by Richard Robson Fleming
One of the main weaknesses in most plans to upgrade the condition of humanity through the creation of innovative political systems is that there is usually no innovative “companion” plan to upgrade and maintain the ethical standards of the citizenry to be involved. No political system -- no matter how humane in its design and intent -- can fulfill its own idealistic promise unless all of its citizens, both on the leadership level and in the rank and file, maintain consistently high standards of ethics. Therefore, the capability to effectively promote high ethical standards on all levels of society is a requirement and not an option for the success of any idealistic political movement. The development of an innovative ethics system that satisfies this requirement is a primary objective of the World Culture Network (a nonpolitical arts and philosophy organization devoted to culture, ethics and world peace).
This requirement can be met by addressing the philosophical problems that are due -- in part -- to the current struggle between the mass media corporations and the established religious institutions over political power. This struggle has become a disaster for world peace efforts on all levels since it has resulted in an unprecedented lowering of “individual” and “group” character on a worldwide basis. For the sake of clarity, let’s begin this discussion with a definition of “individual” and “group” character as these terms are being used here.
1) “Individual” character is the ability of an individual
to refrain from unethical and antisocial acts without the threat of punishment.
2) “Group” character is the ability of groups of people
to refrain from unethical and antisocial acts without the threat of punishment.
The later refers mainly to the actions of governing bodies.
Consider this example of the important role that “individual”
and “group” character play in maintaining a peaceful and just society:
had our ancestors possessed the necessary amount of “individual” and “group”
character to refrain from getting involved in the very lucrative slave
trade in America 400 years ago, the resulting social problems that are
still plaguing us today would never have come into existence.
“Individual” and “group” character are best thought of
as a societal “preventative medicine”. The dispensing of this “medicine”
has traditionally been the duty of our religious institutions and, to a
lessor degree, the duty of our mass communication corporations. The failure
of both organizations to do this job in recent times has left humanity
in a state of philosophical confusion.
The world’s religious institutions have failed in this promotional duty because they badly need to make two basic adjustments in their policies in order to keep up with the relentlessly changing times:
1) Ethical standards must be promoted in an environment
that is totally free of politics.
2) The presentation techniques used by the traditional
leadership to promote ethical standards are outdated and need to be modernized.
The world’s media corporations failed in this case is due to the fact that the hard-core capitalists that control most of the media industry never really intended to do the job of promoting high ethical standards in the first place.
How can the media industry proceed towards reform?
1) The leaders among these corporations that genuinely
want to do their duty in this regard must first have an extremely honest
look at the overall intent of the industry to realistically participate
in these efforts and adjust accordingly.
2) Like their counterparts in the religious world, they
must promote ethical standards in an environment that is totally free of
politics.
The World Culture Network has developed a literary system called Common Ground Philosophy that will be an aid in helping both institutions solve their ethics promotional problems should they decide to use it.
How does it work?
1) First, you identify the concepts in all of the
worlds religious and philosophical literature that, when seriously followed
by any individual, will lead to a belief in and ultimately to the practice
of high ethical standards.
2) The second step in this process is to identify which
of the concepts out of the first group are universally accepted by the
overwhelming majority of humanity.
3) Thirdly, from this second group you must identify
the concepts that can be secularized. At this point you have isolated the
working elements of Common Ground Philosophy that can be promoted
through the secular media.
Just to give you an idea of how easily some of these Common Ground Philosophy concepts can be implemented, here is an example of one of the easy-to-understand secularization techniques that the system will employ.
Example: Much of the time it is a belief system’s terminology and not the philosophical concepts themselves that get conditioned negative reactions from the public. If you want to promote an idea that is based on the concept, “for every action, there is a reaction” and you use the word “karma” in expressing this idea, you will get a conditioned negative reaction from some fundamentalist Christians. If you use the biblical phrase, “As ye sow, so shall ye reap,” to express the very same philosophical concept, then you will get a conditioned negative reaction from some atheists. However, if you used the barnyard phrase, “The chickens will come home to roost” to convey precisely the same thought, you won’t get a conditioned negative reaction from anyone because the terminology that represents a concept and the concept itself are two different things.
Conclusion
All civilized people dream of social justice and peace -- we long for it until there is an ache in our common heart. However, before humanity can have a realistic chance of realizing this universal dream, both the political and the philosophical causes of the diseases of war and injustice must be recognized and effectively addressed.
The World Culture Network’s role in this process will be to provide a safe arena -- a public testing ground -- in which innovative theories and programs can be created, developed and tested before they are implemented into general society: http://www.worldunityproject.com.
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