Therapy for world peace

A few weeks ago, I discovered an excellent channel on YouTube: Neutrality Studies by Pascal Lottaz. Recently, an interview with Jan Oberg appeared there—two brilliant European peace researchers who are thinking about how we as a Western community can escape the wars devised by our politicians and media.

In this conversation (the link takes you to YouTube), Dr. Lottaz compared wars to a disease, to cancer in the body of humanity, and asked what “treatment” could reverse the destructive growth of this ulcer. How can the cancer of violence and hatred be cured? This article is an attempt to answer that question.

The following is an English translation of an article originally published in German on this blog.

Healthy body of humankind

The metaphor refers to entire countries and even civilization as a whole. Consequently, we must look for the answer in society, in civilization. Before we begin, however, it is worth thinking the metaphor through to its conclusion.

Human beings are more than just their bodies; they are also minds—with all their thoughts, feelings, ideals, values, and desires. Anyone who has delved deeply enough into their inner universe also knows that there is something within us that transcends the mind and that we traditionally refer to as the soul. This is where the most valuable aspects of human beings are rooted: their conscience, their longing for beauty and justice, their kindness and compassion.

Holistic medicine teaches us that physical health is inextricably linked to mental well-being, and that most illnesses have their root causes in the psyche. I would add that a healthy mind can only flourish on the soil of the soul if that soil is well cultivated. So when we ask how we can create a healthy civilization—how human society can remain in good health and grow healthily—we must not look only at the material, tangible aspects. We must concern ourselves with the mind and soul of society. The mind of a society is its culture. And its soul is the roots of kindness and gentleness, the values and dreams that this society largely shares, and the resulting beauty of interpersonal interactions, which we will refer to (depending on the context) as mature humanity or mature spirituality. Finally, the body of society is its tangible framework: above all, the economy, politics, and all the rules that govern its actions, life, and the exchange of services.

Now back to Pascal Lottaz's question. Wars have always existed everywhere in the world. This disease is therefore advanced and the prognosis is bleak. Conventional medical treatment will not help. Applied to the coexistence of nations, this means that tangible measures, treaties or the UN Charter alone will not bring us world peace. We must dig deeper. Something in our cultures, religions, beliefs, and desires is making humanity sick. A healthy soul produces a healthy mind, and the healthy mind of the human community will produce world peace. That is the causal chain we must consider.

What is wrong with our culture?

Culture is the river on whose banks civilization grows. It is in motion, yet it offers people a reference line that gives direction and continuity to the development of every society.

The capitalist system has progressively subsumed culture into its mechanism of capital accumulation. In the meantime, capitalism has risen to become the absolute monarch of humanity, the King Midas who turns everything he touches into money. Almost all of everyday culture and large parts of high culture, from books to science, directly or indirectly serve the economy and its financial markets. The media have simply become part of the ubiquitous buying and selling. What once resembled the picturesque meanderings of a river is now a channeled sequence of reservoirs lined with marinas and amusement parks.

This culture continues to set the direction for us—and as we follow it, the rich can multiply their billions. In the process, it is becoming increasingly shallow, crude, ugly, and materialistic. It shapes young people into willing consumers, distracted hedonists, monads in a social dough that can be molded as desired.

Does this process affect all cultures? Practically all of them, although our Western culture clearly stands out. This process is increasingly aligning the development of all cultures because we all base our thinking on the pace and banality of what reaches us via our large and small computers. When I was growing up in the 60s, 70s, and 80s, we read books and discussed sophisticated films that were either works of art or dealt with deeply human, even philosophical themes. Today's adolescents, however, are being raised by the omnipresent media to be a kind of cultural illiterate. And the next video is already catching their eye.

We are being raised to be culturally illiterate without even realizing it—much to the benefit of the markets and the power elites.

Over the course of the 20th century, the center of the capitalist economic system and Western culture shifted from Europe to the United States. For this reason, the United States is particularly well suited for studying the process of commercialization and the increasing flattening of everyday culture and social communication.

After World War II, and especially after 1990, the US developed into a hegemonic power. Politically, the hegemon acts like an autocrat who does not accept independent action by others. It uses political, military, and economic means to subjugate other countries to its will. This policy has contributed significantly to the fact that the mood of “never again war” that arose after the traumatic experiences of the world wars could not lead to lasting peaceful cooperation. The autocratic behavior of the current administration in Washington, D.C., has become so obvious that the international community is no longer willing to accept it. For war or peace, this change holds both opportunities and dangers.

