Building the City of Man: Outlines of a World Civilization
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W. Warren Wagar BUILDING THE CITY OF MAN Outlines of a World Civilization GROSSMAN PUBLISHERS New York 1971 Copyright © 1971 by World Law Fund All rights reserved First published in 1971 by Grossman Publishers 44 West 56th Street, New York, N.Y. 10019 Published simultaneously in Canada by Fitzhenry & Whiteside Limited SBN: 670-19461-1 Library of Congress Catalogue Card Number: 77-162961 Printed in U.S.A. Foreword War, social injustice, poverty and ecocide are phenomena which mankind has participated in and accommodated to throughout its recorded history. Indeed for much of the time that man has been on the planet Earth and been aware of his surroundings, the vast bulk of mankind has considered these matters to be "in the nature of things." Yet in the last 500 years radical transformations have occurred in consciousness and society: the "natural" has become irresistibly amenable to social change. Thus human sacrifice, cannibalism and slavery, archaic institutions all, have been virtually eliminated from society. Yet other problems of great magnitude persist, and appear insoluble. Foremost amongst these is the institution of war. It is still a conviction widely held throughout the world that war, springing from aggressive impulses in man, is an inevitable and enduring institution of human society. The pervasiveness of this conviction does not seem to be diminished by the fact that scientific data tend to undermine the proposition that large scale organized violence is a necessary outgrowth of the aggressive impulses experienced by the human species. Our understanding of human nature and social psychology leads toward the conclusion that while man may be an aggressive animal, his aggressive impulses may take various forms, many of which are actually constructive in ways indispensable to the future of civilization. In this context we should note that the attempt to eliminate war as an institution -- rather than to merely diminish its horror and brutality -- is of relatively recent vintage. The League of Nations aside (since the United States and a large number of other states were never members of that organization), it can be said fairly that the first widespread attempt to outlaw war is to be found in the Kellogg-Briand pact of 1927, where, for the first time in the history of mankind, the leaders of the majority of nation-states which had the capacity to initiate massive organized violence, renounced war as an instrument of national policy. In 1945 the United Nations, building on the League of Nations and the Kellogg-Briand pact, produced an even more significant commitment to outlawing war. Nevertheless it is true that the United Nations has had only the most modest success over the first twenty-five years of its existence. The present international system, composed as it is of individual nation-states who refuse to surrender sovereignty on matters concerning their own security, now bears within itself the threat of such large scale violence that the institution of war has emerged as one of the great survival problems of mankind. Inseparable from the future of war are the worldwide problems of poverty, social injustice and ecocide (by which we mean overpopulation, resource depletion and pollution). Each of these has to some extent, different natural histories in civilizations. They nevertheless stand out in the contemporary world as crucial problems that must be solved. Thoughtful and responsible persons throughout the planet have begun to recognize that all these problems are in complex ways interrelated, that together they constitute a systemic crisis of the greatest magnitude. During the last few centuries two revolutions, the scientific-technological and egalitarian- ideological, have brought these problems to an explosive, earth-wide point. The incredible growth and tempo of the technological revolution has made it possible for one or more nationstates, acting on their own authority, to destroy much of mankind in minutes' time. The explosion of egalitarian ideologies into mass consciousness has led to an unprecedented situation in which demands for justice and improved conditions of material well being are being made with ever-increasing insistence. The prolonged inability of nations to control the burgeoning world population, to moderate the race between the depletion of resources and the long term achievement of universal welfare and ecological stability, to control the eruption into violence of newborn and ancient rivalries and tensions, and to achieve minimal standards of living, is leading to the breakdown of structures of authority and continued widespread, pervasive suffering. It is to the solution of these problems, war, poverty, social injustice and ecocide, that this series of world order books is directed. World order, then, is an examination of international relations and world affairs that focuses on the questions of how to reduce significantly the likelihood of