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Urantia Book Paper 71 Development Of The State
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Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART III: The History of Urantia
: The Origin Of Urantia Life Establishment On Urantia The Marine-life Era On
Urantia Urantia During The Early Land-life Era The Mammalian Era On Urantia The
Dawn Races Of Early Man The First Human Family The Evolutionary Races Of Color
The Overcontrol Of Evolution The Planetary Prince Of Urantia The Planetary
Rebellion The Dawn Of Civilization Primitive Human Institutions The Evolution
Of Human Government Development Of The State Government On A Neighboring Planet
The Garden Of Eden Adam And Eve The Default Of Adam And Eve The Second Garden
The Midway Creatures The Violet Race After The Days Of Adam Andite Expansion In
The Orient Andite Expansion In The Occident Development Of Modern Civilization
The Evolution Of Marriage The Marriage Institution Marriage And Family Life The
Origins Of Worship Early Evolution Of Religion The Ghost Cults Fetishes,
Charms, And Magic Sin, Sacrifice, And Atonement Shamanism--medicine Men And
Priests The Evolution Of Prayer The Later Evolution Of Religion Machiventa
Melchizedek The Melchizedek Teachings In The Orient The Melchizedek Teachings
In The Levant Yahweh--god Of The Hebrews Evolution Of The God Concept Among The
Hebrews The Melchizedek Teachings In The Occident The Social Problems Of
Religion Religion In Human Experience The Real Nature Of Religion The
Foundations Of Religious Faith The Reality Of Religious Experience Growth Of
The Trinity Concept Deity And Reality Universe Levels Of Reality Origin And
Nature Of Thought Adjusters Mission And Ministry Of Thought Adjusters Relation
Of Adjusters To Universe Creatures Relation Of Adjusters To Individual Mortals
...
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Paper 71 Development Of The State
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Introduction
THE state is a useful evolution of civilization; it represents society's net
gain from the ravages and sufferings of war. Even statecraft is merely the
accumulated technique for adjusting the competitive contest of force between
the struggling tribes and nations.
The modern state is the institution which survived in the long struggle for
group power. Superior power eventually prevailed, and it produced a creature of
fact--the state--together with the moral myth of the absolute obligation of the
citizen to live and die for the state. But the state is not of divine genesis;
it was not even produced by volitionally intelligent human action; it is purely
an evolutionary institution and was wholly automatic in origin.
1. THE EMBRYONIC STATE
The state is a territorial social regulative organization, and the strongest,
most efficient, and enduring state is composed of a single nation whose people
have a common language, mores, and institutions.
The early states were small and were all the result of conquest. They did not
originate in voluntary associations. Many were founded by conquering nomads,
who would swoop down on peaceful herders or settled agriculturists to overpower
and enslave them. Such states, resulting from conquest, were, perforce,
stratified; classes were inevitable, and class struggles have ever been
selective.
The northern tribes of the American red men never attained real statehood. They
never progressed beyond a loose confederation of tribes, a very primitive form
of state. Their nearest approach was the Iroquois federation, but this group of
six nations never quite functioned as a state and failed to survive because of
the absence of certain essentials to modern national life, such as:
1. Acquirement and inheritance of private property.
2. Cities plus agriculture and industry.
3. Helpful domestic animals.
4. Practical family organization. These red men clung to the mother-family and
nephew inheritance.
5. Definite territory.
6. A strong executive head.
7. Enslavement of captives--they either adopted or massacred them.
8. Decisive conquests.
The red men were too democratic; they had a good government, but it failed.
Eventually they would have evolved a state had they not prematurely en
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countered the more advanced civilization of the white man, who was pursuing the
governmental methods of the Greeks and the Romans.
The successful Roman state was based on:
1. The father-family.
2. Agriculture and the domestication of animals.
3. Condensation of population--cities.
4. Private property and land.
5. Slavery--classes of citizenship.
6. Conquest and reorganization of weak and backward peoples.
7. Definite territory with roads.
8. Personal and strong rulers.
The great weakness in Roman civilization, and a factor in the ultimate collapse
of the empire, was the supposed liberal and advanced provision for the
emancipation of the boy at twenty-one and the unconditional release of the girl
so that she was at liberty to marry a man of her own choosing or to go abroad
in the land to become immoral. The harm to society consisted not in these
reforms themselves but rather in the sudden and extensive manner of their
adoption. The collapse of Rome indicates what may be expected when a state
undergoes too rapid extension associated with internal degeneration.
