PAPER 71
DEVELOPMENT OF THE STATE
71:0.1 THE state is a useful evolution of
civilization; it represents society's net gain from the ravages and sufferings
of war. Even statecraft is merely the accumulated technique for adjusting the
competitive contest of force between the struggling tribes and
nations.
71:0.2 The modern state is the institution which
survived in the long struggle for group power. Superior power eventually
prevailed, and it produced a creature of fact -- the state -- together with
the moral myth of the absolute obligation of the citizen to live and die for
the state. But the state is not of divine genesis; it was not even produced by
volitionally intelligent human action; it is purely an evolutionary
institution and was wholly automatic in origin.
1. THE EMBRYONIC STATE
71:1.1 The state is a territorial social regulative
organization, and the strongest, most efficient, and enduring state is
composed of a single nation whose people have a common language, mores, and
institutions.
71:1.2 The early states were small and were all the
result of conquest. They did not originate in voluntary associations. Many
were founded by conquering nomads, who would swoop down on peaceful herders or
settled agriculturists to overpower and enslave them. Such states, resulting
from conquest, were, perforce, stratified; classes were inevitable, and class
struggles have ever been selective.
71:1.3 The northern tribes of the American red men
never attained real statehood. They never progressed beyond a loose
confederation of tribes, a very primitive form of state. Their nearest
approach was the Iroquois federation, but this group of six nations never
quite functioned as a state and failed to survive because of the absence of
certain essentials to modern national life, such as:
71:1.4 1. Acquirement and inheritance of private
property.
71:1.5 2. Cities plus agriculture and
industry.
71:1.6 3. Helpful domestic animals.
71:1.7 4. Practical family organization. These red
men clung to the mother-family and nephew inheritance.
71:1.8 5. Definite territory.
71:1.9 6. A strong executive head.
71:1.10 7. Enslavement of captives -- they either
adopted or massacred them.
71:1.11 8. Decisive conquests.
71:1.12 The red men were too democratic; they had a
good government, but it failed. Eventually they would have evolved a state had
they not prematurely encountered the more advanced civilization of the white
man, who was pursuing the governmental methods of the Greeks and the Romans.
71:1.13 The successful Roman state was based
on:
1. The father-family.
2. Agriculture and the domestication of animals.
3. Condensation of population -- cities.
4. Private property and land.
5. Slavery -- classes of citizenship.
6. Conquest and reorganization of weak and
backward peoples.
7. Definite territory with roads.
8. Personal and strong rulers.
71:1.14 The great weakness in Roman civilization,
and a factor in the ultimate collapse of the empire, was the supposed liberal
and advanced provision for the emancipation of the boy at twenty-one and the
unconditional release of the girl so that she was at liberty to marry a man of
her own choosing or to go abroad in the land to become immoral. The harm to
society consisted not in these reforms themselves but rather in the sudden and
extensive manner of their adoption. The collapse of Rome indicates what may be
expected when a state undergoes too rapid extension associated with internal
degeneration.
71:1.15 The embryonic state was made possible by the
decline of the blood bond in favor of the territorial, and such tribal
federations were usually firmly cemented by conquest. While a sovereignty that
transcends all minor struggles and group differences is the characteristic of
the true state, still, many classes and castes persist in the later state
organizations as remnants of the clans and tribes of former days. The later
and larger territorial states had a long and bitter struggle with these
smaller consanguineous clan groups, the tribal government proving a valuable
transition from family to state authority. During later times many clans grew
out of trades and other industrial associations.
71:1.16 Failure of state integration results in
retrogression to prestate conditions of governmental techniques, such as the
feudalism of the European Middle Ages. During these dark ages the territorial
state collapsed, and there was a reversion to the small castle groups, the
reappearance of the clan and tribal stages of development. Similar semistates
even now exist in Asia and Africa, but not all of them are evolutionary
reversions; many are the embryonic nucleuses of states of the future.
2. THE EVOLUTION OF REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNMENT
71:2.1 Democracy, while an ideal, is a product of
civilization, not of evolution. Go slowly! select carefully! for the dangers
of democracy are:
1. Glorification of mediocrity.
2. Choice of base and ignorant rulers.
3. Failure to recognize the basic facts of social
evolution.
4. Danger of universal suffrage in the hands of
uneducated and indolent majorities.
5. Slavery to public opinion; the majority is not
always right.
71:2.2 Public opinion, common opinion, has always
delayed society; nevertheless, it is valuable, for, while retarding social
evolution, it does preserve civilization. Education of public opinion is the
only safe and true method of accelerating civilization; force is only a
temporary expedient, and cultural growth will increasingly accelerate as
bullets give way to ballots. Public opinion, the mores, is the basic and
elemental energy in social evolution and state development, but to be of state
value it must be nonviolent in expression.
