Left, Right or Straight Ahead?

The governments of the United States and Cuba are now speaking to one another, and moves are under way to try and normalise relations, although Cuba is a communist state and many Americans regard any form of communism or socialism as evil! Meanwhile In Britain, the Labour party is electing a new leader, who will either be from the “right” or the “left” of the party.

Do these labels of right and left tell us anything? If you turn the steering wheel hard left, and then try to go forwards, the vehicle goes round in circles. If you turn hard right, you might think this is (ideo-)logically different, but you get the same general effect! If a pilot lifts either the left or the right wing – sorry, port or starboard – higher in the air, thereby raising its importance, the aircraft tilts, and gives the passengers an uncomfortable ride. And yet so many people are ideologically attached to “left-wing” or “right-wing” ideas. What the world really needs to do is to move on, to a future, and that involves looking straight ahead, and definitely using both wings!!

Different industries, different services, different towns and villages, all have separate needs of their own, and these needs change over time. This law of change seems to exist throughout the universe, so why do people think that both politics and economics are somehow free from it, and prefer to cling to somebody’s theory? Every enterprise should be seen as an amalgam of initiative, creativity, thought, care, finance and co-operation. The future will probably require endless mixes of different ideas and structures, as conditions change and new situations arise.

From a Bahá’í point of view, it is clear that local control, whether in business or government, is preferable to over-centralisation. Some level of co-ordination is obviously required, but a local town or village council is usually in a better position to judge what initiatives are necessary, to bring benefit to the community, rather than strangers in an office hundreds of miles away in the capital city. Bahá’u’lláh said that there should be a Local House of Justice in each town or village, which would be close to the people it exists to serve. This body would have greater powers of initiative than a present-day town council, and greater freedom to be of direct assistance to individuals. When making its decisions, the House of Justice would have to consider the needs of people outside its area as well as those within. As is obvious from its name, it must ensure that everyone is treated fairly, and this includes economic justice. Bahá’ís believe that there should be laws designed to eliminate poverty completely, and to ensure that no person has ridiculous amounts of personal wealth. In the words of Bahá’u’lláh’s son, ‘Abdu’l-Baha, “It is important to limit riches, as it is also of importance to limit poverty. Either extreme is not good.”

None of this will work, of course, unless there is agreement and the consent of the community. In other words, everyone has to be united. A Local House of Justice will work most effectively if its members come from diverse backgrounds – it has to represent the entire community. Once this “unity in diversity” is established, every useful idea, instead of being labelled “left”, “right” or “centre”, will be evaluated to see whether it fits the current needs.