But we want so much more …

Those of us who live in democratic countries are called on, from time to time, to vote for Parliamentary representatives, for Presidents, or sometimes to vote in referenda – sorry, referendums. In the United Kingdom, we will soon be called upon to vote whether we, the people of Britain, wish to remain as part of the European Union.

But how should a Bahá’í vote, in a referendum like this? The Bahá’í vision for the world is much wider and much deeper than the question of membership of an economic – or even political? – club.

The Bahá’í vision is of a union of all of the world’s peoples, rather than simply those of one continent. The Bahá’ís are looking towards the unity of all the world’s religions, which is a much more profound goal than just assembling a coalition of peoples from one culture. They are working towards some form of world federation, in which every nation lives in freedom from domination by its neighbours. As ‘Abdu’l-Bahá put it, “This small planet is not worthy of division. Is it not one home, one native land?”

If we regard the whole earth as one country, there is no need to be endlessly negotiating trade deals with this country or that. The world should be a free trade area, rather than have different parts of the world negotiating with (or against) one another from behind trade barriers. Even more importantly, there should be a much fairer distribution of wealth. There should be a limit on personal fortunes, and mechanisms to raise people out of poverty. Only when all countries have a similar standard of living will the constant movement of economic migrants cease. One big help in this will be the Bahá’í ideal of one common currency, which will remove the damaging currency speculators and many of the dishonest traders at a stroke. It will also remove the multi-currency system which daily works against the poorest countries, whose currencies are viewed as worthless. We have learned a lot from the implementation of a common currency in a large part of Europe. It has become clear that it cannot work properly while different countries have different financial policies – there also needs to be a common financial system. The world should also have a universal bill of human rights; and the choice of a world language to operate alongside our national and regional languages should help us to know and understand one another better, and therefore trust one another more. And clearly, only when we have peace will there be an end to refugees fleeing war.

One major change in human thinking which is necessary for the creation of such an ideal world is that we should not think in terms of dividing ourselves off from others. In other words, people will be thinking of “us” (that is, humanity), instead of “them and us”, which is at the heart of so many problems. So, what I am arguing for is the creation of a spiritual base for a world civilisation, rather than placing too much stress on the question of membership of an economic club of nation states. In whichever way the majority decides to vote, the result will only stand for a certain length of time, because mankind’s institutions will naturally continue to evolve towards the inevitable world civilisation.