The embryonic state was made possible by the decline of the blood bond in favor
of the territorial, and such tribal federations were usually firmly cemented by
conquest. While a sovereignty that transcends all minor struggles and group
differences is the characteristic of the true state, still, many classes and
castes persist in the later state organizations as remnants of the clans and
tribes of former days. The later and larger territorial states had a long and
bitter struggle with these smaller consanguineous clan groups, the tribal
government proving a valuable transition from family to state authority. During
later times many clans grew out of trades and other industrial associations.
Failure of state integration results in retrogression to prestate conditions of
governmental techniques, such as the feudalism of the European Middle Ages.
During these dark ages the territorial state collapsed, and there was a
reversion to the small castle groups, the reappearance of the clan and tribal
stages of development. Similar semistates even now exist in Asia and Africa,
but not all of them are evolutionary reversions; many are the embryonic
nucleuses of states of the future.
2. THE EVOLUTION OF REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNMENT
Democracy, while an ideal, is a product of civilization, not of evolution. Go
slowly! select carefully! for the dangers of democracy are:
1. Glorification of mediocrity.
2. Choice of base and ignorant rulers.
3. Failure to recognize the basic facts of social evolution.
4. Danger of universal suffrage in the hands of uneducated and indolent
majorities.
5. Slavery to public opinion; the majority is not always right.
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Public opinion, common opinion, has always delayed society; nevertheless, it is
valuable, for, while retarding social evolution, it does preserve civilization.
Education of public opinion is the only safe and true method of accelerating
civilization; force is only a temporary expedient, and cultural growth will
increasingly accelerate as bullets give way to ballots. Public opinion, the
mores, is the basic and elemental energy in social evolution and state
development, but to be of state value it must be nonviolent in expression.
The measure of the advance of society is directly determined by the degree to
which public opinion can control personal behavior and state regulation through
nonviolent expression. The really civilized government had arrived when public
opinion was clothed with the powers of personal franchise. Popular elections
may not always decide things rightly, but they represent the right way even to
do a wrong thing. Evolution does not at once produce superlative perfection but
rather comparative and advancing practical adjustment.
There are ten steps, or stages, to the evolution of a practical and efficient
form of representative government, and these are:
1. Freedom of the person. Slavery, serfdom, and all forms of human bondage must
disappear.
2. Freedom of the mind. Unless a free people are educated--taught to think
intelligently and plan wisely--freedom usually does more harm than good.
3. The reign of law. Liberty can be enjoyed only when the will and whims of
human rulers are replaced by legislative enactments in accordance with accepted
fundamental law.
4. Freedom of speech. Representative government is unthinkable without freedom
of all forms of expression for human aspirations and opinions.
5. Security of property. No government can long endure if it fails to provide
for the right to enjoy personal property in some form. Man craves the right to
use, control, bestow, sell, lease, and bequeath his personal property.
6. The right of petition. Representative government assumes the right of
citizens to be heard. The privilege of petition is inherent in free
citizenship.
7. The right to rule. It is not enough to be heard; the power of petition must
progress to the actual management of the government.
8. Universal suffrage. Representative government presupposes an intelligent,
efficient, and universal electorate. The character of such a government will
ever be determined by the character and caliber of those who compose it. As
civilization progresses, suffrage, while remaining universal for both sexes,
will be effectively modified, regrouped, and otherwise differentiated.
9. Control of public servants. No civil government will be serviceable and
effective unless the citizenry possess and use wise techniques of guiding and
controlling officeholders and public servants.
10. Intelligent and trained representation. The survival of democracy is
dependent on successful representative government; and that is conditioned upon
the practice of electing to public offices only those individuals who are
technically trained, intellectually competent, socially loyal, and morally fit.
Only by such provisions can government of the people, by the people, and for
the people be preserved.
