|
I shook my head.
"The truth is," Helen added, "that humanity is one. We are all a part of it. We all reflect it in all its countless facets. Our humanity alone defines us a human being. I find it a wonderful adventure to learn to love ourselves in this sphere by learning to love one-another, and as you said, to make ourselves proud of one-another and of ourselves. Everything else that we are, and are able to achieve in this world, is really rooted there and is universal in principle. Even economic development must therefore be universal. It's our joy. There is no joy in prosperity when half of the world dies for it. Scientific and spiritual development must likewise be universal. It's our power, which can never be a power over another, but a power to create, discover, and enrich one-another. Social development, too, must be universal. It's our peace. Call this our universal kiss. And our sense of marriage must be universal most of all. Universal marriage is the reality of our being. It's our truth. It is the most profound element of the truth about our humanity, together with all the other elements that define our peace, our joy, and our power as human beings."
"I suppose that puts the onus on us to explore why we are so often untruthful with ourselves, about the truth, and to one-another by embracing exceptions," I suggested.
Helen smiled. "This process of uncovering the lies that we entertain can change the world, Peter. It changed the world in the early 1600s. Gradually, over a span of thirty years the lies of the war philosophers, like Hobbes and all the others, were uncovered by focusing on the truth. That's a scientific process. On the basis of this simple scientific process the Principle of Universal Love became recognized once again. Soon thereafter, the foundation that was thereby cemented into place in consciousness gave rise to the noblest peace treaty of all times, the 1648 Treaty of Westphalia."
Helen explained that this astonishing development gave humanity a second Renaissance. She said that the Peace of Westphalia reestablished the spirit of universal love, or Christian love, at least on the political platform. The treaty partners proclaimed to each other that all nations are equal, small or large, weak or powerful, and are sovereign by virtue of man's divine nature, which must be recognized as such. It was an acceptance of the Principle of Universal Love. It took two generations to redevelop the idea that stood behind the Renaissance, which had been created over the space of a hundred years. At the result of this scientific return to sanity all war crimes were forgiven, the war debts canceled, and the war atrocities were put behind them as irrelevant in comparison with the 'jewel' of peace. The cycles of retribution were simply ended as a new era had begun.
Helen said that in this new era, the Renaissance ideal of establishing true sovereign nation-states was rekindled. There was a movement under foot in Europe to create modern republican nation-states out of the morass of the failed empires, to create states that would coexist on the basis of a community of shared principles, principles that would be understood and respected by all. But this profound political project proved impossible to implement in Europe at this time. The 1648 victory for humanity had come out of the defeat of the imperial notion, except that defeat had not gone deep enough. Enough of it had somehow remained in the rubble to prevent the people from going all the way to creating modern nation-states in Europe. America proved to be more ideally situated for that. It had not been drawn into this deep cultural destruction that had destroyed Europe from within. The American people, who had been strongly supported by the leading European pioneers, were able to understand scientifically what the 1648 treaty represented, both for them and for humanity. On the basis of that understanding the United States of America was established as the first nation-state republic built on the principles behind the 1648 Treaty of Westphalia. The USA was therefore a European creation that came out of the very best European traditions, exemplified by the Peace of Westphalia.
Next Page
|| - page index -
|| - chapter index -
|| - Exit -
||
|
