| Edward Graham Macfarlane
108 Forthill Road Broughty Ferry Dundee Scotland DD5 3DR tel & fax: +44 (0)1382 730971 Email: globdem@sol.co.uk |
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| IF some unearthly
intelligence could be persuaded to come and study the causation of the
troubles facing the human race and then submit proposals for preventing
such possibilities as the wiping-out of living things on this planet, I
am fairly sure that it would tell us that human beings are the greatest
source of such dangers.
Granted, there are dangers from bacteria and viruses - perhaps even from insects-getting out of hand, but generally speaking we seem to have got all the threats of that kind thoroughly under control. Neither do I think that there are any supernatural beings or forces at work in such a way as to destroy us all. Even those who profess to believe in "gods" or "devils" hesitate to suggest this sort of thing-and would probably end up in a mental asylum if they did. No, the real danger to human survival rests with the kind of teachings and purposes which parents, or organisations approved by parents, work so hard to place in the minds of the young people in the world. Try to think about what is happening in the world, as an "unearthly intelligence" might see it, and you will observe that although children may be born without racist prejudices, religious prejudices, sex prejudices, class prejudices, nationalist prejudices, etc., they are effectively infected with these ideas very quickly and are then ready to join sectional groups with conflicting purposes. Of all the possible types of "sectionalism" that the minds of human beings are prone to embrace there can be little doubt that the most menacing of all are the local nationalisms, because, in every case of a real nationalism or local patriotism, we find a desire to be ready to kill the members of other nations if need be. "Patriotisms are deadly killers!" is something which should be kept in mind when we hear persons - who might even profess to be humanists-upholding some kind of local patriotism. Social psychologists should recognise this, but where are we to find even one social psychologist who has the courage to state this publicly. I certainly haven't heard of any and I certainly have not heard of any being allowed to explain the situation in the press or on any of the radio or TV programmes. Have you? Has anyone? Let us therefore face the facts of the deadly dangers, of these sectionalisms to human society, and consider calmly how such sectionalisms are to be rooted out and alternative loyalties encouraged in the minds of the people in the world-loyalties which will unite and pacify the world instead of leaving it divided into dozens of conflicting sections-each of which is impoverishing itself with desperate efforts to provide itself with ever bigger loads of armaments with which to try to enforce its selfish interests on its neighbours. Clearly we are concerned with nothing more nor less than ideas and purposes in the minds of people like ourselves. "Put Scotland First!" is a cry I hear in Scotland today - and it is typical of the short-sightedly stupid attitude of similar non-thinking people all over the world. |
Wherever we
look we see people being encouraged to be ready to 'die for their nation'.
It may he anywhere, Rhodesia, Israel, China, Australia, USA, France - you
name any country you like and you will be speaking for a comfortable majority
of the people of that section of the world when you say - "You people are
all willing to die for your country! "
Now 'willingness to die' means also 'willingness to kill' and thus we can see how the dangerous nature of sectionalist ideologies originates in the minds of people and works itself out in practice. There is of course a good aspect to nationalisms. They have come into being as purposes which were, and still are, superior to-selfish impulses and family feuds. This is probably why we find it difficult to criticise patriotisms. They are actually among the most unselfish influences which most people are capable of providing and when really great thinkers say openly "Patriotism is not enough" we have a clue to the situation which can remedy the bad effects of sectional patriotisms. The remedy is to teach people to acquire a larger patriotism which will provide people with a common purpose where presently they struggle and kill each other under the influence of their conflicting purposes. "I want to see a better Scotland" says the short-sighted Scot-and in his blindness he will find himself stuck with Scottish military forces, Scottish passports and customs, Scottish religion, Scottish language, Scottish law and so on -and later realise that all this has been tried in the past and found wanting. The obvious alternative is to think big - in terms of mankind and the universe - and thus say "I want to see a better world". When this purpose is adopted all over the world and overcomes the appeals of local or sectional patriotisms we will then have sound hopes of establishing Human Society on a basis which makes world-wide co-operation possible. If the local nationalist movements have served no other purpose they have shown how it is possible' for the patriots of any area to close their ranks and work together to put their patriotism first. For instance there are both theists and atheists, capitalists and socialists, ex-lrish and ex-English, etc., all uniting in the SNP to promote Scottish patriotic ideals. The same thing can hold good with a world national party with the all-important advantage that world patriotism can bring together not just some of the people in a small locality but people all over the world and thus pave the way for the dismantling of national military forces with a view to setting up a system of human social law and order in the world as a whole! If the survival of the human race is important-and I, for one, have elected to believe that it is-then human society also is important and the cults of sectionalisms must be shunned and destroyed by all intelligent and thinking men and women. Let us go forward together to create a far more just and enlightened society for mankind than has ever existed in any section or era in human history. |
| Edward Graham Macfarlane
108 Forthill Road Broughty Ferry Dundee Scotland DD5 3DR tel & fax: +44 (0)1382 730971 Email: globdem@sol.co.uk |
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| my writing |
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