The Readers Blog is a group blog, a collection of provocative, passionate people who represent a broad geographical, professional, personal and vocational range. New bloggers from other places and other points of view will join the conversation from time to time. Here, we invite them all to share their perspectives and opinions on the issues that matter to them most. And we invite you to respond. Let the dialogue begin!
Crafting a global bill of rights
I think highly of Ode, and have subscribed to it for several of my friends and family as well as myself. There are many brilliant ideas in Ode stories, often coupled with a feeling of optimism, which I share. While I appreciate these individual successes, alone they are not enough to prevent calamities such as international pandemics and global warming. When 1.4 million people are born into, or migrate into, urban slums each week, two thirds of humanity, 4 billion people, live off of less than four dollars a day, and the polar ice caps are rapidly melting, buying a Prius or, meditating, or supporting a new candidate is not enough. We need a global plan, a plan for humanity, to address the global problems that confront us.
I do not claim to have created such a plan, but there is one. The plan is to re-write the rules for those who govern. This plan is not new. For thousands of years with sticks and stones our ancestors dominated one another through force. While we undeniably still act like brutes, both individually and as nations, we have an emerging social order to curb these tendencies. Through our ability to reason and write we have gradually constructed an agreement, a social contract among each of us as well as those who govern, that there are certain fundamental rights that each of us have, regardless of race, wealth, gender or country – simply by being human.
Human rights documents such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the European Convention on Human Rights embody this social contact. Now it is time for an International Convention on Human Rights that is enforceable in the courts of all countries. Let us spend 99% of our time and funds reading about and implementing the wonderful ideas in Ode magazine, but let’s also make sure that we spend 1% of our time working on a plan that will restructure our social order so that there are fewer problems to address.
Unfortunately, Kirk, what happens outwardly is a reflection of what we are inwardly, individually and therefore collectively. Until sufficient numbers of people transform, any outward change will still be made by people who are still actually unchaged.
But the change is happening, as we see larger numbers of people - not just those we've always considered 'sages' or 'teachers' - transforming from Ego to Being. Then, as with all things, a 'tipping pint' will be reached where the transformation will be powerful enough inwardly to bring about the change outwardly. Ego will fight tooth and nail, in the meantime, to maintain its grip, but it's weakening.
And have you heard of the '1% Effect'? It's the result of a number of studies showing that if 1% of the population of a given area practise Transcendental Meditation (TM), the reduction in negative social impacts (crime, violence, etc.) and negative emotions (depression, suicide, etc.) is significant. Hence the occasional view of the astonishing and beautiful yogic 'flyers' regularly, who are doing just that! And although the studies were conducted with TM, any form of meditation must have some of this power. So perhaps meditation is more of a 'force' for change than many realise!
posted by adamgilliland on 10/ 4/2007 9:47 am