Humanity marches forward
There's a sense of hope
when the problems in today's world
are put in perspective

Douglas Roche, The Edmonton Journal: Monday, May 29, 2006

Already the 21st century looks like a repeat of the 20th: Every day brings more news of war, poverty, human rights violations and destruction of the environment. Discouraging to be sure. But underneath the surface, something is happening to lift up humanity.

An awakening of concern about how we human beings treat one another on the planet is taking place. This has tremendous possibilities for moving the world forward to a new era of peace. In fact, this new awareness of a global conscience is the great untold story of our time.

It is not just in the great questions of war and peace that a new caring attitude is showing up. We can see it in the spread of anti-smoking laws, campaigns to stop drinking and driving, and measures to cut down on noise.

A new societal concern to provide access to buildings for the disabled, new efforts to educate the mentally challenged, and a drive to stop the exploitation of children are all hallmarks of the greater outreach for the well-being of others.

A new view of the human being, you and me, at the centre of public policy is coming into focus. A new caring for the wholeness of life is being defined. Humanity is learning to understand all our human relationships, our relationship with the Earth, and how to govern for the common good. This is the stirring of a global conscience.

Wait a minute, I can hear many people say. Wars are still being fought. Poverty is rampant throughout the developing countries. The air and waters are being despoiled. The most egregious violations of human rights are taking place. Greed and corruption continue to infect the political processes. How can I talk about this new maturation of civilization when we are still being dragged down by the same old problems?

That's my first point. We have to be able to see past the problems of the day in order to observe a shift in human thinking. Many people call for a new global ethic to make the world a more human place. The point I want to make is that a new ethic is actually being formulated. This is a reason to give us hope.

We have to stop thinking that the Bush administration in the U.S. is the centre of the universe. The new Canadian government should recognize that the world is moving forward despite the obstacles posed by the present American government.

Consider such advances as the Kyoto accord, the International Criminal Court, U.N. peacekeeping missions, the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, the Millennium Development Goals, the spread of democracy, the reform and strengthening of the United Nations. These are examples of the positive movement forward of history and human consciousness.

While modern-day politicians are preoccupied with what they call a "clash of civilizations," the advanced wing of civil society is focused on developing an "alliance of civilizations."

Increasing numbers of people today recognize that human beings are made for more than a nasty, brutal and short existence. We are made to continue the development of God's planet, which technology now reveals to be one unified place where all human beings have the same joys and hopes, griefs and sorrows.

Understanding the universal nature of human rights is hard, rooted as we are in our own locality and daily array of domestic concerns. But thanks to the marvels of communication, we are now able to see and understand life around the planet.

Out of the suffering and gloom and seemingly perpetual conflict in the world is emerging a new standard by which we judge right and wrong. Our world is being lifted up, often despite ourselves.

We are still mired in conflict, but we yearn to break free from the old bonds that have encased us in our private domains. Increasingly, we recognize that colossal miseries may yet lie ahead.

Fear often immobilizes us. Apathy drags us down. But failures in building the conditions for peace ought not to obscure our vision of where humanity is heading in the 21st century.

Two political leaders who got it right were President John F. Kennedy of the U.S. and President Mikhail Gorbachev of the former Soviet Union.

 

In the spring of 1963, Kennedy, detecting some improvement in U.S.-Soviet relations, decided the time had come to make a speech about peace. On June 10, he went to American University, Washington, D.C., and called for a practical peace, "based not on a sudden revolution in human nature but on the gradual evolution in human institutions." He challenged his listeners to look anew at the Soviet Union and the Cold War, to put past conflicts behind them and to concentrate on the common interests shared by both powers. Then Kennedy spoke in words that reached to the core of every culture: "If we cannot now end our differences, at least we can help make the world safe for diversity. For, in the final analysis, our most basic common link is the fact that we all inhabit this planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children's future. And we are all mortal."

Kennedy's adversary, Nikita Khrushchev of the Soviet Union, called it "the greatest speech by any American president since Roosevelt." The speech led directly to the Limited Test Ban Treaty, in which the U.S. and the Soviet Union outlawed nuclear tests in the atmosphere, in outer space and under water.

On Dec. 7, 1988, I was present in the United Nations General Assembly when Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev astounded delegates by rejecting war as a means of resolving conflicts and calling for world policy determined by the priority of the values of all humanity. "The world community must learn to shape and direct the process in such a way as to preserve civilization, to make it safe for all and more pleasant for normal life." Then he renounced force and the threat of force as instruments of foreign policy and said this applied above all to nuclear arms. Gorbachev went on to pledge unilateral troop reductions and drastic cuts in the Soviet military presence in Eastern Europe and along the Chinese border -- a move that ultimately allowed Soviet satellites to choose their own paths.

Gorbachev's appearance at the UN was the centre-piece of a series of speeches he gave during that period, which revolved around his theme:

"Today, further world progress is only possible through a search for universal human consensus as we move forward to a new world order." He called for a Multilateral Centre to Lessen Danger of War, a U.N. International Verification Agency, a World Space Agency, a World Tribunal on Terrorism, a Special Fund for Humanitarian Co-operation.

There is a common note in Kennedy's and Gorbachev's remarkable speeches. The world is one place and all humanity is interlocked in common survival. This is the first step in global awareness, which is itself the precursor of global conscience. Neither Kennedy nor Gorbachev was able to implement the vision each expressed; Kennedy was assassinated a few months after his speech, Gorbachev was deposed in the implosion of the Soviet Union after the fall of the Berlin Wall.

But they were forerunners. Kennedy and Gorbachev and a long list of international commissions opened the way to the UN's 2000 Millennium Declaration, which was built on "fundamental values": freedom, equality, solidarity, tolerance, respect for nature, and shared responsibility.

World leaders accompanied this declaration by adopting the Millennium Development Goals, setting achievable targets for combating poverty, hunger, disease, illiteracy, environmental degradation, discrimination against women, and developing a global partnership for development.

An extraordinary meeting of 1,350 representatives from 100 non-governmental organizations (NGOs) from 145 countries weighed in with a critique of government failures in many of these areas and called for such specific improvements as a Global Poverty Eradication Fund, binding codes of conduct for transnational companies, and tax measures to support the U.N. and other international institutions.

When terrorists struck on Sept. 11, 2001, the movements trying to develop a culture of peace were marginalized in the new "war on terror." The re-emergence of the culture of war often seems to be operating from the commanding heights of political decision-making. But underneath this panoply of conflict, a revulsion against war and more violence is quietly asserting itself. The millions who marched in cities around the world prior to the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq showed the shift in public thinking against war. Even as trenchant a critic of U.S. foreign policy as Noam Chomsky says new opportunities are allowing us to overcome pessimism, hopelessness and despair. In his new book, Failed States, Chomsky says: "There has been substantial progress in the unending quest for justice and freedom in recent years, leaving a legacy that can be carried forward from a higher plane than before."

When we start to assemble the evidence of the march of humanity forward, an appealing vista comes into view. This not only provides hope, it is empowering. We feel a new strength that yes, "I can make a difference." It doesn't necessarily make

today's problems go away, rather it helps to put these obstacles into perspective and gives us a sense of enlightenment.

Douglas Roche is a former senator, member of Parliament and Canadian ambassador for disarmament. The theme of this article is being developed in his forthcoming book Global Conscience.

© The Edmonton Journal 2006