The world is a mess. The privileged few prosper. The masses suffer. And everyone feels spiritually empty. Most people would blame capitalism, racism, or some other ""ism"". But according to Sharif M. Abdullah, the problem is not ideology. It's exclusivity -- our desire to stay separate from other people.
In Creating a World That Works for All, Abdullah takes a look at the mess we live in -- and presents a way out. To restore balance to the earth and build community, he says, people must stop blaming others, embrace inclusivity, and become ""menders"". He outlines three simple tests -- for ""enoughness"", exchangeability, and common benefit -- to guide people as they transform themselves and the world.
Creating a World that Works for All
By Sharif AbdullahBerrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc.
Copyright © 1999 Sharif M. Abdullah
All right reserved.ISBN: 978-1-57675-062-9Contents
Introductory Essay by Václav Havel, President of the Czech Republic.....................viiPreface......................................................................................xiIntroduction.................................................................................1Part One: Envisioning an Inclusive World.....................................................91 The Vision.................................................................................112 The Nightmare—A World on the Brink...................................................273 Inclusivity—Spirit and Practice......................................................63Part Two: A New Analysis for a New Society...................................................854 Stop Blaming Others—You Are the Problem!.............................................895 The Story—How Things Got to Be This Way..............................................1096 How the Breaker Story Maintains Itself.....................................................133Part Three: The Revolution to Inclusivity....................................................1477 The Internal Revolution— Feeding Your Internal Hunger................................1498 The External Revolution—Practicing Inclusivity with Others...........................185Conclusion: Making the Commitment............................................................203Notes........................................................................................213Glossary.....................................................................................217The Author...................................................................................219Index........................................................................................221
Chapter One
The Vision
[O]ur greatest strength lies not in how much we differ from each other but in how much—how very much—we are the same. —EKNATH EASWARAN
When you woke up this morning, you had a series of goals. Some were as simple as turning off the alarm clock, brushing your teeth, making sure you got to work on time. Other goals may have been more ambitious—writing the résumé that would land the perfect job, buying the right food for an important dinner, sitting in meditation for the sake of enlightenment. Your goals include the ordinary, the sublime, and everything in between.
Like people, societies also have goals. Some are as simple as making sure everyone has decent water to drink;others may be as complex as landing an astronaut on Mars.
Our goal used to be simple—stop Soviet expansion. The implosion of the Soviet Union also imploded our goal. Now, at the turn of the millennium, we must ask ourselves:What are we trying to achieve as a society? Without defining what we are against, what are we for? Goal setting is important: without a clear vision of an achievable goal, and an understanding of the philosophy and values behind that goal, we run the risk of becoming sidetracked, confused, burned out, or cynical.
The Essence of Inclusivity
Simply put, the Mender goal is an inclusive human society on a habitable planet, a society that works for all humans and for all nonhumans. This means fulfillment both for those who are at the top of the society and for those at the bottom. Work, resources, responsibilities, spiritual gifts, and material goods may not be evenly spread, but everyone has "enough"; anyone could trade places with anyone else without feeling deprived or oppressed. Such a society is essentially benign and healing to both the human and the more-than-human world.
All beings, all things, are One. Our lives are inextricably linked one to another. Because of this, we cannot wage war against anything or anyone without waging war against ourselves. Therefore, we are obliged to treat all beings the way we want to be treated. There are no "enemies"—all beings are expressions of the Sacred and must be treated as such. Some beings cause pain to others; this does not mean that they are enemies. Some beings are food for others; this is all the more reason to treat them as sacred. Once we understand that we are interconnected, we have the responsibility to create a world that works for all.
With this as our goal, the next question is obvious: how do we achieve it? How do we avoid sinking into despair or cynicism? And how do we avoid dabbling in utopian fantasies or engaging in "pie-in-the-sky" religiosity? In fact, we can change this world right now by shifting our consciousness and our values from a foundation of exclusivity to one of inclusivity.
This shift in consciousness is the core of the world's major religions. The essence of the moral code they urge upon us is inclusivity.
What is hateful to you, do not do to others. —RABBI HILLEL Do not hurt others with that which hurts yourself. —BUDDHA Do unto others whatever you would have them do unto you. —JESUS None of you is a believer until you love for your neighbor what you love for yourself. —MUHAMMAD
Considering the clarity, simplicity, and consistency of these statements, one has to wonder what it is about the message of inclusivity that makes it nearly impossible for people to either comprehend or implement. Why are there Jews, Buddhists, Christians, Muslims, and many others around the world who are killing their fellow men and women when their traditions call for peace, nonviolence, and inclusivity? We will face these questions as we explore inclusivity in the following chapters.
A Turning Point
Do you feel the promise in these perilous times? Despite our many challenges, do these times feel hopeful to you in some way? Does it seem to you that something is ready to change? How are we going to capture the promise that lies within our present predicament as we stand on the brink of the twenty-first century?
The hard fact is that getting to a world that works for all will take a more rigorous analysis and more sophisticated actions, both internal and external, than our current political, social, and even spiritual leaders are advocating. It will take fundamental change that must originate with you, as an emerging leader of the new millennium. If our current leadership were capable of it, they would have done it by now.
Such change does not take place at the surface, but deep within. It is already at work. We are all a part of it. The ice breaking on a frozen river is an indication of warming trends and currents that have been at work for a long time. The breakup at the surface is the culmination of a process, not its beginning. The breakup of ice on a river, the emergence of a butterfly from its chrysalis, a Declaration of Independence, each culminates a process that has preceded it by days or decades.
Prerequisites of Change
One of the mistakes many of us made in the Sixties was thinking we all just had to love each other and the...
