Expanding
Good Will and
Sincerity
Among Humans
Carlos Cardoso
Aveline
Former Italian Senator Maria Rosaria Manieri, with the
book “Fraternità” in her hands
The intense struggle
between honesty and corruption is more secret than public. All the noise is
limited to its superficial levels. The battle occurs first and foremost in
human soul.
It is from the
essential plane of existence that the war between truthfulness and its opposite
finds an expression in the outer spheres of life. Largely silent, the conflict
unfolds in one’s family, in the politics of one’s city and the dialogue among
nations.
Besides fighting
corruption in political circles, it is necessary to build the whole of society
around the principle of sincerity with oneself and one’s fellow beings.
The big and the small
are mirrors to each other. He who is honest in one sphere of existence tends to
be sincere in the other ones. If someone gets distant from his own soul in any particular
aspect of daily life, he is in danger of seeing his moral defeat expand to
other areas.
Everything is
interconnected. In each aspect of life, starting with the way the citizen
relates to his own conscience, there’s an open or implicit conflict between
wisdom and ignorance, sincerity and illusion, decency and its opposite.
The corresponding
contrast unfolds in the individual as well as the community. It is alive in the
parties of the so-called political left, and also in the “conservative” parties.
In her book “Fraternity”
(“Fraternità”) [1], Italian thinker
and former Socialist senator Maria Rosaria Manieri suggests the idea that the political world of the 21st century
should once more discover the “forgotten” concept of brotherhood. By fraternità she means friendship and mutual
help.
Of course, in life
and politics things are not isolated. Ethics, justice and cooperation go
together, while embezzlement, theft and lies also tend to be inseparable.
The concept of
fraternity is central to theosophy and esoteric philosophy, because it results from
the perception of the unity of all beings. It is present in Judaism and every
true religion. Since the ancient world the idea constitutes a decisive tenet in
any honest approach to Politics.
Philosophy does not see
Politics as a “struggle” for power, but as the permanent process
of building a creative power which is based on mutual help and reciprocal trust.
The true duty of Politics is to improve a Polis
or community and keep it alive through a feeling of common union.
Although the idea of
brotherhood is of decisive importance in Sociology, Theosophy, Philosophy and
Religion, it has been underestimated for a long time in these and other areas
of knowledge.
In their anxious search
for followers, spiritual and political organizations make a choice for nominal
brotherhood and leave aside their duty to form solidary communities that are
deeply unified. The choice for appearance instead of reality results from a
lack of knowledge.
Spiritual ignorance
produces an absence of good will. Crime, selfishness, injustice and pain get the
most attention from ill-informed people. It is easier to repeat slogans and
clichés than to think by oneself. Being creative is a challenging experience.
Conventional
Psychology could do more in studying the complex issue of how to create fraternity.
Even in original esoteric
philosophy, the topic deserves more attention than it gets. The first object of
the theosophical movement points to universal brotherhood, and the theme is in
the agenda of the Independent Lodge of Theosophists.
Born in 1943 and experienced
in social activism, Maria
Rosaria Manieri writes:
“As one
speaks of brotherliness, one’s thought immediately associates it with its
religious dimension, generally Jewish and Christian. On the other hand,
brotherliness fades away in its civic and republican meaning, as a guiding
principle of public action and as an ethical criterion of decision making and
political and social evaluation. Evidence that this is true is found in the
fact that it is referred to as a forgotten
tenet. [2] The term has practically
ceased to be used in the contemporary public lexicon.”
This is a
serious defeat for humanistic ideals.
Maria
Rosaria proceeds:
“In these
times of fundamentalist liberalism, the very political groups that were
historically born as an answer to the need of fraternity have forgotten the
meaning and the power of this idea. And this is one of the deep causes of its
loss of identity, its being now beyond recognition, and its decline. Even the
word ‘solidarity’, which in the 20th century constituted the most important
proclamation of fraternity, is now distant from the context of struggles and social
demands which took place together with its establishment in legislation and
regulations of trade unions in Western Europe. The topic became almost
exclusive to religious organizations (…).” [3]
Collective
selfishness dominates more than one trade union and association whose goals are
officially altruistic. It is also not absent from philosophical, spiritualistic
and theosophical associations around the world.
However,
a civilization can only exist as long as there is enough good will and mutual
help among the citizens. The end of a civilization based on selfishness is unavoidable.
