Why we need a new political vision.
THE RIGHTS OF ALL BEINGS --
A Call for Enlightened Political Leadership in
21st Century America
Considerations for a New Vision of Political Political Philosophy, and a
New System of Education for the Professional Politician
By Mark Glasgow Johnson
January 2017
SECTION ONE: THE ABYSMAL SCENE OF THE
CURRENT AMERICAN POLITICAL LEADERSHIP
Introduction
For many of us in the spiritual community, the new political landscape of 2016 represents a shocking confirmation that our political system is wholly unfit to face the challenges of today’s world. The topics that should be painfully obvious to all politicians, such as the emergency posed by our environment’s destruction, social inequality and the institutions that reify and solidify such inequality, the rash arrogance of American military dominance, and the antiquatedness of old political ideologies, all appear to be ignored by the right, and paid only lip service by the left.
We believe that to meet the urgent needs of our time we need new leadership. A new political party, with leaders who have embodied qualities universally recognized as essential to the advancement of civilization, such as wisdom, compassion, fearlessness, knowledge of history and international relations, and moral integrity. These leaders need to be immune to greed and corruption, have a profound and learned tolerance of all faiths and differences in the human tapestry, and the ability to tolerate high levels of stress and challenge.
We believe that through the study of history, especially the history of the world’s most enlightened leaders, and the influence that the world’s wisdom traditions have had on the area of leadership, that we can extract and precisely identify those qualities and traits that make for a more conscious and ethical leader. By this we mean such wisdom lineages, philosophies, and schools of thought like Stoicism, Christian and Jewish mysticism, Sufism, the Confucian Mandarin system, Buddhism, Hinduism, the non-aggressive martial arts, intact indigenous traditions, and so on.
We also believe that, with all of the inroads made in the social and neurosciences, that we should be able to train qualified individuals to become leaders who embody wisdom and compassion, and then actually test them in the laboratory. In this way we can see objectively if they have reached benchmarks in pro-social awareness, self-regulation, positive emotions, and ethical responsibility.
In short, we hold that our world is in mortal peril, environmentally, politically, and in terms of social justice. We believe that our current political paradigm has reached its logical conclusion — namely, that if we allow a political and economic system to be unfettered in the name of ‘freedom and free markets,’ and so on, basic human ignorance will prevail, particularly greed and the protection of power. And that if we do not demand that our leaders be more philosophically and ethically qualified, then our leadership will continue to be prey to all the weaknesses of ego-driven personality.
Therefore, we must challenge the underlying world view and mindset behind our political rationale, including the ‘scientism’ that puts scientific and technological progress above all else. To the spiritual community it is obvious that science and technology alone cannot rescue humankind from its own inner demons.
In this paper, we propose a radical solution — the creation of a new political party founded on the universal ethical and spiritual values shared by all these world’s wisdom traditions and their leaders and philosophical teachers. This party would be led by individuals who have received a new kind of education, created out of a blend of social science, philosophy, and neuroscience.
Let us look a little more closely at three of the most pressing categories of peril: planetary ecology; the just distribution of the world’s resources; and the threat that military conflict that will eventually lead to nuclear or conventional destruction of whole societies and eco-systems, and how our current political systems seems to be hamstrung in dealing with these priorities.
Ecology: The Urgent Need to Save the Environment
With 98 % of the world’s climate scientists in agreement, little needs to be said about the threat of global warming caused by fossil fuel consumption and the destruction of native habitats. Nor is there really any debate in the spiritual community about cascading effects of pollution, as well as other issues around the mismanagement of resources. There is near universal unanimity in this community, and beyond, about how high these priorities need to be. The Democratic Party, of course, has concerns for the environment written into its political platform. And, one could argue that the Green Party is fighting for the environment tooth and claw.
Unfortunately, what the Green Party seems to be wholly unable to do is to talk convincingly about the psycho-spiritual aspects of why humans degrade the environment. Nor do they seem to make a convincing and non-confrontational case to all stakeholders that not only are we in this boat together, but that our spiritual well being is inter-connected. Our future and our children’s future will be ensured only if all humans collectively become wise stewards of the planet. Indeed, there are many conservationists from across the political spectrum who could probably hear this argument, if it was articulated clearly.
Economic Justice: The Inequalities and Injustices of the Political and Economic System
This point, too, needs little clarification or repetition to those who have committed to a path of self-inquiry and self-realization. As economic experts have come forth to critique current economic theories and neo-liberal justifications for a free-market economy, there is universal agreement amongst those who are working on themselves spiritually that it is also our calling to care for the under-privileged and oppressed. It is our responsibility to be kind to all beings, and to create as many opportunities for advancement as is possible. Rather than becoming more narcissistic, the spiritual community has become more selfless and engaged in social service.
Those of us who are spiritually and socially engaged need little persuasion on this point. However, we do need to be able to express and communicate clearly the logical and psychological reasons why those in power should be more willing to share in the bounty that society produces. It is clear that humanity is part of one whole eco-system, and that by poisoning any part of the system, the whole being risks serious disease.
This is true for the environment, but also for the eco-system of humanity. By allowing the gangrene of poverty and hopelessness to fester in the polity of humanity, we risk that infection poisoning us all. We could fairly say that religious extremism and terrorism are symptoms of that neglect. This party would borrow the insights and reasoning from such organizations as the Evolution Institute, and such economists as Joseph Stiglitz to make this case.
What is perhaps especially telling, and troubling, is that even those Americans who are in the top 1 percent are often troubled by the level of inequality. While some are turning to philanthropy to help ameliorate a society that is becoming dangerously unstable, many others are turning to survivalist strategies of how they will protect themselves and their families if disaster strikes. When even the richest and most powerful are willing to envision hiding out in a luxury-condo deep within an old missel silo, or ready to fly off to New Zealand to their hideaway, then there is very little faith that our current system is viable.
The Need for a New Geopolitical Theory
It can fairly be said that current American geopolitics continues to suffer from a number of major fallacies. Some of which emanate from the legacies of colonialism, others from the ideological war against communism. More recently we have seen tortured attempts to justify our military excursions through a claim of American ‘exceptionalism,’ such as in the poorly conceived Bush Doctrine.
The wars in the Middle East of the last two decades have brought into stark relief the toxic legacy of a belief that military might should be the trump card in international disputes. It has been clear for many of us that since the fall of the Soviet Union, and the privileged place the United States has identified for itself on the global stage, is that American perception of what is best for the world continues to dominate our foreign policy.
A strong, logical and pragmatic philosophy that critiques American foreign policy is needed. Long before the fall of the Soviet Union, we knew the folly of our policies of nuclear deterrence, such as the M.A.D. Doctrine. Sadly, we are still subject to that kind of threat in the mutual hostility between the nuclear powers. It is time for a reappraisal of foreign policy, written in clear and accessible language. This world view would stress both the logical arguments for international cooperation over military intervention, as well as the intuitive and supra-rational argument that war in this day and age is an abuse of humanity. This would be one of the early tasks facing the gestation of this political movement.
Obama’s hesitation to increase our military interventionism has been a relief, and has served as a counter-weight to the legacy of the Bush Doctrine. But he unfortunately did so without a cogent political philosophy or policy that might steer our theoreticians in a new direction. Perhaps that was too much to ask; he is, after all, not a political or philosophical theorist.
We propose that out of this discussion we ask a group of intellectuals — who have roots in the spiritual community — to write a new political vision, based on the scientific discoveries that all life is part of one unified ecosystem. We need to make the case logically, as well as emotionally, spiritually, and rhetorically, that human behavior is holotropic and teleological, that it’s fundamental drive is to move towards the health and well being of the whole organism, and its natural goal is happiness and love for other beings. The next section of this paper will discuss the basic components of this political and philosophical vision.
SECTION TWO: WHAT IS MISSING — A POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY THAT SYNTHESIZES SCIENCE, ETHICS, AND SPIRITUAL REALIZATION
Introduction — How Philosophical Ideas Catalyze Internal and External Change
We begin by acknowledging the fact that philosophy has long been the foundation and starting point of political movements and policies. The Philosophy of the Enlightenment inspired the French and American Revolutions. Marx and Engels’ writings on capitalism inspired the various Communist revolutions around the world. And the philosophers and writers of the ‘Neo-Liberal’ movement, like Friedrich Hayek and Leo Strauss, as well as the Mont Pelerin Society, and the numerous think tanks which emerged from this mind set, have largely dominated American economic policy and politics over the last half century. More liberal thinkers like John Rawls and his Theory of Justice are also worth mentioning, as their intentions to argue for a more humane and just and ethical society are valuable, but missing key components of a deeper spiritual realization.