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3. THE IDEALS OF STATEHOOD
The political or administrative form of a government is of little consequence
provided it affords the essentials of civil progress--liberty, security,
education, and social co-ordination. It is not what a state is but what it does
that determines the course of social evolution. And after all, no state can
transcend the moral values of its citizenry as exemplified in their chosen
leaders. Ignorance and selfishness will insure the downfall of even the highest
type of government.
Much as it is to be regretted, national egotism has been essential to social
survival. The chosen people doctrine has been a prime factor in tribal welding
and nation building right on down to modern times. But no state can attain
ideal levels of functioning until every form of intolerance is mastered; it is
everlastingly inimical to human progress. And intolerance is best combated by
the co-ordination of science, commerce, play, and religion.
The ideal state functions under the impulse of three mighty and co-ordinated
drives:
1. Love loyalty derived from the realization of human brotherhood.
2. Intelligent patriotism based on wise ideals.
3. Cosmic insight interpreted in terms of planetary facts, needs, and goals.
The laws of the ideal state are few in number, and they have passed out of the
negativistic taboo age into the era of the positive progress of individual
liberty consequent upon enhanced self-control. The exalted state not only
compels its citizens to work but also entices them into profitable and
uplifting utilization of the increasing leisure which results from toil
liberation by the advancing machine age. Leisure must produce as well as
consume.
No society has progressed very far when it permits idleness or tolerates
poverty. But poverty and dependence can never be eliminated if the defective
and degenerate stocks are freely supported and permitted to reproduce without
restraint.
A moral society should aim to preserve the self-respect of its citizenry and
afford every normal individual adequate opportunity for self-realization. Such
a plan of social achievement would yield a cultural society of the highest
order. Social evolution should be encouraged by governmental supervision which
exercises a minimum of regulative control. That state is best which
co-ordinates most while governing least.
The ideals of statehood must be attained by evolution, by the slow growth of
civic consciousness, the recognition of the obligation and privilege of social
service. At first men assume the burdens of government as a duty, following the
end of the administration of political spoilsmen, but later on they seek such
ministry as a privilege, as the greatest honor. The status of any level of
civilization is faithfully portrayed by the caliber of its citizens who
volunteer to accept the responsibilities of statehood.
In a real commonwealth the business of governing cities and provinces is
conducted by experts and is managed just as are all other forms of economic and
commercial associations of people.
In advanced states, political service is esteemed as the highest devotion of
the citizenry. The greatest ambition of the wisest and noblest of citizens is
to
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gain civil recognition, to be elected or appointed to some position of
governmental trust, and such governments confer their highest honors of
recognition for service upon their civil and social servants. Honors are next
bestowed in the order named upon philosophers, educators, scientists,
industrialists, and militarists. Parents are duly rewarded by the excellency of
their children, and purely religious leaders, being ambassadors of a spiritual
kingdom, receive their real rewards in another world.
4. PROGRESSIVE CIVILIZATION
Economics, society, and government must evolve if they are to remain. Static
conditions on an evolutionary world are indicative of decay; only those
institutions which move forward with the evolutionary stream persist.
The progressive program of an expanding civilization embraces:
1. Preservation of individual liberties.
2. Protection of the home.
3. Promotion of economic security.
4. Prevention of disease.
5. Compulsory education.
6. Compulsory employment.
7. Profitable utilization of leisure.
8. Care of the unfortunate.
9. Race improvement.
10. Promotion of science and art.
11. Promotion of philosophy--wisdom.
12. Augmentation of cosmic insight--spirituality.
And this progress in the arts of civilization leads directly to the realization
of the highest human and divine goals of mortal endeavor--the social
achievement of the brotherhood of man and the personal status of
God-consciousness, which becomes revealed in the supreme desire of every
individual to do the will of the Father in heaven.
The appearance of genuine brotherhood signifies that a social order has arrived
in which all men delight in bearing one another's burdens; they actually desire
to practice the golden rule. But such an ideal society cannot be realized when
either the weak or the wicked lie in wait to take unfair and unholy advantage
of those who are chiefly actuated by devotion to the service of truth, beauty,
and goodness. In such a situation only one course is practical: The "golden
rulers" may establish a progressive society in which they live according to
their ideals while maintaining an adequate defense against their benighted
fellows who might seek either to exploit their pacific predilections or to
destroy their advancing civilization.