It is a good idea to observe, therefore, how generosity and egocentrism,
solidary thoughts and destructive feelings, ignorance and wisdom are generated
in contemporary society.
Father Spirit and Mother Nature
By observing the
political life and social dynamics of a country, one can see the strength or
weakness of mutual respect among its citizens.
The insincere
use of words is a sad trap for nations and individuals alike. Great absurdities
can be done in the name of beautiful ideals.
On the
other hand, a large amount of good will and social justice can be generated
without using any supposedly infallible ideology.
Elegant words
are also not enough for theosophical and philosophical associations, and noble
actions are more effective if developed in an unpretentious way. Building the
future consists in creating healthy ways to produce friendly forms of knowledge
and expand the project among honest persons.
The book
“Fraternità” helps
reduce the distance between politics and philosophy. It renders a service to
the associations which aim at improving human experience during the 21st
century.
Ms. Maria Rosaria Manieri writes:
“For centuries the
idea of fraternity has been based on Jewish-Christian concepts referring to the
common divine paternity, which generates the commandment of brotherly love
among human beings.”
Theosophy points out
that the phrase “fatherly god” is a personalization and a metaphor. It helps popularize
the study of religious matters. “God” is a symbol of the eternal universal law,
the Natural Law regulating both Spirit and Matter.
From the “marriage”
between the father-god and the mother-nature (Maya, or Illusion in the
sense of being subject to constant change) humanity is born.
This fundamental view
of the creative polarity in the Universe is present in various forms in the
Andean tradition, and in most religious legends of East and West. In Judaism,
HaShem (“The Name”) created the Universe-Nature and guides it.
Human beings are the
children of Karma, the descendants of the severe Father, the Law. From time to
time the Universal Father puts into motion the expansion of life in Mother Nature
(Maya, Matter). All beings are brothers, because they are born as a result of
the creative meeting between Spirit
and Material Existence.
The basic idea of
universal brotherhood is of course much older than Judaism and Christianity and
does not remain untouched by time. It evolves along History: it is born once
and again and adopts different forms. Maria Rosaria says:
“With the beginning
of modern revolution, which after the Renaissance establishes the dignitas et excellentia (‘dignity and excellence’)
of man, faber fortunae suae (‘maker
of his own destiny’), new foundations are sought for the idea of fraternity and
the way is paved for a lay or worldly humanism, which will inspire the ethics of modern
secular nations.” [4]
Maria uses the term “Jusnaturalism”
to mention the idea of Natural Law, a basic principle in modern theosophy:
“First the Jusnaturalism
and later the Enlightenment get to a new conception of this principle [of brotherhood], no longer based on the
authority of a faith which not everyone shares, but on a Reason instead, which
all human beings possess. The revealed
fraternity is replaced by a universal brotherhood, based on human nature
and reason.”
Thus the concept of human fraternity transcends the narrow
dogmas of churches and sects and becomes universal in our world.
Maria writes:
“The modern age
starts with a lofty and lay translation of Paul’s principle: ‘There is no Jew or Greek, no slave or free
man’, not because they are ‘one in
Christ’, but because all are human
beings. Fraternity is based on being
human and includes all of
humanity.” [5]
Seen from a simplistic
point of view, to “work for universal brotherhood” means one expects everyone
to agree with his opinions. Childish souls believe that their own political or
religious views are necessarily superior to all the others and their universal
acceptance constitutes the exclusive door to “brotherhood”. This idea generates
unlimited intolerance and fanaticism.
In fact, being fraternal places before us the
challenge of perceiving unity in diversity, while persevering in the active
search for truth. We cannot despise sincerity for the sake of brotherhood. The fact of
fraternity makes it necessary to live in cooperation, without denying contrast
and imperfection. The individual must constantly improve the way he lives.
It is our duty to observe
the unity of opposites.
The next evolutionary
step of human beings consists in realizing that Peace is bigger than Paradox.
It includes establishing the basis of an enduring intercultural dialogue and
opening the doors to cooperation among all nations, and among the different
social sectors within each country.
There is no reason to
be too anxious about that, yet helpful actions are welcome.
There is time enough
to reach the noble ideal. The proof of that lies in the historical fact that
civilizations are born and die, while the search for harmonious fraternity
remains alive.