A new political party ought to point to a theoretical framework that stands out from the past, and makes immediate, intuitive sense to the listener. Sometimes ideas need to be put into print and disseminated to catch on. Occasionally, they burn like wildfire. At an opportune historical moment, an idea can become flash point of history, as were the ideas of the Enlightenment in the American and French Revolutions, the eloquent social justice writing of Martin Luther King, the stark truths expressed by feminist writers like Germaine Greer, Simone de Beauvoir, Betty Friedan and many others. Or the terrifying observations made by Rachel Carson in her book, The Silent Spring, and how they awakened a profound, global realization of how fragile and inter-connected is our environment.
The theory that we need today, urgently, is one such necessity. And it cannot come from just one school of thought, but must result from a collaboration of disciplines.
Before going on, it should be said that as important as the philosophical framework is, we should not wait until its full expression is ironed out and debated in every salon across the land. We have already, we believe, reached a critical mass of people around this country who hold these views, a vision for more enlightened and ethical leadership. We must strive to articulate this vision now, and work on its more precise theoretical formulation as time permits.
Further, we should emphasize that when ideas become catalysts, they have the power to not only convince us logically, but they can move us to higher states of understanding that include an intuitive perception that a truth is resonant. If we really get that happiness is not materially based, and that after a certain level of security, money does not bring a greater and greater return on well-being, then a shift begins to happen in our consciousness. We become happier the more compassionate we become, helping those in need. Then an amazing thing happens, our understanding of self-evident truths jumps to a whole other level.
Here we can actually experience the natural high of service, the sense we are part of one organism, and that the health of each part affects the whole. This realization produces a cascade of benefits, including a new-found motivation for developing one’s innate talents and abilities. When one realizes that one’s gifts are there for the benefit of all, and sees the natural benevolence of a service that comes from joy, then one reaches an internal state of profound well-being.
In Mahayana Buddhist philosophy, as the individual ‘awakens’ to deeper insights into reality, their innate prajna, or the ability to perceive direct knowledge, becomes operable. This is clearly a function that transcends logic and rational discourse. Moreover, in Buddhism prajna is always seen as being accompanied by karuna, or compassion. This is what is happening in the spiritual community, as more and more people who are practicing inner work come to a higher state of unity with all beings.
It is not unreasonable to say, then, that in this large but loose fellowship there is already a shared conviction, reached by another order of knowledge, that humanity and sentient beings have purpose, are inter-connected, that all deserve kindness, respect, and freedom from fear, and that this conviction brings happiness.
Limitations of the Current Political Discourse
When we look at the political spectrum on the left, and see the battle between the progressive and centrist movements of the Democratic Party, and the sputtering voices of the Green Party, it seems that just having the intention to create environmental sanity, fairer distribution of resources, curbs on greed, rewriting the tax codes, closing tax loopholes, respect and justice for all peoples, and so on, is not enough. These principles described above are not just ideals. They are intuitively graspable truths to anyone who has simply gone far enough on their own journey of self-discovery.
Additionally, the philosophical arguments made by the adherents of Deep Ecology remain inadequate. They argue for the primacy of the eco-system, and that humans should defer to the environment in all ways. There is no discussion of humanity, its place in the ecosystem, nor the underlying driving forces that cause humanity to be out of sync with the environment. Unless we address those psycho-spiritual forces, the psychic poisons in Buddhist terminology, then we will never convince enough of humanity to change course.
Democratic, Green Party, Peace and Freedom, and Deep Ecology leaders may espouse platforms and policies that we can agree with, but they fail to put the highest priorities first. Namely, that:
A) Only leaders who have vanquished the insidious aspects of their lower ego should be given a mantle of leadership, for it is only leaders who have truly discovered a higher level of service who will be able to inspire our society to look at its fundamental errors; and that
B) We need a new party which articulates a rational, moral, and spiritual philosophy. This philosophy embraces the forms of knowledge acquired in spiritual practice, as evidenced by the wisdom of the world’s ancient traditions. We argue that these insights are in harmony with science. This party will be comprised of members who have embodied this understanding that in order for humanity to evolve we must begin the inward journey of acquiring wisdom and compassion.
We believe there is a critical mass in the spiritual community in the United States who concur with this vision of a more enlightened political system and society, with awakened and ethical leadership. As in the words of the American Declaration of Independence, there are certain truths that should be held as self-evident. As we said above, we perceive these truths intuitively, from a supra-rational part of the psyche, a level of awareness that sees the sacredness, interconnectedness, and interdependence of all beings. It is time that we began acting upon this intuitive knowledge.
We will look at the bedrock truths and principles of this vision below, when we talk about the formation of a new party, and the philosophy upon which it must stand.
The Three Bases for a New Political Philosophy — Scientific Pragmatism, Ethics, and Spiritual Insight
For the purposes of simplification, we will look quickly at the three basic roots of such a philosophy and the problems it must address. . .
1. Current Political and Economic Thinking Is Irrational and Logically Superficial— The Scientific-Rational Dimension of Philosophy
Prevailing economic and political theories are irrational and superficial, based as they are on a vacuum of understanding human behavior, psychology, and ecology. There are serious gaps in logic when we look at the underlying rationale of the two major parties in the United States. For example, we challenge the economic and social philosophy theories that often misrepresent the Theory of Evolution, such as Social Darwinism and Neo-liberal Economics.
The philosophical inquiry needed must be concerned with human behavior, psychology, sociology and a spiritual philosophy, and not just political science or the philosophy of history. It should be said, in addition, that in stressing the importance of a new political philosophy that we will not delve into the esoteric realms of modern analytic philosophy, which has little purchase in the common understanding of our world. The same with the abstract arguments on Logical Positivism, Epistemology, and Phenomenology, as they are not our concern.
In this philosophical process, it is crucial to focus on examining the a priori assumptions of social philosophies and doctrines, and hold them up to an acid test that reflects what we know now about human beings in the 21st century. Whether it is free market capitalism or totalitarian fascism and communism, all political ideologies have an underlying world view that emotionally appeals to their followers, and which often does not stand up to rational inquiry. We must challenge these ideologies at their roots, at the assumptions they make about reality and human beings. This is true critical thinking, for it teaches the practitioner to go to the heart of ego-driven assumptions made by an ideology or political platform.
A new political philosophy must also address the point of view and bureaucratic paralysis that controls our educational system. We must teach students to think critically about everything, and not spoon feed them curricula that have little bearing on their personal reality or the challenges of our age. Our political systems must also be held to a higher level of intellectual rigor and logic, and we must systematically challenge obscure or unconscious assumptions about one people or tradition having some kind of superiority, moral rectitude, divine mission, or other such fallacies.
We suggest the formulation of new logical principles based on recent research into:
And as this theory becomes more clear then we can begin to explore how to not only train potential leaders, but also how to introduce these ideas to mainstream education.
2. Current Political Ideology Is Morally Suspect — Why Axiology, the Ethical Dimension of Philosophy, Is Essential for the Emergence of New Political Thinking
Not only are the failures of our economic and political system logically impaired, they are also engorging the rich, while endangering the planet. We need to declare that this is morally outrageous. We owe it to our children and our children’s children to preserve the earth, and to make sure everyone has the basic necessities of survival, health, and education. This is morally self-evident. Whether the ethical offense is the short-sighted destruction of the environment in order to gain maximum profit, or the military conquest of regions to gain their natural resources, all these can be seen as repugnant, and the spiritual community needs to come forward in unison and as a political force on these issues.
Sometimes the truth is so obvious that it must be that people cannot see something staring them in the face. With environmental degradation, for example, we need only to look at any eco-system that has been polluted to the point of systemic death, such as a pond that is downstream from toxic run off. We simply need to extrapolate the death of one small ecosystem to the larger global ecosystem to see what we are facing. This is morally untenable. Who are we to ruin life for other beings, for the poor and the weak?
Every religious and spiritual philosophy and teaching in the world has stressed the importance of ethics. And yet the majority of our current politicians fail to grasp the moral imperative that should drive public policy. Being raised in a cultural mindset where “Me First” is an acceptable ideology is like growing up in a moral vacuum. How else can we explain the pervasive ethos that justifies social inequality through an appeal to the dubious reasoning of Social Darwinism, or false claims to a meritocracy?
Instead, what we need is a philosophy that draws on the many examples of ethical systems, from Confucian ethics to Aristotle’s Virtue Theory, from Kohlberg’s Theory of Ethical Development to Buddhist notions of Right Action, Right Speech and Right Livelihood, and many others from around the world We need to study their common, universal ground, and then apply these principles to an ethically mature, pro-social doctrine of fairness.
