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71:2.1 (801.13) Democracy, while an ideal, is a product of civilization, not of evolution. Go slowly! select carefully! for the dangers of democracy are:
71:2.2 (801.14) 1. Glorification of mediocrity.
71:2.3 (801.15) 2. Choice of base and ignorant rulers.
71:2.4 (801.16) 3. Failure to recognize the basic facts of social evolution.
71:2.5 (801.17) 4. Danger of universal suffrage in the hands of uneducated and indolent majorities.
71:2.6 (801.18) 5. Slavery to public opinion; the majority is not always right.
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Last night, it struck me how the American experiment in democratic rule is failing. Looking at the list of dangers posted above, the American system, and the West in general, are lacking on every point. Entertainment madness consumes society staring at their pocket televisions, elected rulers have succumbed to an irrational self-interest, social progress is in reverse, the general populace is ignorant of history and clueless with regard to the meaning and value of legislative, moral, and spiritual ideals, and the truth has become so relative as to be without value.
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All this, and the fact that China is rising, made me realize the importance of the Chinese translation of the UB. While Western democratic rule devolves in to a base populism, even dipping into fascism in Europe, the US, and elsewhere, China is solidifying its base of authority and has an eye to ascending to its once dominant position on the world stage. China’s leader, President Xi Jinping, is the new Mao Tse Tung. He is reuniting his country while Western democracies are quickly descending into a state of civil war.
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We know all empires rise and fall. I hate seeing mine, the American, go down, but the signs of the times are unmistakable. It’s becoming apparent that Western humanity is not mature enough to handle democratic rule. It has been an interesting and revelatory experiment, and the results are self-evident. The profit motive has blinded leaders. American freedoms, like the right to bear arms, the right to vote, the right to self-determination, have spun out of control. And the national debt ($20 trillion and climbing) will consume the next generation as our leaders blithely add to it without thought or regard to consequence.
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And this isn’t so much about the current leaders of America, or the UK, or Turkey, (and several other faltering democracies). These leaders are the symptoms, the consequences of a failed idealism and a drift away from worthy values.
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The Chinese translation is expected to be completed by decades’ end. May we pray, and work, that it is completed before the West collapses. I think it could happen quickly and many will be taken unawares. Therefore do I encourage UB readers to speak with our leaders at Urantia Foundation, within our Association, and the readership in general, about the importance of the Mandarin translation, which needs to be available to a nation that has for many, many millennia been the only nation that maintained its unity, and is now about to rise once more the pentacle of global leadership. President Xi recently set 2050 as the date to achieve this.
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This ominous statement from a Mighty Messenger seems to be coming true. About all we can do is to prepare for what seems inevitable now, a step back toward a more authoritarian past:
.118:8.6 (1302.3) The slowness of evolution, of human cultural progress, testifies to the effectiveness of that brake — material inertia — which so efficiently operates to retard dangerous velocities of progress. Thus does time itself cushion and distribute the otherwise lethal results of premature escape from the next-encompassing barriers to human action. For when culture advances overfast, when material achievement outruns the evolution of worship-wisdom, then does civilization contain within itself the seeds of retrogression; and unless buttressed by the swift augmentation of experiential wisdom, such human societies will recede from high but premature levels of attainment, and the “dark ages” of the interregnum of wisdom will bear witness to the inexorable restoration of the imbalance between self-liberty and self-control.
Richard E Warren
May we pray, and work, that it is completed before the West collapses. I think it could happen quickly and many will be taken unawares.
Tsk,tsk . . . such pessimism. I cannot agree with your apocalyptic view. There will be no collapse, but there will be change. There is always change. When some folks are married to a particular ideology, and that ideology proves to be untrue or unrealizable, they often feel as though their world is collapsing . . . but it’s just their little part of the world. I think our civilization has been in retrogression for the past few decades and is now just beginning the hard work that will bring it back into balance. It’s all good! The truth will set us free; and the truth, at last, is finally emerging into the light of day, and will eventually drive out error.
. . . and the “dark ages” of the interregnum of wisdom will bear witness to the inexorable restoration of the imbalance between self-liberty and self-control. 118.86
So, are you saying that the government of China is an inexorable example of the balance between self-liberty and self-control which will restore civilization to balance? Interesting theory. Will you elaborate?
Rick’s observations are pessimistic only from the perspective of U.S. citizens. From the prespective of citizens of China, it is a very optimistic perspective. Rick has managed to step outside of the American exceptionalism that, for most of us Americans is like water to fish, and think from a truly global or even universe perspective.
