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The efforts to evolve a comprehensive, integrated theory of social development have proved to be so difficult that many have concluded it is unattainable. On the surface, it appears that each field of social science is governed by different and often unrelated or contradictory assumptions, concepts and principles that would render a unified theory as unattainable. This article attempts neither to confirm nor deny that possibility. It seeks instead to explore a few fundamental principles that appear to be applicable to all fields of social science, social development and social evolution and to illustrate them through a variety of examples that reveal a common basis and dynamics for phenomena that are usually confined to one discipline or another. The author’s view is that if the validity and utility of these principles are affirmed, it can open the pathway for identification of dozens or even hundreds of other transdisciplinary, transcultural principles relevant to a very wide range of human experiences, as well as different fields and levels of the process of social development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the complex and multifaceted nature of human security, which extends beyond protection from military threats to encompass physical, food, health, financial, community, political, and environmental dimensions. It traces humanity's historical challenges, including natural disasters, epidemics, and food shortages, and highlights how technological advancements since the Industrial Revolution have eased some threats to security while magnifying others. Colonialism, world wars, the development of nuclear weapons, the evolution of multilateral institutions, neoliberal economic policies, and globalization of trade and finance have also played dual roles. Human security also highlights the subjective factors, including perceptions and expectations of the future and changes in social values, which are ignored or undetected by objective measures. The article stresses the necessity of coordinated collective action to address the pressing human security challenges confronting humanity today, such as climate change and the need for a global cooperative security system to replace the prevailing competitive model. It calls for global acceptance of shared security responsibilities and collaboration to herald a safer, more secure world in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The quest for human security has pitted the individual against the collective throughout history. Individualism and collectivism are two competing philosophical and social movements that have divided the world for centuries and their origins can be traced back to ancient times. They are founded on different interpretations of the value and place of freedom and equality in society. The individual seeks the protection and support of the collective while at the same time insisting on freedom for personal self-expression and action without hindrance by the collective. The collective seeks the allegiance and conformity of the individual to the laws and dictates of central authority in the name of collective security and wellbeing, which is often perceived by the individual as a threat to personal security rather than assurance of it. Therefore, any ultimate solution to the quest for human security must necessarily address and reconcile these apparently contradictory viewpoints and arrive at a perspective that resolves them into complementary dimensions of a greater whole. This article traces the development of individualism in the West and positive and negative characteristics associated with its more extreme manifestations in order to understand both the strengths that perpetuate it and the weaknesses that continuously erode its stability. It points to the emergence of a reconciling formula based on a shift from individualism to mature individuality and the prevailing struggle within democratic societies in recent times. An evolutionary progression of this character constitutes an essential condition for arriving at a sound, stable, universal foundation for human security for all. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Individualism and collectivism are two competing philosophical and social movements that have divided the world for centuries. Their origins can be traced back to ancient times. They are founded on different interpretations of the value and place of freedom and equality in society. While their rivalry is ancient, it is also evolving and taking on ever new forms. Their evolution reflects a progression of global society from physical to vital-social and increasing mental levels and forms of consciousness. The clash of values takes many forms in different cultures and settings, but they all arise from the inability to reconcile apparently contradictory values and view them as complementary aspects of a greater truth. Today the unreconciled conflict is exemplified by the growing rivalry between the pluto-democratic capitalism in America and state capitalism in China, but the fissures run within countries and cultures as well as between them. This article traces the development of individualism in the West and positive and negative characteristics associated with its more extreme manifestations in order to understand both the strengths that perpetuate it and the weaknesses that continuously erode its stability. It points to the emergence of a reconciling formula based on a shift from individualism to mature individuality and the prevailing struggle within democratic societies in recent times. