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example of this co-operation gap: A
leader of one government privately
asked me to do what I could to per–
suade the head of another country to
improve diplomatic relations between
the two. Because of the tense and deli–
cate struggle between nations, jockeying
for advantage and power, politics has
become a tightrope-walking chess game.
This particular govecnment leader knew
that 1 have absolutely nothing to do
with politics. That's the reason he made
bis off-the-cuff request. He thought per–
haps one coming as a friend, educator
and editor - completely out of and
above politics, might bring to bear a
persuasioo impossible within politics.
And while I will not be in any way
politically involved, there is no reason to
refuse making a suggestion that might
bring two people -
oc
two nations -
into more friendly and peaceful
co-operation.
One might ask, couldn't meo have
bridged
these
gaps, if they had devoted
the same amount of time and expert
energy they spent on the space project
to exploring the means of solving these
problems here on earth?
The answer, tragically, is
NO!
Men have, through the centuries,
diligently applied study, research, time
and energy -
all the power and
resources of KNOWLEDGE PRODUCTION
- to exploring ways to CURE these
evils. And yet the gaps keep widening.
But men always ignore the CAUSE, and
treat the EFFECT.
What the CAUSE?
It was the ANSWER to this very prob–
lem - this fatally serious problem -
that formed the subject of my talk to
the educators in Tokyo.
Here is the substance of it:
For centuries and millenniums, human
society lumbered along at about the
same gait. Overland transportation was
by foot, horse, carne! or mule. Freight
on land was carried on wagon, pack–
horse, mule or donkey. For that reason
civilization was centered mostly on coast–
lands. Men travelled primarily by sail–
boat. Communication was limited to
mouth-to-mouth. There were no such
things known as telephones, telegraph,
radio, radio-phone
oc
ocean cable. Tele–
vision has come only since World War
II for the public.
The
PLAIN TRUTH
Through these millenniums of time
the average person lived out his entire
life, never seeing any part of the world
farther than ten or twenty miles from
home. There were no tourism agencies.
People knew little or nothing about
people a hundred miles or more from
their own bornes.
In the last three or four hundred
years man's technology began to appear.
We had the inventions of the telescope,
the printing press, the steamboat.
Travel by water was speeded up. The
telegraph, cable and telephone carne
and gradually communication developed.
But modecn science began a real
acceleration about 150 years ago. Men
of science decided they could safely dis–
card the crutch of religion and belief in
God. The human mind could now sup–
ply all the knowledge, on the scientific
human level.
"Give us sufficient knowledge," they
postulated, "and we shall solve all the
problems and cure all the world's ills."
Revelation was rejected as a basic
source of knowledge. The tools of
knowledge production were - as they
always had been - observation, explor–
ation, experiment and human reason.
But now they began putting those tools
to work with ever-increasing energy.
German "rationalism" was injected
into the educational bloodstream. Edu–
cation dropped emphasis on moral, spir–
itual and ethical values. It became
materialistic, with sole emphasis on the
intellect. And the universities schooled
and turned out the scientists.
Means of transportation and commu–
nication increased at ever-faster pace.
Knowledge production was stepped up
faster and faster.
But, strangely, paradoxically, new
troubles and evils sprang up in the
world. For example: Medicine was sup–
posedly giving us better health, eradi–
cating disease. Today one hears little
about sorne of the diseases of fifty to a
hundred years ago - but new and more
deadly diseases have replaced them -
and others have become far more preva–
lent - cancer and heart diseases fore–
most. Crime has constantly increased.
Unrest grips the whole world. Family
life is breaking down. Revolt is every–
where. Especially on university campuses,
January
1971
with violence. Protest is the current fash–
ion. Meanwhile, man has polluted bis
soil,
his water supplies, the air he
breathes, the foods he eats. He has
denuded the forests, thus increasing
droughts. Morals have descended into
the cesspool. Teen-agers see no hope, no
future, and hundreds of thousands take
to idleness, drunkenness, sex and drugs,
blowing their minds.
In the decade of the 1960's, the
world's fund of knowledge
doubled,
and in the same ten years the world's
evils also doubled.
For every effect,
I
repeat again and
again, there has to be a CAUSE. Suppose
that instead of the giant space project,
man
had
devoted that time and energy
to exploring the means of bridging the
gaps for mankind.
The fault is NOT failure to devote
time and energy in knowledge-produc–
tion to discover the CURE. Man has
always tried
to
treat the EFFECT, ignor–
ing the CAUSE.
When evils escalate in virtually pre–
cise ratio with knowledge production,
something has to be wrong in the
method of producing that knowledge.
Tbat is one half of the trouble. The
other is a basically wrong WAY OF LIFE.
And the two are inter-related. Let me
explain.
Get vs. Give
Overall, there are only two basic
WAYS of life - two divergent philos–
ophies. They travel in opposite direc–
tions. I state them simply: One is the
way of GET, the other of GIVE. Or, a
little more speci1ically: One is the way
of outgoing concern for others, equal to
concern for self.
lt
is the way of cooper–
ating, giving, helping, sharing, serving;
the way of kindness, consideration,
patience, courtesy.
The other is the SELF-centered way. It
is the way of getting, taking, acquiring
- of greed and lust. Toward others it
is the way of envy, jealousy, unconcern,
malice, resentment, hatred.
It
is the way
that tries to get for SELF the best of
every deal - and give the other the
worst.
At the San Francisco Conference that
drew up the pattern for the United
Nations, I heard meo make laudatory
speeches on the theme of brotherly love
toward others. There, in 1945, 1 heard
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