We must then insist our political leaders assume a training in the acquisition of integrity and moral responsibility. Naturally, we would encourage members of this movement and its party to be practicing high standards of ethics as well.
3. Current Political Discourse Is Dualistic and Philosophically Immature — The Spiritual Dimension of Political Philosophy
As we mentioned above, philosophical ideas have the power to catalyze large groups of people when they are disseminated in the right time and place, and have a clear articulation of a higher principle. In the Enlightenment, the seemingly obvious idea that the monarch did not have a natural and inherent right to rule over others or deprive them of liberty, was one such idea that was presented, and in a relatively short period of time became incandescent in the American Revolution. This phenomenon can be understood as a kind of collective awakening of a higher level of consciousness that transforms the psyche, inspires action and collaboration, and then leads to people willing to make great sacrifice for the greater Good.
Drawing on the historical arguments from cultures around the world for enlightened leadership, a study of what they have in common is necessary. We should examine all of them, from the doctrine of the Universal Monarch in Tibetan Buddhism, to Plato’s case for decades of leadership training in The Republic. From the teachings of self-control and ethics in Stoic philosophy, as exemplified by Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius, to the notion of the Perfect Man by the great Islamic scholar and philosopher, Averroes. From the ancient Indian tradition of statecraft, first codified in the Arthashastra in the Second Century BCE, to Thomas Hobbes and the notion of the Social Contract.
From the examples of Ashoka, the Buddhist king in India, to modern day exemplars like Mahatma Gandhi. From the teachings of Confucian philosophy around leadership, to the inspired example of Morihei Ueshiba, the founder of Aikido. We would make a case for how the higher caliber of moral and intellectual and spiritual integrity a job demands, then the higher level of moral, social and spiritual training is needed in the candidate.
Furthermore, we need to get past the ideological prejudices against other political systems. Let us examine what is working in other societies, such as the Democratic Socialist countries of northern Europe, and not keep touting some exceptionalist need for the United States because of its unique situation or nature. Dualistic thinking about one system being right and the other wrong, or that in nature there are always opposing forces that then create a synthesis, or any psychological memes or propaganda that posit an “us-against-them” mindset should be critiqued.
We need to promote an ethos and social philosophy, drawing on the findings of science, that show that happiness is predicated on healthy and meaningful relationships, and creative autonomy, etc., and not on wealth, power, fame, and sexual conquest. The urgency of this argument can be highlighted by discussing the canaries in the coal mine of our society— American youth — and their spiritual despair.
Our young people are wandering in a world without either a moral or spiritual compass. The successful ones who succeed materially, by virtue of the circumstances of their birth, or their personal gifts, still end up caught in a huge web of ego-centered desires. The rest who are not accepted into the higher echelons of power, money and prestige, soldier on and try to find a place they can be relatively content.
But these young people are often plagued by depression, anxiety, addictions, and unhealthy relationships. They are confused about the future and completely untrusting of American politicians. It is no wonder that so many flocked to the campaign of Bernie Sanders. Worse, there are many who don’t even make it to self-sufficiency. The statistics bearing out these observations are disturbing indeed. Again, looking at what works in other countries would be salutary. The example of how Iceland has reduced juvenile substance abuse and delinquency come to mind.
We should also endeavor to make the philosophical and spiritual arguments for the unity and inter-connectedness of all beings, and draw on the world’s wisdom traditions for a unitary and integral vision of the purpose of life. There are interesting philosophical cases to be made here, from the teleology and soteriology arguments, to the case that all the world’s mysticism points to unity of consciousness as the supreme goal of human endeavor. We need to make a convincing argument about how and why this can and should inform social and political policy.
These arguments depend in part on the concept that there are different levels of awareness, accessed by different faculties of consciousness, an exploration, for example, of how prajna and karuna, or wisdom and compassion, can influence leadership. These higher faculties transcend the principles of reason and logic, and appeal to higher faculties of cognition. As the individual on the classic spiritual path ‘awakens’ to higher levels of truth, a new faculty of awareness dawns. These perceptions of truth intuitively affirm:
SECTION THREE: WE PROPOSE A TWO-FOLD SOLUTION
First, the Incubation of a New Political Party
We propose the germination and incubation of a new political party, which will only put a candidate forward for election if they have been professionally, ethically, and spiritually trained. These politicians would receive a unique education, based on universal spiritual values, and a pragmatic philosophy of ethics and the common good. And the only way these more enlightened candidates could be put into power is through a new political party that provides for their education, tests and licenses them, and offers material support.
Founding a new political party based on a new philosophical system is an enormous undertaking. But if the ideas are fertile they will find a way of germinating. This is a process of discussion and dialogue and takes its own time. Key components of the process need to be identified and worked out. Nevertheless, it has to begin somewhere, and an analysis of what those building blocks are, or what composes those germinating seeds, starts with looking at the poverty of ideas now governing our political landscape.
This party would stand on a tri-partite platform of:
A new political party has to recognize the extreme peril our civilization is in, and articulate the universal principles that justify its existence. Contemporary writers and thinkers have discussed the need for more enlightened political leadership, notably, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, Deepak Chopra, and Lama Surya Das, but their suggestions have had more to do with counseling current political and business leaders to adopt more compassionate and mindful practices. What we are proposing is a completely new party and political movement, the creation of a new pragmatic political philosophy that addresses the urgent needs of our time, and the education and training of the professional candidate.
Underlying the platform mentioned above, certain bedrock principles would be agreed upon, many of which we have touched on already. Principles of the party platform include:
Second, a Scientific, Moral, and Spiritual Methodology for Training More Enlightened Leaders
Secondly, we propose that a group of scientists, philosophers, psychological clinicians, qualified spiritual teachers, behavioral and evolutionary economists, political historians, ethicists, moral and social philosophers, social scientists, neuroscientists studying the states of consciousness, comparative religion scholars, and so on, initially form an organization to create both a school and laboratory investigating the possibility of enlightened human development. This school would train political leaders to be truly public servants.
We envision this education to take place over a multi-year span, and that it would provide apprenticeships for public service. It would then further their education and licensing by testing their internal growth in the lab, through brain scans, physiological tests, clinical observation, and so on. Analogous to the institutions of higher learning in France, like the Ecole Polytechnique, that admit post-graduate students into training to become civil servants and highly qualified technocrats, this institution would focus as much on the development of character and higher states of self-awareness. This mind training is seen as important as the education in history, law, and political science that a politician should have.
SECTION FOUR: ACTIONS NEEDED
This school and laboratory would be preceded by a series of inter-disciplinary academic and scientific papers to raise awareness about these ideas, and start a non-profit funding process.
Because this is a large project, the different tasks of writing these papers could be divided up into study groups. Each group would work in harmony with the others, gradually building consensus and identifiable traits that need to be inculcated in professional leaders, and how to go about training, and then testing those who participate.
Group A: The Historical Heritage of Enlightened Leadership
One group of historians, religious scholars, and philosophers could study the world’s heritage of attempts to inaugurate more enlightened leaders. We should study these historical and philosophical precedents and see what traits are universal, and what methods those societies used to develop such high-caliber public servants.
It is our contention that certain universal themes can be extracted from this study, for example, the importance of ethical and spiritual training, and/or a religious conversion that has altered the perceptions and world views of the leader. It is further our contention that these qualities can be trained in the right candidates for leadership, providing they have the opportunity to set aside many hours over many years for that process.
Group B: The Science of What Makes People Happy and Ethical
Another group would study recent progress made by social scientists measuring the positive emotions and human motivation. These experts are giving us measures to look at empathy, happiness, clarity of thought, etc. One of the first steps, then, would be to commission studies on how to identify and measure these character traits through psychometric and neurological methodologies.
From the ground-breaking work of Herbert Benson to Jon Kabat Zinn. From Richard Davidson to Barbara Fredericksen. From Mikhail Csikszentmihalyi to Kristin Neff, from Abraham Maslow to Martin Seligman, so many social and neuroscientists have sought to uncover with makes people happy, motivated, kind, pro-social, emotionally intelligent, and so on. As George Vaillant has beautifully illustrated and summarized in his book, Spiritual Evolution, we can see more and more clearly that human health and happiness depend on our awakening these inherent traits and motivations, and then practicing them diligently in a community of like-minded others.
