New Renaisance Book Review
By Kenn Kassman, Ph.D.
Books Reviewed:
Glenn D. Paige
To Nonviolent Political Science: From Seasons of Violence
Center for Global Nonviolence Planning Project
Matsunaga Institute for Peace
University of Hawaii, Honolulu, 1993
and
Allen Tough
Crucial Questions About the Future
Adamantine Press Limited
London, 1995
What is to be Done? A Different Way of Viewing the Future.
In 1994, the various countries of the world spent more than $767 billion
USD on military spending. (1 The large majority of this money was spent by the
industrialized nations of the world--$649 billion). Most of the largest
spenders have to borrow heavily to do so. The yearly budget deficit of the USA,
for instance, is about $300 billion--the same amount spent each year maintaining
its military forces. Many other countries have serious problems providing basic
resources for its people--many people in these countries lack food, clean water,
medical attention and educational facilities--but somehow their governments
always have enough money to support their military forces.
Leaders cite "national security" as a rationale for high military
spending. Yet in developing countries, the chances of dying from social
neglect--ranging from malnutrition to preventable diseases--are 33 times greater
than the chances of dying in a war involving an external aggressor.(2) In some
countries the problem is more one of keeping citizens safe from each other, than
from outside attack. The USA spends more than any other nation for its
"national security," yet has one of the highest rates of criminality and
violence in the world today--and this includes countries presently at war!
These problems are well known, and widely documented, yet it seems they merely
continue. The question which must be answered, if one is to help change the
situation and create a more positive and peaceful future, is age old--What is to
be done?
Allen Tough and Glenn Paige offer their thought provoking and very
personal insights in two recent books aimed at answering this question. Tough,
a professor of Futuristics at the University of Toronto, begins his orientation
to positive social change by asking the reader, "What is most important of all?"
The answer Tough supplies and assumes that we all must agree with is, "The
continued survival of human civilization." For Tough, human civilization is a
process which has been developed for thousands of years, and which has resulted
in the present diversity of cultures, beliefs, values, art, capacities,
knowledge systems, and lifestyles. It encompasses the Yin and the Yang of
existence--the joys and the pains, the good and the bad, peace and war, and
potential for both transformation and destruction. It is the destructive nature
of human civilization which Tough wishes to harness, and the transformational
nature he wishes to unleash. But how can one do so?
Tough believes in clarifying values and setting priorities. He leads th
e
reader through a series of questions designed to do this. By doing so, he asks
us to face our inner selves and answer such ponderings as, where do you find
your meaning and purpose? What do you treasure and value beyond all else? What
in life is worth striving for? Would you agree to give up your life for some
noble cause? If so, what cause? By asking these questions, Tough encourages
the reader to think deeper than day to day activity.
From his own answers to these questions, Tough has come up with a list
of ten goals he feels humankind should adopt in order to create a positive and
sustainable future for the human race.(3 list goals p.65 here.) To help
further these goals personally, Tough has created a "Pledge to Humanity." This
pledge lists general principles that Tough believes in--such as caring about the
well-being of future generations, choosing work that contributes to the
flourishing of humankind, actively campaigning against militarism and military
overspending, being environmentally aware, and promoting understanding between
cultures.
Glenn Paige, a political scientist and professor of peace studies at
the University of Hawaii, has also taken a pledge to humanity and has devoted
his life's work to understanding how one might create a world where the killing
of one human being by another is unthinkable. For Paige, the solution the
world's problems of war, poverty, oppression, and ecocide lie in a paradigm
shift which focuses upon nonviolence. The root of all these problems and the
lack of viable solutions, according to Paige, is a consciousness which
ultimately relies on violence to achieve its goals. Eliminate this
consciousness, and one eliminates most of the problems the world faces today.
To eliminate violent thinking demands a shift in consciousness of
tremendous proportions. But Paige is undaunted by the task he has chosen. He
cites examples in spiritual traditions, philosophical traditions, political
movements, and even lists countries without armies as evidence that such a
consciousness of nonviolence is possible (3 p.152). Two of the most touching
chapters of Paiges' book are those devoted to Petra Kelly and Mohandas Gandhi.
Paige has obviously been deeply touched by the lives of both of these modern
"saints." Both Kelly and Gandhi (and Martin Luther King, another person
mentioned throughout Paiges' book) were voices that rose out of the busy din of
modern life to speak for those unheard and oppressed by the powerholders of the
time. Paiges' portraits of these leaders provides hope and encouragement. As
we read the pages of these chapters, we find that people like Kelly, Gandhi, and
King are very similar to ourselves and saying, "More people like these are
needed today." I also found myself asking the very personal question, "What am
I doing to follow these examples, and somehow help in the creation of a better
world."
Both Paige and Tough have made significant contributions to the
literature of positive social change. I have no doubt that their books will be
adopted and used as textbooks in university courses and workshops throughout the
world. Neither book is perfect, but than again, what is? My main complaints
are small. Tough's book seems to overgeneralize in places--such as assuming
that most everyone will agree with his humanistic values--and mentions, but has
no solution for the forces which stand in the way of his dreams. I also have
doubts about some of the personal tangents he seems to follow--such as his
prediction of making contact with intelligent life outside of our galaxy
sometime in the next 20 to 30 years, and his assumptions that such contact will
be with benign beings. While Tough is scientific, he also seems a bit overly
optimistic. Paige, on the other hand, has written his book primarily for
political scientists. This is not an unimportant group in our society, however
I feel a much larger audience could be reached with a more generalized book on
his part.
Both books also seem a bit anthropocentric, concentrating on human
beings, rather than the larger ecosystem. Paige (pp. 165-167) lists several
courses and seminars he wishes the Center for Global Nonviolence to offer, but
forgets to mention a course in Nonviolence and the Nonhuman Environment. Tough
(p.9) goes so far as to boldly state that he views human culture and human
civilization as more important than any other single species--still he wishes to
see a human civilization which flourishes in harmony with other life. These
are small complaints, however, and one must view the books in their entirety.
In a marketplace where academic books eschew values and consumer oriente
d
texts are filled with titles about "how to become rich overnight" or "how to
gain power over others," it is certainly pleasant to find serious work about
imagining and moving towards better futures for all. Both of these books will
make you think about your own life, and how you live it. Personally, I find it
very rare that a book can encourage me to question my basic values, and motivate
me to do sometime positive to make the world a better place. What more could
one ask for from mere paper and ink?
Notes
The large majority of this money was spent by the industrialized nations of
the world--$649 billion. United Nations Development Program, Human Rights
Development Report 1994 (New York/Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994).
This is true even given that 90% of the casualties of modern warfare are
civilians. IBID, p.47.
Tough's goals for human civilization include: increasing numbers of the
population having adequate basic necessities, increasing care of children,
increasing knowledge of the universe, increasing learning opportunities,
widespread freedoms, no second-class citizens, improvements in human happiness,
highly developed moral principles, maximize gains from new technologies, and
achieving contact with other intelligent life (Tough, pp. 64-66).
Paige lists 25 countries without armies (p. 152).