Introduction
The Latin saying “O (what) times, O (what) mores!” still laments the changing times and the decay of mores.
Those who want to be informed in detail and truthfully about the rapid change in the political climate, about the rapprochement of formerly hostile states in the Middle East and Africa and the worldwide takeover of the WHO, and who want to know more about the decay of morals in the West and the legalisation of drugs, should turn to internationally accessible alternative media such as “Global Research”. He will be well advised to do so.
Therefore, the following thoughts are primarily an attempt to answer the question of what possibilities awake citizens (still) have to put a stop to this disturbing development and to take decisive countermeasures.
One possibility, in my opinion, is for us citizens to try out humanism and prove that humanity is social, good and capable of living together without weapons and wars.
Trying out humanism
Humanism, as a philosophical current and human life practice, is based on the optimistic image of mankind as capable of positive development and the improvement of human existence. Essential conditions for this are respect for the human dignity of each individual, freedom of thought and action, freedom of expression and the absence of violence and coercion. A positive social environment and education promote the humanistic ideal of free personality development (1).
Although the civilisational development of humanity has progressed steadily over the millennia, we still seem to be entirely at the beginnings of humanisation in terms of taming violence. But since violence is not an expression of human nature but a product of historical and cultural conditions, it is possible to master violence and eliminate it from individual and community relations.
Children in particular cannot develop into healthy, upright personalities under violence and coercion. Therefore, education at home and school should refrain from any use of violence and fear-inducing authority and turn to the child’s soul life with true understanding.
However, human emotional life is not to be understood solely as the result of the parent-child relationship. The values prevailing in a culture and the feelings corresponding to them, as whose mediators parents, teachers and educators approach the child on a daily basis, are also decisive. A positive social environment can only be created if we citizens are committed to a conscious ethical-moral values education and to an education for public spirit and peace.
The question of education is also important. It should primarily teach people how they should and can solve their problems. Among the most important problems are his attitude towards life, his opinion about himself, his partner, his attitude towards children, his opinion about his neighbour, the community and the state. If he succeeds in this, he will get a more realistic view about himself and also the other person (2).
Present evidence that people are social
The term “social” colloquially means the positive relationship of one person to another or even several other persons, which means having a feeling for the community, a sense of community. This includes the abilities to take an interest in others, to empathise with them, to help them, to protect the weaker and possibly to put one’s own interests aside in the process (3).
More than 100 years ago, the Russian political scientist, human geographer and philosopher Prince Peter Kropotkin (1842-1921) wrote in his book “Mutual Aid in the Animal and Human World” that in nature and society there is by no means only a struggle for survival, a struggle of all against all (social Darwinism), but that the principle of “mutual aid” also prevails. Those living beings who implement this principle would survive more successfully.
Kropotkin observed both nature and natural beings and related his findings to human beings. The natural scientific depth psychology is based on these findings. According to this, man is a naturally social being who is oriented towards the community of his fellow human beings and has a tendency towards good (4).
From this insight into the feeling of belonging together of all those who bear human traits, the teachers of the moral leaders of humanity, the wisdom of Lao Tzu, the commandment of love for one’s neighbour and the innumerable forms of social life and behaviour grew. The exhortations of the human sense of community can never be eradicated, for the gift of evolution consists in the moral consciousness of the individual, in the insight into the responsibility of all towards all.
A practical example from school will confirm the social nature of man. It will interest and move teachers and parents alike, who have long been struggling with the present school system because of the inadequate teaching and care of their children.
It is the story of a fellow teacher who, with a well-considered move, managed to reconcile with an irritated boy who even put his legs up on the school desk in class. He made peace with him and ended the state of war that was affecting the whole class.
When he began teaching himself, he felt more like a tamer of an unwilling horde than a respected educator. But pressure and violence – that was his resolution – were not to gain the upper hand in the classroom and he wanted to understand why he would react so strongly to the disruptive behaviour of pupils. After all, there was a lively little boy of 13 sitting in the class who found talking to his neighbour much more interesting than the lessons.
Since he did not feel understood by the teachers with his personal worries and needs, he could not concentrate on the lessons either. His parents were separated and his older brother, unlike him, attended grammar school.
