The 14th Point: How to Create a Peaceful World (Final - Part 3)

(Part 3 and final. This first appeared in BahaiTeachings.org, a Baha'i blog, on Jan 12, 2016)

Verily, His Honour President Wilson is self-sacrificing in this path and is striving with heart and soul, with perfect good-will, in the world of humanity. Similarly the equitable government of Great Britain is expending a great deal of effort. Undoubtedly the general condition of the people and the state of small oppressed nationalities will not remain as before. Justice and Right shall be fortified but the establishment of Universal Peace will be realized fully through the power of the Word of God. – Abdu’l-Baha, Star of the West, Volume 5, pp. 42-43.

The unity of the human race, as envisaged by Baha’u’llah, 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. – Shoghi Effendi, The World Order of Baha’u’llah, p. 203.

President Wilson’s famous Fourteenth Point—“A general association of nations must be formed under specific covenants for the purpose of affording mutual guarantees of political independence and territorial integrity to great and small states alike”—had a powerful impact on the world, and continues to expand its influence today.

The idea of a general association of nations wasn’t new—Immanuel Kant and other philosophers had dreamed and written about it for centuries. But it had not yet crystallized into a workable, feasible model until the Baha’i teachings gave it direction, content and force:

The Great Being, wishing to reveal the prerequisites of the peace and tranquillity of the world and the advancement of its peoples, hath written: The time must come when the imperative necessity for the holding of a vast, an all-embracing assemblage of men will be universally realized. The rulers and kings of the earth must needs attend it, and, participating in its deliberations, must consider such ways and means as will lay the foundations of the world’s Great Peace amongst men. Such a peace demandeth that the Great Powers should resolve, for the sake of the tranquillity of the peoples of the earth, to be fully reconciled among themselves. Should any king take up arms against another, all should unitedly arise and prevent him. If this be done, the nations of the world will no longer require any armaments, except for the purpose of preserving the security of their realms and of maintaining internal order within their territories. This will ensure the peace and composure of every people, government and nation. – Baha’u’llah,Gleanings from the Writings of Baha’u’llah, p. 248.

Because of Baha’u’llah’s initial call for a world convocation of leaders to establish global peace, and because of Wilson’s strong advocacy of the general idea six decades later, the Great Powers and a few dozen other nations succeeded in creating the first international organization with the principal mission of establishing and maintaining world peace.

The League of Nations formed on 10 January 1920, at the Paris Peace Conference, which ended the First World War. Its Covenant attempted to prevent future wars by a mechanism of agreed-upon collective security and disarmament. It promised to prevent wars through international cooperation and negotiation. Could it work?

It might surprise you to learn that Abdu’l-Baha said no:

For example, the questions of Universal Peace, about which His Holiness Baha’u’llah says that the Supreme Tribunal must be established: although the League of Nations has been brought into existence, yet it is incapable of establishing Universal Peace. But the Supreme Tribunal which His Holiness Baha’u’llah has described will fulfil this sacred task with the utmost might and power. And His plan is this: that the national assemblies of each country and nation — that is to say parliaments — should elect two or three persons who are the choicest men of that nation, and are well informed concerning international laws and the relations between governments and aware of the essential needs of the world of humanity of this day. The number of these representatives should be in proportion to the number of inhabitants of that country. The election of these souls who are chosen by the national assembly, that is, the parliament, must be confirmed by the upper house, the congress and the cabinet and also by the president or monarch so these persons may be the elected ones of all the nation and the government. From among these people the members of the Supreme Tribunal will be elected, and all mankind will thus have a share therein, for every one of these delegates is fully representative of his nation. When the Supreme Tribunal gives a ruling on any international question, either unanimously or by majority-rule, there will no longer be any pretext for the plaintiff or ground of objection for the defendant. In case any of the governments or nations in the execution of the irrefutable decision of the Supreme Tribunal, be negligent or dilatory, the rest of the nations will rise up against it, because all the governments and nations of the world are the supporters of this Supreme Tribunal. Consider what a firm foundation this is! But by a limited and restricted League the purpose will not be realized as it ought and should. This is the truth about the situation, which has been stated. – Abdu’l-Baha, Tablet to the Hague, pp. 10-11.