Civilizations have emerged and collapsed multiple times in the history of Urantia. Why should the U.S. be any different? It is (literally) not the end of the world if that were to occur. Perhaps it is time for another approach to social evolution and civilization, led by another nation. Why would that be such a bad thing?
Religion or lack of religion as well as real effort to improve our species is more important than current political differences or assumed failure of democracy.
Religion or lack of religion as well as real effort to improve our species is more important than current political differences or assumed failure of democracy.
I do not think one can view these things as discrete priorities — they are all intertwined. The success or failure of democracy/ laws/ freedoms have a *direct* impact on religion or lack of religion as well as real efforts to improve our species. To say that one is more important than another would be like saying air is more important than water.
Perhaps it is time for another approach to social evolution and civilization, led by another nation. Why would that be such a bad thing?
So wait, are you saying that a democratic dictatorship is better than a representative democracy, and that is the direction evolution should take us globally? That’s fascinating. Would you mind explaining why?
The only thing that’s collapsing is the wall that has been hiding the utterly disgraceful criminal self-enriching activities of the men and women who were entrusted to represent the people faithfully in a democratic society.
(150:4.2) I declare to you that there is nothing covered up that is not going to be revealed; there is nothing hidden that shall not be known.
We are seeing this promise play out in front of our eyes. I have never been so optimistic about the future and I’m especially proud to be an American citizen.
Once again, it’s the United States of America that is leading the way and showing the rest of the world how the Most Highs rule in the kingdoms of men.
If I was a superstitious person, which I’m not, I’d say it was tantamount to a miracle that Hillary lost the election and thereby putting in office a man so despised by the ruling establishment that they’ve lost themselves so much that they’re now teetering off balance so far that they’ve in effect pulled the cord to what they thought would steady themselves but never realized it was actually the thing that will pull down the curtain exposing the truth of their treasonous crimes.
It’s not a matter of failed democracy. It’s a matter of personal failure by democracy’s leadership class.
(153:2.1) “But it shall come to pass, if this people will not hearken to the voice of God, that the curses of transgression shall surely overtake them. The Lord shall cause you to be smitten by your enemies; you shall be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth. And the Lord shall bring you and the king you have set up over you into the hands of a strange nation. You shall become an astonishment, a proverb, and a byword among all nations. Your sons and your daughters shall go into captivity. The strangers among you shall rise high in authority while you are brought very low. And these things shall be upon you and your seed forever because you would not hearken to the word of the Lord. Therefore shall you serve your enemies who shall come against you. You shall endure hunger and thirst and wear this alien yoke of iron. The Lord shall bring against you a nation from afar, from the end of the earth, a nation whose tongue you shall not understand, a nation of fierce countenance, a nation which will have little regard for you. And they shall besiege you in all your towns until the high fortified walls wherein you have trusted come down; and all the land shall fall into their hands. And it shall come to pass that you will be driven to eat the fruit of your own bodies, the flesh of your sons and daughters, during this time of siege, because of the straitness wherewith your enemies shall press you.”
It’s not a matter of failed democracy. It’s a matter of personal failure by democracy’s leadership class.
I’ll ditto that. Isn’t that evidence of #2 on the list:71:2.3 (801.15) 2. Choice of base and ignorant rulers.I’ll add that #’s 4 & 5 peaked in the last few decades and are soon to be on the wane as well.If you think about it, the failed governments of history have been autocracies. Once you get a megalomaniac in power in an autocracy, you’re doomed. Thankfully, a representative democracy is somewhat insulated from that tragedy. Representative government is the ideal type of government:45:7.3 The entire universe is organized and administered on the representative plan. Representative government is the divine ideal of self-government among nonperfect beings.
Perhaps it is time for another approach to social evolution and civilization, led by another nation. Why would that be such a bad thing?
So wait, are you saying that a democratic dictatorship is better than a representative democracy, and that is the direction evolution should take us globally? That’s fascinating. Would you mind explaining why?
Wow, you are really putting words into my mouth, Bonita. I’d appreciate if you would refrain from doing that. What I said was, why would it be such a bad thing for another nation other than the U.S. to become the most powerful for a while? ‘Another’ being an entirely neutral term with regard to political philosophy. But since you bring it up, no, I don’t think having a dictatorship is better. It’s a phenomenon that happens to exist on Urantia right now and so exists in potential in terms of taking over as the most powerful government. Personally, I wouldn’t like it but I’m sure there are people who would think it is dandy. Why is my view any more relevant than theirs?