As time passes, the process
of mutual help makes progress. The story of solidarity renews itself every
century. Whenever a civilization becomes excessively materialistic, corrupt and
arrogant, it denies the basic principle of fraternity - and destroys itself, to
be replaced by another, better and more honest kind of civilization, which will
also live for some time before meeting its end.
A Harmonious Coexistence
Chapter three in the
book by Maria Rosaria Manieri is
dedicated to tolerance and fraternity. Advocating the practice of respect among
different churches, religions and lines of thought, Manieri quotes from Voltaire
and John Locke.
The author is right in defending
flexibility and the harmonious coexistence between contrasting points of view. While
working in this direction, however, one must remember there is a Law of
Symmetry in social relations.
Every specific practice of
flexibility must be compensated by some form of firmness.
An old illusion of generous left-wing
thinkers must be transcended: the idea according to which human beings are good
enough already, and they don’t need to improve themselves morally.
“In order for justice and
happiness to flourish in communities”, naïve people say, “it is enough to eliminate
limits and obligations, and to establish the great law of mutual tolerance.”
The self-defeat of almost all social
revolutions which aimed at “eliminating the power of elites” shows us that
human beings must improve themselves in the first place. To think that the
citizens are all perfectly honest and generous, and that they suffer
exclusively because of social injustice, has been for centuries an effective
recipe for disaster.
In fact, each one must promote
and direct his own inner revolution. It is possible to help others and receive
their help; however, the process of production of common sense includes many
unexpected challenges.
If one intends to be generous
with the others, it will be necessary to have self-control. Only by personal
austerity one can be brotherly toward his fellow beings.
The unilateral propaganda of
tolerance, as if it were an absolute value and always valid in itself, leads
society to mere indulgence and to an absence of moral responsibility.
The generalization of falsehood,
theft, violence and alcoholism, the ill-disguised adoption of pornography in
means of mass-communication, the epidemic use of drugs, the political influence
of big drug-dealers and the corruption in public administration, all attack the
fraternal feeling and threaten democracy.
Maria Manieri tends to ascribe
“coercion” to the State, while in civil society tolerance and gentleness should
dominate. One cannot ignore the uncomfortable fact that whenever the citizen
fails to “coerce” himself, practicing self-restraint
and sustaining a correct behavior, life and Karma will “coerce” him in
unpredictable and undesirable ways.
Good sense is necessary. If we want an ethical
community, there must be a firm ability to reject the degeneration of habits
and procedures. The blind search for irresponsible pleasure destroys the sense
of togetherness. The balanced sectors of political left, which are able to
think, must discover lessons coming from the Freudian Psychoanalysis. It is
useful to study the works of Psychologists who worked for fraternity, such as Alfred Adler, Viktor Frankl,
Erich Fromm, Rollo May, Karen Horney, Fritz Kunkel and
others. The ethics of Judaism will provide insights and guidance.
The books by Carl Jung, a
collaborator of Nazism and an adversary of Ethics, will not help in such a
task.
Human being is complex. He
must evolve by studying his own inner contradictions and make progress through
an “individual reform” while struggling for collective regeneration. The social
renaissance will result from his self-improvement.
It is our duty to create a
culture where people are stimulated to search for their moral progress. The
citizen who awakens from ignorance stops wasting too much time in talking about
the mistakes of others, or the misdeeds of the “ruling class”. He ceases to use
old scapegoats and neurotic mechanisms which previously seemed effective ways
to escape from the vision of his own failures.
An unavoidable task of
left-wing groups is, therefore, to realize that true social progress results
from the advancement of the individual in self-knowledge, self-respect, self-control,
equilibrium and wisdom. Each one must transcend by his own merit the habit of
worshipping money. It is necessary to defeat in oneself several forms of
material illusion, before one is free to tread the path to peace and live in
voluntary simplicity.
No ideological propaganda can
replace individual consciousness. The ability of a citizen to listen to his own
moral conscience is the foundation of every valuable proposition in politics. The
correct solution to social problems is based on the ethical awakening of the
individual. Political parties of the Left and of the Right must accept this
fact before they are able to help in effective ways the people of the countries
where they act.
The Ideal of Human Perfection
On chapter 4 of her book “Fraternità”, Maria Rosaria Manieri examines
the presence of ethics and the individual
sense of duty in the building of correct social relations.