Of course, Abdu’l-Baha’s view proved uncannily accurate. With only 58 nations as members at its peak, the League never exerted much influence, and lasted only a few decades in total.

Instead of a chiefly unilateral agreement imposed by a group of victorious nations on the vanquished, the Baha’i teachings recommend a much more democratic solution—the creation of a globally-elected world parliament. Until that can happen, the Baha’i teachings say, humanity will keep operating under the old, outmoded, inefficient and inherently warlike system of competing national sovereignties.

But without question, we continue to move toward a global system of governance that will, once and for all, eliminate devastating warfare and its enormous costs to humanity. The question is: How will our own individual and collective endeavors promote that powerful goal?

The opinions and views expressed in this article are those of the author only and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of BahaiTeachings.org or any institution of the Baha’i Faith.

   

WRITTEN BY

Rodney is a technical writer by profession, having served New Jersey State Government for 39 years. Retiring in 2009 Rod turned his writing skills to prose and poetry, publishing his first in a series of memoirs, Episodes: A poetic...  READ MORE

IN SERIES:  14 POINTS FOR WORLD PEACE

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Wilson’s Points: The Dawn of Universal Peace

Woodrow Wilson: Racist or Peacemaker? (Part 1)

(Reprinted from BahaiTeachings.org first appearing Jan 8, 2016)

Forty-four unique men have served as President of the United States.

History shows that U.S. Presidents have achieved many good things for Americans, some great, and some not so great. All were men. All were human. Each and every one made mistakes as we look back historically, yet, all were products of their times. Some helped change the times.

One President, Woodrow Wilson, is now being called racist for his views on equality. Eighteen of those gone before may just as easily have been called racist also, based on their ownership of slaves. Shall we tear down all the monuments and change the names of thousands of buildings, streets and highways, towns and cities named after them? Should we erase their notable achievements in the name of hindsight? Can we “read back” into history, and try to correct it ex post facto? Does pointing out their flaws—which were many, as in most people—have any beneficial effect or alter what we now consider as great? Or should we consider their positive attributes and accomplishments?

As a world leader, we should definitely recognize President Wilson’s groundbreaking attempt to establish a definitive league of nations that would address and adjudicate world problems. In this short series of essays, we’ll focus on that aspect of President Wilson’s life’s work.

Let’s start with a few excerpts from the soon-to-be-published biography of Woodrow Wilson by Michael P. Riccards. Mike has authored 15 books, including The Ten Greatest U.S. Presidents. A past college president three times over, Mike is also a close friend, a writing partner, and an independent observer and chronicler of history. With his permission, some of his observations on Woodrow Wilson:

Great men or women are often described as complicated, and especially we seek to understand the threads of their early being. In his brief life span no public personality so captivated the people of America and the world in general as Woodrow Wilson. Over a century later we still feel the pull of his influence. Historians do not agree whether he was a great president or a disaster; few stake out an intelligent middle ground. All admit that he was one of the most successful domestic policy presidents only rivaled by FDR, his protégé, and Lyndon Johnson, FDR’s protégé.

After being elected in 1912, Wilson hated almost clinically that… he had to spend most of his time on foreign affairs. He saw himself as a domestic reformer. But ironic it was as his term in office is most remembered by history for the Great War and the difficulties of the Treaty of Versailles, and finally America’s repudiation of the League of Nations.

The trigger for war was the 28 June 1914 assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, by Yugoslav nationalist Gavrilo Princip in Sarajevo. This set off a diplomatic crisis…. Within weeks, the major powers were at war and the conflict soon spread around the world.

