Basic HTML Version
February 1972
lishment bigot. But Archie is not really
a bigot. He is merely ignorant; he does
not know what he does not know. So is
this true of most of humanity - and tt
líes at the cause of war, poverty, race
bigotrr, religious ignorance, social
strife.
We, of course, must not excuse the
frailty of the human mind. A common
cliché clearlr points out that we are,
after all, our own worst enemy: "We
have met the enemy and he is
11s."
We may know intellectually why
marriages fail and what it takes to make
them successful. But knowledge of itself
is not sufficient. There must be will and
desire to change, to use that knowledge.
T hat is a function of thc human mind.
What We Don't Know
But let's put this obvious point aside
and concentrate on our environmental
input. There is so much wrong "knowl–
edge" in this world that it clouds what
is right and good. Whole nations are
enslaved by religious and social taboos,
or by economic systems that have ob–
viously gaping flaws.
This has douded and distorted true
knowledge, causing individuals and
nations to accept and follow what can
only lead to further human woe. Hit–
ler's Germany is perhaps the most poi–
gnant example.
We still have nation-states that are
swayed by the feclings of nationalism.
This spirit of nationalism fills the air
waves of a oation, molding the think–
ing of its citizeos to the point of sorne–
times driving them to the madness
of war with their neighbors. This is not
inborn but learoed behavior - and it is
dangerous behavior.
Today we stand near the three-quar–
ter mark of the 20th century. The
grave imperfections in our world envi–
ronment and in the thinking of man
threaten to usher in cosmocide. On the
other hand, incredible outpourings of
knowledge could help map out the
roads we must take to avert ultimate
horror.
In fact, the very existence of the ulti–
mate annihilation threat is forcing hu–
manity to the knowledge that we
MUST
l ive in peace or die in war.
W hat is our course to peace? We
The
PLAIN TRUTH
must begin afresh. We must put aside
the selfish concepts of nationalism or
social bigotry. We must institute in
their place a Carden of Eden simplicity
- to unshackle our minds from the
chains of 6,000 years of human history,
a history that has built a house of
fears, hatreds, misknowledge. We need
to recapture the way that will lead us to
world peace and social harmony.
This means rejecting all that is false
and literally starting all over again. We
must bridge the generation gap, the reli–
gious gap, the political gap. We must
reject the wrong attitudes that divide us.
That is how the Twentieth Century can
be baíled out. We either accomplish
these aims or our survivors wi ll have
the opportun ity to start anew in a woriJ
which has been pushed ovcr the preci–
pice to utter destruction.
N eeded: A New Spirit
But how can we accomplish thc
mind-cleansing that humanity necds,
given the realities of our world today?
Who is going to slip into the minds, so
to speak, of the nearly four billion
human beings and re-program them?
We must admit that in the current con–
liguration of todays world, the answer
to the question: How to bail out the
Twentieth Century? must remain, by
human standards, Mission: Impossible
and Solution: Unknown. No human pos–
sesses the power to propel us from here
to Pogo's Garden of Eden.
But there is hope if we are willing to
accept a new and uoique solution to the
problem.
T his article has stressed the need for
a mind-scrubbing, an opportunity to
toss in the cards and deal a new hand.
But to deal a new hand with the same
old cards is not enough. We can put
together only so many card con–
figurations from the sarne deck. All the
existing configurations in the form of
religious, social and political systems
have been tried and found wanting. We
need a new deck of cards which do not
yet exist.
In Pogo's Garden of Eden, the God
of Adam and Eve is pictured as a Great
Educator. In teaching the couple, this
Educator told them not to eat of the
tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
But Adam and Eve ate of that tree.
29
Man has also been eating of this forbid–
den tree, living with irnperfect knowl–
cdge - a combination of good and bad
guidance. Today, although we have
much understanding of world and so–
cial issues, full understanding resides in
no man or nation. There are only bits
and pieces scattered over the world
floor.
And like Adam, mankind has rejected
that other vital tree, the tree of life.
Man as never before desperately needs
to partake of this tree. Man needs the
ncw spirit, the new dimension to his
thinking which the tree symbolically
provides.
And man needs the guidance of the
Great Educator (whose instruction was
rejected by Adam and Eve) in how to
acquire the wisdom to rule himself and
humanity.
Armed with this new spiritual dimen–
sion of mind, and led by the wise and
just leadership of the Great Educator,
man can return to an Eden-like condi–
tion. But this time the retucn will be
with a greater understanding of his
responsibility so that he can, if he so
chooses, remain untempted by the ser–
pent's guile. Only then will man be
able to bail out the Twentieth Century
and usher m a wonderful World
Tomorrow. O
lf
you would like to know wbat the
21st Century will really be like -
and it may surprise you - then
write in for a FREE year's subscrip–
tion to TOMORROW'S WORLD
magazine, published by Ambassador
College. In the April number will
be an artide entided, "THE 21st
CENTURY - What l t Will Be
Li ke." See staff box, inside front
cover, for address neares t you.