight. Through supernatural power or super advanced technology, this outside agency was able to repair all the Ecological and Environmental damage that had been inflicted on the planet since the dawn of human civilization, even replenishing all the Earth’s non renewable resources such as Oil, Gas and Coal etc. Furthermore this outside agency might also set up an optimal system of Social, Economic and Political Organization for our benefit. However nothing is done to address the Ideological problems of this World, nor the problems in the realm of Pure ideas relating to Science, Theology and Philosophy. So with this remade planet Earth and a fresh start we still have all the various Religious Fundamentalist Doctrines, all the notions of Selfish Genes, Survival of the Fittest and a purposeless Universe devoid of any ultimate meaning. It’s not difficult to see that within a few generations we would be back to square one and facing exactly those problems we are facing today, once again.
For unless we tackle the root cause of the problems of this World which is the ideas in the form of Ideologies which create the Socio-Economic and Political problems and which in turn give rise to the Environmental and Ecological ones; then we’ll only ever be treating the symptom and not the disease. We may be able to mitigate the symptoms and minimize their effects, but they will keep coming back and also perhaps with increasing severity.
So addressing the problems of this World in the Realm of Pure Ideas and Ideology is not a luxury and something that should be seen as a secondary process, but rather as something that goes hand in hand with practical action and the formulation and also implementation of specific solutions.
The proposal being made in this Chapter is that a Unified World view and which is also a Unified Cosmic View, based on the idea that Everyone is God is the required answer for solving the problems that exist in the realm of pure ideas and ideology. This is in the form of an all encompassing doctrine that unifies Religion and which also unifies Religion with Science and Philosophy. It is from this solution and core set of truths that all the other solutions to the problems of this World in the Socio-Economic, Political,
Environmental and Ecological spheres, in turn derive. And which are able to challenge and ultimately replace the outdated and unworkable ideologies or doctrines in the World today, which are the root causes of the Problems of this World. This is the battle in the Realm of Ideas and the process of Mazeway resynthesis.
The Need for New Ideas and the Receptiveness to them during times of Chaos and Upheaval
The notion of Mazeway Resynthesis which happens during periods of Cultural, Political and Social Revitalization, and which is precipitated by a situation where a Society is under a time of extreme stress and hopelessness, underlines the fact that it is only during these times that large numbers of people within a society will actually be even the slightest bit receptive to radical and revolutionary new ideas. When everything is going smoothly, i.e. during times of prosperity, full employment and security then generally populations become content, self indulgent, perhaps even decadent. However it is when things get calamitous and uncertain that there is a stronger motivation for understanding what is going on and also a search for solutions and new ideas.
Over the next 20 to 40 years the World will become more and more stressed. Many of the Problems of the World today outlined at the beginning of this Chapter will become more pronounced and cumulative. If there is already a feeling of unease and a sense of foreboding then this is surely to become more exaggerated as the years go by. If the idea that Everyone is God seems a little too rarefied and radical for a lot of people to accept today, then this will be less so in the future. Of course abstract metaphysical notions are not normally considered by most folks. But it is not most folks that the Mazeway Resynthesis necessarily happens to. And the battle in the Realm of Ideas for Peoples hearts and minds doesn’t necessarily have to be fought out in the hearts and minds of all the people or even most of the people. It is a certain proportion of the people in a population, who are most dynamic, persuasive and intelligent that need to accept an idea for that idea to become dominant in a society. Leaders in other words and especially young future leaders, movers and shakers.
Some Social Psychologists entertain the idea of a certain 5 percent quantity or 1 in 20 ratio which roughly specifies for them the proportion of people who are natural leaders. This idea originally derived from research which tried to understand why the escape rate of American POWs during the Korean Conflict was so low, in fact practically zero. It was discovered that the reason for this was that what the captors had done was to separate out the 5 percent whom they’d somehow identified as the natural leaders and hold them under especially tight security. Without the instigation of the 5% the other 95% generally made no attempts to escape whatsoever. Anyway from this detail of 20th century history, the idea that there is a roughly 5 percent of people who are leaders was derived. Using this viewpoint, then it is this 5 percent, in whom the process of Mazeway Resynthesis needs to occur and in the hearts and minds of whom the Battle in the Realm of ideas need to be fought and won in order for the plan set out in this chapter to succeed. The even more troubled times towards which collective humanity is heading, provides the perfect context for this process to unfold, a process which will in turn get us out of these further troubled times and provide a lasting solution to the Problems of this World.
What we are about to face, the inevitable suffering and pain ahead will be the most major challenge collective humanity has ever faced in recorded history. This prognosis may seem to some as overly pessimistic. Some may object to this line of discourse as ‘scare mongering’ or being unnecessarily ‘doom and gloom’. However I believe this is a perfectly realistic and rational stance to take. It is through the full recognition of what is ahead of us that puts us in the best position to make the best choices, to best chose always the lesser evil, maximise the common good, and minimise the collective hardship. In truth the predicted pain and suffering, the projected chaos and calamity, has already started though currently it mainly afflicts people in the Third World. Also affecting the very young, very old, poor and under privileged in the richer countries. As was witnessed during the freak 2003 heat wave that affected North Western Europe and in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina that devastated New Orleans USA in 2005. Anyway, this time of increasing crisis will be the context in which the ideas introduced in this book will become more and more relevant. The trials and tribulations ahead may be the most appropriate setting for the idea that Everyone is God to become established. Indeed in crisis there is also opportunity.