71:2.3 The measure of the advance of society is
directly determined by the degree to which public opinion can control personal
behavior and state regulation through nonviolent expression. The really
civilized government had arrived when public opinion was clothed with the
powers of personal franchise. Popular elections may not always decide things
rightly, but they represent the right way even to do a wrong thing. Evolution
does not at once produce superlative perfection but rather comparative and
advancing practical adjustment.
71:2.4 There are ten steps, or stages, to the
evolution of a practical and efficient form of representative government, and
these are:
71:2.5 1. Freedom of the person. Slavery,
serfdom, and all forms of human bondage must disappear.
71:2.6 2. Freedom of the mind. Unless a free
people are educated -- taught to think intelligently and plan wisely --
freedom usually does more harm than good.
71:2.7 3. The reign of law. Liberty can be
enjoyed only when the will and whims of human rulers are replaced by
legislative enactments in accordance with accepted fundamental law.
71:2.8 4. Freedom of speech. Representative
government is unthinkable without freedom of all forms of expression for human
aspirations and opinions.
71:2.9 5. Security of property. No government
can long endure if it fails to provide for the right to enjoy personal
property in some form. Man craves the right to use, control, bestow, sell,
lease, and bequeath his personal property.
71:2.10 6. The right of petition.
Representative government assumes the right of citizens to be heard. The
privilege of petition is inherent in free citizenship.
71:2.11 7. The right to rule. It is not
enough to be heard; the power of petition must progress to the actual
management of the government.
71:2.12 8. Universal suffrage. Representative
government presupposes an intelligent, efficient, and universal electorate.
The character of such a government will ever be determined by the character
and caliber of those who compose it. As civilization progresses, suffrage,
while remaining universal for both sexes, will be effectively modified,
regrouped, and otherwise differentiated.
71:2.13 9. Control of public servants. No
civil government will be serviceable and effective unless the citizenry
possess and use wise techniques of guiding and controlling officeholders and
public servants.
71:2.14 10. Intelligent and trained
representation. The survival of democracy is dependent on successful
representative government; and that is conditioned upon the practice of
electing to public offices only those individuals who are technically trained,
intellectually competent, socially loyal, and morally fit. Only by such
provisions can government of the people, by the people, and for the people be
preserved.
3. THE IDEALS OF STATEHOOD
71:3.1 The political or administrative form of a
government is of little consequence provided it affords the essentials of
civil progress -- liberty, security, education, and social co-ordination. It
is not what a state is but what it does that determines the course of social
evolution. And after all, no state can transcend the moral values of its
citizenry as exemplified in their chosen leaders. Ignorance and selfishness
will insure the downfall of even the highest type of government.
71:3.2 Much as it is to be regretted, national
egotism has been essential to social survival. The chosen people doctrine has
been a prime factor in tribal welding and nation building right on down to
modern times. But no state can attain ideal levels of functioning until every
form of intolerance is mastered; it is everlastingly inimical to human
progress. And intolerance is best combated by the co-ordination of science,
commerce, play, and religion.
71:3.3 The ideal state functions under the impulse
of three mighty and co-ordinated drives:
1. Love loyalty derived from the realization of
human brotherhood.
2. Intelligent patriotism based on wise ideals.
3. Cosmic insight interpreted in terms of
planetary facts, needs, and goals.
71:3.4 The laws of the ideal state are few in
number, and they have passed out of the negativistic taboo age into the era of
the positive progress of individual liberty consequent upon enhanced
self-control. The exalted state not only compels its citizens to work but also
entices them into profitable and uplifting utilization of the increasing
leisure which results from toil liberation by the advancing machine age.
Leisure must produce as well as consume.
71:3.5 No society has progressed very far when it
permits idleness or tolerates poverty. But poverty and dependence can never be
eliminated if the defective and degenerate stocks are freely supported and
permitted to reproduce without restraint.
71:3.6 A moral society should aim to preserve the
self-respect of its citizenry and afford every normal individual adequate
opportunity for self-realization. Such a plan of social achievement would
yield a cultural society of the highest order. Social evolution should be
encouraged by governmental supervision which exercises a minimum of regulative
control. That state is best which co-ordinates most while governing
least.
71:3.7 The ideals of statehood must be attained by
evolution, by the slow growth of civic consciousness, the recognition of the
obligation and privilege of social service. At first men assume the burdens of
government as a duty, following the end of the administration of political
spoilsmen, but later on they seek such ministry as a privilege, as the
greatest honor. The status of any level of civilization is faithfully
portrayed by the caliber of its citizens who volunteer to accept the
responsibilities of statehood.