It is in the works of Immanuel
Kant, she says, that the Christian duty to search for self-improvement becomes universal
and non-sectarian. Each human being must make efforts to defeat the instinctive
selfishness present in himself:
“The search for the perfection
of man, before whom the Gospel places the highest task - ‘Be ye therefore
perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect’ (Matthew: 5, 48) -
undergoes in Kant a conscious conversion to the material world, in a process
similar to what happened during the Renaissance and the Reformation. The ideal
of perfection is now placed in the process through which man dominates nature, including
human nature.” [6]
The ideal of human progression
and perfection is theosophical ‘par
excellence’ and corresponds to the initiatic journey. The issue refers to
the essence of all religions and philosophies. Maria Manieri writes:
“The culture of Law and
morality is the ultimate goal of modern Reason and it ‘elevates man completely
above the animals’.” (p. 85)
Here we see Kant treading the
same path as Sigmund Freud, Erich Fromm and every ethical thinker, besides
classic theosophy. Through self-knowledge, human being transcends the animal
kingdom and reaches the plane of Reason, of higher perception, of immortal soul
and the brotherhood of all beings.
Maria sums up Kant’s view:
“Man has a right to fraternity
when, by defeating the resistance of the plane of [animal] inclinations against the law of inner morality, he makes
sure that rationality prevails over selfish instincts, that the principle of
universal legislation prevails over the variety and conflicting nature of specific
positions and interests, and the safeguards of civil order and the dignity of
moral law prevail over the anarchy and uncertainties of the Hobbesian idea of bellum omnium contra omnes (‘the war of
all against all’).” (p. 86)
The ethical duty of the
individual becomes the law and produces social order. Justice is the supreme good,
and not the short term personal happiness. Kant has something to teach
political parties on the left and right of the ideological spectrum.
Fraternity, as a moral imperative, is a road to be traveled through the correct
practice of Politics.
There must be a predominance
of Reason over selfishness and passions. The task of building such a hegemony does
not depend any longer on an elite of wise men, like in Plato. This is now the
obligation of each conscious citizen (p. 104). The existence of this ethical duty
creates a moral danger, due to the large distance between the individual and
his duty, between the grand task and the limited reality of human beings in the
present age (p.105).
The ethical principle of
fraternity is no quietism or passive contemplation (p.108). In Kant, as in any
other vision guided by common sense, the building of a just society is not a
merely political or economical goal, let alone electoral projects. One must
accelerate the process through which human beings become more balanced and
honest.
Society will be harmonious when
its citizens treat each other with equilibrium and have good will towards one
another. Before achieving this goal, however, left-wing political parties will
have to stimulate self-education and the independent formation of responsible
citizens.
The work by Maria Rosaria makes
a useful summary of the Western Philosophy views regarding brotherhood. It is
somehow modest and non-ambitious because it does not elaborate on the next
steps and on what must be done. Maria points out a basic fact: the issue of
brotherhood is decisive to any discussion of human reality, and deserves study.
This is an unavoidable truth both for students of philosophy or theosophy, and
social activists.
The Choice for Building the
Future
Upon
reading the fifth and last chapter of the book “Fraternità”, one sees that it
is difficult for its author to decide what has primordial importance, and what
has not, in the various viewpoints from which the problem of human brotherhood
has been seen in recent centuries.
After summarizing
in chapter four the Kantian view of Ethics, Maria Manieri spends a time
discussing Marx and the materialistic views of Economics and Sociology. And she
does so as if she had forgotten the fundamental proposition made by Kant, which
establishes the “common” individual as the great responsible for the production
of a better society.
She does mention
en passant in the upper half of p.
137 the idea that social improvement needs individual transformation, and
personal well-being is made easier by social progress. Nowhere Maria places in
the center of her reasoning the uncomfortable yet decisive fact of the moral responsibility
of the individual citizen. Forgetting what she herself wrote about Kant’s
philosophy in previous paragraphs, she now discusses Marx ignoring the inevitable
need for an individual revolution towards altruism, as the foundation of social
improvement.
Maria did not build her own view of the world.
Her book consists in part of
an un-structured report of the main Western points of view regarding
fraternity, seen as isolated facts from which she does not attempt to say which
ones are of decisive importance. She does not form an independent set of
guiding principles. The volume she wrote is significantly helpful anyway.
Left-wing groups often stimulate
fraternity within their ranks while postponing the experience of universal
brotherhood (or national brotherhood) to some magic moment which should take
place after they obtain political power and the control of the state.
