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Is
Civilization a Good Idea?
By
Majid Tehranian
Professor, University of Hawaii at Manoa
Director, Toda Institute for Global Peace and Policy
Research, Tokyo and Honolulu
July 26, 2002
When someone asked Mahatma Gandhi what do you think of
Western Civilization, he promptly replied, "It is a good
idea!"
Having traveled on the ancient Silk and Spice Roads
and beyond, I am dubious of distinctions between Eastern
and Western Civilizations. It is much more
realistic to think of civilization in the singular rather
than plural. There are many cultures but only one
global civilization.
Globalization is not a new phenomenon. Cultural
exchange has been going on for centuries. We can find few
cultures in the world that have not borrowed from
others. The first globalization took place along
the ancient Spice and Silk Roads. The second
globalization occurred when Columbus "discovered" the New
World. The European colonization of Africa, Asia,
and Americas forcibly brought East and West into intimate
contact. The third globalization is now in progress
through global communication and markets.
Discerning students of history cannot fail but to note
an overwhelming fact. We may loosely speak of
Western, Chinese, or Islamic civilizations, but in
reality there is only one civilization to which we all
belong. In every major city, we can now
witness its mixed blessings, including Coca Cola, Pizza
parlors, Sushi bars, Sony, IBM, CNN, and BBC. All
these products are clearly gifts of the industrial world
to the rest. But who invented fire?
Probably the Africans. The wheel? Probably
the Central Asian nomads. Decimal numbers? The
Indians and Arabs. Writing? The Egyptians,
Sumerians, and Greeks. Postal system? The
Persians. Gunpowder, paper money, silk, and
compass? The Chinese. Printing?
The Chinese, Koreans, and Germans. I can go on and
on.
Like a torch in a relay marathon, civilization has
been passed on from hand to hand. Paleontologists
tell us that the African nomads led the way. The
latest ancestor of homo sapiens has been found in Chad in
a skeleton dating back 7 million years ago. The
agriculturalists of major river basins then
followed. The traders of the Silk and Spice Roads
then accumulated huge fortunes in such commercial cities
as Xian, Samarkand, Bokhara, Isfahan, Baghdad, Aleppo,
Athens, Venice, and Rome. With the introduction of
manufacturing and rise of industrial societies, it was
then the turn of Western Europe. The
industrial civilization was subsequently exported to the
New World. Ever since the rise of
informatics, the United States has been on the
forefront.
Human civilization has thus developed from its nomadic
phase (99% of human history) to the agrarian, commercial,
industrial, and informatic stages. Two facts of
history stand out in this process: Domination and
Resistance. Those peoples who have technologically
and economically led the way have also militarily
dominated the rest of the world. In empire after
empire, those who have fallen behind have resisted the
dominant. It is foolishly human for those who are
temporarily ahead to claim some kind of moral
superiority. But technological, economic, and
military advance do not automatically confer moral
superiority.
The litmus test in moral achievement is to reach the
golden rule: "In everything, do to others what you would
have them do to you." This is a paramount Christian
ethical imperative that has perennially resonated in the
Judaic, Greek, Confucian, Buddhist, and Islamic
philosophies. On that test, most of our civilization is
failing today.
Civilization is a journey, not a destination. Like
democracy, it is an unfinished project. We are
deluding ourselves if we claim to have arrived at a
civilized or democratic state. Civilization and
democracy are ideals worth striving for. A
democratic government of the people, by the people, and
for the people has not yet been achieved anywhere in the
world. As the current global terrorism and
counter-terrorism demonstrate, a civilized society is
devoutly to be wished. The price of a democratic
civilization is eternal vigilance.
In his 2002 peace proposals, Buddhist leader Daisaku
Ikeda has focused on the dawn of a global
civilization. He has called for the Buddhist middle
way to resolve the world's most enduring problems,
including poverty, nuclear disarmament, sustainable
development, and terrorism. Ikeda confirms the
findings and recommendations of the Earth Charter (see
www.earthchater.org), a people's document echoing the
golden rule and middle way. We will perish in
nuclear holocaust or ecological disaster if we fail to
build a truly global civilization based on those core
values.
=============================================================
Majid Tehranian, Professor
School of Communications, University of Hawaii at
Manoa, Honolulu, HI 96822, USA
Tel.: 808-956-3353; Fax: 808-956-5591; Email:
majid@hawaii.edu
=============================================================
Director, Toda Institute for Global Peace and Policy
Research
1600 Kapiolani Blvd., Suite 1111, Honolulu, HI 96812,
USA
Tel.: 808-955-8231; Fax: 808-955-6476
Email: majid@toda.org;
Website: www.toda.org
=============================================================
Home: 2627 Manoa Rd., Honolulu, HI 96822, USA
Tel.: 808-988-9563; Fax: 808-988-4483
Personal website: www2.hawaii.edu/~majid
©
TFF and the
author
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