Building Vibrant Communities

Signs of disintegration

Anyone who is paying attention can see that the state of the world as we know it is undergoing a rapid process of disintegration. So many things that used to work don’t work anymore. World leaders and their governments seem to be ineffective in solving huge and critical problems that are actually within our power to solve, if only we could muster the collective will to do so.

To reach the goal of a just and equitable world we need to ask some critical questions:  

How do we have to treat each other so that everyone can flourish and everyone can meet basic needs and have a chance at realizing their true potential as human beings? How do we have to behave as individuals, one to the other, as communities toward our members, as institutions within our society, as nations toward their own citizens and towards other nations?

What most of us will call “good” and “right” behaviour will result in peace, unity, cooperation,  prosperity, and well-being for all. “All” means exactly what it says. No one can be left out. 

No matter what your race, religion, ethnicity, country of origin, economic status, personal beliefs and preferences, you are, first and foremost, a human being, and in order to flourish, you need to be able to have access to food, clothing and shelter, education, healthcare, livelihood opportunities, safety and security, a community that supports and cares for you, and a reasonable voice in shaping the world in which you have to live. These are basic determinants for a good, healthy, and prosperous life.

It has been shown in countless examples around the world that when people unite and focus their attention on bringing good things to everyone, significant improvements can be made in the well-being of all. But, it has also been shown that there are attitudes, behaviours, and actions that seriously undermine the well-being of other people. These behaviours may bring wealth, power, or advantage to some, but they create chaos and misery for many others and may create a level of destruction of the natural world that will harm sustainable life for generations to come.

We can easily list the signs that tell us that the world is in trouble and that disintegration is everywhere present. But that is not the whole story. In spite of these increasingly depressing difficulties, could we be missing signs that the forces of integration and positive transformation are not only happening, but actually having an impact?

Signs of integration

Here are just a few of the positive signs that despite the real challenges, we still have much to be hopeful about: 

• The spirit of solidarity, of the sense that we are all part of one human family, has been steadily growing.
• We see this sense of global solidarity reflected in the almost universal rejection of deeply ingrained racial prejudices, in the dawning of the consciousness of world citizenship, and in the heightened awareness that massive challenges the environmental crisis can only be solved through global cooperation.
• Despite fear-mongering, we see the outpouring of human kindness and support for millions of refugees forced out of their countries by climate change, war, and repression.
• The global pandemic has made clear to many that what happens to some of us happens to all of us, and that to solve global health challenges requires a level of human cooperation beyond anything we’ve seen before.
• There is an increasingly sharpened global concern for the preservation of the human rights of all people. 
• A now universal human value exists that every child, no matter what their background, must receive basic education.
• The strengthening of women’s rights and the increasing prominence of women in their respective societies around the world is growing as women move to the forefront of critical movements to end poverty, and in the calls for climate justice, for indigenous rights, for education rights (particularly of women and girls) to name a few.
• We see an increasing openness for dialogue and cooperation between diverse religious communities. 
• There is growing social action that moves beyond talk to work for comprehensive change in every sector of human life through millions of projects worldwide, all carried out by grassroots people.
• There is an increasingly positive response on the part of many governments worldwide to civil society initiatives to collaborate in order to address critical concerns related to issues such as ending conflicts, addressing chronic poverty, improving child and maternal health, addressing ignorance and illiteracy, ending systemic racism, addressing indigenous issues, improving the status of women, and working to resolve the climate crisis.

Conclusion?

There are twin forces operating in every society on earth and affecting the life of the whole planet. First, the force of disintegration, attacking the foundations supporting our modern social structure. The second, even more powerful in its ultimate potentiality, are the forces of integration, of unity building, cooperation, collaboration and mutual support, kindness, and love. These two forces are operating simultaneously.

Millions of people are pouring their life’s energy into both of these options. However, those whose fortunes and ideologies are linked to disintegrative forces are pushing back with increasing desperation, fanaticism, and violence against the rising tide of positive transformation, feeling that the world they have imagined is slipping from their grasp. 

All signs point to the fact that we are at a crossroads in human history, and that what happens next is literally in the hands of us, the people of the world. 

Many of us have always assumed that it is “them”—the wealthy, the powerful, the rulers of countries, corporations, and armies—those people who are the makers of history while the rest of us become its victims. Many think that it is “them” that have to do something to fix what is going wrong with the world, because we cannot do anything. 

In fact, the very opposite is true. Every human being has an important role to play. Many of us don’t know what our role might be, and many of us feel very inadequate to making a difference, but these are things that can be overcome through a gradual process of learning and collaboration with others. The first step in that journey is to make the decision to act, and at the same time to be open and willing to learn.

Let’s do this! 

As a response to this necessity for collective action to build what is good, Bahá’í communities around the world are initiating global conferences for the betterment of the world. Alberta will feature 11 of these conferences, two of which will be held in Edmonton. These conferences are the beginning of a worldwide effort to bring together those who are already working towards the collective good and those who are seeking a real action to join. 

Details of the Edmonton conferences are coming soon, but you can get an idea of what they will entail by looking at glimpses from around the world: (https://youtu.be/BjC3P99pnno)