international violence, and to create tolerable conditions of worldwide economic welfare, social justice, and ecological stability. In more connotative but less precise terminology, the question is, how may we achieve and maintain a warless and more just world. The series is part of an emerging transnational effort to free the future from the past and to shape a new world order over the last third of the 20th century. The authors contributing to this series share the view that it is both meaningful and necessary to engage in rational and normative analyses leading to the solution of world order problems. Because it is now generally recognized that these problems are of a planetary scope, the authors will come from all the regions of the world, thus providing perspectives from all segments of mankind. At the same time, each author is asked to take seriously the notion of a world interest, and must articulate policies and recommendations that accrue not only to the benefit of a particular geo-political unit, but to the benefit of mankind. Furthermore this series of world order books, in addition to being transnational and oriented to some conception of the world interest, will exhibit a distinctly futuristic perspective. Each author will thus attemp to build an image of the future he wishes to see realized over the last third of the 20th century. But it will not be enough to create utopias. Each author is also asked to link his image to a concrete description of whatever steps and strategies he believes are both necessary and possible to achieve the world order he wants. The creation of these relevant utopias -- relevant in the sense that they permit the reader to understand what would be necessary in order for the image to become a reality - - will, we hope, permit a dialogue leading to the creation of a preferred world in which the world order values of peace, economic welfare, social justice and ecological stability are realized on a planetary scale. Within this broad context this series of books will be varied in style and tone. Some will be scholarly; others will take the form of the speculative essay; yet others may be primarily fictional; a number may reflect some combination of genres. Many of the books will be published in languages other than English. We shall be crucially aided in the task of recruitment and in the shaping of the series generally by a small multi-national board of consulting editors already familiar with the perspective and purpose of the world order approach. It is our belief that the intellectual framework provided by a world order perspective by thoughtful persons throughout the globe, will yield new and powerful insights into the history of man, his present condition, and above all, his future. We are indebted to Grossman Publishers for having assisted us in embarking on this worldwide enterprise. We should also like to express our appreciation to the World Law Fund for its contribution and support of this program. Saul H. Mendlovitz Ian Baldwin Jr.General Editors ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The dedication page names the prophets of the coming world civilization, both living and dead, whose thought has most influenced my own. Building the City of Man also owes much to the opportunities I have received in recent years to try out my ideas, in print, in the pulpit, and from the lecture platform. I should like to thank some of the people who gave me those opportunities. John Roberts and Sydney Bacon, who invited me to speak to world federalist groups in London and Toronto. J. L. Henderson, of the Institute of Education, University of London. Leland P. Stewart, of the Conference on Science and Religion and the International Cooperation Council of Los Angeles. Everett R. Clinchy, of the Institute on Man and Science of Rensselaerville, New York. Alfred Hassler, of the Fellowship of Reconciliation. Richard Hudson , the editor of War/Peace Report. Leon C. Fay, minister of the First Unitarian Church of Albuquerque, who gave me the freedom of his pulpit many times during my years in New Mexico. The N. O. W. chapter of Albuquerque, whose inaugural meeting I addressed in 1968. The Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions in Santa Barbara, and particularly Elisabeth Mann Borgese, John R. Seeley, and W. H. Ferry. World Union of Pondicherry, India, which published an earlier version of one of the poems in Chapter Eight under the title "The Egg." My deepest gratitude goes, of course, to Ian Baldwin, Jr., and Saul H. Mendlovitz of the World Law Fund, for asking me to write this book, and for their help and encouragement at every stage in its production. April, 1971 W. Warren Wagar With joy and respect, I dedicate this book to the prophet-fathers of the coming world civilization: SRI AUROBINDO BAHÁ'U'LLÁH THEODORE BRAMELD AUGUSTE COMTE MARIE JEAN ANTOINE NICOLAS DE CARITAT, MARQUIS DE CONDORCET GERHARD HIRSCHFELD WILLIAM ERNEST HOCKING SIR JULIAN HUXLEY ERICH KAHLER K'ANG YU-WEI IMMANUEL KANT KARL JASPERS HERBERT MARCUSE KARL MARX CHARLES W.