| 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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| MESSAGE NUMBER TWO
Basic Theory All consciously rational thinking requires a theory or set of assumptions concerning the true nature of the basic social purpose for living in this universe. And, ideally, it would have been better if the ultimate purpose of living things in the universe had been incontestably revealed to us all so that we would all be able to refer to this ideal conception of purpose when arguing the case for a particular course of social action or the introduction of some new arrangement for social living being adopted. Unfortunately there is NO SUCH IDEAL GUIDANCE! And no matter how strenuously certain theistic thinkers or atheistic thinkers may argue for the validity of their own private guesses at the ultimate truth, this stubborn fact remains the basic stumbling block to ANY particular positive guess at the ultimate truth about the nature of the proper goal of social living for all human beings EVER being generally accepted as the real TRUTH. We know how Christians argue that "Christ was the one and only Son of God." We know how Muslims argue that "Muhammad was the one and only true prophet of the Will of God for mankind." We know how Karl Marx is revered for his rejection of all theistic doctrines and how his admirers have attempted to suppress all religious teachings in so-called 'Communist' states. (I call them 'so-called' because the Soviet system of government as we know it in Russia is both nationalistic and based on economic class-war theories which makes the Marxist followers' system of government very far from being communist in the sense that communistic means that the good of all mankind is being served.) We know too how there have been many hundreds of crazy people (obviously they cannot all be sane if they profess to have had 'true' REVELATIONS which differ markedly from each other as seen from the point of view of an objective student of all these PROPHETIC ideas) who have ranged from Moses down to the Latter Day Saints and the Mooneys, etc. etc., but have been unable to satisfy everybody that their doctrines are the ULTIMATE TRUTH about the proper end for human endeavour in social terms within the universe. From all these FACTS it seems to me that a would-be consciously rational truth-seeker like myself can only conclude that the FIRST CONDITION a proper human social order should satisfy is one which HONESTLY believes in the widest possible freedom of self-expression for EVERYBODY. Now we cannot attain any social order of any kind without first having a theory concerned with the purpose of the general association. And if it is world social unity that is in our minds it follows that every person in the world (ideally) should be fully aware of and supportive for the aims that the social order has been formed around. In the past history of the human race of course many people have not thought it practical or possible to arrange a cosmopolitan social order. Indeed we have seen supposed 'Communists' like Stalin deliberately excommunicating and verily MURDERING people whose world-wide social aims ran counter to Stalin's own chauvinistic Russian nationalism. But then not only was Stalin's personal theory of practical social order a travesty of communism in the obvious cosmopolitan way of thinking but it was also a form of moral insanity in the sense I have used these words (i.e. 'crazy') above. Because Stalin ruthlessly disallowed people who were not atheists to pass on their theories about the purpose of living to others around them. Now dogmatic atheism is just as much an offence against the obvious truth of the AGNOSTIC principle, which I have stated above, (we have 'NO SUCH IDEAL GUIDANCE') as is the assumption that Christians ALONE have the true interpretation of the purpose of living to pass out to others or that Muslims ALONE have the true interpretation. OUR BASIC ASSUMPTION must therefore be that in this universe around us WE FACE A COMPLETE MYSTERY - and nothing that Marxists or Muslims or Mooneys or Mormons or Evangelists of ANY KIND may do should be allowed to disturb our adhesion to the idea that NOBODY REALLY KNOWS the true goal for living things to try to reach. FREEDOM of speculation and adoption of one's own version of a working hypothesis of a social goal for everybody must therefore be the FIRST principle around which the social ordering of human living on this planet should be settled. And if any person accepts this basic principle and is prepared to make a public declaration to this effect he or she will find that all the members of the many forms of faith fanaticism will be trying to argue and act against the spread of this idea despite the fact that it is quite plainly only the open expression of the basis for liberal democracy which has been with us in essence for many years. Unfortunately this basic liberal democracy (I use the word 'liberal' here in order to distinguish the form of democracy clearly from the Marxist or Muslim, etc. forms of democracy which demand the acceptance of unprovable doctrines and obviously lead to international wars and the division of humanity into warring sects) is often used in conjunction with religions or forms of nationalism which effectively destroy the possibility of the neutralism of democracy from working out its leavening effects on the human race generally. Of all the evil influences at work in human society the two which are most divisive and even survival-dangerous are armed nationalisms and dogmatic faith sects. Of these two general influences the multiplicity of nationalisms is incomparably the most powerful and dangerous. I say