Refugees, immigrants, nationalism鈥� The new realities are pressing hard against our social structures and systems, needing to forge new patterns and meeting resistance. Both forces are necessary 鈥� the new to create the future, and the old to conserve what was valued in the past.
Ideally the two communicate. Ideally dialogue leads to a plan.
鈥淭he earth is but one country and mankind its citizens鈥�is a Bah谩鈥櫭� teaching that seems to resonate with most people regardless of their background. It dates from 1882, in the Middle East, as the sun rose on this new era. Ninety years later, when the iconic first photo of the earth was taken in 1972 by the crew of Apollo 17, it felt like there was an awakening, a collective gasp of awe. In the photo dubbed the Blue Marble was a planet without borders. Advances in areas such as trade, transportation and communication had gradually been bringing this about right under our noses.
With that gift comes the challenge of developing the social and political systems needed to successfully cope with an interconnected, joined-at-the-hip world. Until then, we鈥檒l continue to have massive and unprecedented problems. Reinforcing the borders and retreating into the past isn鈥檛 a valid option. Beyond the humanitarian crisis of immigrants and refugees there are other challenges, such as environmental issues, which also have no borders. We need new systems for survival itself.
The first step is to know where we鈥檙e headed. We need to consciously plan for a global society that is just, democratic, humane in its essence and respectful of all life with whom we share the planet. We need to teach our children to put into practice recognition of 鈥渢he inherent dignity鈥漚nd 鈥渢he equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family鈥� which, according to the, is 鈥渢he foundation for freedom, justice and peace鈥�.
The second step is to recognize the progress already made, through our speech and our actions. Systemic changes in the international order have been underway for quite some time. Think League of Nations around the time of World War I, succeeded by the United Nations a few decades later. International treaties quickly followed, in areas such as trade, finances, security and more recently, climate. There鈥檚 been progress in civil rights and gender equality, in poverty reduction, education, health 鈥撎� virtually every area of human endeavor.
The third step is to work collaboratively and with determination toward our goals.
In the Western world, our cultural values are more about freedom and individualism than harmony and wisdom. We keep expecting magic bullet solutions from heroes, technology, brilliant businessmen or maybe alien invasions, not anything collaborative or collective. The planned, the practical, the phased in, the carefully cultivated are rarely celebrated. Meanwhile, to raise public awareness of our plight, we鈥檝e been terrorized by doomsday scenarios and apocalyptic dystopias that have produced hopelessness on a massive scale, not to mention regressive politics.
Why do we know so much about the problems and so little about the proposed solutions?
To quote an article in The Guardian, 鈥淚n 2015, the UN鈥檚 special rapporteur on migration proposed two responses that would have done much to alleviate the crisis: mass international resettlement of refugees from Syria, and a temporary work visa scheme so that economic migrants could come and go, without getting trapped in the deadly clandestine routes.鈥�
Did you know that? No? Neither did I.
It took a photo of a small boy鈥檚 body on a faraway beach to jar us into desperate, often heroic action 鈥� 听and then various forms of repressive reaction.
When the situation is turned on its head, it鈥檚 much easier to see the solutions necessary and to demand that they be implemented. If any of us were driven from our homes by war or drought or famine, our passports useless, our only possessions those we could physically carry, what kind of treatment would we want to receive?
鈥淚f thine eyes be turned towards justice, choose thou for thy neighbour that which thou choosest for thyself.鈥� The Bah谩鈥櫭� form of echoes the same concept that鈥檚 been repeated in virtually every belief system the world over, for thousands of years.
Every one of those belief systems gradually brought us a little closer towards our collective maturity, to fulfilling our potential as a species. So here we are, trying to come to terms with the global age that has every reason to become a golden age. The one we鈥檙e being dragged into kicking and screaming.
What photograph will it take for us to truly wake up?
Sheila Flood is a member of the Bah谩鈥櫭� Faith (), a chaplain with UVic Multifaith Services and the Secretary of the Victoria Multifaith Society.
You can read more articles on our multifaith blog, Spiritually Speaking,
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