Summary and Conclusion
In this Chapter, first we presented a fairly comprehensive but by no means exhaustive outline of some of the major Problems of this World. Then we went on to show how the idea that Everyone is God may put in motion a process which leads to the Solution to the Problems of this World. We did this by using the analogy of a row of dominos and ordering our broad problem categories in such a way that showed the interdependencies between them. The dominos and corresponding problem categories were arranged in the order of the most abstract problems of this World first, i.e. in the realm of pure ideas, and the most concrete problems of this World last, i.e. Environmental and Ecological problems. In between we inserted Ideological problems and those relating to the Socio-Economic and Political spheres.
The proposal made was that by coming up with a unified solution to the greatest Scientific, Religious and Philosophical mysteries of the ages based on the central truth behind World Religion, that Everyone is God; then we will have a doctrine of such power that from it Social, Economic and Political Ideologies may be derived that have the effect of unifying humanity from the bottom up, creating a fairer, more equal and just World and in turn make it much easier for us to effectively tackle the Environmental and Ecological Problems. This would be a doctrine which would in its intrinsic make up, unify all Religion, unify Religion with Science and Philosophy; thereby providing a powerful message of Unification that may bring together humanity in a way that is not a One World Tyranny. We discussed why this will be so. Also from our all embracing doctrine and Unified Cosmic Perspective, we showed how notions such as the Sanctity of Human Life, Justice for All, Meritocracy, Equality and the Golden Rule naturally emerge. We suggested that this Unifying Doctrine may influence Social organization, Economic activity and Political behaviour in a way that helps in a powerful way to solve the Ecological and Environmental Problems of this World.
We then went on to show the correspondence between on the one hand, the Problems of this World and their Solution, together with on the other hand the Prophecies for the End of the Age and their ultimate outcome. Also we made the interesting interpretation that if the Perennial idea that Everyone is God is the key to solving the problems of this World, this would correspond with the with notion of the Final Revelation or Apocalypse (i.e. Unveiling) being likewise the critical factor in bringing about the final predicted outcome of the Prophecies.
With this Prophetic interpretation of the current World situation and through the promotion of a proactive interpretation of the Prophecies, which sees human action as the agency which brings about the happy conclusion predicted by the Prophecies corresponding to the solution to the Problems of this World; then we showed how we can use the Prophecies to inspire people to become engaged in helping to solve the Problems of the World. Furthermore we suggested that by providing an alternative and sensible interpretation of the Prophecies in counter-action against the fantastic and nonsensical doctrines that are gaining widespread acceptance, i.e. Jesus appearing in the Sky or the UFOs landing to save us, then this alone can have positive effects on the World’s Problems.
In general this Chapter has tried to show how the idea that Everyone is God and a certain interpretation of the Prophecies can be the basis for the formulation of a powerful all embracing doctrine with which to fight the battle in the realm of pure ideas and ideology, for people’s hearts and minds. And that winning this battle or Resynthesizing the Maze way is the key to providing a lasting and complete solution to the Problems of this World. We also hinted that in the future, in the same way that the idea that Everyone is God is the key to the resolution of the deepest and most ultimate questions in the realm of Science, Theology and Philosophy; so likewise it will be that this most ultimate of ideas will also lead to the formation of a definitive Political Philosophy that will provide the final answer to the questions concerning the organization of human affairs.
The Solution to the Problems of this World as a Natural Consequence of the idea that Everyone is God
The suggestion that a mere idea can solve the major problems of this World may seem far fetched. It may seem like a wishful thought or an idealistic dream. How can a single idea solve all the deepest problems in Science, Philosophy and Religion together with solving all the Social, Economic, Political, Environmental and Ecological Problems of this World? The suggestion seems fantastic and unbelievable.
However we not talking here about any ordinary mere idea. What we are dealing with is, I believe, the definitive truth about God, i.e. the ultimate, absolute and all encompassing. God that is the ground of all existence, the primary reason and the final cause. If this is the case then it is most natural to suppose that this truth should have far reaching consequences. For the truth about God is really also the correct perspective on the true nature of things. Then once we have this truth in place then all the unsolved mysteries in Science, Philosophy and of course Theology, should be satisfactorily resolved and all the separate disconnected puzzles should fall into place and come together in a perfectly consistent manner. And by the same token, this should also be the case for the problems in the Social, Economic, Political, Ecological and Environmental realms.
What we are saying is that the final answer to the nature of God should also provide the answers to everything else, for God is that which underpins all else. And likewise it is easy to see that if we misunderstand the nature of God or omit it in our considerations then of course all our attempts at trying to answer the most ultimate questions in Science, Philosophy and of course Theology are doomed to failure. Just as it is the case that if we misunderstand the true nature of life, what it is to be human and the Cosmic purpose, perhaps even denying there is one, then of course our Social, Economic and Political doctrines will be imperfect and problematic. Or put in another way, that the problems we face in the Social, Economic, Political, Ecological and Environmental realms derive from our misunderstanding of what is the true nature of things and being blind to spiritual realities; that is from not knowing the way things truly are and also not knowing who we really are. Seen in this way then, the Solutions to the Problems of this World are the natural and inevitable consequence and the inevitable ramifications of the full expression of the idea that Everyone is God and the Truth about the Nature of God.






 

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