In a multicivilizational world the constructive course is to renounce universalism meaning imperialism, accept diversity meaning international pluralism, and seek commonalities which are a healthy universalism. By recognizing and honoring the many important differences between cultures and by honoring those things that we have in common as human beings we move towards a healthy world civilization. This effort would contribute not only to limiting the clash of civilization but also strengthening civilization in a mix of higher levels of morality, religion, learning, art, philosophy, technology, and material well being and many other things.
Samuel Huntington born in 1927 wrote those words in his 1993 book Clash of Civilizations. Huntington is a professor at Harvard and has written several important works concerning political order and changing societies. I can relate to clashing civilizations all I have to do is watch the news and see that drama unfolding around the globe. It seems that culture is the issue and the first thing noticed in others is the differences, not the commonness we share. Wars are waged to satisfy the urge to control and conquer the differences rather than blend and honor our similarities. A controlled state of democracy is the means to unite cultures and therein lies part of the problem of achieving what I call peace.
Rather than focus on the political aspects of the situation maybe I should examine the human conditions that create the turmoil that exist in this reality. It’s no secret that the world is divided along cultural lines and the question is how I unite the lines in my mind so that they connect in a free flowing sense of unity. All lines need not be straight to create a work of art; all thoughts need not be thought at the same moment in order to be the same. It’s easy to identify what I’m not and throw it in a basket of fear and try to control it. It’s an effort to face what I think I’m not and realize that those thoughts are tainted by my ego. What I observe in others as negatives are usually the traits I wrestle with my self. The contrast created is real in order to experience the expansion.
Experience as Jane Roberts explains, is the product of the mind and the spirit; conscious thoughts and feelings and unconscious thoughts and feelings. These together form the reality I know. I am hardly at the mercy of a reality that exists apart from me or is forced upon me. This fact makes me realize that I am connected to the physical events, material occurrences and the thoughts, expectations and desires that give birth to them. Every obstacle has a reason for being; even the wars and disasters exist for me to discover the circumstances behind their existence.
My conscious thoughts are a great clue in solving the clash of civilizations. I’m not as familiar with my thoughts as I think I am. All too often they are clogged with the mud and sludge of distorted beliefs and I block the creativity of my inner consciousness. What exists physically exists first in thought and feeling. By altering the messages I send to my own body, I can change what I express to other cultures. My conscious thoughts sit on a foundation that accepts all cultures and beliefs. Instinctively I want to expand my capacity for joy and move beyond the barriers that I have built within my own thoughts. When I refuse responsibility for my own thoughts I find myself at the mercy of people and events and try to control them by forceful acts that are destructive.
The world is a picture of my expectations. The clash of civilizations is the materialization en masse of my individual expectations.
It is my responsibility to change my beliefs. Life is my creation and my thoughts translate my expectation into physical form. The world is a reference point and I can consciously project thoughts that conform to the truth within me. When I begin to change, my physical world does as well. I find the similarities that exist within all life and respect them. I express a healthy acceptance of diversity and learn from it. I acknowledge differences in beliefs but do not judge them. My world becomes a melting pot where all life lives in harmony by recognizing our connection and forgiving our ignorance.
The clash of civilizations is a drama that can be changed. It can be called the blending of consciousness when I begin to apply that name to my reality. It only takes a thought to start a belief. It only takes an expectation to become a world. It only takes a world to make me expand and connect to the other aspects of my consciousness and call them brothers and sisters.
www.shortsleeves.net
http://halmanogue.blogspot.com/
Tags: Samuel Huntington Jane Roberts Civilization Short Sleeves Insights