Diplomatically Wilson argued in May 1916 for a postwar League of Peace to uphold the rights of national sovereignty, territorial integrity, and freedom from aggression. Even TR [Theodore Roosevelt] and Taft had once supported a league and some of the more enlightened Europeans, including Pope Benedict XV, agreed. But the war leaders did not comment, preferring to fight in what each side saw as victory. Once again, and for the last time, on December 18, 1916, the president offered again to mediate the war, and he would ask each side what it would take to terminate the war and promote future security. The Central Powers insisted that victory was certain; the Allies demanded that the enemy’s empires be dismembered. Oddly enough the Second World War would be the beginning of the unraveling of empires of both European and Asian states. And the leader of that anti-colonial crusade would be a Wilson protégé—Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

In 1916, however, Wilson’s peace offer went nowhere:

President Woodrow Wilson

[Toward the end of the war] “The advisors to Wilson were called the “Inquiry” and headed up by a president of City College in New York City. The group provided the president with a series of objectives from Berlin to Baghdad with particular emphasis on the Slavic area. It urged that America use its financial assets to prevail, a position that the president held. …the Inquiry laid out a statement of peace terms, and focused on “territory, territory.” The report was released on December 23, 1917. The forces of Lenin in Russia on their own pushed for an end to forcible annexation of territory seized during the war, restoring independence, protecting minorities, safeguarding weaker nations against boycotts and blockade, and allowing national groups to determine their public future by referendum. Wilson would be impacted by those principals as well as by the Inquiry report. While the president was working on his own statement of objectives, the Fourteen Points, Prime Minister David Lloyd George was giving a speech in London supporting “self-determination,” this from the guardian of the British Commonwealth.”

Several days later Wilson appeared before Congress with his program of world peace. It is frequently cited in his time and in ours that Wilson was a total failure in getting his ideas accepted at the peace conference, the usual charges that Wilson sold out his principles for the establishment of a League of Nations.

But as we now know, Wilson’s Fourteen Point peace plan did not fail in the long term. Instead, it served as the basis for the Armistice and the Treaty of Versailles, advancing international relations and serving as the formative document for the League of Nations, the first attempt at a world governing body that could enforce global peace. Under the onslaught of the aggression of the Axis powers the League fell apart at the dawn of World War II, but then its founding international principles reasserted themselves in a new incarnation—the United Nations—at the close of that war in 1945. Wilson’s Fourteen Points, which replicate Baha’u’llah’s teachings in so many ways, still have an enormous influence on diplomacy and international relations today.

Baha’is believe that those lofty, essentially spiritual principles—global peace, disarmament, the rights of all and an end to colonial oppression—continued and expanded throughout the world because they represent the emerging spirit of the age. First given to the world by Baha’u’llah in the middle of the previous century, those Baha’iprinciples call on humanity and its leaders to observe peace and justice, to disarm and to end all war. The Baha’i writings praise President Wilson for his initial advocacy of those high aims:

The President of the Republic, Dr. Wilson, is indeed serving the Kingdom of God for he is restless and strives day and night that the rights of all men may be preserved safe and secure, that even small nations, like greater ones, may dwell in peace and comfort, under the protection of Righteousness and Justice. This purpose is indeed a lofty one. I trust that the incomparable Providence will assist and confirm such souls under all conditions. – Abdu’l-Baha, Selections from the Writings of Abdu’l-Baha, p. 109.

Next: Wilson’s Points: The Dawn of Universal Peace

The opinions and views expressed in this article are those of the author only and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of BahaiTeachings.org or any institution of the Baha’i Faith.

Wilson's Points: The Dawn of World Peace (Part 2)

(Reprint from BahaiTeachings.org where this first appeared Jan. 10, 2016)

As to President Wilson, the fourteen principles which he hath enunciated are mostly found in the teachings of Baha’u’llah and I therefore hope that he will be confirmed and assisted. Now is the dawn of universal peace; my hope is that its morn will fully break, converting the gloom of war, of strife and of wrangling among men into the light of union, of harmony and of affection. – Abdu’l-Baha,Selections from the Writings of Abdu’l-Baha, pp. 311-312.

