A preview of the unpublished book A CIVILIZATION WITHOUT A VISION WILL PERISH: AN INDEPENDENT SEARCH FOR THE TRUTH by David Willis
LESSONS LEARNED BY THE AUTHOR: THE BOTTOM LINE (Part 19)
The lessons learned in my 75 years boil down to two quotations. The first, I think, is credited to Winston Churchill as the shortest graduation speech in history:
“Never, ever, ever, ever, ever give up.”
The second quotation I learned when I attended the Fifth International Symposium on Spirituality & Business: Transforming Business & Uplifting the Human Spirit: Leadership in Challenging Times, March 20-22, 2002, Hosted by Babson College, Wellesley, Massachusetts.
Concerning all acts of initiative and creation,
there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which
kills countless ideas and splendid plans;
that the moment one definitely commits oneself,
Providence moves, too.
All sorts of things occur to help one,
that would otherwise never have occurred.
A whole stream of events issue from the decision,
raising in one’s favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and
meetings and material assistance, which no person could
have dreamed would have come his or her way.
Are you in earnest?
Seize this very minute!
Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it!
Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it.
Wolfgang Goethe
In practical terms we must never, ever, ever, ever, ever give up trying to live according to the Golden Rule – to treat others as we would like to be treated ourselves. Every religion has its own version of the Golden Rule which is thus the silver thread connecting all religions. We also need to refer back to the Stanford Research Institute presentation of Seven Tomorrows, mentioned in the Overview. We are now well and truly in the age of misery, where the handful of powerful and influential are amassing tremendous wealth at the expense of those without the basic requirements for life. The root cause is the world’s financial system whereby the banks create money out of nothing and lend it to the masses at interest, creating great wealth for the banks and outrageous bonuses for their employees while those outside the system face ever increasing prices without a corresponding increase in income. The solution is to live within our means and extricate ourselves from the power the banks have over us. It seems that we have not moved forward since the time of Charles Dickens: “Annual income 20 pounds; annual expenses 19 pounds 19 shillings and sixpence – happiness; annual expenses 20 pounds and sixpence – unhappiness.”
To save ourselves everyone has to change direction instantaneously like a flock of birds. Whether we are Christian, Moslem, Hindu, Buddhist, Jew, Bahá’í, or agnostic, most of would agree there is only one God. Most of us would accept the Golden Rule as a sound basis for conducting ourselves in a sustainable manner. The moment we definitely commit ourselves to the Golden Rule as individuals, as businesses, and as nations, then Providence will move, too.
We also have to take account of the fact that the Brookings Institute tells us that world population might reach 10 billion as early as 2030, of whom half are likely to be middle class – an increase of 3 billion middle class in 20 years – putting tremendous pressure on all resources. We have two choices: business as usual which will result in resource wars or to adopt a radically new level of thinking as proposed by Bahá’u’lláh, founder of the Bahá’í Faith:
“Blessed and happy is he that ariseth to promote the best interests of the peoples and kindreds of the earth. It is not for him to pride himself who loveth his own country, but rather for him who loveth the whole world. The earth is but one country, and mankind its citizens.”