When the colleague got angry and threatened consequences, the student’s disruptive behaviour increased. Only gradually did the colleague become aware that he had been drawn into a power struggle for the upper hand in the class by the pupil. Therefore, he met him with resentment, displeasure and an insulted expression. The pupil reacted to this with new provocations and finally put his legs on the school bench.
Although the colleague felt a strong desire to impose his will and force him to obey, he approached the student after the lunch break with a beating heart and made an attempt at reconciliation. He said to him: “While I cannot accept the behaviour you have shown in the last lesson, maybe it is a little bit up to me. I hope we can find a way to reconcile together.”
This reconciliation was only possible because the colleague became aware of the student’s difficult family situation and the state of war in the class. By putting himself emotionally in the pupil’s situation, he chose a different path from violence. He made peace with the child and ended the state of war.
The effect was incredible. The student now followed the lesson completely amazed and attentive and finally defended the teacher-colleague in front of the whole class because other students criticised him. He got into a different mood because he felt understood by the teacher.
The whole episode not only proves that man is social, it also points the way to a peaceful world for all educators.
Man is good, but irritated
When we look around the world, we find that human beings are good but irritated psychologically. No human being can solve his problems in marriage, with children or in social life. We beat the children and wage murderous wars. But all this is due to improper education. Therefore, psychological knowledge must be imparted to all people so that they can solve their personal problems and begin to steer the world on a peaceful course.
Man is not destined from the outset to be a wolf or a lamb. His freedom consists in the fact that he can make himself what he is to be in the future. When man does evil, he has chosen it beforehand; he has willed it beforehand. The origin of evil does not lie in human nature.
Present evidence that human beings are capable of living together without weapons and wars.
The generalised “image” of the “struggle for existence” is meant to justify that war in the world has not been overcome – and cannot be overcome. However, this view of “homo homini lupus” (man is a wolf to man) is fundamentally wrong. It is based on a superficiality that becomes immediately obvious on closer inspection.
An unbiased examination of historical wars teaches us that the arbitrariness of the ruling classes is one of the first causes of war. Disputes among kings, the lust for conquest of a ruler or his warrior caste, in other words, the lust for power of the powerful has led peoples into wars in which they bled to death for the interests of their potentates. The competition between the religions, each of which believed itself to be in possession of the absolute truth, gave further cause for warlike entanglements in which people died for the power of their church.
The modern era, which realised the primacy of the economy over the other spheres of public life, then created the type of economic warfare in which the masters of commerce and industry engaged the peoples in a struggle for sources of raw materials and markets. In almost all wars of the last centuries, the economic factor plays a dominant role, although it is sometimes hidden behind other motivations.
The causes of wars were thus manifold, but every war was fought in the interest of a small upper class, which alone benefited from victory and the associated gain in land and riches. The peoples themselves, who went into battle for their secular or ecclesiastical rulers, were allowed little or no share in the benefits of their conquest. They were not asked whether they wanted to go to war or not; they were forced to take up arms.
It is therefore not right to hold the “peoples” responsible for their wars; it was always only their ruling classes that feuded and tried to subjugate each other. That is why it is wrong to attribute war to human nature. Human nature is peaceful.
The majority of people love to go about their work, cultivate the fields and live in friendship with their neighbours. The range of vision of most people does not extend so far as to set out for other countries or even continents and carry there the devastating flame of war. Only the lust for power of those who function as authorities within the peoples and are imbued by their social position with the spirit of violence, drives time and again to warlike conflicts in which the peoples bleed to death for the benefit of their masters and exploiters.
Dr. Rudolf Lothar Hänsel is a school rector, educational scientist and qualified psychologist. After his university studies, he became an academic teacher in adult education. As a retiree he worked as a psychotherapist in his own practice. In his books and professional articles, he calls for a conscious ethical-moral education in values as well as an education for public spirit and peace. For his services to Serbia, he was awarded the Republic Prize “Captain Misa Anastasijevic” by the Universities of Belgrade and Novi Sad in 2021.
He is a regular contributor to Global Research.