Meanwhile, since the late 1980s, the US financial system has become so bloated that an implosion seems inevitable. Recognizing this danger and gaining economic strength, the rest of the world wants to emancipate itself from the dominance of the US dollar and the associated global financial system. The US is responding to this with increased blackmail, sanctions, the fostering of instability, and even war, which allows the cancer of violence to continue to spread. Will the impending implosion of the capitalist center of our culture point us in a new direction?

The policy pursued by the US after the end of World War II prevented constructive cooperation between nations on a fair security architecture.

So what is wrong with our culture? It is permeated by commercialism, which makes it shallow and easy to manipulate. Shallow culture shapes shallow people who are easily influenced and can even be led into war. Peaceful, respectful coexistence, on the other hand, requires mature, independent, and discerning individuals. A peaceful world can only flourish on mature cultural ground.

Added to this is a second, equally fundamental flaw in Western culture: arrogance. Its origins lie in the superiority mindset of the ancient Greeks and Romans. Christianity in its institutionalized form provided the absolute justification for this claim. Centuries of scientific, technological, economic, and military superiority on the part of Western countries seemed to confirm not only the civilizational but also the cultural superiority of Europe and North America. This superiority brought unprecedented prosperity to Western nations and immeasurable suffering to large parts of humanity.

Pride leads to arrogance, and arrogance blinds us—morally as well. Our ancestors wiped out or decimated the peoples of America, Africa, Australia, and Asia with the feeling that this was okay. They considered these people inferior. For a long time, I thought that this way of thinking was a thing of the past, at least in Germany. In my personal environment, I never encountered people who looked down on other cultures. In fact, my experience with colleagues, neighbors, acquaintances, and people I meet by chance is still the same.

But for years, I have been observing with concern how precisely this arrogance and haughtiness are spreading among politicians. The wars we wage, the crimes we support, the statements and actions of our government, and the activities of our institutions abroad—all of this has revealed an increasingly ugly hubris since around the turn of the millennium. Something has fundamentally changed. I attribute this shift primarily to two factors: first, the growing influence of the US power center on the political, scientific, and cultural elites of the West. Second, I see an additional cause in a systemic defect in our democracy, which recruits governments from conformist party officials. In their thinking and values, they no longer represent the thinking and values of the people.

Arrogance leads to oppression and war. It is a disease, and this disease is destroying Western culture.

Although a certain degree of pride and self-confidence is inherent in all cultures, not all of them have turned it into arrogance. Historically speaking, the strong sense of self-worth of ancient advanced civilizations such as those of China or India did not lead to an attitude of dismissing other peoples as inferior. Apart from a few excesses of religious fanaticism and social exclusion, Indian culture was fundamentally respectful towards foreigners. Although the Middle Kingdom considered itself the world's preeminent cultural center, it did not close itself off to foreigners or attempt to subjugate other countries.

Arrogance was able to flourish in Western culture because it lacked the resilient spiritual foundation that many Eastern cultures had. A mature spirituality promotes an attitude of connectedness and thus an understanding of the fundamental equality of all life. It leads to the realization that the diverse manifestations of the world are expressions of an indivisible, mysterious whole. This view gives all life an intrinsic value, a “sacred” character, and makes it worthy of protection. A culture imbued with such an understanding of the world is inevitably steered toward human maturity. In such an expanded consciousness, which recognizes unity in diversity, the idea of “inferior” people or peoples actually finds no breeding ground.

The more superficial and crude our Western culture becomes, the more clearly its inherent arrogance comes to light. This trait of arrogance is further reinforced and even rewarded among those in power by the systemic dynamics of political power and the global economic and financial system. In the foreign policy of the US and many European countries, this hubris has now taken on alarming, even pathological, proportions.

What is wrong with our spirituality?

Christianity fell into the trap of power. Like all religions, it arose from humanity's inherent search for meaning and goodness. However, because it was based on a singular revelation, it saw its mission as converting all those who thought differently to this singularity. This objective was reinforced by the fact that salvation was tied to a place in the hereafter, which made the task of conversion so urgent—the chance to go to heaven was also singular. This gave rise to a willingness to bring the true faith to those of other faiths by force if necessary. Its mission required efficient structures and resources. This led to the creation of a centralised church and the pursuit of political influence and wealth. As a result, the original Christian search for meaning and goodness led not to less, but to more violence and wars.