Group C: Mind and Heart Training for the Professional Politician
Another group would study how to extract from the spiritual traditions the common threads about how one undergoes the discipline of mind training, without placing any one spiritual tradition above the others. This undergraduate, graduate, and post-graduate training program would develop the inner self of the student, and not just their facility with such subjects as law, history, political science, and so on. Indeed, they should have a grounding in a holistic education that blends ethics, science, history, psychology, philosophy, and public service. Having a basis for a training in morals, personal morals, and spirituality, is essential to this overall concept of a new kind of enlightened leader.
We are therefore distinguishing our concept of “enlightened” to be quite different from the Western term that refers to the period of the Enlightenment in 18th century Europe. Those leaders and philosophers definitely ushered in a new way of thinking that was, in a relative sense, more enlightened than the status quo ante. But in the European case it was more of an intellectual revelation that they shared, and not the inner transformation brought about by mind and heart training that is taught in the worlds’ mystic-wisdom traditions. Nevertheless, as intellectual as the Enlightenment was, it could be argued that, in the fact of the liberation from feudal dogmas and mind sets the end result was a spiritual uplift and increase in freedom for humanity.
Group D: The Selection of Candidates for a Training in Enlightened Leadership
We also hold that candidates for this kind of enlightened leadership education need to be carefully selected in the admissions process. This would ensure that we are creating a true meritocracy by over-looking socio-economic and family background. Instead, this program would select potential candidates through lengthy interviews, reviews of the candidate’s work to date, and objective observations, assessments, and psychometrics that can establish the individual’s level of empathy, self-control over stress, positivity in outlook, ability to access deeper levels of mindfulness, concentration, focus, and well being, etc.
Group E: Feasibility Study, Laying the Groundwork for a New Political Party
This group would explore all the steps to founding a party, the creation of fund-raising apparatus, inter-faith and inter-wisdom tradition dialogues, the establishment of a new think tank that generates intellectual and research support for the party, the establishment of a library of research that offers the logical and scientific bases for this form of leadership, and all the nuts and bolts of midwifing a new political organization.
Conclusion
We believe that people will coalesce around such a movement because there is such a yearning for a new way of thinking about political leadership, and because so many people are already in a sufficiently mature stage of moral and spiritual consciousness that they need no persuading that a new philosophical and spiritual approach to leadership must be attempted.
And when the way of thinking can be substantiated by scientific evidence, then we are not just asking people to rely on faith or simply intellectual rigor. Because a new leader can be trained morally and spiritually, and with a higher level of collective ethical standards, a new party can remain unsullied and uncorrupted.
REFERENCES TO BE DRAWN ON FOR THIS STUDY
The Current Economic, Social, and Philosophical Failures of Current American Political Policy
Baker, Dean, Rigged: How Globalization and the Rules of the Modern Economy Were Structured to Make the Rich Richer
Chomsky, Noam, Who Rules the World?
Collins, Chuck, Born on Third Base: A One Percenter Makes the Case for Tackling Inequality. . .
Dalai Lama, HH and Howard Cutler, The Art of Happiness
De Waal, Frans, “How Bad Biology Is Killing the Economy,” on the website, Evonomics: The Evolution of Economics
Frank, Thomas, Listen, Liberal
Henrich, Joseph, The Secret of Success: How Culture is Driving Human Evolution, Domesticating Our Species, and Making Us Smarter
Reich, Robert, Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the Few
Klein, Naomi, The Shock Doctrine
Monbiot, George, How Did We Get into This Mess?
Osnos, Evan, “Doomsday Prep for the Super-Rich,” in The New Yorker, January 30, 2017.
Stiglitz, Joseph, The Price of Inequality
The Growing Consensus in the Spiritual Community for a Radically New Solution
Chopra, Deepak, The Soul of Leadership
Dalai Lama, HH and Bishop Desmond Tutu, Joy
Das, Lama Surya, “Enlightened Leadership: Kings, Queens, and the 99 Percent,” article in The Huffington Post
Dalai Lama, HH and Laurens van den Muyzenberg, The Leaders Way.
Wangyal Rinpoche, Tenzin, The Value of Enlightened Leadership, video lectures
Wilson, David Sloan and Eric M. Johnson, Truth and Reconciliation for Social Darwinism, article in “This View of Life,” online journal
The History of Philosophy on Political Movements, and the History of Enlightened Political Leadership
Bentley, Jerry, Old World Encounters: Cross-cultural Contacts and Exchanges in Pre-Modern Times
Fischer, Louis, Gandhi, His Life and Message for the World
Hadot, Pierre, Philosophy as a Way of Life
Holliday, Ryan, The Obstacle Is the Way
Aristotle, Politics
Aurelius, Marcus and David Hicks, The Emperor’s Handbook: A New Translation of the Meditations
LaFleur, Robert Andre, The Analects of Confucius.
Israel, Jonathan, Revolutionary Ideas: An Intellectual History of the French Revolution
Jaeger, Warner, Paideia: the Ideals of Greek Culture. Volume II, In Search of the Divine Center
Kurai, Alex, “The Concept of the Perfect Man in the Thought of Ibn 'Arabi and Iqbal, Muhammad: A Comparative Study”, McGill University
Mandela, Nelson, The Long Walk to Freedom
May, Henry, The Enlightenment in America
Nagarjuna, The Precious Garland of Advice for the King, ancient Buddhist tex
Plato, The Republic.
The Revolution in Understanding Human Happiness in the Social and Neurosciences
Benson, Herbert, Timeless Healing.
Csikszentmihalyi, Mikhail, Flow, the Psychology of Optimal Experience
Davidson, Richard, The Emotional Life of Your Brain.
Fredrickson, Barbara, Love 2.0.
Hanson, Rich and Richard Mendius, Buddha’s Brain: The Practical Neuroscience of Happiness, Love, and Wisdom
Kabatt Zinn, Jon, Full Catastrophe Living: Using the Wisdom of Your Body
Maslow, Abraham, Toward a Psychology of Being
Neff, Kristin, Self-Compassion: The Proven Power of Being Kind to Yourself
Newberg, Andrew, Why God Won’t Go Away.
Seligman, Martin, Authentic Happiness
Vaillant, George, Spiritual Evolution.
The Foundations of a New Pragmatic, Ethical, Intellectual, and Spiritual Political Philosophy
Aurobindo, The Life Divine
Chaudhuri, Haridas, The Evolution of Integral Consciousness
Dalai Lama, HH, The Art of Happiness
Graham, Carol, Happiness Around the World: The Paradox of Happy Peasants and Miserable Millionaires
Fowler, James, Stages of Faith: The Psychology of Human Development and the Quest for Meaning
Waldinger, Robert, What Makes a Good Life: Lessons from the Longest Study on Happiness
Huxley Aldous, Ends and Means: An Inquiry into the Nature of Ideals and The Perennial Philosophy
Kabatt Zinn, Jon, Coming to Our Senses: Healing Ourselves and the World Through Mindfulness
Kornfield, Jack, After the Ecstasy, the Laundry.
Ricard, Mattieu, Happiness.
Trungpa, Chogyam, Shambhala, The Sacred Path of the Warrior
Ueshiba, Morihei, The Art of Peace
Walsh, Roger and Frances Vaughn, Paths Beyond Ego.
Walsh, Roger, Essential Spirituality.
[i]
THE RIGHTS OF ALL BEINGS --
A Call for Enlightened Political Leadership in
21st Century America
Considerations for a New Vision of Political Political Philosophy, and a
New System of Education for the Professional Politician
By Mark Glasgow Johnson
January 2017
SECTION ONE: THE ABYSMAL SCENE OF THE
CURRENT AMERICAN POLITICAL LEADERSHIP
Introduction
For many of us in the spiritual community, the new political landscape of 2016 represents a shocking confirmation that our political system is wholly unfit to face the challenges of today’s world. The topics that should be painfully obvious to all politicians, such as the emergency posed by our environment’s destruction, social inequality and the institutions that reify and solidify such inequality, the rash arrogance of American military dominance, and the antiquatedness of old political ideologies, all appear to be ignored by the right, and paid only lip service by the left.
We believe that to meet the urgent needs of our time we need new leadership. A new political party, with leaders who have embodied qualities universally recognized as essential to the advancement of civilization, such as wisdom, compassion, fearlessness, knowledge of history and international relations, and moral integrity. These leaders need to be immune to greed and corruption, have a profound and learned tolerance of all faiths and differences in the human tapestry, and the ability to tolerate high levels of stress and challenge.
We believe that through the study of history, especially the history of the world’s most enlightened leaders, and the influence that the world’s wisdom traditions have had on the area of leadership, that we can extract and precisely identify those qualities and traits that make for a more conscious and ethical leader. By this we mean such wisdom lineages, philosophies, and schools of thought like Stoicism, Christian and Jewish mysticism, Sufism, the Confucian Mandarin system, Buddhism, Hinduism, the non-aggressive martial arts, intact indigenous traditions, and so on.