71:3.8 In a real commonwealth the business of
governing cities and provinces is conducted by experts and is managed just as
are all other forms of economic and commercial associations of
people.
71:3.9 In advanced states, political service is
esteemed as the highest devotion of the citizenry. The greatest ambition of
the wisest and noblest of citizens is to gain civil recognition, to be elected
or appointed to some position of governmental trust, and such governments
confer their highest honors of recognition for service upon their civil and
social servants. Honors are next bestowed in the order named upon
philosophers, educators, scientists, industrialists, and militarists. Parents
are duly rewarded by the excellency of their children, and purely religious
leaders, being ambassadors of a spiritual kingdom, receive their real rewards
in another world.
4. PROGRESSIVE CIVILIZATION
71:4.1 Economics, society, and government must
evolve if they are to remain. Static conditions on an evolutionary world are
indicative of decay; only those institutions which move forward with the
evolutionary stream persist.
71:4.2 The progressive program of an expanding
civilization embraces:
1. Preservation of individual liberties.
2. Protection of the home.
3. Promotion of economic security.
4. Prevention of disease.
5. Compulsory education.
6. Compulsory employment.
7. Profitable utilization of leisure.
8. Care of the unfortunate.
9. Race improvement.
10. Promotion of science and art.
11. Promotion of philosophy -- wisdom.
12. Augmentation of cosmic insight --
spirituality.
71:4.3 And this progress in the arts of civilization
leads directly to the realization of the highest human and divine goals of
mortal endeavor -- the social achievement of the brotherhood of man and the
personal status of God-consciousness, which becomes revealed in the supreme
desire of every individual to do the will of the Father in heaven.
71:4.4 The appearance of genuine brotherhood
signifies that a social order has arrived in which all men delight in bearing
one another's burdens; they actually desire to practice the golden rule. But
such an ideal society cannot be realized when either the weak or the wicked
lie in wait to take unfair and unholy advantage of those who are chiefly
actuated by devotion to the service of truth, beauty, and goodness. In such a
situation only one course is practical: The "golden rulers" may establish a
progressive society in which they live according to their ideals while
maintaining an adequate defense against their benighted fellows who might seek
either to exploit their pacific predilections or to destroy their advancing
civilization.
71:4.5 Idealism can never survive on an evolving
planet if the idealists in each generation permit themselves to be
exterminated by the baser orders of humanity. And here is the great test of
idealism: Can an advanced society maintain that military preparedness which
renders it secure from all attack by its war-loving neighbors without yielding
to the temptation to employ this military strength in offensive operations
against other peoples for purposes of selfish gain or national aggrandizement?
National survival demands preparedness, and religious idealism alone can
prevent the prostitution of preparedness into aggression. Only love,
brotherhood, can prevent the strong from oppressing the weak.
5. THE EVOLUTION OF COMPETITION
71:5.1 Competition is essential to social progress,
but competition, unregulated, breeds violence. In current society, competition
is slowly displacing war in that it determines the individual's place in
industry, as well as decreeing the survival of the industries themselves.
(Murder and war differ in their status before the mores, murder having been
outlawed since the early days of society, while war has never yet been
outlawed by mankind as a whole.)
71:5.2 The ideal state undertakes to regulate social
conduct only enough to take violence out of individual competition and to
prevent unfairness in personal initiative. Here is a great problem in
statehood: How can you guarantee peace and quiet in industry, pay the taxes to
support state power, and at the same time prevent taxation from handicapping
industry and keep the state from becoming parasitical or
tyrannical?
71:5.3 Throughout the earlier ages of any world,
competition is essential to progressive civilization. As the evolution of man
progresses, co-operation becomes increasingly effective. In advanced
civilizations co-operation is more efficient than competition. Early man is
stimulated by competition. Early evolution is characterized by the survival of
the biologically fit, but later civilizations are the better promoted by
intelligent co-operation, understanding fraternity, and spiritual
brotherhood.
71:5.4 True, competition in industry is exceedingly
wasteful and highly ineffective, but no attempt to eliminate this economic
lost motion should be countenanced if such adjustments entail even the
slightest abrogation of any of the basic liberties of the
individual.
6. THE PROFIT MOTIVE
71:6.1 Present-day profit-motivated economics is
doomed unless profit motives can be augmented by service motives. Ruthless
competition based on narrow-minded self-interest is ultimately destructive of
even those things which it seeks to maintain. Exclusive and self-serving
profit motivation is incompatible with Christian ideals -- much more
incompatible with the teachings of Jesus.
