PLENARY SESSION II - THE HUMANIST WORLD VIEW

At the Second Plenary Session, on Monday 11th, Paul Kurtz of the International Academy of Humanism, gave the key note address "The humanist Way: View from the West" titled "Our Responsibility to Humanity as a Whole". He outlined trends toward growing world planetary consciousness and globalisation that included instant communication, rapid travel, the global market place, global migrations of people and intermarriage, rising living standards resulting from scientific advances that crossed frontiers, the mastering of artificial evolution, the acceptance of the universal right to education, the global spread of arts and culinary tastes, and the universality of science. He spoke of two possible directions, the first being the encouragement of a pluralistic world split along nationalistic, cultural, ethnic, racial and religious lines but warned of the unfortunate consequences seen with the break up of the former Soviet Union and Yugoslavia. The second option was to transcend the narrow ethnic-cultural chauvinisms of the past and to create a world civilisation in which all sectors of humanity share common values so that humanity could live together in peace and harmony.

He drew attention to and restated the 1988 "Declaration of Interdependence" (see New Zealand Humanist No. 138 June 1998). Speaking of global ethics he called on rational people to express moral caring for the needs of others, to do what is within our power to mitigate the suffering, distress, pain and sorrow of others, to develop a benevolent attitude toward deserving people, and to act so as to increase the sum of human good and happiness - "This means that that we should be concerned with the entire world community" and "include future generations still unborn" and that we should "do nothing to endanger the very survival of future generations" and "use what we need rationally and avoid wasting nonrenewable resources".

Responding with "The view from the East", Justice V M Tarkunde, of the Indian Radical Humanist Association and author of the landmark book Radical Humanism, spoke of the current situation in India, a country ostensibly self sufficient in food but where 300 million people live below the poverty line, measured by the failure to get two square meals a day, where 60% of women and 40% of men are illiterate, and where 75 to 80% of people live in general poverty - so the priority for Humanists in India was the alleviation of poverty.

He asserted that people in a democracy get the governments that they deserve. In India, he said, all parties are rotten parties but some are worse than others. So when voting it is necessary to choose the lesser evil. The answer was to help improve the condition of the people so that they can demand better government. The remedy lies with the people. People improve themselves and government. Government does not improve people or itself. The values of individualism, freedom, rationality and self imposed ethics with scientific support from evolution are the individual counterparts of the values of liberty, equality and fraternity - the values of democracy. People must enjoy these values for democracy to exist.

Self-reliance and mutual cooperation must be taught to the masses directly. This must be achieved by Humanists speaking and living with the people who have these needs. Agriculture, water, and education lead to wealth and employment. He reported on visits to four villages where the standard of living had been increased three times in ten years. This was achieved by ensuring that all the girls were educated with only a 10% subsidy from the government - the villages had built their own schools - and controlling population growth. The villagers found out how to manage water and irrigation, reduced unemployment to zero by ensuring that all villagers had useful work and generally achieving self reliance. India, he said, has a great future if only we can stop fundamentalists from imposing a religious dictatorship.

He noted that in England, Humanists tended to keep to themselves and he could not understand why. That in America there are 63 million people who are poor or living in poverty. That in 1982 - 1992 the club of Rome had drawn attention to the exhaustion of world resources. That Indian Humanists did not want India to be part of the atomic powers and suggested that Humanists should press for the elimination of atomic weapons - a useful project for American Humanists. Humanists, he felt, had the worlds best philosophy.