We also believe that, with all of the inroads made in the social and neurosciences, that we should be able to train qualified individuals to become leaders who embody wisdom and compassion, and then actually test them in the laboratory. In this way we can see objectively if they have reached benchmarks in pro-social awareness, self-regulation, positive emotions, and ethical responsibility.
In short, we hold that our world is in mortal peril, environmentally, politically, and in terms of social justice. We believe that our current political paradigm has reached its logical conclusion — namely, that if we allow a political and economic system to be unfettered in the name of ‘freedom and free markets,’ and so on, basic human ignorance will prevail, particularly greed and the protection of power. And that if we do not demand that our leaders be more philosophically and ethically qualified, then our leadership will continue to be prey to all the weaknesses of ego-driven personality.
Therefore, we must challenge the underlying world view and mindset behind our political rationale, including the ‘scientism’ that puts scientific and technological progress above all else. To the spiritual community it is obvious that science and technology alone cannot rescue humankind from its own inner demons.
In this paper, we propose a radical solution — the creation of a new political party founded on the universal ethical and spiritual values shared by all these world’s wisdom traditions and their leaders and philosophical teachers. This party would be led by individuals who have received a new kind of education, created out of a blend of social science, philosophy, and neuroscience.
Let us look a little more closely at three of the most pressing categories of peril: planetary ecology; the just distribution of the world’s resources; and the threat that military conflict that will eventually lead to nuclear or conventional destruction of whole societies and eco-systems, and how our current political systems seems to be hamstrung in dealing with these priorities.
Ecology: The Urgent Need to Save the Environment
With 98 % of the world’s climate scientists in agreement, little needs to be said about the threat of global warming caused by fossil fuel consumption and the destruction of native habitats. Nor is there really any debate in the spiritual community about cascading effects of pollution, as well as other issues around the mismanagement of resources. There is near universal unanimity in this community, and beyond, about how high these priorities need to be. The Democratic Party, of course, has concerns for the environment written into its political platform. And, one could argue that the Green Party is fighting for the environment tooth and claw.
Unfortunately, what the Green Party seems to be wholly unable to do is to talk convincingly about the psycho-spiritual aspects of why humans degrade the environment. Nor do they seem to make a convincing and non-confrontational case to all stakeholders that not only are we in this boat together, but that our spiritual well being is inter-connected. Our future and our children’s future will be ensured only if all humans collectively become wise stewards of the planet. Indeed, there are many conservationists from across the political spectrum who could probably hear this argument, if it was articulated clearly.
Economic Justice: The Inequalities and Injustices of the Political and Economic System
This point, too, needs little clarification or repetition to those who have committed to a path of self-inquiry and self-realization. As economic experts have come forth to critique current economic theories and neo-liberal justifications for a free-market economy, there is universal agreement amongst those who are working on themselves spiritually that it is also our calling to care for the under-privileged and oppressed. It is our responsibility to be kind to all beings, and to create as many opportunities for advancement as is possible. Rather than becoming more narcissistic, the spiritual community has become more selfless and engaged in social service.
Those of us who are spiritually and socially engaged need little persuasion on this point. However, we do need to be able to express and communicate clearly the logical and psychological reasons why those in power should be more willing to share in the bounty that society produces. It is clear that humanity is part of one whole eco-system, and that by poisoning any part of the system, the whole being risks serious disease.
This is true for the environment, but also for the eco-system of humanity. By allowing the gangrene of poverty and hopelessness to fester in the polity of humanity, we risk that infection poisoning us all. We could fairly say that religious extremism and terrorism are symptoms of that neglect. This party would borrow the insights and reasoning from such organizations as the Evolution Institute, and such economists as Joseph Stiglitz to make this case.
What is perhaps especially telling, and troubling, is that even those Americans who are in the top 1 percent are often troubled by the level of inequality. While some are turning to philanthropy to help ameliorate a society that is becoming dangerously unstable, many others are turning to survivalist strategies of how they will protect themselves and their families if disaster strikes. When even the richest and most powerful are willing to envision hiding out in a luxury-condo deep within an old missel silo, or ready to fly off to New Zealand to their hideaway, then there is very little faith that our current system is viable.
The Need for a New Geopolitical Theory
It can fairly be said that current American geopolitics continues to suffer from a number of major fallacies. Some of which emanate from the legacies of colonialism, others from the ideological war against communism. More recently we have seen tortured attempts to justify our military excursions through a claim of American ‘exceptionalism,’ such as in the poorly conceived Bush Doctrine.
The wars in the Middle East of the last two decades have brought into stark relief the toxic legacy of a belief that military might should be the trump card in international disputes. It has been clear for many of us that since the fall of the Soviet Union, and the privileged place the United States has identified for itself on the global stage, is that American perception of what is best for the world continues to dominate our foreign policy.
A strong, logical and pragmatic philosophy that critiques American foreign policy is needed. Long before the fall of the Soviet Union, we knew the folly of our policies of nuclear deterrence, such as the M.A.D. Doctrine. Sadly, we are still subject to that kind of threat in the mutual hostility between the nuclear powers. It is time for a reappraisal of foreign policy, written in clear and accessible language. This world view would stress both the logical arguments for international cooperation over military intervention, as well as the intuitive and supra-rational argument that war in this day and age is an abuse of humanity. This would be one of the early tasks facing the gestation of this political movement.
Obama’s hesitation to increase our military interventionism has been a relief, and has served as a counter-weight to the legacy of the Bush Doctrine. But he unfortunately did so without a cogent political philosophy or policy that might steer our theoreticians in a new direction. Perhaps that was too much to ask; he is, after all, not a political or philosophical theorist.
We propose that out of this discussion we ask a group of intellectuals — who have roots in the spiritual community — to write a new political vision, based on the scientific discoveries that all life is part of one unified ecosystem. We need to make the case logically, as well as emotionally, spiritually, and rhetorically, that human behavior is holotropic and teleological, that it’s fundamental drive is to move towards the health and well being of the whole organism, and its natural goal is happiness and love for other beings. The next section of this paper will discuss the basic components of this political and philosophical vision.
SECTION TWO: WHAT IS MISSING — A POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY THAT SYNTHESIZES SCIENCE, ETHICS, AND SPIRITUAL REALIZATION
Introduction — How Philosophical Ideas Catalyze Internal and External Change
We begin by acknowledging the fact that philosophy has long been the foundation and starting point of political movements and policies. The Philosophy of the Enlightenment inspired the French and American Revolutions. Marx and Engels’ writings on capitalism inspired the various Communist revolutions around the world. And the philosophers and writers of the ‘Neo-Liberal’ movement, like Friedrich Hayek and Leo Strauss, as well as the Mont Pelerin Society, and the numerous think tanks which emerged from this mind set, have largely dominated American economic policy and politics over the last half century. More liberal thinkers like John Rawls and his Theory of Justice are also worth mentioning, as their intentions to argue for a more humane and just and ethical society are valuable, but missing key components of a deeper spiritual realization.
A new political party ought to point to a theoretical framework that stands out from the past, and makes immediate, intuitive sense to the listener. Sometimes ideas need to be put into print and disseminated to catch on. Occasionally, they burn like wildfire. At an opportune historical moment, an idea can become flash point of history, as were the ideas of the Enlightenment in the American and French Revolutions, the eloquent social justice writing of Martin Luther King, the stark truths expressed by feminist writers like Germaine Greer, Simone de Beauvoir, Betty Friedan and many others. Or the terrifying observations made by Rachel Carson in her book, The Silent Spring, and how they awakened a profound, global realization of how fragile and inter-connected is our environment.
The theory that we need today, urgently, is one such necessity. And it cannot come from just one school of thought, but must result from a collaboration of disciplines.
Before going on, it should be said that as important as the philosophical framework is, we should not wait until its full expression is ironed out and debated in every salon across the land. We have already, we believe, reached a critical mass of people around this country who hold these views, a vision for more enlightened and ethical leadership. We must strive to articulate this vision now, and work on its more precise theoretical formulation as time permits.
Further, we should emphasize that when ideas become catalysts, they have the power to not only convince us logically, but they can move us to higher states of understanding that include an intuitive perception that a truth is resonant. If we really get that happiness is not materially based, and that after a certain level of security, money does not bring a greater and greater return on well-being, then a shift begins to happen in our consciousness. We become happier the more compassionate we become, helping those in need. Then an amazing thing happens, our understanding of self-evident truths jumps to a whole other level.
