The new world order

Youth arise!
02.JUN.06

EDITOR: Referring to a worldwide trend, Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama says that “Politics devoid of ethics contribute nothing to human welfare, and life without morality reduces humans to the level of beasts.” This may well be the situation that Jomo Thomas describes in his column (The Vincentian May 19) as “the rancid world of party politics” generating hatred and divisiveness.

The transformation Jomo calls for to “honour the aspirations of the nation for growth and development” can only come from within the developing consciousness of the people themselves – the creative-thinking abilities of the people forging a new consciousness that the politicians will follow.{{more}}

It’s exciting that this change in consciousness has begun to happen among pockets of our youth and is beginning to be expressed in the visual arts and music. Young Vincentian artists are expressing their reality, in new and engaging ways. Works are being created that have universal appeal and a strong intellectual content, supported wholeheartedly by the younger generation. Other young intellects are emerging too (sociologists, agronomists) who want to make their contribution felt and who have a deep desire to see their people grow in personal fulfillment. Theirs is a growing creative sub-culture that the politicians are functioning outside of but which many youth live within, connected to a world-wide growing practice of connective thinking. It’s a culture of information that informs their own reality and perceptions, their development is self-motivated and self-determining – not dependent on institutions and authoritarian structures like the generations before them.

This growing wave of free thinkers do not subordinate to the political system as we saw in the increased group of non-voters in the last election. As young people now form the majority, politics as we know it today is losing its grip. The politicians, buried within the limitations of partisanship, may not even notice this awakening happening. Youthful minds are leading the way forward. The Westminster system of governance will be revealed for what it is – an antiquated relic of colonial suppression that only sustains the grasping world of party politics.

The Dalai Lama also states that “politics is usually the last frontier in the process of cultural transformation” and accordingly we can expect the practitioners of partisanship to be somewhat out of the picture.

He brings our attention to the individual as the catalyst for social change, when he says ” a new world order is not a question of  economic or political adjustment but a realignment of our personal motivation.”

The question is can the transformation Jomo Thomas and many others call for, come about in a peaceful assimilation of ideas and cooperation in action? Will our political relics and their trainees sincerely embrace the burgeoning youth movement, relinquishing some control, or will they resort to oppressive measures to keep the outdated structures in place?

Vonnie Roudette