The transition to a global society

Dr Karan Singh

Moments come, which come but rarely in history, when quite perceptibly one age draws to a close and another dawns, when we stand poised between a collapsing past and an indeterminate future, when established landmarks disappear one by one, and we seem to be adrift on a boundless ocean stretching in all directions towards the horizon, when, in essence, to survive we need not merely a linear progression but a quantum jump in consciousness, not merely a reformulation of established concept but a paradigm shift in perception.Humanity has, in fact, reached just such a crossroads. It has been through many transitions in its long and tortuous history on this planet, but this time we are involved in what will surely be the most crucial and difficult of all the transitions we have encountered so far, the transition to a global society. The indications are now quite clear, although we may be too close to the event to grasp its immensity. Impelled by the explosion in science and technology over the last fifty years, all aspects of life on planet earth are undergoing a process of globalisation, as even a brief survey of some of the more tangible manifestations of this phenomenon will show.

Thomas Mann once said that in this age man's destiny leads him back to politics. Political activity is one of the most visible aspects of public life, and the current Westphalian model of the nation-state has dominated human history for the last few centuries. However, the nation-state itself now is being eroded by two contradictory forces. On the one hand nationalism in being transcended, the most dramatic example being the movement towards the European community. It is nothing short of astonishing that European nations which were at each others throats for centuries, and whose rivalries plunged the world repeatedly into wars of unsurpassed ferocity, should now have been able to overcome their age-old animosities and, despite continuing reservations, have been impelled by the sheer logic of economic survival to move towards a single economic and, ultimately, political entity.

Other regional groupings are also slowly moving in the same direction, and perhaps SAARC will ultimately follow suit. It is thus possible to visualize the present chaotic situation of almost two hundred nation-states moving steadily over the next few decades towards ten or twelve regional groupings. Perhaps it is a further integration between these regions that, before the end of the next century, could finally result in what Tennyson so eloquently described as "The Parliament of Man, the Federation of the World" and fulfill Sri Aurobindo's vision when he wrote on 15 August 1947 that "a new spirit of oneness will take hold of the human race".

The second force eroding the nation-state, or rather the artificial construct established by Marxist-Leninist dictatorship in Eastern and Central Europe, is the resurrection of ethnic and religious identities. The astounding implosion of the erstwhile Soviet Union has been an event of prime significance, because it shattered an artificial entity whose presence was distorting the inevitable transition to a global society by the negative polarization of the Cold War. As long as that lasted, the evolution of society stood frozen, as it were, and the forces of political growth remained in abeyance. It is a tribute to Mikhail Gorbachev that he was able to release tremendous democratizing forces, an act which, even if it ultimately cost him his Presidency, has assured for him an undying place in the annals of the human race. In fact the end of communism marks the beginning of post-modern history, not the end of it as some have asserted.

The explosion of Yugoslavia, a much smaller but far bloodier event, has also proved that if genuine nation states are themselves in the process of crisis, artificial ones can certainly no longer expect to survive. Way back in 1967 I happened to travel around India with President Tito. In the course of a conversation I asked him whether he didn't think that the constitution of Yugoslavia was too federal, and expressed the doubt that after his passing the country may break up. Pat came his answer – "If, after me, the republic decide to break, let them break." So even the maker of modern Yugoslavia was aware that the experiment could well turn out to be of a limited duration, although he could not have foreseen how violent the break up would be.

However, the collapse of communism leading to the break up of the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia does not, in the final analysis, contradict the globalisation thesis. Clearly what is happening is that the national entities so long subsumed under the Communist rubric need a period of freedom before they can start the process of transcendence. Communism, therefore, will at best have been able to delay the process of globalisation but will not, in the longer view, have been able to reverse it.If politics is in the process of globalisation, economic activity has for a long time transcended national boundaries. Economic and financial decisions now impinge upon the human race on a global basis. In particular, the rise of transnational corporations had introduced a powerful new element of globalisation which will increasingly erode national barriers. Economic compulsion has brought together the countries of Western Europe, and this factor will inevitably operate in other regions of the planet also. After the seemingly endless "Uruguay Round", a GATT agreement finally emerged, and the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund are triumphantly propagating what Reagan once called "the magic of the marketplace". Whether the magic turns out to be white or black depends, of course, on the nature of the economy involved, but for purposes of our present argument it is obvious that national boundaries are getting less and less important in the world economic context, and that this constitutes a powerful thrust towards the emerging global society.

