World order can be founded only on an unshakeable consciousness of the
oneness of mankind, a spiritual truth which all the human sciences
confirm. Anthropology, physiology, psychology, recognize only one human
species, albeit infinitely varied in the secondary aspects of life.
Recognition of this truth requires abandonment of prejudice—prejudice of
every kind—race, class, colour, creed, nation, sex, degree of material
civilization, everything which enables people to consider themselves
superior to others.
Acceptance of the oneness of mankind is the first fundamental prerequisite
for reorganization and administration of the world as one country, the
home of humankind. Universal acceptance of this spiritual principle is
essential to any successful attempt to establish world peace. It should
therefore be universally proclaimed, taught in schools, and constantly
asserted in every nation as preparation for the organic change in the
structure of society which it implies.
In the Bahá’í view, recognition of the oneness of mankind “calls for no
less than the reconstruction and the demilitarization of the whole
civilized world—a world organically unified in all the essential aspects
of its life, its political machinery, its spiritual aspiration, its trade
and finance, its script and language, and yet infinite in the diversity of
the national characteristics of its federated units.”
Elaborating the implications of this pivotal principle, Shoghi Effendi,
the Guardian of the Bahá’í Faith, commented in 1931 that: “Far from aiming
at the subversion of the existing foundations of society, it seeks to
broaden its basis, to remold its institutions in a manner consonant with
the needs of an ever-changing world. It can conflict with no legitimate
allegiances, nor can it undermine essential loyalties. Its purpose is
neither to stifle the flame of a sane and intelligent patriotism in men’s
hearts, nor to abolish the system of national autonomy so essential if the
evils of excessive centralization are to be avoided. It does not ignore,
nor does it attempt to suppress, the diversity of ethnical origins, of
climate, of history, of language and tradition, of thought and habit, that
differentiate the peoples and nations of the world. It calls for a wider
loyalty, for a larger aspiration than any that has animated the human
race. It insists upon the subordination of national impulses and interests
to the imperative claims of a unified world. It repudiates excessive
centralization on one hand, and disclaims all attempts at uniformity on
the other. Its watchword is unity in diversity”.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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