this because we can see that in practice the cults of nationalism are not content merely to appeal to their subjects to do certain things. The verbal appeal is there certainly but it is backed up and enforced by legalized violence against the person if the verbal appeal is ignored or opposed. And the very fact that every nationalism has military or police agents to apply these pressures or punishments for not obeying the state makes nationalism a very much more formidable agency than any religion or other faith. For instance the Pope or the Roman Catholic Church may loom large in the minds of voluntary adherents to that faith but no person who happens to disagree with that faith need worry overmuch about any decision the Pope may make about marriage, family planning, contraception, abortion, etc. because the Pope has no police or military personnel to enforce his rules upon those who are not members of the R.C. Church. This weakness of the Churches generally only applies so long as the Church in question has no direct control over a government of a state. However the picture changes a great deal if some Church manages to grab state establishment as the I only true Church' - which sometimes happens. This was illustrated in the case of Joan of Arc being burned to death by due 'legal' process in an 'established Church' set-up for Roman Catholics - because she dared to disagree with Church doctrines. In the same way the rise of the Ayatollah Khomeini to a position of governmental power (Theocratic dictatorship?) in Iran has made dogmatic Muslimism a far more menacing thing for humanity generally than was the dictatorial monarchy which preceded the Ayatollah. However we must not allow ourselves to be led into making the mistake that nationalism and established religions are interchangeable terms or are the only way of setting up a nation. The basic notion of nationalism is that there is a centre of government for a particular area of territory or at least a POTENTIALITY of political control which serves to unify those who desire to see the nationalism established or maintained as the case may be. But in all cases matters of faith are kept strictly secondary to the unity of the 'nation'. This can be seen in the present war between Iraq and Iran. It must be obvious to everybody that the purpose which moved the Iraqi Government to launch a military attack on Iran was a NATIONALISTIC PURPOSE rather than a Muslim purpose or anything else in the range of possible faith doctrinal matters. We are also informed that although Ayatollah Khomeini is a Shi-ite Muslim and there is a preponderance of Sunnite Muslims among the Iraqi attackers this is no mere inter-sect struggle. There are Shi-ites and Sunnites on BOTH sides of the war and nationalism among Iraqis is obviously playing a unifying role on their side of the border whilst Iranian nationalism is playing a unifying role on the Iranian side of the battle. There is only one conclusion to be drawn from this and that is that NATIONALISM IS A MORE POWERFUL SOCIAL AGENCY THAN IS ANY FORM OF SECTARIAN FAITH. With the enunciation of this important distinction between the relative powers of nationalisms and faiths I am now ready to go on to state how the principle of nationalism may be employed to overcome the divisions due to people giving their support to various forms of faith as well as the benefits of a supra-national form of nationalism as a means of destroying all forms of local nationalism which are now providing the human race with the practical certainty of international wars in the near future as well as those wars which are in progress at this very moment. I have cited the multiplicity of armed nationalisms as the supreme reason for the occurrence and future expectations of international wars or, worse still, the INTER-ALLIANCE wars which seem to stem from the fact that groups of sovereign nations club together in arrangements like the NATO and Warsaw War Alliances on the basis of similar ideological tendencies among Marxist nations and Democratic nations. Clearly there is a background of Marxist theories with Stalinist anti- cosmopolitan overtones present in the formation of the Warsaw War Pact Alliance. In the same way there is anti -supra -nationalism in evidence in the thinking of the Prime Ministers of Britain, France, U.S.A., etc. who have approved the NATO War Pact Alliance which is now confronting the Warsaw War Pact Allies. We ordinary members of the human race must DEPLORE both of these political formations and the ideological backgrounds to both sides of the confrontation for the simple reason that they have given rise to a supreme danger of self- annihilation for humanity generally. In order to make the world safe for the human race as a WHOLE we must work politically to dislodge the upholders of both sides of the NATO-vs-Warsaw confrontation and to REPLACE their ideological bases with a new world-wide revolutionary theory which will make it possible for the human beings in Russia, etc. and the human beings in U.S.A., etc. (i.e. BOTH sides of the inter-Alliance designed WAR OCCURRENCE) to live together as COMMON CITIZENS of a liberal democratic based WORLD NATION as proposed in this book. I will deal with immediate steps which can be taken all over the world to begin the all-important mind clarification which is required to supersede the divisions generated by the vision-lacking policies of the existing national politicians in all lands and nations or potential national formations which are now attempting to influence the social thoughts of everybody on this planet. The Misguided Politicians are really so numerous and various that it is practically impossible to list them all