Is Civilization a Good Idea?

When someone asked Mahatma Gandhi what do you think of Western Civilization, he promptly replied, "It would be a good idea!" If we consider that no civilization has ever lived up to its ideals, the same irony could be thrust upon all civilizations, Eastern or Western.

However, having traveled along the Silk and Spice Roads and beyond, I am dubious of distinctions between Eastern and Western Civilizations. It is much more realistic to think of civilization in the singular rather than plural. There are many cultures but only one global civilization. And global civilization is a good idea!

Globalization is not a new phenomenon. Cultural exchange has been going on for centuries. We can find few cultures in the world that have not borrowed from others. The first globalization took place along the ancient Spice and Silk Roads. The second globalization occurred when Columbus "discovered" the New World. The European colonization of Africa, Asia, and Americas forcibly brought East and West into intimate contact. The third globalization is now in progress through global communication and markets.

Discerning students of history cannot fail but to note an overwhelming fact. We may loosely speak of Western, Chinese, or Islamic civilizations, but in reality there is only one civilization to which we all belong. In every major city, we can now witness its mixed blessings, including Coca Cola, pizza parlors, sushi bars, Sony, IBM, CNN, and BBC. All these products are clearly gifts of the industrial world to the rest. But who invented fire? Probably the Africans. The wheel? Probably the Central Asian nomads. Decimal numbers? The Indians and Arabs. Writing? The Egyptians, Sumerians, and Greeks. Postal system? The Persians. Gunpowder, paper money, silk, and compass? The Chinese. Printing? The Chinese, Koreans, and Germans. I can go on and on.
Like a torch in a relay marathon, civilization has been passed on from hand to hand. Paleontologists tell us that the African nomads led the way. The latest ancestor of homo sapiens has been found in Chad in a skeleton dating back 7 million years. The agriculturalists of major river basins followed. The traders of the Silk and Spice Roads then accumulated huge fortunes in such commercial cities as Xian, Samarkand, Bokhara, Isfahan, Baghdad, Aleppo, Athens, Venice, and Rome. With the introduction of manufacturing and rise of industrial societies, the turn of Western Europe came. Industrial civilization was subsequently exported to the New World. Ever since the rise of informatics, the United States has been on the forefront.

Human civilization has thus developed from its nomadic phase (99% of human history) to the agrarian, commercial, industrial, and informatic stages. Two facts of history stand out in this process: Domination and Resistance. Those peoples who have led the way technologically and economically also have dominated the world militarily. In empire after empire, those who have fallen behind have resisted the dominant. It is foolishly human for those who are temporarily ahead to claim some kind of moral superiority. But technological, economic, and military advance do not automatically confer moral superiority.

The litmus test in moral achievement is to reach the golden rule: "In everything, do to others what you would have them do to you." This is a paramount Judaic-Christian ethical imperative that has perennially resonated in the Greek, Confucian, Buddhist, and Islamic philosophies. On that test, most of our civilization is failing today.

Civilization is a journey, not a destination. Like democracy, it is an unfinished project. We are deluding ourselves if we claim to have arrived at a civilized or democratic state. Civilization and democracy are ideals worth striving for. A democratic government of the people, by the people, and for the people has not yet been achieved anywhere in the world. As the current global terrorism and counter-terrorism demonstrate, a civilized society is devoutly to be wished. The price of a democratic civilization is eternal vigilance.

In his 2002 peace proposals, Buddhist leader Daisaku Ikeda has focused on the dawn of a global civilization. He has called for the Buddhist middle way to resolve the world's most enduring problems, including poverty, nuclear disarmament, sustainable development, and terrorism. Ikeda confirms the recommendations of the Earth Charter (see www.earthcharter.org), a people's document echoing the golden rule and middle way.

If we fail to heed such voices, we could end up with T. S. Eliot's vision of the way the world ends, in the bang of a nuclear war or the whimper of persistent ecological disasters.

Majid Tehranian
Professor, University of Hawaii at Manoa
Director, Toda Institute for Global Peace and Policy Research, Tokyo and Honolulu