# Challenges of the Construction of a New Morality

*Exported from [Holy-Writings.com](https://www.holy-writings.com/) on 2026-06-18 — 1 clipping.*

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> The theme I have been asked to address this morning is morals and ethics.  I
> shall confess to you that I had many difficulties in preparing myself for this
> speech.  I would ask myself: how should I address Bahá'ís on a subject in which
> THEY are the experts -- so much so that it's towards their source that I strive
> to draw closer? Such being the case, shouldn't I rather be in the audience than
> at the podium?  But as I said before, Bahá'u'lláh's legacy does not belong
> exclusively to the Bahá'ís, it is indeed a treasure of the entire humankind,
> and I can draw inspiration from His analysis and doctrine as a bedrock for my
> presentation.
> 
> By the way, concerning the relationship between Bahá'u'lláh and the Bahá'í
> Faith, recall Mr. Hooper Dunbar's words, in a very rich conversation we
> recently had in Haifa. The honorable member of the Universal House of Justice
> told me that the Bahá'í Faith was simply an instrument of Bahá'u'lláh to
> establish justice, and should the Faith fail to achieve this objective,
> Bahá'u'lláh would certainly promote it through other means.
> 
> Justice -- this is the word round which everything else revolves.
> 
> A synthetic world that embodies the great drama of the contemporary world -- a
> world in convulsion, lost in a multiplicity of false and wayward paths, a world
> of disharmony, violence, of outrageous wealth and degrading misery, a world
> illumined by science, but at the same time shadowed by darkness of spirit.
> 
> This is the picture that brings into focus the moral issue as one of the
> central problems at the dusk of this century.
> 
> We can certainly discern moral decadence in all countries as a prominent
> feature in the current stage of human civilization.  For my country, this
> crisis can be perceived in the smallest things. In schools, parents' concerns
> include not only school dropout, access to education or the quality of
> education, but also the drug dealer stalking students.  In the corporate world,
> employees live in constant fear of an unemployment that often transforms decent
> citizens into society's pariahs. On the streets, the threat of being robbed
> forces one to watch out his or her surroundings.  When it comes to families,
> specially low income families, the breakdown of their unity is caused by
> violent fathers who pour out abandoned children and wives on the streets. In
> public agencies, generalized corruption destroys hopes and creates dangerous
> leadership vacuums. Not to mention the pitiful situation of misery in which
> millions of human beings excluded from markets and culture live.
> 
> In many parts of the world, this panorama of moral, political and social
> decadence is further aggravated by racial and engender prejudice and above all,
> by the belligerence of nationalistic and religious fanaticism, which bless
> violence, incite mass movements and trespass the limits of tolerance.
> 
> Despite this tide of events, an important phenomenon can be detected in the
> collective human psyche.  Whereas people marvel at the so called economic
> globalization, there is a certain insensitivity towards ongoing human
> tragedies, an inability to discern the complex causal links involved, and even
> a skepticism concerning human nature itself.  There is a clear lack of course,
> of strategic assurance towards the future.  All that remains is the enjoyment
> of the moment.  To many minds, the tide of events bursting in the world arena
> is not the expression of a deep crisis, but rather a trivial phenomenon.
> 
> This feeling of accommodation in the face of the present chaos -- a kind of
> social disease -- is the result of the special dynamics that characterize
> current events: their unpredictability, velocity and abundance.
> 
> These characteristics make us see world events as being ephemeral. This
> impression of fugacity induces us to view such events with a strange lightness
> and to absorb them as mere daily facts, no more than a repetition of facts that
> have always been present in history.
> 
> Thus, the horrors in Biafra, Rwanda, or Bosnia end up being assimilated as
> trivial, that is, as transitory and normal incidents, lightly perplexing,
> perhaps, but soon to be relegated to oblivion.
> 
> If that is the case, then the current world crisis presents an element that
> goes beyond the phenomena that engender the crisis, because it is located in
> the social psychology of the crisis. And this social psychology manifests
> itself in the trivialization of tragedy, and therefore in the dwarfing of our
> sense of outrage. This illustrates how difficult it is to find solutions to our
> present problems, because there is no greater tragedy than the trivialization
> of tragedy itself.
> 
> In the field of economics, the terminology in use shows very well the limited
> and tendentious interpretation given to phenomena where human beings are
> reduced to mere statistics. (GDP, strong currency reserves, monetary budget,
> income per capita, mortality rate, stock market indices, etc.).  This is the
> realm of the deified market, where everything is cranked into monetary values.
> There is no room for virtues in the "homo economieus".  This important field of
> human knowledge must needs be remodeled with new elements reaching beyond
> traditional paradigms.
> 
> A perspective of life that monetizes human relationships can only result in
> social fragmentation in a battlefield crowded with individuals, corporations,
> nations and blocks of nations and in an absolute inability to promote social
> justice.