71:6.2 In economics, profit motivation is to service
motivation what fear is to love in religion. But the profit motive must not be
suddenly destroyed or removed; it keeps many otherwise slothful mortals hard
at work. It is not necessary, however, that this social energy arouser be
forever selfish in its objectives.
71:6.3 The profit motive of economic activities is
altogether base and wholly unworthy of an advanced order of society;
nevertheless, it is an indispensable factor throughout the earlier phases of
civilization. Profit motivation must not be taken away from men until they
have firmly possessed themselves of superior types of nonprofit motives for
economic striving and social serving -- the transcendent urges of superlative
wisdom, intriguing brotherhood, and excellency of spiritual attainment.
7. EDUCATION
71:7.1 The enduring state is founded on culture,
dominated by ideals, and motivated by service. The purpose of education should
be acquirement of skill, pursuit of wisdom, realization of selfhood, and
attainment of spiritual values.
71:7.2 In the ideal state, education continues
throughout life, and philosophy sometime becomes the chief pursuit of its
citizens. The citizens of such a commonwealth pursue wisdom as an enhancement
of insight into the significance of human relations, the meanings of reality,
the nobility of values, the goals of living, and the glories of cosmic
destiny.
71:7.3 Urantians should get a vision of a new and
higher cultural society. Education will jump to new levels of value with the
passing of the purely profit-motivated system of economics. Education has too
long been localistic, militaristic, ego exalting, and success seeking; it must
eventually become world-wide, idealistic, self-realizing, and cosmic
grasping.
71:7.4 Education recently passed from the control of
the clergy to that of lawyers and businessmen. Eventually it must be given
over to the philosophers and the scientists. Teachers must be free beings,
real leaders, to the end that philosophy, the search for wisdom, may become
the chief educational pursuit.
71:7.5 Education is the business of living; it must
continue throughout a lifetime so that mankind may gradually experience the
ascending levels of mortal wisdom, which are:
1. The knowledge of things.
2. The realization of meanings.
3. The appreciation of values.
4. The nobility of work -- duty.
5. The motivation of goals -- morality.
6. The love of service -- character.
7. Cosmic insight -- spiritual discernment.
71:7.6 And then, by means of these achievements,
many will ascend to the mortal ultimate of mind attainment,
God-consciousness.
8. THE CHARACTER OF STATEHOOD
71:8.1 The only sacred feature of any human
government is the division of statehood into the three domains of executive,
legislative, and judicial functions. The universe is administered in
accordance with such a plan of segregation of functions and authority. Aside
from this divine concept of effective social regulation or civil government,
it matters little what form of state a people may elect to have provided the
citizenry is ever progressing toward the goal of augmented self-control and
increased social service. The intellectual keenness, economic wisdom, social
cleverness, and moral stamina of a people are all faithfully reflected in
statehood.
71:8.2 The evolution of statehood entails progress
from level to level, as follows:
71:8.3 1. The creation of a threefold government of
executive, legislative, and judicial branches.
71:8.4 2. The freedom of social, political, and
religious activities.
71:8.5 3. The abolition of all forms of slavery and
human bondage.
71:8.6 4. The ability of the citizenry to control
the levying of taxes.
71:8.7 5. The establishment of universal education
-- learning extended from the cradle to the grave.
71:8.8 6. The proper adjustment between local and
national governments.
71:8.9 7. The fostering of science and the conquest
of disease.
71:8.10 8. The due recognition of sex equality and
the co-ordinated functioning of men and women in the home, school, and church,
with specialized service of women in industry and government.
71:8.11 9. The elimination of toiling slavery by
machine invention and the subsequent mastery of the machine age.
71:8.12 10. The conquest of dialects -- the triumph
of a universal language.
71:8.13 11. The ending of war -- international
adjudication of national and racial differences by continental courts of
nations presided over by a supreme planetary tribunal automatically recruited
from the periodically retiring heads of the continental courts. The
continental courts are authoritative; the world court is advisory -- moral.
71:8.14 12. The world-wide vogue of the pursuit of
wisdom -- the exaltation of philosophy. The evolution of a world religion,
which will presage the entrance of the planet upon the earlier phases of
settlement in light and life.
71:8.15 These are the prerequisites of progressive
government and the earmarks of ideal statehood. Urantia is far from the
realization of these exalted ideals, but the civilized races have made a
beginning -- mankind is on the march toward higher evolutionary
destinies.
71:8.16 Sponsored
by a Melchizedek of Nebadon.
