Cité Libre: Social Responsibility: Our Obligation in Shaping the Future

Every single human being has at least one great sacrosanct obligation, namely, to shape the future of a new generation that would enjoy life to the maximum possible without experiencing unnecessary and needless suffering. Hence, we are all obligated to promote peace and to eliminate war. To this end, we need to understand properly the culture of war as it is compared and contrasted with the culture of peace.

For the past six thousand years of recorded history, the world has witnessed the dominance of a patriarchal society that has been deeply immersed into the culture of war. From historical excavations we learn that prior to this unfortunate patriarchy there has been a matriarchal society that was characterized by the culture of peace. People were always depicted as lovable and caring with arms stretched to embrace and help each other.

When the patriarchal society took over the reigns of government, all solutions of encountered problems were resolved by one war after another. Violence became the characteristic element of the patriarchy. Of course, we all know that a lion begets a lion, an elephant generates an elephant and violence breeds more violence. There was hardly one case in recorded history where governments used peaceful means on a periodical basis to solve human conflicts.

The concept of war has become so deeply entrenched in the mind of the patriarchy that everything is viewed in terms of war. We are all familiar with heads of state talking of waging a "war" on poverty, a "war" on toxic wastes, and a "war" on terrorism. The recent U.S. governmental declaration of "war" on terrorism has caused already the horrendous death of thousands of innocent people in both Afghanistan and Iraq. Besides, such a "war" has also destroyed mercilessly people's habitation and the infrastructure of their communities.

The patriarchs tend to rule from the mind, which represents the seat of doubt and suspicion. This explains why in both Afghanistan and Iraq, American and British forces have searched for terrorists in every single house they could get hands on. In doing so, they terrorized women and little children, along with the elderly and the sick, not to mention the fact that, in numerous instances, they knocked down with the butt of their rifles numerous harmless good law-abiding citizens letting them bleeding on the ground like animals in human form.

On the other hand, the matriarchs tend to rule from the heart, which represents the seat of love and trust. This explains why women by nature are very caring and tend to be fully cognizant of the needs of others. Besides, women tend to be very sensitive to justice when compared with men in general. In this regard, it is our duty and obligation to revive the matriarchal society by creating a new generation that is capable to use its heart rather than its mind to rule our respective communities everywhere. We need to concentrate on developing an educational process that focuses on the heart as the medium of communication.

Needless to say, what makes us rule from the heart does not necessarily mean that we have all to be imbued with the body of a woman. In fact, women of the calibre of Margaret Thatcher of Great Britain, among several others, were in essence fully-fledged men trapped in the body of a woman. Since such women were born and raised in a patriarchal society, they were indoctrinated from early childhood to view governmental organized violence, commonly known as the military, as the most effective means to solve human conflicts at both the national and international level. Let us keep in mind that the patriarchal society is founded on the culture of war.

Our greatest challenge is to become deeply and seriously involved in the political sphere of our world. Such involvement may be described as our greatest challenge because we have to contend with a patriarchal philosophy of natural and spontaneous violence that is fully sanctioned by the government, as already stated. While the patriarchal society believes that human conflicts may be best solved through a stronger military and more devastating weapons of destruction, the matriarchal society knows fully well that one catches more flies with honey. Tact and diplomacy, coupled with patience and perseverance is all that it takes to straighten all human conflicts properly and effectively. Whenever such means were used peace always followed that lasted for a very long time.

Can we have a better future? Of course, but we need to become involved in shaping the kind of peaceful future that we would love to see for our children and grandchildren. We cannot just sit down in our backyard and wait for things to happen by themselves! If things are to happen for the better, we have to take the initiative to do something constructive. Also, having good intentions is not enough since we are all familiar with the proverb that the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Besides, we all know that in this world only people like us can make things happen hopefully for the better.

Some people ask: On what criteria we should decide as to whether our actions are good or bad? Well, if our actions are geared toward the welfare of some to the exclusion of others, then we know they are bad. On the other hand, if our actions are directed toward the universal welfare of all people without exception, then we must be convinced that our actions are good. We have to replace all those politicians who tend to promote the interests of some to the exclusion of others. When our entire world has been now reduced to one small global village, we cannot afford having any longer politicians who seek for American, British, Chinese, and French interests to the exclusion of others.

Our future becomes secure when we start replacing politicians with statesmen, that is, with those who seek for human interests with universal causes. Thanks to such type of governmental officials, there is still great hope in the world. Usually, statesmen are people of the calibre former South African President, Nelson Mandela, Mother Teresa, former Costa Rican President Oscar Arias, and the Dalai Lama, among numerous others. What did all of these have in common? They all sought for the universal welfare of all people without exception, regardless of their background and social status.

After the collapse of communism, the world expected the United States to assume world leadership in bringing about world peace. That would have been possible if the U.S. embarked on a universal program of disarmament and development of the human resources merely for constructive purposes. Instead, the U.S. embarked on a program of rearmament and of continued manufacture and sales of weapons of destruction. This trend needs to be reversed by bringing into government only those who are genuinely concerned with the welfare of all people without exception and who put top priority in expenditure not on the military and weapons of destruction, but on people' health care and education.

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