> 
> I refrain from presenting here the data reflecting the reality of social misery
> swamping the globe. So vast is their amount that we are forced to search for
> other words that may both synthesize them and expose the full extent of their
> tragedy.
> 
> In a world of exacerbated competition, the values of freedom transgress the
> limits of moderation and prudence.  Quite often, we indulge in an individualism
> that exalts greed and selfishness, and makes the terrain of social
> relationships arid and devoid of cooperation and friendship.  The exacerbation
> of contemporary individualism seems to be one of the main causes for the deep
> suspiciousness permeating human relationships.
> 
> Not so long ago, in the former Soviet Union, the raison d'etat suffocated the
> individual dimension of human existence in the name of a supposedly fairer
> type of social organization.  Indeed, human spontaneity and creativity had
> surrendered to fear: Today, the hegemony of capitalism has reversed the tide.
> It exalts a false view of freedom, stretches individualism to an extreme and
> abandons social concerns to market forces.
> 
> We can even say that these two recent historical experiences represent two
> extremes in the quest for an adequate role for the individual in society.  One
> exalted the uniformization of individuals, the other, their differences.  The
> former led to the annihilation of the individual's internal forces, whereas the
> latter in taking individual autonomy to an excess and as a result to the
> violation of its own limits.  The absence of a proper mediation between the
> individual and society is conspicuous in both systems -- and it is no
> coincidence that social deterioration and the loss of the truly unique
> potentialities of human beings can be witnessed in both of them.
> 
> It is undeniable that the world today is headed not to civilization but to
> barbarism.  Everything indicates that we are fastly stepping towards a critical
> point of moral, social and political decay.
> 
> What shall we do in the face of such titanic problems?
> 
> The answer to this question cannot be simplistic.  In the moral area, evidently
> it is not a matter of correcting deviations by promulgating a set of moral
> virtues, an effort that would prove totally ineffective.  In the political
> arena, it is not about finding out an enlightened leader, endowed with imperial
> powers.
> 
> Striving to reach a precise diagnosis of the world's situation is a key
> strategic issue.  If nothing else, a correct diagnosis will deliver us from
> perplexity and paralysis as we face the thunderous events that will seize the
> world scene until human affairs have a clearer direction.
> 
> I believe that the accuracy of a diagnosis of the present world situation is
> also dependent on a correct assessment of what is collapsing in human
> institutions.
> 
> For centuries humankind lived with the notion that its problems were to be
> solved in the scope of its national states.  However, with the progress of
> science and technology, nations wound up finding themselves dependent on
> decisions lying outside their own domain. More  than attesting to the fragility
> of national states in an independent world, this fact reveals the extreme
> necessity of searching for new institutional forms fitting this new reality --
> a reality in which the flag of world unity, more than a mere appeal for
> fraternity, is a vital necessity for putting an end to chaos, establishing new
> paradigms and responsibilities.
> 
> The quest for this new unity plateau represents a new historical trend,
> superior to anything ever built in the past.   It carries with it the most
> noble social, political and institutional aims, because it places the entire
> humankind under the same political and institutional roof and demands that all
> members of the human race, regardless of their origin, enjoy security and peace
> and have access, in a just measure, to the wealth produced in the world.
> 
> Every effort aimed at building world institutions contributes, thus, to the
> acceleration of the delivery process that is afflicting the end of this
> century. From the standpoint of practical action, one must identify, amidst the
> disorder, those elements expressing historical trends, refine them with ethical
> content, and then adopt them as strategic axes.
> 
> Regarding this issue, I'd like to offer some remarks on an activity that I
> have been developing with the precious collaboration of my Bahá'í friends in
> Brazil.
> 
> The friends are aware that Bahá'u'lláh, in one of His tablets, mentioned the
> role of the Americas in the world's destiny.  These words have encouraged me to
> devise a political project for Latin America.
> 
> A couple of years ago it was established the site of the Latin American
> Parliament, in my country, an incipient institution which has the potential to
> perform a very important role in the future.
> 
> I intend to convince the board of directors of this institution to convene a
> Latin-American meeting of NGOs and government officials. This meeting would
> address two issues: the first concerns the implementation of practical measures
> addressing the major problems afflicting our continent.  The second regards the
> possibility of holding a world conference, so that we could discuss in depth
> the problems facing humankind.  I believe that Latin America, because of the
> symbolism associated with it, would be the most appropriate site for such a
> conference since most of the major world problems are to be found in the
> Northern Hemisphere.
> 
> These are just some ideas, but I would like to share with you my gratitude to
> the Members of the NSA of Brazil for interacting with me on such ideas.  I am
> sure that this is a challenge, and as such, it calls for persistent firmness. I
> am deeply convinced that, in a direct and just proportion to my personal
> efforts, the mysterious forces of Bahá'u'lláh will be marching with me.
> 
> A lot has been said about the globalization of the economy.  It is the time now
> for globalizing political institutions as well, and searching for the values
> and instruments which can give birth to a new citizenship, a world
> citizenship.