Here we can actually experience the natural high of service, the sense we are part of one organism, and that the health of each part affects the whole. This realization produces a cascade of benefits, including a new-found motivation for developing one’s innate talents and abilities. When one realizes that one’s gifts are there for the benefit of all, and sees the natural benevolence of a service that comes from joy, then one reaches an internal state of profound well-being.
In Mahayana Buddhist philosophy, as the individual ‘awakens’ to deeper insights into reality, their innate prajna, or the ability to perceive direct knowledge, becomes operable. This is clearly a function that transcends logic and rational discourse. Moreover, in Buddhism prajna is always seen as being accompanied by karuna, or compassion. This is what is happening in the spiritual community, as more and more people who are practicing inner work come to a higher state of unity with all beings.
It is not unreasonable to say, then, that in this large but loose fellowship there is already a shared conviction, reached by another order of knowledge, that humanity and sentient beings have purpose, are inter-connected, that all deserve kindness, respect, and freedom from fear, and that this conviction brings happiness.
Limitations of the Current Political Discourse
When we look at the political spectrum on the left, and see the battle between the progressive and centrist movements of the Democratic Party, and the sputtering voices of the Green Party, it seems that just having the intention to create environmental sanity, fairer distribution of resources, curbs on greed, rewriting the tax codes, closing tax loopholes, respect and justice for all peoples, and so on, is not enough. These principles described above are not just ideals. They are intuitively graspable truths to anyone who has simply gone far enough on their own journey of self-discovery.
Additionally, the philosophical arguments made by the adherents of Deep Ecology remain inadequate. They argue for the primacy of the eco-system, and that humans should defer to the environment in all ways. There is no discussion of humanity, its place in the ecosystem, nor the underlying driving forces that cause humanity to be out of sync with the environment. Unless we address those psycho-spiritual forces, the psychic poisons in Buddhist terminology, then we will never convince enough of humanity to change course.
Democratic, Green Party, Peace and Freedom, and Deep Ecology leaders may espouse platforms and policies that we can agree with, but they fail to put the highest priorities first. Namely, that:
A) Only leaders who have vanquished the insidious aspects of their lower ego should be given a mantle of leadership, for it is only leaders who have truly discovered a higher level of service who will be able to inspire our society to look at its fundamental errors; and that
B) We need a new party which articulates a rational, moral, and spiritual philosophy. This philosophy embraces the forms of knowledge acquired in spiritual practice, as evidenced by the wisdom of the world’s ancient traditions. We argue that these insights are in harmony with science. This party will be comprised of members who have embodied this understanding that in order for humanity to evolve we must begin the inward journey of acquiring wisdom and compassion.
We believe there is a critical mass in the spiritual community in the United States who concur with this vision of a more enlightened political system and society, with awakened and ethical leadership. As in the words of the American Declaration of Independence, there are certain truths that should be held as self-evident. As we said above, we perceive these truths intuitively, from a supra-rational part of the psyche, a level of awareness that sees the sacredness, interconnectedness, and interdependence of all beings. It is time that we began acting upon this intuitive knowledge.
We will look at the bedrock truths and principles of this vision below, when we talk about the formation of a new party, and the philosophy upon which it must stand.
The Three Bases for a New Political Philosophy — Scientific Pragmatism, Ethics, and Spiritual Insight
For the purposes of simplification, we will look quickly at the three basic roots of such a philosophy and the problems it must address. . .
1. Current Political and Economic Thinking Is Irrational and Logically Superficial— The Scientific-Rational Dimension of Philosophy
Prevailing economic and political theories are irrational and superficial, based as they are on a vacuum of understanding human behavior, psychology, and ecology. There are serious gaps in logic when we look at the underlying rationale of the two major parties in the United States. For example, we challenge the economic and social philosophy theories that often misrepresent the Theory of Evolution, such as Social Darwinism and Neo-liberal Economics.
The philosophical inquiry needed must be concerned with human behavior, psychology, sociology and a spiritual philosophy, and not just political science or the philosophy of history. It should be said, in addition, that in stressing the importance of a new political philosophy that we will not delve into the esoteric realms of modern analytic philosophy, which has little purchase in the common understanding of our world. The same with the abstract arguments on Logical Positivism, Epistemology, and Phenomenology, as they are not our concern.
In this philosophical process, it is crucial to focus on examining the a priori assumptions of social philosophies and doctrines, and hold them up to an acid test that reflects what we know now about human beings in the 21st century. Whether it is free market capitalism or totalitarian fascism and communism, all political ideologies have an underlying world view that emotionally appeals to their followers, and which often does not stand up to rational inquiry. We must challenge these ideologies at their roots, at the assumptions they make about reality and human beings. This is true critical thinking, for it teaches the practitioner to go to the heart of ego-driven assumptions made by an ideology or political platform.
A new political philosophy must also address the point of view and bureaucratic paralysis that controls our educational system. We must teach students to think critically about everything, and not spoon feed them curricula that have little bearing on their personal reality or the challenges of our age. Our political systems must also be held to a higher level of intellectual rigor and logic, and we must systematically challenge obscure or unconscious assumptions about one people or tradition having some kind of superiority, moral rectitude, divine mission, or other such fallacies.
We suggest the formulation of new logical principles based on recent research into:
- Evolutionary and Behavioral Economics
- Science of Human Motivation
- The Neuroscience Research on What Makes a Human More Empathic, Altruistic, Self-Aware, Self-Regulating, and so on
- Social Science Research on ‘the Good,” and other Positive Emotions
- Ethical Arguments on the Environment, Social Justice, and the Dangers of Military Solutions
- The Differences Between Religious Dogma and Spirituality
- Etc.
And as this theory becomes more clear then we can begin to explore how to not only train potential leaders, but also how to introduce these ideas to mainstream education.
2. Current Political Ideology Is Morally Suspect — Why Axiology, the Ethical Dimension of Philosophy, Is Essential for the Emergence of New Political Thinking
Not only are the failures of our economic and political system logically impaired, they are also engorging the rich, while endangering the planet. We need to declare that this is morally outrageous. We owe it to our children and our children’s children to preserve the earth, and to make sure everyone has the basic necessities of survival, health, and education. This is morally self-evident. Whether the ethical offense is the short-sighted destruction of the environment in order to gain maximum profit, or the military conquest of regions to gain their natural resources, all these can be seen as repugnant, and the spiritual community needs to come forward in unison and as a political force on these issues.
Sometimes the truth is so obvious that it must be that people cannot see something staring them in the face. With environmental degradation, for example, we need only to look at any eco-system that has been polluted to the point of systemic death, such as a pond that is downstream from toxic run off. We simply need to extrapolate the death of one small ecosystem to the larger global ecosystem to see what we are facing. This is morally untenable. Who are we to ruin life for other beings, for the poor and the weak?
Every religious and spiritual philosophy and teaching in the world has stressed the importance of ethics. And yet the majority of our current politicians fail to grasp the moral imperative that should drive public policy. Being raised in a cultural mindset where “Me First” is an acceptable ideology is like growing up in a moral vacuum. How else can we explain the pervasive ethos that justifies social inequality through an appeal to the dubious reasoning of Social Darwinism, or false claims to a meritocracy?
Instead, what we need is a philosophy that draws on the many examples of ethical systems, from Confucian ethics to Aristotle’s Virtue Theory, from Kohlberg’s Theory of Ethical Development to Buddhist notions of Right Action, Right Speech and Right Livelihood, and many others from around the world We need to study their common, universal ground, and then apply these principles to an ethically mature, pro-social doctrine of fairness.
We must then insist our political leaders assume a training in the acquisition of integrity and moral responsibility. Naturally, we would encourage members of this movement and its party to be practicing high standards of ethics as well.
3. Current Political Discourse Is Dualistic and Philosophically Immature — The Spiritual Dimension of Political Philosophy
As we mentioned above, philosophical ideas have the power to catalyze large groups of people when they are disseminated in the right time and place, and have a clear articulation of a higher principle. In the Enlightenment, the seemingly obvious idea that the monarch did not have a natural and inherent right to rule over others or deprive them of liberty, was one such idea that was presented, and in a relatively short period of time became incandescent in the American Revolution. This phenomenon can be understood as a kind of collective awakening of a higher level of consciousness that transforms the psyche, inspires action and collaboration, and then leads to people willing to make great sacrifice for the greater Good.
