To Uphold the World: What Two Statesmen from Ancient India Can Tell Us about Our Current Crisis

S P R I N G 2 0 1 1 W W W. T I K K U N . O R G T I K K U N 25 courage, political skill, and achievement, the Left has responded with disappointment and feelingsofbetrayal. This response, combined with a Republican surge fueled by reactionary outrage at the very progressive achievements the Left derides, makes it even harder for Obama and the Democrats to lead this country forward. It is our job as progressives to be dissatisfied, to relentlessly push our country toward shared prosperity, equal opportunity, and social justice. Butwhiledissatisfactionwiththepresentkeepsuspointingtowardthefuture,dissatisfaction alonecannotdriveusforward.Wealsoneedtotellthestoriesofourprogress—thetriumphs, however incremental, that can feed hope, kindle determination, and keep us slogging, despitedisappointmentsandsetbacks ,alongthatlongcurveofhistoryMartinLutherKingJr. saw bending slowly but inevitably toward justice. Our failure to tell ourselves and our fellow citizens the many true stories of our country’s progress toward a better future represents a deeper failure, a failure that threatens to cut off the Left from the grassroots forces on which allprogressdepends.ItisafailureofbeliefinAmerica,inthepatience,strength,andnationbuilding resilience that is demonstrated daily by Americans living on, or over, the edge. In this age of unfettered corporate political participation and full-throated right-wing fantasy, wecannotallowourshort-termdisappointmentstoidentifyprogressivevalueswithdespair. If Ugandans kept telling themselves how far away they were from where they need to be, rather than how far they have managed, against enormous obstacles, to come—if they trumpeted their defeats and bitterly denigrated their victories—neither they nor their country would have any future to build. If Americans cannot embrace progressive values without giving up faith in ourselves and our country, those values will be left to rot on the vine—becausewithoutthatfaith,neitherwenorourcountrycansurvivethesehardtimes. But here’s the good news from Uganda: like theirs, our country isn’t finished; through eachofusandallofus,generationaftergeneration,Americaisgrowing.■ ToUpholdtheWorld WhatTwoStatesmenfromAncientIndia CanTellUsaboutOurCurrentCrisis by Bruce Rich T he global economy is in desperate need of a global ethic. The world economic system is driving a significant number of all living creatures to extinction . It is a world order—or disorder—that is increasingly undermining the biological foundations of long-term human civilization. In the words of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon at the 2011 Davos World Economic Forum, the global economy has become a “global suicide pact.” The global order of the past twenty years has prioritized unleashing market forces over other social values and created a profoundly unstable, interconnected world. It is a world not only of increased inequality and environmental deterioration but, as the recent global financial crisis shows, one that puts at risk the viability of whole societies and nations, not to mention democracy itself. Bruce Rich is a public interest attorney whose professional focus on finance and ethics, as well as numerous visits to South Asia, inspired the writing of To Uphold the World. He can be reached at brucemrich@gmail.com. CREATIVE COMMONS A decade ago George Soros warned that market fundamentalism was a greater threat to human society than any totalitarian ideology, noting that “the supreme challenge of our time is to establish a set of values that applies to a largely transactional, global society.” In the words of Catholic theologian Hans Küng, “a global market economy requires a global ethic.” Eachnewenvironmentalcrisisforcesustorecognizethatanethicofrespectforalllifeis also an ethic for long-term human survival and well-being. Yetinthewakeofeachnewcrisis,rhetoricnotwithstanding,nationalandinternational political systems seem to fall back into a default position of business as usual. In the United States we desperately need a program of social and environmental legislation of New Deal proportions, a program that would incorporate a new ethic of care rooted in the recognition of global mutual interdependence. Increasingly we hear the call for such an ethic by groups such as the Network of Spiritual Progressives. How can we imagine alternatives? Are there historical precedents for a global ethic of care, and has any government ever tried to put it into practice? Ancient Inscriptions Tell of an Astonishing King An answer to these questions might take us first to, of all places, Kandahar, southeastern Afghanistan. Following September 11, 2001, Kandahar, the capital of the Talibanandtheal-Qaidaterroristnetwork,symbolizedtheintolerance,chaos,andterrorism thatthreatentoeruptanywherewithrepercussionseverywhereinanincreasinglyinterconnectedworld .In2010,afternineyearsofU.S.militaryintervention,theTalibanreignedin Kandahar more strongly than ever. The United States continues to seek military solutions to growing political...