President Woodrow Wilson’s Fourteen Points formed a new political blueprint for world peace. He first elucidated them on January 8, 1918, in a speech on the aims of war and the terms of a universal peace. In this essay, let’s take a closer look at points one through five, the chiefly diplomatic terms Wilson proposed, and compare them to the Baha’i teachings:

1. Open covenants of peace, openly arrived at, after which there shall be no private international understandings of any kind but diplomacy shall proceed always frankly and in the public view.

Ahead of his time, Wilson advocated transparency in diplomatic efforts toward one goal: Peace. So did the Baha’i teachings:

…day by day strengthen the bond of love and amity to this end, — that they may become the sympathetic embodiment of one nation. — That they may extend themselves to a Universal Brotherhood to guard and protect the interests and rights of all the nations of the East, — that they may unfurl the Divine Banner of justice, — that they may treat each nation as a family composed of the individual children of God and may know that before the sight of God the rights of all are equal. – Abdu’l-Baha, Abdu’l-Baha in London, p. 122.

In the second and third points, Wilson called for freedom of movement and trade around the globe:

2. Absolute freedom of navigation upon the seas, outside territorial waters, alike in peace and in war, except as the seas may be closed in whole or in part by international action for the enforcement of international covenants.

3. The removal, so far as possible, of all economic barriers and the establishment of an equality of trade conditions among all the nations consenting to the peace and associating themselves for its maintenance.

Freedom of the seas, vitally important in an age before regular air flights, highlighted the growing interdependence of all peoples on mutual trade, travel and interchange. The Baha’i teachings recognized that interdependence long before:

All the members of the human family, whether peoples or governments, cities or villages, have become increasingly interdependent. For none is self-sufficiency any longer possible in as much as political ties unite all peoples and nations, and the bonds of trade and industry, of agriculture and education, are being strengthened every day. Hence the unity of all mankind can in this day be achieved. – Baha’u’llah, Baha’u’llah and the New Era, Dr. J. E. Esselmont, p. 249.

Next, Wilson proposed a deep reduction in armaments:

4. Adequate guarantees were given and taken that national armaments will be reduced to the lowest point consistent with domestic safety.

Baha’u’llah made this proposal more than half a century before, in his letters to the world’s kings and rulers:

Tread ye the path of justice, for this, verily, is the straight path. Compose your differences, and reduce your armaments, that the burden of your expenditures may be lightened, and that your minds and hearts may be tranquilized. Heal the dissensions that divide you, and ye will no longer be in need of any armaments except what the protection of your cities and territories demandeth. – Gleanings from the Writings of Baha’u’llah, p. 251.

In his fifth point, President Wilson made a valiant attempt to end the scourge of colonialism:

5. A free, open-minded, and absolutely impartial adjustment of all colonial claims, based upon a strict observance of the principle that in determining all such questions of sovereignty the interests of the populations concerned must have equal weight with the equitable claims of the government whose title is to be determined.

Abdu’l-Baha, who recognized the negative impact of colonization on prospects for international peace, also spoke out for the principle of self-determination and the extinction of the old colonial model:

First, the nations are rivals with each other so far as commercial advantages are concerned. Second, they are thinking of the national self-aggrandizement. Third, they are thinking of planting new colonies. Therefore, it is difficult for them to step into this field, to uphold international peace, because they are contending, warlike, victory-loving people. They cannot be instrumental in promulgating international peace. – Abdu’l-Baha, Star of the West, Volume 4, p. 167.

‘Unity in freedom’ has today, of course, become a universal aspiration of the Earth’s inhabitants. Among the chief developments giving substance to it, [Abdu’l-Baha] may well have had in mind the dramatic extinction of colonialism and the consequent rise of self-determination as a dominant feature of national identity at century’s end. – Century of Light, The Universal House of Justice.