Environmental problems are by definition global. The historic United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 highlighted this fact. Whereas the Stockholm Conference twenty years earlier was attended by only two heads of Government – the host Olaf Palme and our Prime Minister Indira Gandhi – the intervening twenty years brought home quite clearly that there are simply no partial solutions to such problems as global warming and attenuation of the ozone layer, river and ocean pollution, C02 emissions and biological diversity, deforestation and desertification. These reasons impelled over a hundred heads of State and Government to attend the Rio Summit. The growing awareness of the global nature of environmental problems and solutions is in fact one of the most tangible indications of the rapid emergence of a global society.The green movements and environmental activists throughout the world are in some ways pioneers of this new consciousness. From being regarded as far-out, fringe movements even a couple of decades ago, they have moved into centre stage, and governments throughout the world are obliged to take cognizance of their views. Indeed the whole concept of the planet as a living entity, the mother that has nurtured consciousness up from the slime of the primeval ocean to where it is today – GAIA in the Greek tradition, Bhavani Vasundhara in the Hindu – has become a powerful factor in the phenomenon of globalisation that is now gathering momentum. That most beautiful photograph ever taken, the one of planet Earth from outer space, stands as a glowing symbol of global awareness. It is as if we have seen our face in a mirror for the first time, for this shows our planet as it really is, a tiny speck of light and life against the unending vastnesses of outer space, so beautiful and yet so fragile.

Of all the factors impelling the movement into a global society, perhaps the most powerful is the multiple revolution in communications, triggered by space exploration and the development of satellite technology. When Yuri Gagarin first broke the space barrier, and Neil Armstrong first set foot on the moon, they were charting an entirely new course for human history. The sheer scientific and technological feats involved were staggering enough. That a creature on this planet could make the transition from cave to space station – so dramatically portrayed in Stanley Kubric's mind-bending film 2001: A Space Odyssey – in less than a hundred thousand years in astonishing. But the long range implications are likely to be truly momentous.Apart from other applications, the major impact of space or satellite exploration has been in the field of communications, radio and, more dramatically, television. The recent development of cable networks has virtually transformed human consciousness in large parts of the world, as it enables million of human beings scattered throughout the globe to witness programmes and events simultaneously. This global concentration of consciousness is unprecedented, and its impact still impossible to assess.

The cultural impact of television is also substantial. For the first time in human history a world language has emerged – English – which is a pre-requisite for a global civilization. This is not to say that English will replace other languages, but simply that it is rapidly becoming the link language for linguistic and national groups around the world. Rock music has, likewise, emerged as the first truly global music. Young people dance to the same beat whether in New York or New Delhi, Bombay or Beijing, Reykjavik or Rio de Janeiro. Similarly jeans are becoming a sort of global uniform for young people, and the cola drinks a global refreshment. These examples do not imply a value judgement. Many will continue to prefer Beethoven to the Beatles, champagne to Coca Cola. But the point is that the mass impact of the popular brands, whether in music or refreshment, is rapidly assuming global dimensions, thus building the foundations for a global society.Another factor that has made a tremendous impact on eroding national and linguistic barriers is the phenomenon of jet-age tourism. The world's largest industry in terms of annual turnover – larger even than petroleum or armaments – tourism now involves millions of people every year who leave the confines of their countries. Made possible by the development of jet airliner – itself a miracle of engineering technology – this massive tourist traffic is bringing people from different races and religions, linguistic and national groups together in an unprecedented manner. During a recent visit to the Great Wall of China, for instance, we encountered people drawn from at least a dozen countries and speaking a veritable babble of tongues, and visitors to the Taj Mahal or the Statue of Liberty are sure to have a similar experience. These tourists crisscrossing the globe are, as it were, spinning the warp and waft of the new garment of global consciousness that is steadily enveloping this planet.