Religion can establish and promote mature humanity if it is consistently built around the moral and spiritual growth of human beings. Unfortunately, Christianity strayed from this ideal in the Middle Ages.

However, this path of religion is not obligatory. Buddhism, for example, has always focused on the humane development of the individual in this very world. Although it also proselytized, it did so strictly without coercion or violence. Its primary goal was always inner enlightenment, not institutional power. All religions of the Indian subcontinent shared this foundation: their purpose was the spiritual and humane growth of human beings. Hinduism combines an enormous variety of currents—including ritualistic formalism and concepts of the afterlife—but its core is spiritual: its meaning and purpose remain the human growth of the individual in this world. Similarly, the religions of China and Japan (such as Daoism, Confucianism, and Shinto) largely refrained from proselytizing and did not form power-centered churches. The focus was always on the ethical and human perfection of the individual and, indirectly, of society.

At this point, I must explain to us Westerners what spirituality actually is. It is the self-imposed and self-responsible work of the individual on his humanity—a process that takes place invisibly in the inner universe of the individual. This effort unfolds in his mind the perfection that is already inherent in his soul. Everything physical, including the mind, is animalistic in origin and must be “purified” and sublimated to such an extent that it can allow the pure, deeply spiritual aspect that also exists in humans to blossom. That is the true purpose of human life.

Although present in Islam, and to a lesser extent in Christianity and Judaism, this form of spirituality has traditionally occupied a marginal position within these religions. The core of these revealed faiths was formed by belief in the literal wording of the Holy Scriptures and adherence to the rules laid down by religious authorities. Deviating beliefs and practices were considered to be a turning away from God, who is, after all, the highest, infallible authority. In this field of tension, a mature spirituality could not flourish. As a result, the Abrahamic religions have produced just as much love as violence in the history of mankind.

The Western view of humanity is primarily the result of ancient Greek thought, but also of this interpretation of Christianity. Overall, it has diverted our culture away from mature spirituality and instead made it extroverted, utilitarian, and materialistic. It is therefore no coincidence that both colonialism and capitalism originated in the West. And with them, war evolved from an expression of human imperfection, greed, and lust for power into a systematic attribute of civilization itself.

These two characteristics of Western civilization—the unbalanced view of the human being and the integration of exploitation into the economic system—have had a decisive influence on the fate of the world since modern times. This is precisely why a radical rethinking in the West and work on a profound transformation of our culture are so essential. This is also why the West bears a greater historical responsibility for creating a peaceful world order than other parts of the world. The current policies of the US and the EU stand in stark contrast to this responsibility.

Since conquering the world, the West has incorporated oppression and violence as a systemic attribute into its civilization. Without a conscious change to this system, world peace will never be lasting.

The fundamental beliefs of a culture form the soil in which it grows. For nonviolence to develop as a primary human attitude, this soil must contain layers of deep humanity. In Western culture, these nourishing layers have always been too thin. What we are currently doing to our culture is further eroding its soil. The sensory overload, the superficiality of social communication, the manipulation and clamor of the media, and the decline of high culture, which after all requires deep reflection and introspection, are having a devastating effect: people are increasingly rarely venturing into the silence of their inner universe, where this depth and maturity reside.

The roots of every culture lie in the maturity or immaturity of the humanity shared by society, in its spiritual maturity. This is a critical blind spot for Western culture.

Mature culture

We have replaced our humanistic ideals with money and surrendered our inner world to the economy and the media. In the world of money, comfort and wealth have become the highest goals in life. The rethinking we need to do today is therefore enormous: we need a new Enlightenment. Just as the Enlightenment of the 18th century freed us from the shackles of the church and speculative thinking, the Enlightenment of the 21st century must free us from the tyranny of speculative capital and materialistic utility logic.

For generations, our economic system has been based on principles that reward traits such as ruthlessness, greed, selfishness, and deception. These values are fundamentally at odds with the cornerstones of a healthy and noble culture: empathy, humility, generosity, and truthfulness.

