Contents Foreword, by Janet Khan
vii
Introduction: Interwoven Social Worlds 1 The Global Family 2 The National Family 3 The Essential Family 4 The Daily Family 5 A Family of Friendships 6 The Inner Family 7 The Eternal Family Reflections on Our Seven Families
1 28 44 65 86 104 125 147 163
Bibliography Notes and References Acknowledgements About the Author
177 181 191 197
♂
♀
1. The Global Family Everyone knows the Global Family. Digital cultures have seen the image of its home shining blue and white in the light of its sun. Non-electric cultures have felt its life flowing in their hearts and beating in their drums. And all of us have wondered at its numberless members reflected in the starry night sky. Deep down, we know we are one people. The Bahá’í Sacred Writings clearly identify a single family of planetary proportions, inclusive of every human being on earth. The future of this family is foreseen as one of profound civilization yet to be realized. As global integration takes place in technologies, transportation and commerce, and as the people of earth experience an increasing sense of their interlocking destiny in environment, health and security, the Sacred Writings foreshadow that this world will, over time, evolve an operating political economy so characterized by justice and prosperity that it will be worthy of the title ‘Commonwealth’. The world and its nations as analogies of the family From the globe down to its component nations; and from nations down to each region, city, and household, the paradigm of human family repeats itself at every level of our social 28
t h e g l o b a l fa m i ly
lives. We are at all levels interacting with each other to develop awareness, to become useful, and to become more human through the fullness of our social relations than we ever could by living in isolation. Compare the nations of the world to the members of a family. A family is a nation in miniature. Simply enlarge the circle of the household, and you have the nation. Enlarge the circle of nations, and you have all humanity. The conditions surrounding the family surround the nation. The happenings in the family are the happenings in the life of the nation. Would it add to the progress and advancement of a family if dissensions should arise among its members, all fighting, pillaging each other, jealous and revengeful of injury, seeking selfish advantage? Nay, this would be the cause of the effacement of progress and advancement. So it is in the great family of nations . . .1
The emerging World Commonwealth The unity to come does not at all appear to be a simple melting down of distinctions into one totalitarian system overseeing a single multitude. On the contrary, the future promises to unite all of Earth’s diverse citizenry in a delicate balance of creative tensions among three levels of aggregation: a world-embracing governance; a continuing set of autonomous nation states, each expressing its distinctive features; and individual citizens exercising personal freedom and initiative. At every level, we see a dynamic homeostasis, a relatively stable equilibrium among interdependent parts, capable of perpetually maintaining and advancing itself. The creative stability of our human social lives comes from finding an optimum balance between the centrifugal forces of individuation 29
o u r s e v e n fa m i l i e s
that drive us apart, and a centripetal force toward fusion with each other that is drawing us into a culture on Earth showing higher complexity and greater creativity than ever before. The unity of the human race, as envisaged by Bahá’u’lláh, implies the establishment of a world commonwealth in which all nations, races, creeds and classes are closely and permanently united, and in which the autonomy of its state members and the personal freedom and initiative of the individuals that compose them are definitely and completely safeguarded.2
Releasing creative energies A planet that has established the unity of its Global Family will cease to squander its resources on competition and conquest between nations. Immeasurable resources will then become available and redirected to creating a commonwealth of social development in which a new economic relationship of capital and labour will benefit both. Unfolding the potential of nations will no longer be impeded by the kinds of economic barriers which until now have prohibited large segments of humanity from participating in world affairs. Prejudices of economic class, religion, and race which fragment and injure our Global Family with slander and violence will gradually be no more, so that our world community can emerge: A world community in which all economic barriers will have been permanently demolished and the interdependence of Capital and Labour definitely recognized; in which the clamour of religious fanaticism and strife will have been forever stilled; in which the flame of racial animosity will have been finally extinguished . . .3 30
End of this sample. To learn more or to purchase this book, Please visit Bahaibookstore.com or your favorite bookseller.