> 
> My dear friends,
> 
> I would like to apologize for dwelling too much on the world crisis and other
> related issues, when my topic should be confined to morals and ethics.
> Nevertheless, I think that the issue of morals can be approached in various
> ways.  We could, for instance, discuss how parents should raise their children,
> or what a school curriculum emphasizing character formation in children should
> look like.
> 
> But I wish instead to draw your attention to the following fact:  In a
> globalized world, the feelings of affection towards different peoples,
> different religions, different races is a fundamental prerequisite for a new
> mores and ethic that will cement political, social, and religious relations.
> Without this broader affection men will remain the prisoners of past and will
> continue to engage in lacking relationships.
> 
> When a society is educated so as to show love and respect only to limited
> sections of the community, whatever falls outside this little social universe
> can easily become the object of hostile feelings and prejudice.  That is the
> case, for example, with religious and nationalist feelings.  I can be loving
> with the members of my religion or nation, and at the same time be hateful and
> disrespectful to those who are not part of them. The tragedy in Bosnia
> illustrates this fact in both dimensions.
> 
> This feeling of a broadened affection or the universalization of love in the
> present scene implies, in reality, recognizing that the dramas and tragedies of
> other peoples are our own tragedies.
> 
> And this is not a challenge at the level of one's awareness or reason alone. It
> is about something deeper, the roots of which must sprout in people's very
> hearts.  Achieving this calls for an educational endeavor in an infinitely
> higher scale than that of traditional education.  Conquering this challenge
> will depend on a concerted effort by formal structures, such as schools,
> government agencies, families, religions, etc., and informal structures such as
> the media.  It will depend especially on the conduct of leaders who by their
> example disseminate trust and promote the assimilation of these new values.
> 
> World citizenship holds, in my estimation, the basis for new mores and a new
> ethic.
> 
> I have said that achieving it will depend on vigorous educational action. In
> this regard, religion deserves a keener examination.  For in the past, the
> progress of civilization has always found in the great religions the foundation
> for a moral ordering of the peoples. There has never been a more vitalizing
> force than the Founders of the great religions.  However, in the contemporary
> world, religious institutions have exhausted their energies, have fallen
> captive to rituals and outworn traditions, and have succumbed to fundamentalist
> wings fermenting within them. Religious fanaticism, with its violence
> engendering power, is today the ultimate evidence of the deep inversion of
> values in which the world is immersed.
> 
> The central issue, therefore, is to know whether humanity will have a
> substitute for the role historically performed by religion.
> 
> Beginning in the 18th century, the Western world spawned a great intellectual
> movement that attempted to build the foundations of morals solely on reason,
> with total contempt to revealed religion. Voltaire the most severe critic of
> religion, Isaac Newton, Kant, Hegel, Karl Marx -- these are some of the names
> who considered it indispensable to disdain spiritual revelations in order to
> lay down the foundation modern knowledge.  They considered human progress to be
> impossible unless and until dogmas, rituals, religious social precepts and the
> influence of the ecclesiastical hierarchy were definitely eradicated from
> society.
> 
> This harsh criticism was not without justification, since the religious
> experience carried in the conscience of that period was rooted in a vast
> historical period in which the temporal power of the church reigned absolute
> and was even able to impose its dogma through terror.  The inquisition provides
> the record of the atrocities ever committed in the history of religious
> movements. And all of this in the name of God.
> 
> Thus, it was only natural for the philosophers of that time to shatter those
> bonds that hindered the advancement of scientific knowledge.  One could say
> that a process of moral secularization was started then, is that their
> criticism pretended to be an absolute truth general and timeless.  From this
> viewpoint all religions suffer from the congenital defect of irrationalism,
> dogmatism, authoritarianism, and unsolvable contradiction with science.  This
> view has been prevalent throughout the centuries and has been strongly
> influenced an important stratum of society: philosophers and scientists.  These
> are not necessarily disbelievers in God, they are disbelievers in religions as
> being the sole mediators between the being and its deity. That is they do not
> understand the existence of Prophets or Manifestations of God, and consequently
> do not apprehend the meaning of the reality of spiritual laws or the principle
> of progressivity in religious truth.
> 
> This is perhaps the tragedy of human condition at the dusk of this century. On
> one side, disbelief, on the other side, fanatical extremisms and in the middle
> a great spiritual void.  In parallel, science and technology have reached their
> pinnacle, but their uncontrolled use begins to frighten man himself.  Man has
> become his own hostage.  To put in a few words the vital need in this troubled
> world, I would say the human being needs to become a homo spiritual, a man with
> a new moral foundation.
> 
> I believe that the Bahá'ís do have a proposal that can address this need.
> Spread it all over.  The world is receptive.
> 
> Thank you very much.
>
> — *Challenges of the Construction of a New Morality (Used by permission of the curator)*