World Peace and Nonviolence
World Peace and Non-violence
Ganadhipati Tulsi
Society consists of innumerable individuals having a common bond. That bond is mutuality. Plurality constitutes collectivity, but mere collectivity does not become society without the bond of mutuality. Without a common thread the beads would not make a rosary and it is of utmost importance to examine and evaluate the thread.
We live as part of society and the unit of society is the individual. Like individuals like society and vice versa. The above relationship is both ways true but relatively so. In modern times, society is conceived in terms of economic conditions and their management. It is assumed that if the latter are good the individual will be good too. Behind this assumption is the belief that the external cause can explain everything and that an individual's own quality and competence do not matter. Its converse is equally one-sided. It holds that the individual's own quality and competence constitute the basic or material cause of virtue and vice-versa and that economic management and social circumstances act only as external causes. Neither proposition encompasses totality which can be represented only by the formula --individual, economic management and social order. A relative and balanced transformation of all these three constituents can alone establish a healthy and non-violent society.
Both democratic and socialist systems have in them the seeds of violence. There is a need for a third system to usher in world peace. it is possible to find a lasting solution to the problem of world peace by integrating the socialist economic system requiring a definite limit to individual proprietorship with the democratic individual freedom. The famous historian Toynbee talked of the twin questions of bread and faith. Neither in isolation can be faultless. Only that system can be conducive to world peace which ensures both in the right proportion.
Coexistence
We are inhabitants of the same planet and share a common
Ganadhipati Tulsi
Society consists of innumerable individuals having a common bond. That bond is mutuality. Plurality constitutes collectivity, but mere collectivity does not become society without the bond of mutuality. Without a common thread the beads would not make a rosary and it is of utmost importance to examine and evaluate the thread.
We live as part of society and the unit of society is the individual. Like individuals like society and vice versa. The above relationship is both ways true but relatively so. In modern times, society is conceived in terms of economic conditions and their management. It is assumed that if the latter are good the individual will be good too. Behind this assumption is the belief that the external cause can explain everything and that an individual's own quality and competence do not matter. Its converse is equally one-sided. It holds that the individual's own quality and competence constitute the basic or material cause of virtue and vice-versa and that economic management and social circumstances act only as external causes. Neither proposition encompasses totality which can be represented only by the formula --individual, economic management and social order. A relative and balanced transformation of all these three constituents can alone establish a healthy and non-violent society.
Both democratic and socialist systems have in them the seeds of violence. There is a need for a third system to usher in world peace. it is possible to find a lasting solution to the problem of world peace by integrating the socialist economic system requiring a definite limit to individual proprietorship with the democratic individual freedom. The famous historian Toynbee talked of the twin questions of bread and faith. Neither in isolation can be faultless. Only that system can be conducive to world peace which ensures both in the right proportion.
Coexistence
We are inhabitants of the same planet and share a common