Drawing on the historical arguments from cultures around the world for enlightened leadership, a study of what they have in common is necessary. We should examine all of them, from the doctrine of the Universal Monarch in Tibetan Buddhism, to Plato’s case for decades of leadership training in The Republic. From the teachings of self-control and ethics in Stoic philosophy, as exemplified by Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius, to the notion of the Perfect Man by the great Islamic scholar and philosopher, Averroes. From the ancient Indian tradition of statecraft, first codified in the Arthashastra in the Second Century BCE, to Thomas Hobbes and the notion of the Social Contract.
From the examples of Ashoka, the Buddhist king in India, to modern day exemplars like Mahatma Gandhi. From the teachings of Confucian philosophy around leadership, to the inspired example of Morihei Ueshiba, the founder of Aikido. We would make a case for how the higher caliber of moral and intellectual and spiritual integrity a job demands, then the higher level of moral, social and spiritual training is needed in the candidate.
Furthermore, we need to get past the ideological prejudices against other political systems. Let us examine what is working in other societies, such as the Democratic Socialist countries of northern Europe, and not keep touting some exceptionalist need for the United States because of its unique situation or nature. Dualistic thinking about one system being right and the other wrong, or that in nature there are always opposing forces that then create a synthesis, or any psychological memes or propaganda that posit an “us-against-them” mindset should be critiqued.
We need to promote an ethos and social philosophy, drawing on the findings of science, that show that happiness is predicated on healthy and meaningful relationships, and creative autonomy, etc., and not on wealth, power, fame, and sexual conquest. The urgency of this argument can be highlighted by discussing the canaries in the coal mine of our society— American youth — and their spiritual despair.
Our young people are wandering in a world without either a moral or spiritual compass. The successful ones who succeed materially, by virtue of the circumstances of their birth, or their personal gifts, still end up caught in a huge web of ego-centered desires. The rest who are not accepted into the higher echelons of power, money and prestige, soldier on and try to find a place they can be relatively content.
But these young people are often plagued by depression, anxiety, addictions, and unhealthy relationships. They are confused about the future and completely untrusting of American politicians. It is no wonder that so many flocked to the campaign of Bernie Sanders. Worse, there are many who don’t even make it to self-sufficiency. The statistics bearing out these observations are disturbing indeed. Again, looking at what works in other countries would be salutary. The example of how Iceland has reduced juvenile substance abuse and delinquency come to mind.
We should also endeavor to make the philosophical and spiritual arguments for the unity and inter-connectedness of all beings, and draw on the world’s wisdom traditions for a unitary and integral vision of the purpose of life. There are interesting philosophical cases to be made here, from the teleology and soteriology arguments, to the case that all the world’s mysticism points to unity of consciousness as the supreme goal of human endeavor. We need to make a convincing argument about how and why this can and should inform social and political policy.
These arguments depend in part on the concept that there are different levels of awareness, accessed by different faculties of consciousness, an exploration, for example, of how prajna and karuna, or wisdom and compassion, can influence leadership. These higher faculties transcend the principles of reason and logic, and appeal to higher faculties of cognition. As the individual on the classic spiritual path ‘awakens’ to higher levels of truth, a new faculty of awareness dawns. These perceptions of truth intuitively affirm:
- The oneness of creation
- The place and necessity of beauty and love in human society
- The ultimate purpose of life
- The transcendence of suffering
- The sacred duty we have to care for all beings
SECTION THREE: WE PROPOSE A TWO-FOLD SOLUTION
First, the Incubation of a New Political Party
We propose the germination and incubation of a new political party, which will only put a candidate forward for election if they have been professionally, ethically, and spiritually trained. These politicians would receive a unique education, based on universal spiritual values, and a pragmatic philosophy of ethics and the common good. And the only way these more enlightened candidates could be put into power is through a new political party that provides for their education, tests and licenses them, and offers material support.
Founding a new political party based on a new philosophical system is an enormous undertaking. But if the ideas are fertile they will find a way of germinating. This is a process of discussion and dialogue and takes its own time. Key components of the process need to be identified and worked out. Nevertheless, it has to begin somewhere, and an analysis of what those building blocks are, or what composes those germinating seeds, starts with looking at the poverty of ideas now governing our political landscape.
This party would stand on a tri-partite platform of:
- A vision of the world existing as one community, where material progress and security is seen as a Good, but not the only goal of society and technology
- A scientific-rational, ethical, and spiritual philosophy that offers a raison d’[i]être for a society which embraces the world and the rights of all beings to exist, and the conviction all humans have the right to pursue their destiny. It should be stated clearly that this party would not violate any principle of the separation of church and state, because it would not represent any one religious organization or community, but rather the unity of all religious/spiritual philosophy and tradition.
- The training and education of professional political leaders using a blend of psychological and neuroscientific measurement, as well as mindfulness-ethical leadership development.
A new political party has to recognize the extreme peril our civilization is in, and articulate the universal principles that justify its existence. Contemporary writers and thinkers have discussed the need for more enlightened political leadership, notably, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, Deepak Chopra, and Lama Surya Das, but their suggestions have had more to do with counseling current political and business leaders to adopt more compassionate and mindful practices. What we are proposing is a completely new party and political movement, the creation of a new pragmatic political philosophy that addresses the urgent needs of our time, and the education and training of the professional candidate.
Underlying the platform mentioned above, certain bedrock principles would be agreed upon, many of which we have touched on already. Principles of the party platform include:
- We believe that certain truths, as stated above, are self-evident, for example, all human beings are equal and deserve basic human rights, and the pursuit of happiness
- Pursuant to that inalienable truth, we believe all sentient beings have a right to be valued and respected, and that humans have a moral and sacred duty to be responsible stewards of the earth
- The essence of religions and wisdom traditions are to be cherished, we strive to understand the universality, and diversity, of religion and philosophy as communicating timeless truths.
- However, religious organizations must be held accountable for the prejudices and dogmas so often prevalent.
- All races, ethnicities, languages and sexual orientations must be respected
- We believe that international relations must take into account the history of abuse and exploitation powerful nations have visited on the weak; that we must understand the historical and psychological forces that drove imperialism; and that the notion of military-intervention-as-political-strategy must be completely re-evaluated.
- Resources need to be more equitably distributed, and material progress must not threaten either the environment or the social fabric of any group.
- The study of human happiness must be at the forefront in the public outreach of this party, educating as many people throughout society as to what constitutes happiness. Implicit in this principle is the respect for healthy families and children.
- These truths must be explored scientifically, and their application to public policy must be pursued.
- While supporting science, we do not believe that science is capable of measuring everything perceived to be true, and so we must respect the insight that there are higher faculties of knowledge. We argue that science must have an ethical compass.
- We hold that the underlying world view and mindset people hold is determinative of where they place their priorities, what public policies they will follow and pursue, and their psychological biases and prejudices. These biases often justify inequality and injustice against other segments of a given population, and must be exposed to the light of day.
- For real change to take place, human beings must change their world view and mindset. This change is about mental and ethical training and education about what truly makes people happy.
- This kind of change can be taught to society at large through a complete revamping of the educational system.
- Such change at a societal level will take a new class of leadership, untainted by temptations of corruption and greed. There is nothing more important than the education, and licensing, of the professional politician.
- The party would create a professional licensing board to license and periodically re-certify the candidate as a professional politician.
Second, a Scientific, Moral, and Spiritual Methodology for Training More Enlightened Leaders
Secondly, we propose that a group of scientists, philosophers, psychological clinicians, qualified spiritual teachers, behavioral and evolutionary economists, political historians, ethicists, moral and social philosophers, social scientists, neuroscientists studying the states of consciousness, comparative religion scholars, and so on, initially form an organization to create both a school and laboratory investigating the possibility of enlightened human development. This school would train political leaders to be truly public servants.
We envision this education to take place over a multi-year span, and that it would provide apprenticeships for public service. It would then further their education and licensing by testing their internal growth in the lab, through brain scans, physiological tests, clinical observation, and so on. Analogous to the institutions of higher learning in France, like the Ecole Polytechnique, that admit post-graduate students into training to become civil servants and highly qualified technocrats, this institution would focus as much on the development of character and higher states of self-awareness. This mind training is seen as important as the education in history, law, and political science that a politician should have.
SECTION FOUR: ACTIONS NEEDED
This school and laboratory would be preceded by a series of inter-disciplinary academic and scientific papers to raise awareness about these ideas, and start a non-profit funding process.
Because this is a large project, the different tasks of writing these papers could be divided up into study groups. Each group would work in harmony with the others, gradually building consensus and identifiable traits that need to be inculcated in professional leaders, and how to go about training, and then testing those who participate.
Group A: The Historical Heritage of Enlightened Leadership
One group of historians, religious scholars, and philosophers could study the world’s heritage of attempts to inaugurate more enlightened leaders. We should study these historical and philosophical precedents and see what traits are universal, and what methods those societies used to develop such high-caliber public servants.
