In response to:My idea explained

Wed, 02 May 2007 14:48:38 +0200

Here are my thoughts on your ideas for "unity":

You suggest a charitable organisation which would disseminate the message of "unity" - in what way would a charity do this differenly from governments or the United Nations? How would you choose representatives to run it? If the charitable organisation was SOLELY responsible for transmitting the message of unity, this could be a dangerous thing - I don't believe it is ever good to only have one source of anything, especially ideas! We always need choice.

Also, I don't think you could send both an atheist/agnostic message to the world's atheists/agnostics and a separate message to those who worship - surely this would be in direct conflict with the message of "unity"?! For me, "unity" suggests bridging these very sorts of fundamental gaps in people's beliefs. I think your message would need to be even more basic and simple, so that it is all-inclusive.

At which level of society would you begin your message? For instance, I personally think that you need to start on an individual level (as opposed to societal level) and I think that teaching the whole idea of unity and/or tolerance needs to begin from the moment we are born - it needs to pervade every area of our lives e.g. at home, at school, in the workplace and even in the types of things we find entertaining - what place would there be therefore for offensive materials, such as pornography?. There you go - I find this offensive, but many people don't! So, how would you encourage someone to be tolerant of ideas they find completely and utterly abhorent?

However wonderful unity would be, I personally (and sadly) believe it is impossible to achieve full world unity - for instance, decisions would need to be made on what constitutes "acceptable" behaviour, beliefs and opinions and this, as you know, varies enormously both between and even within different world cultures. For instance, within the Hindu caste system, there are very strict rules about who can even communicate with whom! How would you get round that? How would you get family members who hate the sight of each other to be tolerant of each other? What about victims of serious crime (rape, murder etc) and those who perpetrated the crime? How could unity be promoted between these people? You could say that this is where forgiveness comes in, but then by relying on forgiveness we are failing to send a clear message that evil behaviour should not be tolerated.

In my opinion, full world unity would require too many people to tolerate too many differences - on the basis of age, gender, religion, sexuality etc. For instance, although I personally subscribe to the "live and let live" attitude, there are often times when I find this attitude stretched to its very limit e.g. listening to those expressing extreme religious hatred against my faith, especially when they have absolutely no knowledge of what my faith entails! How would you bring about unity here? Should I become tolerant of the religious bigot or should they become tolerant of my religion? How would you reach your decision?

I also think that putting unity into practice would require a great deal of trust (of those giving out the message and of those we are to tolerate) and a good measure of conformity. I think too many people want things all their own way just now, but don't always want to do what is right in order to get it, so we end up with crime etc. I think before we can work on unity, we need to heal all the awful wounds that individual people carry around with them every day, because the human being is such a mass of emotions e.g. fear, anger, hatred, that it will do almost anything to protect itself from perceived threat (like most other animals!) - I think the idea of "unity" would scare a lot of people and they would therefore put up a great deal of resistance to it - even though the outcome would be to their own advantage!

I think you will stir up many more questions than you will be able to answer, but I think that is a good thing - getting people to question such fundamental issues that affect our everyday lives is always worthwhile.

Phew! I've probably used up all your webspace now! But I think your blog is a great idea and I do enjoy our discussions on various important issues! - Good luck with the blog and I'll look forward to more discussions in the future!

In response to:My idea explained

Wed, 02 May 2007 12:35:21 +0200

Martin

I am curious about your vision for unity. What does it bring? How will it serve?

For me conflict takes a lot of time and lots of energy which could be more productively used.

Look forward to your insights.

In response to:My idea explained

Tue, 01 May 2007 15:38:24 +0200

Nice idea, best of luck

Give the world a Goal

In response to:My idea explained

In response to:My idea explained

In response to:My idea explained