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The challenges we face today can be transformed into opportunities if the motivation of short-term, myopic social values is replaced by commitment to psychological values such as unity, harmony, freedom and equality. Values are commonly dismissed as utopian ideals of little practical relevance, whereas in fact they possess an enormous power for selfrealisation. A study of history makes this apparent. The utopian values espoused during the American War of Independence, the French Revolution, the Indian Independence Movement, the founding of the United Nations, and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights have gradually acquired the status of law and been transformed into globally accepted social standards and goals, as embodied in the UN Sustainable Development Goals. The article examines crucial socio-political issues and analyses the role of values in determining their outcome. Current social theory focuses mainly on the role of objective external factors such as economics, geography, and technology in determining the course of events. In doing so it overlooks or grossly underestimates the role of subjective factors such as rising social aspiration, acceptable norms of behavior and universal values. A valid theory of history must come to recognize and give due importance to the determining power of the psychological forces that govern the course of human events. This theory will confirm that the solution to humanity's problems lies along an evolutionary axis toward a values-based world order. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of modernization refers to the transition of societies through industrialization, urbanization, and technological sophistication. It is a visible manifestation of the underlying process of global social evolution. Social evolution has a direction. Its cardinal characteristic and driving force is the progressive recognition and enforcement of an increasingly broad range of universal human rights and values encompassing an increasingly broad and inclusive portion of humanity. Although most human beings are too fascinated with the rapid advances in technology and too mesmerized by the magic of the marketplace to give much importance to nebulous ethereal concepts such as values, these subtle principles are the true drivers for the most tangible material gains of the last few centuries. The more subtle a thing is, the more powerful--as great leaders have always known who stirred their followers with ideas of conquest, principles of justice and dreams of plentitude. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The world has yet to evolve a coherent theory of peace. As health is commonly understood as the absence of disease, peace is broadly conceived as the absence of war. This is a negative ideal that merely eschews physical violence rather than replacing the urge for aggression with a positive and self-existent sense of security. It addresses the visible symptoms but neglects the essential reality that constitutes the foundations for lasting peace, social stability and security. So too, insufficient attention is given to the essential role played by war and violence in the evolution of the human community from small, isolated units into larger national and regional entities now in the process of converging into a single global community. The emergence of the modern nation-state over the past few centuries has largely pushed violence and war from the domestic domain into the sphere of international relations. This shift reached a peak during the Cold War when every nation sought protection from external security threats. We are now in the midst of a further stage in social evolution to forge a single global community in which violence is no longer regarded as a legitimate means for exercise of power, either domestically or internationally. But the essential conditions for peace and security still elude us at all levels. Security remains under threat from sources at all levels--excluded, disadvantaged, oppressed individuals; insecure nation-states; and the absence of an inclusive global cooperative security system. But the most pressing sources of threat now beset humanity as a whole in the form of COVID-19, the climate emergency, the resurgence of competitive nationalism and the nuclear arms race, rising inequality and aggravated cultural tensions. This article examines the relationship between peace, violence, warfare and the evolution of the human community in its age-old quest to safeguard the peace and security of all human beings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Humanity has evolved from the family and local community over millennia through several stages to finally create the present fractured and unstable global community of nearly 200 nation-states, some of which are barely a few decades old. But already there are signs that the process of social evolution will continue until it eventually results in some form of a unified world community. The major challenges confronting humanity today all result from the inadequacy of a diverse community of sovereign nations competing with one another for power and advantage and their inability or unwillingness to act effectively and concertedly to address the problems of our collective existence. Recurring war and violence, persistent poverty, financial instability, widening inequality, ecological destruction and climate change are some of the salient features which compel us to conclude that the continued evolution is both necessary and inevitable. The material and social benefits of global unity will be immense in terms of greater and more equal access to knowledge, power and wealth, but they will bring with them a new set of challenges to ensure that peace and security are not achieved at the expense of freedom, cultural diversity and the fullest development of individuality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ideas have catalytic power to change the world. They are leaders of social evolution. Evolutionary developments in science, religion, art