It is our contention that certain universal themes can be extracted from this study, for example, the importance of ethical and spiritual training, and/or a religious conversion that has altered the perceptions and world views of the leader. It is further our contention that these qualities can be trained in the right candidates for leadership, providing they have the opportunity to set aside many hours over many years for that process.
Group B: The Science of What Makes People Happy and Ethical
Another group would study recent progress made by social scientists measuring the positive emotions and human motivation. These experts are giving us measures to look at empathy, happiness, clarity of thought, etc. One of the first steps, then, would be to commission studies on how to identify and measure these character traits through psychometric and neurological methodologies.
From the ground-breaking work of Herbert Benson to Jon Kabat Zinn. From Richard Davidson to Barbara Fredericksen. From Mikhail Csikszentmihalyi to Kristin Neff, from Abraham Maslow to Martin Seligman, so many social and neuroscientists have sought to uncover with makes people happy, motivated, kind, pro-social, emotionally intelligent, and so on. As George Vaillant has beautifully illustrated and summarized in his book, Spiritual Evolution, we can see more and more clearly that human health and happiness depend on our awakening these inherent traits and motivations, and then practicing them diligently in a community of like-minded others.
Group C: Mind and Heart Training for the Professional Politician
Another group would study how to extract from the spiritual traditions the common threads about how one undergoes the discipline of mind training, without placing any one spiritual tradition above the others. This undergraduate, graduate, and post-graduate training program would develop the inner self of the student, and not just their facility with such subjects as law, history, political science, and so on. Indeed, they should have a grounding in a holistic education that blends ethics, science, history, psychology, philosophy, and public service. Having a basis for a training in morals, personal morals, and spirituality, is essential to this overall concept of a new kind of enlightened leader.
We are therefore distinguishing our concept of “enlightened” to be quite different from the Western term that refers to the period of the Enlightenment in 18th century Europe. Those leaders and philosophers definitely ushered in a new way of thinking that was, in a relative sense, more enlightened than the status quo ante. But in the European case it was more of an intellectual revelation that they shared, and not the inner transformation brought about by mind and heart training that is taught in the worlds’ mystic-wisdom traditions. Nevertheless, as intellectual as the Enlightenment was, it could be argued that, in the fact of the liberation from feudal dogmas and mind sets the end result was a spiritual uplift and increase in freedom for humanity.
Group D: The Selection of Candidates for a Training in Enlightened Leadership
We also hold that candidates for this kind of enlightened leadership education need to be carefully selected in the admissions process. This would ensure that we are creating a true meritocracy by over-looking socio-economic and family background. Instead, this program would select potential candidates through lengthy interviews, reviews of the candidate’s work to date, and objective observations, assessments, and psychometrics that can establish the individual’s level of empathy, self-control over stress, positivity in outlook, ability to access deeper levels of mindfulness, concentration, focus, and well being, etc.
Group E: Feasibility Study, Laying the Groundwork for a New Political Party
This group would explore all the steps to founding a party, the creation of fund-raising apparatus, inter-faith and inter-wisdom tradition dialogues, the establishment of a new think tank that generates intellectual and research support for the party, the establishment of a library of research that offers the logical and scientific bases for this form of leadership, and all the nuts and bolts of midwifing a new political organization.
Conclusion
We believe that people will coalesce around such a movement because there is such a yearning for a new way of thinking about political leadership, and because so many people are already in a sufficiently mature stage of moral and spiritual consciousness that they need no persuading that a new philosophical and spiritual approach to leadership must be attempted.
And when the way of thinking can be substantiated by scientific evidence, then we are not just asking people to rely on faith or simply intellectual rigor. Because a new leader can be trained morally and spiritually, and with a higher level of collective ethical standards, a new party can remain unsullied and uncorrupted.
REFERENCES TO BE DRAWN ON FOR THIS STUDY
The Current Economic, Social, and Philosophical Failures of Current American Political Policy
Baker, Dean, Rigged: How Globalization and the Rules of the Modern Economy Were Structured to Make the Rich Richer
Chomsky, Noam, Who Rules the World?
Collins, Chuck, Born on Third Base: A One Percenter Makes the Case for Tackling Inequality. . .
Dalai Lama, HH and Howard Cutler, The Art of Happiness
De Waal, Frans, “How Bad Biology Is Killing the Economy,” on the website, Evonomics: The Evolution of Economics
Frank, Thomas, Listen, Liberal
Henrich, Joseph, The Secret of Success: How Culture is Driving Human Evolution, Domesticating Our Species, and Making Us Smarter
Reich, Robert, Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the Few
Klein, Naomi, The Shock Doctrine
Monbiot, George, How Did We Get into This Mess?
Osnos, Evan, “Doomsday Prep for the Super-Rich,” in The New Yorker, January 30, 2017.
Stiglitz, Joseph, The Price of Inequality
The Growing Consensus in the Spiritual Community for a Radically New Solution
Chopra, Deepak, The Soul of Leadership
Dalai Lama, HH and Bishop Desmond Tutu, Joy
Das, Lama Surya, “Enlightened Leadership: Kings, Queens, and the 99 Percent,” article in The Huffington Post
Dalai Lama, HH and Laurens van den Muyzenberg, The Leaders Way.
Wangyal Rinpoche, Tenzin, The Value of Enlightened Leadership, video lectures
Wilson, David Sloan and Eric M. Johnson, Truth and Reconciliation for Social Darwinism, article in “This View of Life,” online journal
The History of Philosophy on Political Movements, and the History of Enlightened Political Leadership
Bentley, Jerry, Old World Encounters: Cross-cultural Contacts and Exchanges in Pre-Modern Times
Fischer, Louis, Gandhi, His Life and Message for the World
Hadot, Pierre, Philosophy as a Way of Life
Holliday, Ryan, The Obstacle Is the Way
Aristotle, Politics
Aurelius, Marcus and David Hicks, The Emperor’s Handbook: A New Translation of the Meditations
LaFleur, Robert Andre, The Analects of Confucius.
Israel, Jonathan, Revolutionary Ideas: An Intellectual History of the French Revolution
Jaeger, Warner, Paideia: the Ideals of Greek Culture. Volume II, In Search of the Divine Center
Kurai, Alex, “The Concept of the Perfect Man in the Thought of Ibn 'Arabi and Iqbal, Muhammad: A Comparative Study”, McGill University
Mandela, Nelson, The Long Walk to Freedom
May, Henry, The Enlightenment in America
Nagarjuna, The Precious Garland of Advice for the King, ancient Buddhist tex
Plato, The Republic.
The Revolution in Understanding Human Happiness in the Social and Neurosciences
Benson, Herbert, Timeless Healing.
Csikszentmihalyi, Mikhail, Flow, the Psychology of Optimal Experience
Davidson, Richard, The Emotional Life of Your Brain.
Fredrickson, Barbara, Love 2.0.
Hanson, Rich and Richard Mendius, Buddha’s Brain: The Practical Neuroscience of Happiness, Love, and Wisdom
Kabatt Zinn, Jon, Full Catastrophe Living: Using the Wisdom of Your Body
Maslow, Abraham, Toward a Psychology of Being
Neff, Kristin, Self-Compassion: The Proven Power of Being Kind to Yourself
Newberg, Andrew, Why God Won’t Go Away.
Seligman, Martin, Authentic Happiness
Vaillant, George, Spiritual Evolution.
The Foundations of a New Pragmatic, Ethical, Intellectual, and Spiritual Political Philosophy
Aurobindo, The Life Divine
Chaudhuri, Haridas, The Evolution of Integral Consciousness
Dalai Lama, HH, The Art of Happiness
Graham, Carol, Happiness Around the World: The Paradox of Happy Peasants and Miserable Millionaires
Fowler, James, Stages of Faith: The Psychology of Human Development and the Quest for Meaning
Waldinger, Robert, What Makes a Good Life: Lessons from the Longest Study on Happiness
Huxley Aldous, Ends and Means: An Inquiry into the Nature of Ideals and The Perennial Philosophy
Kabatt Zinn, Jon, Coming to Our Senses: Healing Ourselves and the World Through Mindfulness
Kornfield, Jack, After the Ecstasy, the Laundry.
Ricard, Mattieu, Happiness.
Trungpa, Chogyam, Shambhala, The Sacred Path of the Warrior
Ueshiba, Morihei, The Art of Peace
Walsh, Roger and Frances Vaughn, Paths Beyond Ego.
Walsh, Roger, Essential Spirituality.
[i]