Idealism can never survive on an evolving planet if the idealists in each
generation permit themselves to be exterminated by the baser orders of
humanity. And here is the great test of idealism: Can an advanced society
maintain that military preparedness which renders it secure from all attack by
its war-loving neighbors without yielding to the temptation to employ this
military
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strength in offensive operations against other peoples for purposes of selfish
gain or national aggrandizement? National survival demands preparedness, and
religious idealism alone can prevent the prostitution of preparedness into
aggression. Only love, brotherhood, can prevent the strong from oppressing the
weak.
5. THE EVOLUTION OF COMPETITION
Competition is essential to social progress, but competition, unregulated,
breeds violence. In current society, competition is slowly displacing war in
that it determines the individual's place in industry, as well as decreeing the
survival of the industries themselves. (Murder and war differ in their status
before the mores, murder having been outlawed since the early days of society,
while war has never yet been outlawed by mankind as a whole.)
The ideal state undertakes to regulate social conduct only enough to take
violence out of individual competition and to prevent unfairness in personal
initiative. Here is a great problem in statehood: How can you guarantee peace
and quiet in industry, pay the taxes to support state power, and at the same
time prevent taxation from handicapping industry and keep the state from
becoming parasitical or tyrannical?
Throughout the earlier ages of any world, competition is essential to
progressive civilization. As the evolution of man progresses, co-operation
becomes increasingly effective. In advanced civilizations co-operation is more
efficient than competition. Early man is stimulated by competition. Early
evolution is characterized by the survival of the biologically fit, but later
civilizations are the better promoted by intelligent co-operation,
understanding fraternity, and spiritual brotherhood.
True, competition in industry is exceedingly wasteful and highly ineffective,
but no attempt to eliminate this economic lost motion should be countenanced if
such adjustments entail even the slightest abrogation of any of the basic
liberties of the individual.
6. THE PROFIT MOTIVE
Present-day profit-motivated economics is doomed unless profit motives can be
augmented by service motives. Ruthless competition based on narrow-minded
self-interest is ultimately destructive of even those things which it seeks to
maintain. Exclusive and self-serving profit motivation is incompatible with
Christian ideals--much more incompatible with the teachings of Jesus.
In economics, profit motivation is to service motivation what fear is to love
in religion. But the profit motive must not be suddenly destroyed or removed;
it keeps many otherwise slothful mortals hard at work. It is not necessary,
however, that this social energy arouser be forever selfish in its objectives.
The profit motive of economic activities is altogether base and wholly unworthy
of an advanced order of society; nevertheless, it is an indispensable factor
throughout the earlier phases of civilization. Profit motivation must not be
taken away from men until they have firmly possessed themselves of superior
types of nonprofit motives for economic striving and social serving--the
transcendent urges of superlative wisdom, intriguing brotherhood, and
excellency of spiritual attainment.
top of page - 806
7. EDUCATION
The enduring state is founded on culture, dominated by ideals, and motivated by
service. The purpose of education should be acquirement of skill, pursuit of
wisdom, realization of selfhood, and attainment of spiritual values.
In the ideal state, education continues throughout life, and philosophy
sometimes becomes the chief pursuit of its citizens. The citizens of such a
commonwealth pursue wisdom as an enhancement of insight into the significance
of human relations, the meanings of reality, the nobility of values, the goals
of living, and the glories of cosmic destiny.
Urantians should get a vision of a new and higher cultural society. Education
will jump to new levels of value with the passing of the purely
profit-motivated system of economics. Education has too long been localistic,
militaristic, ego exalting, and success seeking; it must eventually become
world-wide, idealistic, self-realizing, and cosmic grasping.
Education recently passed from the control of the clergy to that of lawyers and
businessmen. Eventually it must be given over to the philosophers and the
scientists. Teachers must be free beings, real leaders, to the end that
philosophy, the search for wisdom, may become the chief educational pursuit.