all have at their roots mental ideas that later realize themselves through physical acts. Ideas release the human energy of the collective. That energy is directed into a force for action and becomes effective when it is organized by society. Thus, society is a living organization. History is replete with examples of how major events such as the French, Russian and American Revolutions, India’s call for independence, the emergence of Capitalism and Communism, the environmental movement stimulated by publication of the Limits to Growth, had their origins in simple, revolutionary ideas that shook society to its very foundations. Collaborative action is essential to address pressing global challenges. Piecemeal, sectoral strategies of the past may help to an extent, but cannot forge the much-needed psychological unity needed to address global challenges. Unity is possible only in the measure equality in all its forms is made real. Economic equality is the essential basis for sustainable political and social equality. Studied in terms of the evolution of ideas and values, history reveals the pathway of humanity’s evolutionary ascent into the future, the problems it has confronted, the errors we should avoid repeating, and the untold opportunities that await development of effective systems of global governance. New economic theory, a human-centered, transdisciplinary education system and a governance model based on psychological, social and economic equality are the foundation for achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As society evolves in consciousness, the character of its leadership evolves as well. The physical stage of human development is characterized by the rule of physical strength and directed by military leaders with the capacity to mobilize and exercise physical force through violence. In the vital-social stage, leadership shifts to the authority of custom and law backed by a wealthy aristocratic elite which exercises power by virtue of its dominant position in the social hierarchy. The emergence of mentality makes possible a more equitable distribution of power to the masses and a transition to governance by laws and institutions based on principles of justice, ideas and universal values. The SDGs cannot be achieved by the UN alone or even by national governments. The problems of humanity today are global in nature, complex and inextricably interlinked. They can be effectively addressed only by a broadbased social movement that awakens the aspirations and releases the energies of the wider population. Such a movement can best be awakened and directed by the power of ideas based on a comprehensive and integrated knowledge of society and human potential. The risk of existential threats alone has thus far proven insufficient to effectively mobilize global society to concerted action. Humanity needs to be positively inspired by a vision of a better future for all, which has yet to be formulated. For developing nations, the goal should be total eradication of poverty and material prosperity for all. For advanced nations it should be a shift from the pursuit of material accumulation to ever higher levels of well-being and human development for all. Ideas founded on rationality and truthfulness espoused by a global leadership of individuals or organizations have the power to serve as the catalyst for that movement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human civilization is a long record of the evolution of human thought Rationality enables civilizations to progress. Since the time of Socrates, human advancement has relied heavily on the power of logic and reason. Logic involves study while reason involves implementation. Converting reason into action would require not so much new creativity but a greater strength. If reason is implemented with the required clarity, it has the power to save the world from imminent danger. It has the ability to function in a way that secures the greatest truth in a given set of circumstances. Implementing Reason requires that man does not repeat his past errors. The world has not yet outgrown the uses of Reason. The most rational course of action would be to address human issues and to take care of human interests. Conflicts can be avoided by resorting to a values-based approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article argues for a positive, comprehensive conception of peace that goes beyond the mere absence of war and a more integrated conception of human security that encompasses a wider range of issues than threats of physical violence. Education is one of humanity's most effective social institutions for redirecting the violent physical energies of destruction into higher avenues of civilization and culture as an instrument of conscious social evolution. Organization is knowledge of higher accomplishment. Organization has the power to vastly accelerate and multiply the potentials of education for the promotion of peace and security. Peace and Security have a mutually reinforcing effect on each other in the sense that peace results in security while security results in peace. Physical violence eventually led to the development of the knowledge needed for the avoidance of violence by means of diplomacy, trade and cultural exchanges, marking the beginning of the transition from the physical to the mental level of evolution. Trade requires travel, transport, human interaction, exchange, trust with respect to products, and reliable mechanisms for the exchange of a stable currency that can only be effectively founded on an enduring peace that generates confidence among the traders. Isolated communities evolve a communal consciousness as they mature into organized social units founded on shared customs and culture, which later develop into a common legal framework. What began as diplomacy so many centuries ago has