However, after
the postponement of brotherly action takes place once, it tends to get
automatically renewed. As time passes, the excuses used to justify the absence
of respect for others grow and multiply, and procrastination eliminates much of
ethics.
The healing of such a problem is simple. Yet actually putting it into
practice is difficult, because few are those who accept the personal detachment
needed to live in simplicity.
Instead of struggling “against” something that is seen as wrong, left-wing groups
must learn to build that which is
correct, in those areas of life which already depend on them.
They will become much more
effective by ascribing less importance to the nominal control of formal and
bureaucratic structures of political power, and by seeing the need to establish that cooperative power which creates new
social relations, including relations of production and mode of production,
starting in small scale.
The action needed relates to the Jewish concept of Tikkun Olam or the healing of the world.
Examples
of such a creative process are agricultural, industrial or commercial co-operatives;
the traditional mutual help or voluntary work “mutirões” in the countryside of
Brazil; collective vegetable-gardens in poor communities; many small economic
and social actions based on mutualism; the kibbutzim
and moshavim in Israel; the cooperative
economy in Amish and Mennonite communities, and the action of Mohandas Gandhi and
Vinoba Bhave in India. [7]
The book
by Maria Manieri has the important merit of raising the issue of fraternity and
demonstrating its centrality in political thought. In this regard, the book
contains a valuable lesson to the theosophical movement and every masonic and
philosophical association. An Eastern Master of the Wisdom wrote:
“The term
‘Universal Brotherhood’ is no idle phrase. Humanity in the mass has a paramount
claim upon us (…). [Brotherhood] is
the only secure foundation for universal morality. If it be a dream, it is at
least a noble one for mankind and it is the aspiration of the true adept.” [8]
Fraternity is the
right relation among human beings. Building it constitutes a task for all areas
of knowledge, including the “exact” science, which must be put at the service
of life and not be made to serve the accumulation of material wealth in the
hands of the few. The actions which threaten the principle of universal
brotherhood must be unmasked, understood, watched and eliminated with due
severity, care, and discernment. [9]
Having a “left-wing”
view of society - id est, aiming at
social justice - does not mean repeating void slogans and unexamined clichés about
the vague dream of eliminating this or that “elite”, as if fighting against something could be enough.
The book by Maria
Manieri helps understand such a fact.
Belonging to the
political left can mean being part of an effort to establish new relations of
production, based on shared duties and rights.
The main goal of the Left is not to fight the Right at each new election and propose
to society a populist demagoguery as opposed to the conservative demagoguery.
The Left is able to express in
creative ways the human need and potentiality for mutual help and compassion.
It can expand the feeling of unconditional respect for life and increase and
improve the commitment of all citizens with their common future.
NOTES:
[1] “Fraternidade”, Maria Rosaria
Manieri, Brazilian edition, 2017, Fundação Astrojildo Pereira e Contraponto
Editora, Brasília / Rio de Janeiro, 143 pages. First edition, in Italian, 2013:
“Fraternità, Rilettura civile di un’idea che può cambiare il mondo”, Maria
Rosaria Manieri, 160 pp., Tempi.
[2] A. M. Baggio (org.), “Il
principio dimenticato. La fraternità nella riflessione politologica contemporanea”,
Roma, Città Nuova, 2007. (Note by Maria Rosaria Manieri)
[3] “Fraternidade”, Maria Rosaria
Manieri, Fundação Astrojildo Pereira, Brasília / Rio de Janeiro, 2017, see pp.
15-16.
[4] “Fraternidade”, Maria
Rosaria Manieri, Brazilian edition, 2017, Fundação Astrojildo Pereira, see p.
71.
[5] “Fraternidade”, Maria Rosaria
Manieri, also p. 71.
[6] “Fraternidade”, Maria
Rosaria Manieri, see p. 84.
[7] See in our associated websites the article “Vinoba and the Power of Good Will”.
[8] From the last paragraph of Letter 4, p. 17, in the 1926
edition of “The Mahatma Letters”, published by T. Fisher Unwin Ltd., in London,
UK, with 493 pages and Index. The book is available in PDF in our associated websites.
The page is the same in the TUP
edition, Pasadena, California.
[9] Nuclear weapons are an example
of this principle: left-wing and right-wing parties must be intelligent enough
to see that nuclear proliferation and atomic suicide are not good ideas.
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The above article was
first published in our blog at The Times of Israel.
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