Education is the business of living; it must continue throughout a lifetime so
that mankind may gradually experience the ascending levels of mortal wisdom,
which are:
1. The knowledge of things.
2. The realization of meanings.
3. The appreciation of values.
4. The nobility of work--duty.
5. The motivation of goals--morality.
6. The love of service--character.
7. Cosmic insight--spiritual discernment.
And then, by means of these achievements, many will ascend to the mortal
ultimate of mind attainment, God-consciousness.
8. THE CHARACTER OF STATEHOOD
The only sacred feature of any human government is the division of statehood
into the three domains of executive, legislative, and judicial functions. The
universe is administered in accordance with such a plan of segregation of
functions and authority. Aside from this divine concept of effective social
regulation or civil government, it matters little what form of state a people
may elect to have provided the citizenry is ever progressing toward the goal of
augmented self-control and increased social service. The intellectual keenness,
economic wisdom, social cleverness, and moral stamina of a people are all
faithfully reflected in statehood.
The evolution of statehood entails progress from level to level, as follows:
1. The creation of a threefold government of executive, legislative, and
judicial branches.
2. The freedom of social, political, and religious activities.
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3. The abolition of all forms of slavery and human bondage.
4. The ability of the citizenry to control the levying of taxes.
5. The establishment of universal education--learning extended from the cradle
to the grave.
6. The proper adjustment between local and national governments.
7. The fostering of science and the conquest of disease.
8. The due recognition of sex equality and the co-ordinated functioning of men
and women in the home, school, and church, with specialized service of women in
industry and government.
9. The elimination of toiling slavery by machine invention and the subsequent
mastery of the machine age.
10. The conquest of dialects--the triumph of a universal language.
11. The ending of war--international adjudication of national and racial
differences by continental courts of nations presided over by a supreme
planetary tribunal automatically recruited from the periodically retiring heads
of the continental courts. The continental courts are authoritative; the world
court is advisory--moral.
12. The world-wide vogue of the pursuit of wisdom--the exaltation of
philosophy. The evolution of a world religion, which will presage the entrance
of the planet upon the earlier phases of settlement in light and life.
These are the prerequisites of progressive government and the earmarks of ideal
statehood. Urantia is far from the realization of these exalted ideals, but the
civilized races have made a beginning--mankind is on the march toward higher
evolutionary destinies.
[Sponsored by a Melchizedek of Nebadon.]
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Subjects Archive The Urantia Book Urantia Book PART III: The History of Urantia
: The Origin Of Urantia Life Establishment On Urantia The Marine-life Era On
Urantia Urantia During The Early Land-life Era The Mammalian Era On Urantia The
Dawn Races Of Early Man The First Human Family The Evolutionary Races Of Color
The Overcontrol Of Evolution The Planetary Prince Of Urantia The Planetary
Rebellion The Dawn Of Civilization Primitive Human Institutions The Evolution
Of Human Government Development Of The State Government On A Neighboring Planet
The Garden Of Eden Adam And Eve The Default Of Adam And Eve The Second Garden
The Midway Creatures The Violet Race After The Days Of Adam Andite Expansion In
The Orient Andite Expansion In The Occident Development Of Modern Civilization
The Evolution Of Marriage The Marriage Institution Marriage And Family Life The
Origins Of Worship Early Evolution Of Religion The Ghost Cults Fetishes,
Charms, And Magic Sin, Sacrifice, And Atonement Shamanism--medicine Men And
Priests The Evolution Of Prayer The Later Evolution Of Religion Machiventa
Melchizedek The Melchizedek Teachings In The Orient The Melchizedek Teachings
In The Levant Yahweh--god Of The Hebrews Evolution Of The God Concept Among The
Hebrews The Melchizedek Teachings In The Occident The Social Problems Of
Religion Religion In Human Experience The Real Nature Of Religion The
Foundations Of Religious Faith The Reality Of Religious Experience Growth Of
The Trinity Concept Deity And Reality Universe Levels Of Reality Origin And
Nature Of Thought Adjusters Mission And Ministry Of Thought Adjusters Relation
Of Adjusters To Universe Creatures Relation Of Adjusters To Individual Mortals
The Adjuster And The Soul Personality Survival Seraphic Guardians Of Destiny
Seraphic Planetary Government The Supreme Being The Almighty Supreme God The
Supreme Supreme And Ultimate--time And Space The Bestowals Of Christ Michael
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