now evolved into a near universal recognition of fundamental human rights and the rule of law. The evolution of diplomacy in previous centuries is the foundation for the remarkable betterment of human life witnessed in recent times. The world is in the process of evolving a unifying global culture founded on universal values and recognition of the rich contributions of different cultures to humanity's progress. As physical force once shaped global events, today ideas possess the power for effective action that can change the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Society unknowingly follows the course of spiritual evolution. Spirituality is the quest for self-existent order and harmonious perfection. The evolution of society is driven by an irrepressible aspiration for the values that are the translation and embodiment of that order. The history of civilization is a record of its progressive emergence. Spirituality is the quest for a unifying reality that transcends all limitations, distinctions and differences; an inner oneness that unites rather than divides us; a faith in and quest for perfection in all its myriad forms; and a power accessible to human beings to overcome impossible obstacles and achieve the inconceivable. It is founded on the principles of absolute freedom, equality and unity. In the modern era, faith in spirit is embodied in the realization of the intrinsic value, extraordinary endowments and unmanifest potentials of the human being. We find expressions of it in the idealism and power released by revolutionary social change. We revere its power in great individuals. The aspiration for perfection in any form or field of endeavor is spiritual. So also we recognize expressions of spirit in the movements of the masses. Spirituality is not confined to pursuit of the otherworldly or unattainable. It is a living power for the transformation of human consciousness and the solution to the compelling challenges confronting humanity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Life is filled with seemingly intractable problems. But life wisdom affirms that if there is a problem, there must be a solution. Or better yet, the solution to the problem lies within the problem itself. Problems have their roots in disharmony. Disharmony arises when a part separates itself from the whole and acts independently of the wider reality of which it is a part, as financial markets have separated themselves from the real economy and economy has detached itself from social and ecological consequences. Insistence on out-moded approaches under new conditions generates intractable problems, as when the framework of a heterogeneous nation-state is employed for the dominance of a single ethnic or religious group. Knowledge and culture are the supreme values of a society and core element of its capacity for accomplishment and development, yet both tend to be exclusively possessed by elites for their own benefit, rather than freely distributed to maximize their impact on society as a whole. Society evolves by the transformation of ignorance into knowledge. Life evolves by organization. The linking and integration of social organizations spur development. Mind itself is an organization and powerful force for development. Energy makes organization more efficient. Any problem can be solved by raising the effectiveness of energy by converting it into skill or capacity and transforming it into power through organization. What one person sees as a problem is an opportunity for another with wider vision. The difference in perception accounts for the difference in levels of accomplishment. So, those with the right perspective see opportunities where others see insolvable problems. Current problems are the result of irrationality, refusal to benefit from past experience and insistence on repeating past errors. Modern science, which was born to fight the superstition of religion, has become a source of superstition. Fully availing of the latest advances for the widest benefit of humanity is a simple and effective principle for solving apparently intractable problems. Problems exist at various levels; what works on one level may not work for the other. Solutions are possible for any problem because man is always free to draw on solutions from a higher plane. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To all appearances the world seems to be floundering without leadership, direction or even a clear formulation of goals and processes. Yet, paradoxically, amidst the apparent chaos and confusion, evolutionary patterns of advance somehow seem to emerge, universal values become ever more prevalent and powerful as deep drivers and determinates, a more than conventional wisdom seems to guide situations where conventional wisdom is stymied or blinded by dogma and superstition, and susceptible ignorant masses sooner or later choose a course that leads to the future rather than back to the past. This progressive movement is far from steady and often interspersed with retrograde steps and descends into utter folly and vicious violence, but all the same a direction seems to emerge that defies the expectations of scientific projections and doomsday prophets. Despite our adoration of rationality, irrationality prevails even in the halls of knowledge. Bursts of extraordinary creativity follow episodes of suicidal stupidity. Humanity's predilection to self-destruction exists side by side with a serendipitous capacity for creativity and coming to our senses just in the nick of time to avert calamity. Pessimists decry the negative tendency. Optimists affirm the positive. None seem able to discern the pattern or process by which challenges become opportunities and imminent disaster is transmuted into progress. A key to deciphering this enigma lies in the invisible, yet to be realized potentials of the individual