The Price of Civilization_ Reawakening American Virtue and Prosperity - Jeffrey D. Sachs [76]
Küng’s findings, and their recent embrace by many other ethicists, are heartening. They show us the way to harness global diversity yet find common touchstones across what to some appear to be impenetrable divides. They give us the confidence to envision economics not only in technical terms but also as part of a global human framework guided by humane principles. The global market economy must remain guided by humane purposes and not be regarded as an end in itself.
Most important, the Principle of Humanity bids us to respect one another through a renewed and heightened appreciation of our common fate as human beings and our common hope for dignity, solidarity, and sustainability. Küng’s studies of the world’s religious traditions reaffirm the key point that what unites humanity is vastly more important than whatever might divide us. They also remind me of the eloquence of President John F. Kennedy in his remarkable search for peace in the year after the Cuban missile crisis, the final year of his life. Kennedy reminded us that
Across the gulfs and barriers that now divide us, we must remember that there are no permanent enemies. Hostility today is a fact, but it is not a ruling law. The supreme reality of our time is our indivisibility as children of God and our common vulnerability on this planet.15
How, then, to find the path to peace? Kennedy was ever pragmatic and idealistic at the same time:
So, let us not be blind to our differences—but let us also direct attention to our common interests and to means by which those differences can be resolved. And if we cannot end now our differences, at least we can help make the world safe for diversity. For, in the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children’s future. And we are all mortal.16
Those words, and the powerful vision behind them, led to the signing of the Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty in the summer of 1963, which helped to pull the world from the nuclear abyss. Today’s sources of tension—terrorism, instability, extreme poverty, climate change, hunger, and shifting global power—may be different from before, but the path to peace through mindfulness of the world, built on common interests and mutual respect, remains the same as in Kennedy’s time.
Personal and Civic Virtue as an Approach to Life
The mindful society is not a specific plan but rather an approach to life and the economy. It calls on each of us to strive to be virtuous, both in our personal behavior (regarding saving, thrift, and control of our self-destructive cravings) and in our social behavior as citizens and members of powerful organizations, whether universities or businesses. Our current hyperconsumerism on a personal level and corporatocracy on a social level have carried us into a danger zone. We have become like the rats that press a lever for instant pleasure, courting exhaustion and ultimately starvation. We have created a nation of remarkable wealth and productivity, yet one that leaves its impoverished citizens in degrading life conditions and almost completely ignores the suffering of the world’s poorest people. We have created a kind of mass addiction to consumerism, relentless advertising, insidious lobbying, and national politics gutted of serious public deliberation.
The mindful society, with its eight areas of mindfulness—toward self, work, knowledge, others, nature, the future, politics, and the world—aims to help us refashion our personal priorities as well as our social institutions, so that the economy can once again serve the ultimate purpose of human happiness. By itself, mindfulness will not end our self-destructive consumer addictions or the political bind of corporatocracy. But it will open the way to a reenergized, virtuous citizenry, one that is ready to rebuild American