If all the world were one…

 

This Planet B slogan, used by those protesting about climate change, cleverly points out the obvious – that we are all in this together. Climate change is a problem which faces the whole world, but we are not yet solving it as one people. We all share one planet, but we do not function together as if we realised this. If all the world’s people were treated as one people, and all the world were treated as one country, we would be several steps nearer to consciously living as one planet. If we regarded ourselves as one people, we would not feel the need to compete for resources with all other nations, or fear that they might be gaining an advantage over us. Of course we would need some kind of world administration, some sort of shared government, in order to ensure that everyone is treated fairly and to co-ordinate action as quickly as possible.  There is no “Planet B”, so we need to make “Planet A” – the Earth – work properly, as nature intended. As God intended.

We are destroying the environment. We are endlessly causing worse climate change. But at the same time, we have some nations – just portions of the world – which assume that they have the right to ignore the problems which everyone else can see so clearly, and take actions which make the problems even worse, either through aggressive military action or through short-sighted economic policies. We need to all feel that we are sharing this Earth together, and are taking ownership of the world together, and not have each nation trying to prove something to the rest of the world. If the world were seen as one, no part of the world would have the right, the authority, or even the motive to attack another part.

If the world were treated as one entity, one community, it would help if there was also a shared communication system. At the technological level, new initiatives towards such a shared system are happening constantly, but at the more basic level of direct human communication – language – there is no universal system yet. Bahá’u’lláh, the Founder of the Bahá’í Faith, urged the governments of the world to “convene a gathering and choose one of the (various) languages, and likewise one of the existing scripts, or else to create a new language and a new script to be taught to children in schools throughout the world. They would, in this way, be acquiring only two languages, one their own native tongue, the other the language in which all the peoples of the world would converse.” The principle is clear: there should be a shared world language chosen, but every nation or people will continue to use their own language.

Somehow, over the course of the relatively near future, the necessary world level of administration will have to come about. It will have to be some sort of federation, so that everyone feels that it belongs to them, and not to somebody else. No part of the world should feel more important, and no part of the world should feel either dominated or ignored. There should still be a national body in each part of the world, but fully integrated with its neighbours and with the world government. Local culture should be encouraged to flourish, so that every people feels proud of its role alongside its fellow peoples.

To make this world community work, we would ideally require a common set of goals, and/or a common philosophy. At a deep level, religion has often underpinned society through such a common philosophy, although at a surface level, religious quarrels and rivalry have often eroded this very sense of shared civilisation. The whole world now needs to develop a shared philosophy or shared belief. Bahá’u’lláh, when writing to Queen Victoria on this subject, wrote: “That which the Lord hath ordained as the sovereign remedy and mightiest instrument for the healing of all the world is the union of all its peoples in one universal Cause, one common Faith.” One thing that will make a huge difference, and pave the way for this “common Faith”, is the recognition that every religion has insights to offer, that every religion has truth enshrined within it, that every religion was divinely-inspired.

We all know that the planet is one. We all know that the human race is one, from a scientific point of view. We need to take that oneness on board as a spiritual and cultural concept also. Bahá’u’lláh wrote: “The earth is but one country, and mankind its citizens.” If we all take this to heart, there will be no need of a Planet B - we can make a success of Planet A.