and society. This clumsy, costly, painful process is the mark of a still largely unconscious species struggling to discover its raison d'être and the secret of conscious evolution. Utopian ideals discredited by a world disillusioned by false promises exhibit a remarkable regenerative power to advance toward unseen goals. An unrealized vision founded on universal values guides us toward an inevitable destiny we have yet to conceive. Those seed values represent the quintessence of wisdom for humanity's survival, development and future evolution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article traces the evolutionary development of human consciousness and its increasingly complex and sophisticated organization as human personality from the instinctive behavior of the animal and the subconscious conformity characteristic of early forms of human civilization through progressive stages of transition from physical to social to mental levels of awareness and from the undifferentiated social consciousness of the member of the tribe to the emergence of independent thinking, creativity and uniqueness, which characterize the Conscious Individual. The individual and the collective evolve in tandem. The collective imparts its acquired capacities to its members. The emerging individual acts as a catalyst to spur further development of the collective. Each stage of the journey is the same in essence and structure at progressively higher levels of consciousness and organization. The higher the level achieved by the collective in terms of quality and complexity, the greater the knowledge and organization demanded of the individual. The article ends by cataloging crucial points at which modern society is mired in outmoded conceptions, superstitious beliefs, pre-modern values and archaic institutions that obstruct humanity's further evolution from problems and limitations to ever-expanding opportunities. The conscious individual is the key to that process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Consciousness is creative. Creativity expresses in myriad ways – as moments in time in which decades of progress can be achieved overnight, as organizational innovations of immense power for social accomplishment; as creative social values that further influence the evolution of organizations and society; as the creativity of individuality in the leader, genius, artist and inventor; as social creativity that converts raw human experience into civilization; as cultural creativity that transforms human relationships into sources of rich emotional capacity; and as value-based educational creativity that can awaken and nurture young minds to develop and discover their own inherent capacity for knowledge in freedom. Through such moments do society and humanity evolve. Education is society’s most advanced institution for conscious social evolution. Values are the essence of society’s knowledge for highest accomplishment. Education that imparts values is an evolutionary social organization that can hasten the emergence of that creative consciousness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

History that comes to us as a chronology of events is really a collective existence that is evolving through several stages to develop Individuality in all members of the society. The human community, nation states, linguistic groups, local castes and classes, and families are the intermediate stages in development of the Individual. The social process moves through phases of survival, growth, development and evolution. In the process it organizes the consciousness of its members at successive levels from social external manners, formed behavior, value-based character and personality to culminate in the development of Individuality. Through this process, society evolves from physicality to mentality. The power of accomplishment in society and its members develops progressively through stages of skill, capacity, talent, and ability. Original thinking is made possible by the prior development of thinking that organizes facts into information. The immediate result of the last world war was a shift in reliance from physical force and action to mental conception and mental activity on a global scale. At such times no problem need defy solution, if only humanity recognizes the occasion for thinking and Original Thinking. The apparently insoluble problems we confront are an opportunity to formulate a comprehensive theory of social evolution. The immediate possibility is to devise complete solutions to all existing problems, if only we use the right method of thought development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationship between peace and development holds the key to effective strategies for addressing the roots of social unrest. Rising expectations are the principal driving force for social development. However, the faster and higher aspirations rise, the greater the gap between expectations and reality. That gap promotes a sense of frustration, depravation and aggression leading to social unrest and violence. The opposite is also true: rising economic opportunity can mitigate or eliminate social unrest. The remarkable renunciation of armed struggle by the IRA in North Ireland in mid - 2005 appears inexplicable until the impact of rising incomes and expanding employment opportunities in the Republic of Ireland is also taken into account. A similar approach can be applied to address the problems of violence and social unrest in Kashmir and Palestine. Here too apparently intractable conflicts will lend themselves to be addressed economically. India's recent efforts to provide guaranteed employment to its rural poor are part of a strategy to stem the rising tide of social unrest in impoverished areas resulting from rising expectations among the poor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]