Next, in Wilson’s sixth through thirteenth points, he called for a final settlement of the territorial and border-dispute issues in Russia, Belgium, France, Alsace-Lorraine, Italy, Austro-Hungary, the Balkans, Poland and Turkey and the Ottoman Empire. The Baha’i teachings concur that borders and boundaries should be finally determined, and recommend what would become the basis for the eventual union of all nations in one great assemblage:

In this all-embracing Pact the limits and frontiers of each and every nation should be clearly fixed, the principles underlying the relations of governments towards one another definitely laid down, and all international agreements and obligations ascertained. In like manner, the size of the armaments of every government should be strictly limited, for if the preparations for war and the military forces of any nation should be allowed to increase, they will arouse the suspicion of others. The fundamental principle underlying this solemn Pact should be so fixed that if any government later violate any one of its provisions, all the governments on earth should arise to reduce it to utter submission, nay the human race as a whole should resolve, with every power at its disposal, to destroy that government. Should this greatest of all remedies be applied to the sick body of the world, it will assuredly recover from its ills and will remain eternally safe and secure. – Abdu’l-Baha, The Secret of Divine Civilization, p. 64.

Next: The Fourteenth Point: How to Create a Peaceful World

The opinions and views expressed in this article are those of the author only and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of BahaiTeachings.org or any institution of the Baha’i Faith.

Guns, Murder and Drawing a Line in the Sand

By Rodney Richards

Times have changed, everyone. Let's get it through our heads that times have indeed changed. And we cannot stay behind the times any longer, or we face the annihilation of all of society's hard-won mores and values.

    On the subject of guns, the line has been drawn in the sand.

In my country, U.S. legislators today stand on one side of that line, with all the power and authority needed to halt—or at least slow down—the further spread of gun violence by individuals. The public and the press increasingly call on our representatives at all levels of government to cross that line in the sand and take action, by effecting reasonable controls on the proliferation of gun violence in this country.

    Will U.S. leaders withdraw their specious arguments surrounding the interpretation of a constitutional amendment adopted over 224 years ago? The American Constitution’s Second Amendment was clearly based on a "well-regulated militia" and not on unlimited ownership of military-style assault weapons. In my opinion and the opinion of many, restrictions passed by the courts are both reasonable, necessary, and not strict enough.

    But reasonable gun controls are not really the true “line in the sand” issue. The issue is a simpler one: Should murder be allowed to take place? The moral and social law regarding murder was established well before current laws or the Constitution. Humanity has yet to truly adopt this exhortation and binding law to the fullest degree.

    God recorded the Sixth Commandment in Exodus 20:13: “You shall not murder.” The year was 1393 B.C.E when the great leader and prophet Moses was born. Some 80 years later the Burning Bush was resulted in the Exodus over a period of many more years. During that time Moses descended Mt. Sinai and gave the Hebrews the Ten Commandments.

    God gave everyone the Ten Commandments, as evidenced by their adoption in both Christianity and Islam ever since. The prophets of God do not contradict each other in relaying God's Plans to humankind. God values life highly—and wants us to, as well. Therefore "You shall not murder" is the line drawn in the sand by God Himself, and how abominably man has failed to follow it since! But that doesn't have to continue. For God has not only promised peace on Earth, but eternal peace as well – if we can get there of our own accord by taking action to right the ills of humanity. We can do that by following the eternal spiritual law:

I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live. - Deuteronomy 30:19.

I charge you all that each one of you concentrate all the thoughts of your heart on love and unity. When a thought of war comes, oppose it by a stronger thought of peace. A thought of hatred must be destroyed by a more powerful thought of love. Thoughts of war bring destruction to all harmony, well-being, restfulness and content. - Abdu'l-Baha, Paris Talks p. 29.