As economic interests and monetary influence increasingly dominate our culture, it is becoming unbalanced. Although compassion and conscience are innate to human beings, they will wither away in an environment that systematically promotes and rewards their opposite. The result is a society that acts in accordance with rules but without a value-based foundation. We must reconnect our culture with its human roots.

To understand what constitutes a healthy culture, we need only look to the beacons of our philosophy, literature, music, and visual arts between the Renaissance and the 20th century, and examine what has survived in the back rooms and underground of today's culture. Our focus must always be on its human foundations—we must explicitly name and reveal them. Kant, Shakespeare, and Beethoven grew up with these foundations—they were a matter of course for them. Today, we have largely lost sight of this obviousness. We must rediscover the maturity and human depth of our culture.

The decline of our culture is accelerated by the fact that education has also succumbed to the demands of the economy. Values and truth are of no use to the economy; it needs knowledge and skills. Schools and universities do not educate mature individuals who seek meaning, truth, and beauty; they prepare employees for their future tasks. But these employees will not further develop culture; they will merely consume what is offered to them in their free time. In this way, the contrast between the economy and culture disappears as culture loses its vitality and soul. This allows the machinery of money multiplication to run more smoothly.

For a mature culture, we need an education system that has different objectives. Cultural creation and social dialogue must also be freed from the dominance of money. To achieve this, society must free itself from the yoke of the economy. The production of goods is only one aspect of its task. It must take care not only of its body, but also of its spirit. Even more so of its spirit, because it is more important for its health..

As a civilization, we have elevated money to the most important measure and primary purpose. No mature culture can survive on this basis.

As we rebuild our culture today, society must focus on one thing above all else: the recovery of its spiritual foundation, the maturity of its humanity. This is necessary anyway, because this time it is not just about the cultural elites and the educated middle class. In today's egalitarian society, flooded with media, the human roots of culture must not only grow much stronger, but also broader.

Mature humanity

What Western culture needs most today is humility, respect for the wonders of man and nature, and the ethos of responsibility that we bear as a community and as individuals for our moral and human growth.

We need humility because it is the antithesis of arrogance. Just as arrogance and conceit make people and cultures blind and prone to violence, humility paves the way to morality and nonviolence. It is the prerequisite for growth in humanity—and, incidentally, the only way to see reality as it really is.

We in the West have never learned humility. For us, it is an expression of weakness and submission, something that would restrict our individuality. In many Asian cultures, there is a fundamentally different approach to it. In India, for example, it is understood as having something to do with a willingness to learn, openness to other people, recognition of the greatness of creation, and insight into one's own shortcomings. A Sanskrit proverb sums it up: “A tree laden with fruit bows down; a dry stick, on the other hand, never does.” This form of humility is the result of inner maturation and a prerequisite for peace among people. It describes the same state of mind and heart as overcoming selfishness. It makes us strong, unlike arrogance.

The most important lesson Western culture must learn is humility. It is a prerequisite not only for world peace, but also for our culture to become vibrant and attractive again.

It is time for us to rediscover our humanity. For the economy, which sets the tone in our societies, human beings are merely a bundle of desires and cravings. For society, too, their intellectual growth is practically irrelevant. Their souls have been completely banished from the field of consideration. Yet both are fundamental to a fulfilled life.

Every human being is a miracle—their potential is unlimited. They can become Socrates, Einstein, or Mother Teresa. They teach children to love, they enlighten those who seek guidance, they lend a helping hand to those in need. They can grow in their humanity until they become Buddha or Jesus.

Whether he develops this potential depends largely on his social environment and its culture. These can suggest goals to him, offer role models, and show him ways forward. However, our society today paints a picture of life goals and ideals that lead us to mediocrity. It praises fun, ease, and comfort; it makes the satisfaction of the senses, material possessions, and fleeting fame desirable goals. All of this is fundamentally at odds with true human growth.

Awe for the miracle of life itself would be the key to another indispensable peace: peace with nature. The war we are waging against our planet's ecosystem is no less devastating than the crimes committed by nations and countries against each other. Mature spirituality automatically causes societies to become more considerate and responsible in their treatment of the environment, reducing the room for exploitation and greed.

We as humanity must also grow in order to end our war against the living system of the Earth. It would be helpful if the West replaced its harsh materialism with a holistic understanding of humans and nature.

