|
I took a glass from the table and held it up. I told them that it is the task of humanist education to fill our individual glass to the very brim with all the aspects that we need in our life. That process set our existence apart from that of an animal.
"So, let's see what we need to put in there," I said.
I told them that we need to fill these glasses with the products of our scientific development. I told then that this development has certain spiritual aspects, certain physical and technological aspects, certain cultural aspects, and certain sociological aspects, each of which has a unique type of science associated with it.
"Now I am going to tell you what I mean with that," I said to them.
I explained that a human being is a sentient being. This means that we have the capacity to be aware of ourselves, of who we are as the tallest species of life in the universe as far as we know it. Then, as we utilize this human capacity do discover, to see with the mind's eye what the physical eye cannot behold, we gain a realization, an understating of our world, and treasure that understanding because we can enrich our world with the products of that understanding. In this way we find great treasures imbedded in our humanity. We also find that the recognition of these treasures in our humanity inspire us to treat one another with the honor and dignity that our wondrous humanity is worth, which is very precious. Thus, we recognize love as a fundamental principle that unfolds out of our self-respect as human beings, and our respect for one another and for what we are as human beings. We also recognize this discovered principle to be a universal principle, because we all share the same humanity; the same beautiful Soul, as it were; the same intelligence; the same creativity, and so on. Thus, we recognize the principle of universal love as a fundamental, universal principle of civilization. We acknowledge this principle in countless different ways as we enrich one another and enrich our world with it. We find the truth of our humanity reflected in creations of beauty, music, art, literature, poetry, technology, science, and so on. Thus, we also recognize in this principle of universal love that we are all married to one another by the single humanity that we all share.
This knowledge of our universal marriage, or universal love, creates a mutually supportive civilization, a civilization that we feel honored to enrich with the fruits of our labor and our intellect. In this manner we build this civilization; a human civilization; and stand up for it and protect it, and fight for it if need be. We are even prepared to fight for our humanity when there is little hope that we will see the rewards for it in our lifetime. Still we are committed to do what must be done to assure the survival of our civilization as a worthwhile testament to the fact that we have lived as a human being on this planet.
Having said this, I picked up the empty glass again and the bottle that I had labeled, the science of universal marriage, and filled the empty glass a quarter full.
I explained further, that as human beings we also have a variety of physical needs. We need food, clothing, shelter, water, energy, transportation, household goods, educational materials, cultural materials, health care, and so on. And we need industries to produce these goods, and infrastructures for the industries. Also, we need a financial system that furnishes an equitable interface between the individual needs of people, and their labor to fulfill these needs. We call the whole structure with every part working together, an economy.
I suggested to the students that they might find it interesting to search for the underlying principles of that economy. I suggested that they should ask themselves where society's wealth is located. Is it located in money? Is it located in property? Or is it located in its productive industries that fulfill its needs, and in the human ingenuity and labor that operates these industries? Evidently, money is the least contributing element, and therefore the least valuable element of the whole equation, being nothing more than just a regulatory tool. By the same token, the human element becomes the most essential, and therefore the most valuable element.
Next Page
|| - page index -
|| - chapter index -
|| - Exit -
||
|
