Session 8 - Domestic Peace
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And so, this all raises the important question of, "Okay, so how do we carry this out?" since without the meaningful, mutual relationship connection between us we won't be able to survive. Today, genuinely good relations among us are required simply because of our stage of evolution. Without executing our mutuality correctly, we will not be able to set up the right laws required for today's economy, industry, and commerce.
We can see that the world is bewildered, confused, and disoriented, as though we are in a maze. What should we do next? It seems as though people have lost contact between each other because now we are required to establish a deeper, more emotional connection—one that's never existed among us. Previously, we would connect to either degrade one another or connect to one another for lack of choice. We could even be very close to one another because of common interests such as industry, trade, education, culture, and healthcare. But previously, unlike today, people and countries were not required to treat one another kindly.
Today we are required to make internal efforts, psychological efforts in our thinking with specific good intention about our relations to others because our human development necessitates it. We feel that without these good relations we will not be able to continue to exist together properly within the same "little house" that is our world, and that we all share together. Previously we thought that if we simply live together in the same place—me and other people—it will all be fine because we will be doing this without any choice in the matter, and each will have his or her own corner. But today, we don't have our own corners, since we don't just live in our individual little corners any longer. Rather, we are all so dependent on each other that without the right attitude toward each other, we will experience a horrific life.
At our current point we have no choice but to make peace—domestic reconciliation—which is actually mutual guarantee. We must reach a state of reciprocity in our relationships, a bond where each of us is convinced that our lives literally depend on one another, like an elite commando unit where the life of each soldier depends on the rest of the friends, and if each of the soldiers doesn't look out for the others, and guard and protect each other, they might all pay with their lives.×
There are such systems as these, that exist in Nature, and there are also mutually interdependent technological systems which are called "integral systems" or "analog systems." In these systems, all the parts are completely interdependent, which means that if any one part were removed from them, the entire machine stops working. It seems that we, too, after all the evolutionary progress of human society, have come to such a state as this, one existing of such a strong interdependent connection and of complete mutual dependence.
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The mutual interdependence that now exists between us, obligates us all to reach an agreement of mutual guarantee.
Main Points
- In order to fix the broken connections in economy, manufacture, and trade, we must have good mutual relationships with each other.
- The world is found in confusion because we are required to enter into personal, mutual, reciprocally heartfelt connection between one another, and this is something that we don't yet properly recognize.
References
"Nussbaum advocates an education for cosmopolitan citizenship and points in a chapter entitled "Citizens of the World" to the fact that "we live in a world in which people face one another across gulfs of geography, language and nationality. More than at anytime in the past, she says, we all depend on people we have never seen, and they depend on us. The problems we need to solve – economic, environmental, religious and political – are global in their scope." But if we shall handle them, we must involve 'the contributions of history, geography, the interdisciplinary studies of culture, the history of law and political systems, and the study of religion – all interacting with one another.'"
Conference Keynote Speech - The idea of University in a Cosmopolitan Perspective
"Our massive tampering with the world's interdependent web of life -- coupled with the environmental damage inflicted by deforestation, species loss, and climate change -- could trigger widespread adverse effects, including unpredictable collapses of critical biological systems whose interactions and dynamics we only imperfectly understand.
Uncertainty over the extent of these effects cannot excuse complacency or delay in facing the threat."
World Scientists' Warning to Humanity
"Darwin, in turn, borrowed heavily from David Hume's ethical philosophy in which there also runs a strong strain of holism. For example, Hume insists that 'we must renounce the theory which accounts for every moral sentiment by the principle of self-love. We must adopt a more publick affection, and allow that the interests of society are not, even on their own account, entirely indifferent to us.'"
University Course - Introduction to Ethics - Environmental Ethics: An Overview
"The economic and financial crisis which the world is going through calls everyone, individuals and peoples, to examine in depth the principles and the cultural and moral values at the basis of social coexistence. What is more, the crisis engages private actors and competent public authorities on the national, regional and international level in serious reflection on both causes and solutions of a political, economic and technical nature.
PONTIFICAL COUNCIL FOR JUSTICE AND PEACE TOWARDS REFORMING THE INTERNATIONAL FINANCIAL AND MONETARY SYSTEMS IN THE CONTEXT OF GLOBAL PUBLIC AUTHORITY
In this perspective, as Benedict XVI teaches, the crisis 'obliges us to re-plan our journey, to set ourselves new rules and to discover new forms of commitment, to build on positive experiences and to reject negative ones. The crisis thus becomes an opportunity for discernment, in which to shape a new vision for the future. In this spirit, with confidence rather than resignation, it is appropriate to address the difficulties of the present time.'"
Author Robert Wright explains how the network of linked fates and cooperation, guided our evolution to date, and how we can use it to help save humanity today.
TED Talk - Robert Wright: The logic of non-zero-sum progress