These truths are self-evident, universally acclaimed by men and women of reason, parents of dead children, and victims without count. Are we men and women of reason? Or will we remain no better than the animal? 

This first appeared on BahaiTeachings.org in 2015

Here's an added thought:

    The problem is not guns, although terrible in peacetime and when unrightfully used. The problem is not murders for there are murders without guns, even murders of the spirit thru poverty and injustice and oppression.

    The real problem is a human being's intention to commit murder. That is why it is a unique law in itself. That is the problem we must solve -- eradicating that intent. -- Rod 

Tyrants, Fighting for their Tombs (Reprint)

If I hit my wife, does she have the right to leave me or kick me out? If I steal corporate or government secrets and get caught, should I spend months or years in jail and ruin my career and my family’s unity? If I lie to my boss about being sick, and she finds out, will she lose trust in me? We can’t foresee the future, but in these scenarios society increasingly says that individuals should suffer the consequences of their unjust actions.

Our societies have archetypes of acceptability, and it behooves us, if we wish to benefit from society’s bounties, to follow society’s mores. But those mores differ by group, and are not yet universal. Today extreme groups like ISIS and Al-Qaeda frighten rational people, with deviate views of the truth and violent, fanatical behavior. Yet tyrants who run despotic nations—the world’s Hitlers and Pol Pots of the past in new clothing—do much more damage. So how do we ameliorate these vile, vociferous killings and maimings of humanity by leaders who have such warped views of “Truth?”

In truth, our own vain imaginings cause humanity’s ills. The transgressors—tyrants, political leaders, generals and despots—are liars of the worst kind. They lie to us, and to themselves. They have lost the struggle for righteousness and justice within their own minds and hearts. They have decreed, like Napoleons of the past, “Verily I am God. Obey me.” Yet they are nothing more than the foam on the ocean wave, to one day be interred in their own abominable graves covered by the very dirt they coveted. The Baha’i teachings say that their futile plans can only have one ultimate result:

The highest of created beings fighting to obtain the lowest form of matter, earth! Land belongs not to one people, but to all people. This earth is not man’s home, but his tomb. It is for their tombs these men are fighting. There is nothing so horrible in this world as the tomb, the abode of the decaying bodies of men.

However great the conqueror, however many countries he may reduce to slavery, he is unable to retain any part of these devastated lands but one tiny portion — his tomb! – Abdu’l-Baha, Paris Talks, p. 29.

 Baha’is believe that only the Sun of Truth, the Prophet of God, can dispel these dark obscuring clouds of delusion. God is merciful. Like the foam on the wave, these dictators and totalitarians and Caesars will pass, and they will inevitably suffer the consequences of their actions, in this world or the next. It’s our job not to vote nor encourage new demigods to replace them. Whether dictator, candidate or elected, let’s rely on God, and our own purposeful counteractions to evil. We can use our words and deeds, minds and skills, to expose society’s falsehoods by spreading the truth and healing mankind. Let’s build up a new society where specious ideas and empty promises find no foothold in the hearts of humanity. Our task is to:

Rely upon God, thy God and the Lord of thy fathers. For the people are wandering in the paths of delusion, bereft of discernment to see God with their own eyes, or hear His Melody with their own ears. Thus have We found them, as thou also dost witness. – Baha’u’llah, Baha’i Prayers, p. 212.

The Baha’i teachings say that the tyrants’ self-important reign will come to an end:

…rely not on thy glory and thy power. Thou art even as the last trace of sunlight upon the mountaintop. Soon will it fade away, as decreed by God, the All-Possessing, the Most High. Thy glory, and the glory of such as are like thee, have been taken away… – Baha’u’llah, quoted by Shoghi Effendi in The Promised Day Is Come, p. 88.

By Rodney Richards, written for and published by BahaiTeachings.org Nov. 8, 2015

Look for my rewritten book Mania on the Loose in the spring, as well as a tabletop book of poetry