Episode:Civilization—The State (Part 3)
A moral society should aim to preserve the self-respect of its citizenry and afford every normal individual adequate opportunity for self-realization. In advanced states, political service is esteemed as the highest devotion of the citizenry. That state is best which co-ordinates most while governing least.
Keywords: Urantia, Statehood, Patriotism, Liberty, Self-Control
Summary by Kermit
Commentary on Review
We reflected on the ten stages in the evolution of a practical and efficient form of representative government, inquiring as to whether the remarkable congruence of the founding principles and structures of the government of the USA with the cosmic concepts expressed by the revelators was consciously derived by our founding fathers, or superconsciously conceived. We note that the basic tenets of democratic representative government have been an integral part of the reflections of the philosophers of human government since the sixth century B.C. Further, that the work of revelation is to conserve the fruits of evolutionary progress through precise coordination and to move mankind forward beyond an attained evolutionary apex.
71:3. The Ideals of Statehood
In examining the title of this section as well as the language therein, we note that the suffix –hood confers a quality of wholeness to the concept of “the state.” The unity aspect of wholeness suggests a potential for harmonizing statehood with ideals. The essentials of civil progress—liberty, security, education, and social co-ordination find downstepped expression of the ideals encompassed in the cosmic whole and the individuality of the whole through the adjustment of individual circumstances. Of course, the relative success of this process is dependent on the moral values and experiential wisdom of the citizenry as exemplified in their chosen leaders. [As previously stated, in cosmic parlance the term co-ordination has specific significance with respect to the whole and the individuality of the whole.] Social progress suffers when the evolutionary nature of ALL of these processes are interpreted in an existential frame of reference. Such faulty interpretations lead to the invariably unsuccessful attempt to apply existential ideals directly to our external lives without first translating them into workable ideas. Our emergency is not that we are bereft of ideals, nor that the evolutionary process is too slow. It is the attempt by the spiritually conscious to directly apply spiritual values and ideals to temporal matters.
This existential-evolutionary tension is pointedly illustrated in the matter of national egotism (chosen people). It has been essential to social survival and has greatly facilitated the progressive and unifying processes of tribal welding and nation building down to modern times. Yet, from the purely idealistic point of view, national egotism smacks of intolerance and is inimical to the ideal of universal human brotherhood. It remains that ideal levels of state functioning can never be attained until every form of intolerance is mastered, and our author prescribes efforts to co-ordinate science, commerce, play, and religion as the best way to combat intolerance. [Reminder that intolerance can be thought of as tempered zeal.]
For the ideal state to function, the ideals must be downstepped in the threefold co-ordinated expression in the spiritual, intellectual, and physical domains. Our author lists these expressions as follows: love loyalty derived from the realization of human brotherhood; intelligent patriotism based on wise ideals, and cosmic insight in terms of planetary facts, needs, and goals.
In the remainder of this section, the revelators show us benchmarks of an ideal state that we might reflect on the circumstances of our present state of affairs. Laws of an ideal state are few and positive in nature, characterized by a high degree of individual liberty requiring a degree of self-control for the most part unrealized on our world. Able citizens all work and are further encouraged in the profitable and uplifting use the increasing leisure made possible by the liberation from toil by the advances of the machine age. We are warned of the pernicious effects of idleness and poverty consequent to freely supporting and allowing the unrestrained reproduction of the defective and degenerate elements of humanity. Here we have rugged truths indeed!
Preserving citizens’ self-respect and affording opportunity for self-realization should be the aim of a moral society. This is best accomplished when the state maximizes co-ordination while minimizing regulative control.
The pathway to ideal statehood is by the slow evolutionary growth of civic consciousness. Following the period of egoistic participation in the administrative affairs of government, the burdens of government are assumed as a duty. Later these roles are sought as a privilege and honor. The caliber of citizens who take on the responsibilities of statehood is an accurate portrayal of the status of any level of civilization.
In advanced states, political service is esteemed as the highest devotion of the citizenry. In such states, governments confer their highest honors of recognition on those of the following callings in the following order: civil and social servants, philosophers, educators, scientists, industrialists, and militarists. Are we there yet? Where are the, sports figures, and television and movies stars?
