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Unity is therefore the positive direction that Baha'u'llah indicated to the world and it will work only if we apply principles such as diversity (unity in diversity), interdependence (unity in interdependence), decentralization (unity in decentralization) and metaphysics (unity between science and religion). (80:2) Redefining on a radically new basis the relationship between humanity and the rest of creation we can quote Baha'u'llah' s sentence: "The Earth is but one country and mankind its citizens" [99]. (80:3) Formal acceptance of this truth won't be sufficient without our constant and continuous commitment to applying it in our individual lives, in society and in institutions. It is an individual and collective responsibility. Responsibility is, in turn, the preliminary phase towards awareness and towards a general conscience of spiritual enlightenment. We should realize that if we exalt the material aspect of life, we degrade spiritual development. We should recognize that throughout the evolutionary process of humanity, social development and spiritual development have pursued opposite routes. These routes can begin to converge only when man abandons his collective and personal desire of dominion and will gain awareness that only unconditional acceptance of the principle of unity of human kind will bring harmony. (80:4) It therefore necessary to confirm that in the field of history the principle of an underlying directionality to historical development from the stone age to modern society, from micro to macro systems, from the passage of nomadic societies to city states, principalities, monarchies, colonizer nation-states, specialized nation-states, dependent nation-states, free nations, sovereign nations, throughout crucial eras, clearly indicates that the future will be organized into more and more complex macro systems [100]. (80:5) In spiritual terms this interpretation of the historical evolution of humanity can be called the great plan of God for the education of humanity. (80:6) It is therefore clear that it is not through rebuilding previous already experimented political formulas or economical systems that the world will overcome the current bottleneck, but only through the adoption of new social and spiritual doctrines adequate for the times to come. (80:7) It is therefore from a spiritual perspective that the concept of a new world order is born. It is surely not through new economical and social laws or political negotiations among states or presidents of republics or agreements among monarchs and parliaments of more or less powerful nations that prejudices and barriers of race, faith, history, culture and power will be eliminated. But it is through a new process that requires willing and unconditional acceptance of the spiritual concept of the unity of humankind: only one human species exists: humanity, though infinitely diversified in its secondary aspects of life. (80:8) At the end of the 20th century it is no longer possible to still believe that a materialistic view of life regarding the conditions of economic and social development can answer the needs of humanity. (80:9) The optimistic previsions on the changes they were supposed to produce faded away in the growing gap, which separates the life style of a progressively diminishing slight minority and the poverty tormenting a huge majority of the world's peoples. This unprecedented economical crisis together with the social ruin it continues to generate, reflects a serious conceptual error regarding human nature. In fact, the response roused in human beings by the incentives of the prevailing order are not only insufficient but appear insignificant in the face of world events. This demonstrates that, if the development of society doesn't find a purpose that transcends the pure and simple improvement of material conditions, even these goals won't be reached.
(80:10)
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