All this adds up to an unprecedented and irreversible process which, for better or for worse, is inexorably influencing the people inhabiting this planet. Comfortable assumptions are being widely shaken, and we find ourselves hit by a typhoon of change which is pushing us willy-nilly into a global civilisation. While there have been many transitions in the long vistas of human history, the one to the global society has a major difference with earlier ones which makes it unique, and this relates to the time-scale involved. Previously many generations would elapse in the course of the transition, but this time round, time itself has telescoped, as a result of which the phenomenon which Alvin Toffler first termed "future shock" has become widespread. It is an amazing fact that almost all the seminal changes that are transforming our planet have taken place over the last fifty years, that is within the living memory of at least two generations of human beings still alive on the planet.Whether it is atomic power or jet aviation, television or computerization, robotics or organ transplants, satellite technology or space travel, genetic engineering or cybernetics, these and many more revolutionary developments took place in our own lifetimes. So rapid has been the pace of change that vast numbers of people seem to be numbed and disoriented. On the one hand the global society with all its myriad implications is rapidly emerging, while on the other the mindset of millions is still frozen in pre-global attitudes. It is this time-lag that is largely responsible for the curiously ambivalent state of the world today, in which contradictory movements and forces seem to be arising simultaneously in startling juxtaposition.It is clear that not all the implications of globalisation are positive. The very act of globalisation magnifies the original phenomenon which, if malign, assumes even more menacing dimensions. With terrorism having attained global dimensions, the real nightmare now lies in the possibility of a terrorist group getting hold of a nuclear weapon and using it for their malign purposes. The narcotics trade has now become so menacing that it threatens the very stability of societies and, in at least two countries, the very existence of the State itself. The multi-billion dollar drug trade, with the tremendous increase in addiction and drug-related crime, represents a malign underworld which is the dark shadow thrown by the glitter and glamour of Western civilisation. And the processes of its globalisation are inexorably widening its tentacles or encompass more and more societies in the developing world.The growth of violence, individual and collective, also has a global dimension. With all its amazing potential, television often becomes the vehicle for the most bloodcurdling violence and horror that now enters tens of million of living rooms around the world. The level of violence that many of the films shown on television contain, not to speak of a masochistic approach to evil, demoniac possession, horror and other such distortions of human consciousness, is posing a grave threat to balance and sanity of people throughout the world. What long range effect such films have on impressionable young minds can hardly be fathomed, but quite clearly this is a significant negative impact of the global revolution.

The AIDS pandemic has, in ten years, assumed truly alarming proportions, and has exploded on all continents cutting across barriers of nationality and religion, sex and sexual preference. If current forecasts are to be believed, by the end of the century tens of millions of human beings on this planet will be infected by the HIV virus, and millions will die from it every year, In some African countries it is feared that as much as one third of their populations could be wiped out, thus crippling their productive capacity and giving a major setback to their plans for economic development. The sheer human pain, physical and emotional, caused by AIDS is a truly tragic global burden. Sexual mores have changed greatly over the last few decades, but more than any particular form of sexual activity what has become so glaring now is the general level of promiscuity that pervades much of Western society. And this, through the process of globalisation, is now spreading throughout the world as videos have brought pornography into every home. Certainly there was the celebrated Kamasutra in India, but the activities were surely meant to be carried out in privacy rather than through the universal nudity of the television screen.

So while globalism has many positive aspects and is an irreversible process, it also has its menacing, darker side which we would do well to keep in mind, because unless we are able to develop a positive consciousness that can overcome this negativity, the whole transition could turn out to be abortive and, ultimately, self-destructive. Indeed, carrying further the analogy of transition and metamorphosis, one can liken the present global scenario to the time when a caterpillar enters the chrysalis before it becomes a butterfly. The experience could not be a pleasant one; there must be a terrible sense of constriction and crisis. But if it succeeds in undergoing that painful process, an ugly, earthbound worm is transformed into a beautiful, multi-coloured butterfly that can fly through the air rather than crawl on the leaf. Hopefully, that is what could happen to human consciousness provided we are able to make the transition to globalism safely.

The major question facing us, therefore, as we hurtle towards the end of this most violent and gory century in human history, is how to develop a consciousness that could sustain the emerging global society. What we need is a global 'dharma', a paradigm of thought that would stress co-operation in place of competition. convergence in place of conflict, holism in place of hedonism. For this we can turn to the great spiritual traditions of humanity, and I would like to explore briefly with you some of the universal concepts of the Vedanta, surely one of the high watermarks of world philosophy. "Mansarovar" 3, Nyaya Marg, Chanakyapuri, New Delhi - 110 003 Ph: 2611 1744, 2611 5291 Fax: 2687 3171