but it will help the potential world- nationalists in any part of the world to realize who they are if I tell everybody here that the MISGUIDERS range, from Brezhnev and those who will follow him in trying to uphold Soviet nationalism and its new military Imperialist policy of invading Iran, to Carter and those U.S.A. Presidents who are destined to follow him in appealing for political power from Americans only who are greedy for chauvinistic American national independence from all other nations (a policy which is now traditional over there but which is nevertheless powerfully inimical to liberal democratic unity on a world-wide basis which is the ideology I will advance as the proper alternative to American national sovereignty and the parochial greed which springs from it.) Here it is worth noting that although jimmy Carter is reported to be a personal follower of Jesus Christ in the Baptist sect he actually has to put American national aggrandisement as his FIRST LOYALTY because this is written into the Oath of Office which he HAS TO TAKE before he can become an American President at all. So what happens to his Baptist Faith is that it has to be put into a SECOND PLACE in his personal loyalties and of course this is what happens to the Pope and the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Moderator of the Church of Scotland and ALL OTHER people of note in the world who are national spokesmen in any sense. In Britain every Prime Minister who has ever been appointed to office in the past has been obliged to SAY that his nationalism takes PRECEDENCE over his personal religious or other faith. Persons like Mrs Thatcher are able to say this quite willingly of course because she has often stated that she is OPPOSED TO FEDERAL UNITY IN EUROPE. Here we are reminded yet again of the biblical warning that no person can serve two masters with equal devotion. One of the loyalties must be given PRECEDENCE and in Mrs Thatcher's case that Precedence is given to British nationalism rather than to humanity or God or Jesus Christ or the religious or other sect that she had joined or supports or alleges she believes in. Mrs Thatcher is not alone in being in this case of course. What I am saying applies equally to Mr Callaghan or to anyone who may be chosen to come after him and become leader of the British Government if ever this transpires to be his lot. But I think it is fair to say that neither Mrs Thatcher nor Mr Callaghan OR ANY OTHER WELL-KNOWN POLITICIAN in Britain or elsewhere has thought sufficiently deeply about nationalism and faith to KNOW that they are ACTUALLY CAUSING the possibility of international or inter-Alliance wars by their failure to put loyalty to humanity in PRECEDENCE to their loyalty to a monarch or a state. It is due to this apparent INABILITY to rationalize the principles of human liberal democracy with current problems which allows the human race to linger so long under the shadow of international or inter-Alliance wars. It is the POLITICAL FOLLY and I suppose the POLITICAL INEPTITUDE of persons like the Prime Ministers of the Nations and the Presidents of Republics which prolongs human subjection to the burdens of war-making and the shortages and sufferings and deaths which are due to wars between nations and Alliances. But it is ALSO the FAULT of ordinary human beings who, after all, particularly in liberal democratic nations, FAIL to choose the proper politicians or fail to demand the proper humanistic visions which will enable us to solve all the problems of international and inter-Alliance group confrontations. Before we can have even TWO persons being able to pursue a sound course of co-operation together it is necessary for the two minds concerned to settle upon a COMMON GOAL for their intellectual and physical endeavours. Even Mrs Thatcher can understand this because although she is a sound Unionist so far as the British Isles are concerned and is unlikely to give way to the demands of Scottish, Welsh or Irish nationalists or republicans - she is stupidly opposed to European Federation which is, after all, just another form of political Unionism on a somewhat greater scale than the Unionism required to maintain the solidarity of the British people. But of course she is not alone in this short-sighted and nonsensical attitude of mind. Almost every newspaper editor that I have contacted in my past attempts to get through to the British public with my theory of making TRUTH-SEEKING the common inspiring GOAL for humanity has SUPPRESSED my letters or articles - rather obviously on the principle that as an upholder of the present political establishment in Britain he is MORALLY BOUND to DISALLOW all propaganda which consciously aims to END THE PRESENT ESTABLISHMENT and replace it with an establishment which will make world-wide social co-operation (WORLD NATIONALISM) take its place. I argue against these Editors and Programmers (because all the national news and opinion media controllers adopt the SAME suppressive policy to clearly stated revolutionary opinions!) that they OUGHT TO ALLOW ALL NEW IDEAS TO BE HEARD because whilst it is obvious that the policies being pursued by ALL NATIONAL POLITICIANS are WRONG he has no way of knowing from whence will come the remedial ideas which can put an end to the frustrations and sufferings of many good people who do not themselves understand why it is that the best efforts of politicians never seem to be able to rid humanity of the international and inter-Alliance wars which wreck all our hopes of a better living and a peaceful and co-operative human race. |
| 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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