It is my interpretation of TUB that Urantia has a looonnnnnnnnngggggggggggg way to go before reaching competent self-governance. I have no doubt that further mistakes will be made; further learning opportunities will present themselves. Whether that comes into play as a dictatorship taking hold, or western democracy somehow regaining its footing in a near-miraculous timeframe, or something else entirely, I cannot say. Potentials exist for all of these things.
This TUB quote comes to mind:
32:5.3 (364.5) As regards an individual life, the duration of a realm, or the chronology of any connected series of events, it would seem that we are dealing with an isolated stretch of time; everything seems to have a beginning and an end. And it would appear that a series of such experiences, lives, ages, or epochs, when successively arranged, constitutes a straightaway drive, an isolated event of time flashing momentarily across the infinite face of eternity. But when we look at all this from behind the scenes, a more comprehensive view and a more complete understanding suggest that such an explanation is inadequate, disconnected, and wholly unsuited properly to account for, and otherwise to correlate, the transactions of time with the underlying purposes and basic reactions of eternity.
Thanks for the topic Rick.I don’t subscribe to your premise, though. I do not have a gloomy outlook, nor do I think democracy is failing, or as you put in terms of “. . . the consequences of a failed idealism. . . .” We live on a confused and spiritually isolated world. Everything takes more time. Remember this one about the part and the whole?32:5.1 There is a great and glorious purpose in the march of the universes through space. All of your mortal struggling is not in vain. We are all part of an immense plan, a gigantic enterprise, and it is the vastness of the undertaking that renders it impossible to see very much of it at any one time and during any one life. We are all a part of an eternal project which the Gods are supervising and outworking. The whole marvelous and universal mechanism moves on majestically through space to the music of the meter of the infinite thought and the eternal purpose of the First Great Source and Center..196:3.33 Be not discouraged; human evolution is still in progress, and the revelation of God to the world, in and through Jesus, shall not fail.Keryn wrote: Wow, you are really putting words into my mouth, Bonita. I’d appreciate if you would refrain from doing that.I wasn’t trying to put words in your mouth Keryn. I was asking you if that’s what you were saying, since that’s how I understood what you wrote. I was asking for clarification. Did you see the question mark at the end of the sentence which begins: “. . . are you saying???” It’s a sincere question and not worthy of such a snarky reply. I’m offended.What I said was, why would it be such a bad thing for another nation other than the U.S. to become the most powerful for a while?
Isn’t the goal to have no nation more powerful than another?? Power has to do with sovereignty (0:6.2). Haven’t we been warned about this sovereignty issue? (Paper 134 section 5). It seems to me the paper indicates that the natural evolution of sovereignty involves ever larger and fewer sovereign nations on the globe, not just one dominant over others.
Bonita, you followed that up with “That’s fascinating. Would you mind explaining why?” which implies that you are stating what I said as a fact. But that’s fine – I certainly wasn’t being “snarky” when I said I would appreciate if you would refrain. I was making a sincere request.
With regard to “Isn’t the goal to have no nation more powerful than another??” (Complete with 2! question marks. — Ha, NOW I’m being snarky.
) Sure. “The goal”. The achievement of which is a long way off. As I said, I expect we have many more wrong turns before we get even close to reaching the goal when it comes to a global system of government.Our progress toward the appropriate system of government is not necessarily going to be linear. It’s not bad – better – good – better than good – best. It may be bad – better – back to bad – good – terrible – fair – good ….. Ya know what I mean?
Well I think that having a fight over which nation has the right to claim it’s exceptional is a total waste of time. Exceptional means unusual. We’re all unusual. I’m unique, just like everybody else!
Well I think that having a fight over which nation has the right to claim it’s exceptional is a total waste of time. Exceptional means unusual. We’re all unusual. I’m unique, just like everybody else!
Agreed. But that’s not what we’re talking about. Or, at least, that’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about the perspective exhibited by Rick’s initial post of stepping outside of our cultural framing of what government is supposed to look like, and attempt to take a more universe-al perspective of the cycles of evolution. As Rick points out, “this isn’t so much about the current leaders of America, or the UK, or Turkey, (and several other faltering democracies). These leaders are the symptoms, the consequences of a failed idealism and a drift away from worthy values.” And I agree with Mara’s statement that “We live on a confused and spiritually isolated world. Everything takes more time.”
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