Let us now turn to the third characteristic of mature humanity: the ethos of responsibility for our human growth. We have talked down and diluted the idea that human beings are responsible for their moral and spiritual development, for their actions and deeds in the community. We need to rebuild this foundation. Once again, the ancient cultures of Asia offer us valuable inspiration for this.

In ancient Indian culture, for example, there is the concept of dharma. At its core, dharma describes the responsibility of the individual towards their own life, family, community, society, and the natural environment. This responsibility gives rise to morally correct behavior, self-discipline, and a deep sense of duty. Since we are endowed with free will, our decisions also give rise to obligations. Dharma means becoming aware of these obligations and acknowledging them. The crucial point is that this attitude is not based on external prohibitions or rules, but on the individual's autonomous decision to lead a good and fruitful life. The sum of these individual aspirations results in peaceful and just coexistence, a strong culture, and ultimately a mature humanity. It is precisely this ethos of responsibility—for one's own development and its impact on the community—that needs to be re-anchored in our culture.

We need a new, holistic Enlightenment that puts an end to all prejudice, including reductionist bias.

This responsibility is the opposite of effortlessness and superficiality. It stems from a view of humanity and the world that is fundamentally different from the one we have allowed ourselves to adopt under the influence of uncritical, crude materialism and capitalist economic logic. Ultimately, this new Enlightenment aims to establish a balanced view of humanity. It combines the findings of modern science with the wisdom of Far Eastern cultures and spirituality to form a coherent unity of body, mind, and soul.

Mature humanity needs deep and strong roots. These must reach into the foundations of culture: into the spiritual universe of human beings and into the foundations of our common humanity. The inner universe of human beings—mature, sober, and practical spirituality—is something personal, something that each and every one of us must discover for ourselves. The chances for change here are not bad at all, because yoga, Buddhism, and Advaita Vedanta are attracting the interest of an increasing number of Westerners.

The foundations of humanity are inherent in all cultures, because compassion, kindness, virtue, and mercy are the same among all peoples of the world. Recognizing this common ethical basis would not be a difficult task in itself. However, it would require that the world's religions and cultural elites begin to talk to each other seriously and sincerely, emphasizing their shared values.

At the same time, political leaders must stop exploiting division, hatred, prejudice, and racism as political tools. This transformation will become possible as soon as the general public grows weary of the cynical selfishness of the ruling power elites and finds the courage to seek alternative, more participatory forms of coexistence that transcend the model of today's “party democracy.” Only such political renewal will create the conditions for a fair and respectful global security architecture—a goal that requires the commitment of us all.

The path to a healthy human community

On the path to world peace, we need both: on the one hand, the establishment of binding rules of international law, supplemented by structures that effectively enforce compliance with them. On the other hand, we need a fundamental change in our thinking, in our self-image, and in our conception of human community.

As history teaches us, rules and structures alone are not enough. The behavior of any complex social system is guided not only by rules and regulations, but also by the beliefs and goals of its members. These, in turn, depend on culture, which is based on people's self-image and worldview, on their conception of the purpose of life. It is therefore simply pragmatic to view the cure for the cancer of war and violence in a much broader context than traditional politics and international law alone can offer.

The basis for this recovery lies in a holistic view of man, which regards human beings as a unity of physical, mental, and spiritual needs and resources. Only on the basis of such an understanding can culture develop its own healing powers and bring about lasting change in our thinking and behavior. In a culture strengthened in this way, the principles of respect and nonviolence can be permanently anchored in international relations.

Nonviolence, mutual respect, and peace need deep roots. Only a mature culture can provide the soil for this. The real task facing humanity today is a cultural one. The real revolution that lies ahead for humanity must take place in consciousness.

It is a task for all of humanity. The nations of the world have already come together spatially, economically, and in the exchange of ideas. Now it is time to come together in consciousness, values, and understanding of the common human family. And as stated above, the West bears a special moral and political responsibility in this process.

This article naturally raises many more questions—it is a complex topic. We have already addressed some of these questions in this blog. You may find the following articles interesting:

Alternative to “party democracy”

Changing complex social systems

Worldview for a sustainable world

Andreas Sternowski is a publisher at Continentia Verlag, where he publishes books on the change towards sustainability and responsibility. His vision is a society based on fair and enriching community and harmony with nature.