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Three leading ideologies of the world (part 1)
The outstanding expression of this fifth ray energy can be seen in the rapid formulating of the many ideologies which have taken place since the year 1900. Such words as Fascism, Communism, National Socialism, Socialism as the British accept it, and the names of many schools of psychology and philosophy, were unknown one hundred years ago; today they are the common talk and phrases of the man in the street. The inflow of this mental energy into the world of men, the attainment in consciousness of mental ability by many thousands, and the achievement of mental polarisation by aspirants all the world over, are all due to the activity of this fifth ray energy; this may be regarded as preparatory work for the first and the second initiations2*.13
The masses of men are, as yet, relatively so little evolved, that is why revolutions so seldom, if ever, can be carried out without bloodshed, for the intended ideas have to be imposed upon the masses and are not immediately recognised and adopted by those masses, they evoke counter responses which arouse those in authority to wrong activity.
Let it not be forgotten that the objective of all true governmental control is right synthesis, leading to right national and interior group activity. The problem resolves itself into a dual one. First of all, we have the problem of the type of authority which should be recognised by the peoples; and secondly, we have the problem of the methods which should be employed, so that the chosen authoritative measures will proceed either by the method of enforced control, or would be of such a nature that they will evoke a generously rendered and recognised cooperation. Between these two ways of working, many changes can be rung, though the system of cooperation, willingly rendered by an intelligent majority, has never yet been seen. But we are moving towards such a condition of world consciousness and are on our way towards experimenting with it.
Let me here briefly indicate to you some of the modes of government which have been tried out, or will be tried out in the future.
1. Government by a recognised Spiritual Hierarchy. This Hierarchy will be related to the masses of the people by a chain of developed men and women who will act as the intermediaries between the ruling spiritual body and a people who are oriented to a world of right values. This form of world control lies indefinitely ahead. When it becomes possible so to govern, the planetary Hierarchy will have made a major Approach to earth, and there will then be thousands of men and women in touch with Their organisation because they will be developed enough to be sensitive to Its thoughts and ideas.
2. Government by an oligarchy of illumined minds, recognised as such by the massed thinkers, and therefore chosen by them to rule. This they will do through the education of the thinkers of the race in group ideas and in their right application. The system of education, then prevalent, will be utilised as the medium of reaching the masses and swinging them into line with the major ideas and this will be done not by force, but through right understanding, through analysis, discussion and experiment. Curiously enough (from the point of view of many) the spiritual Hierarchy will then work largely through the world scientists who, being by that time convinced of the factual reality of the soul and wise in the uses of the forces of the soul and of nature, will constitute a linking body of occultists.
3. Government by a true democracy. This again will be made possible through a right use of the systems of education and by a steady training of the people to recognise the finer values, the more correct point of view, the higher idealism, and the spirit of synthesis and of cooperative unity. Cooperative unity differs from an enforced unity in that the subjective spirit and the objective form are functioning towards one recognised end. Today, such a thing as a true democracy is unknown, and the mass of the people in the democratic countries are as much at the mercy of the politicians and of the financial forces as are the people under the rule of dictatorships, enlightened or unenlightened. These latter might be regarded as selfish idealists. But I would have you here note the word "idealist"! When, however, the world has in it more truly awakened people and more thinking men and women, we shall see a purification of the political field taking place, and a cleansing of our processes of representation instituted, as well as a more exacting accounting required from the people of those whom they have chosen to put in authority. There must eventually be a closer tie-up between the educational system, the legal system and the government, but it will all be directed to an effort to work out the best ideals of the thinkers of the day. This period does not lie so far ahead as you might imagine, particularly if the first move in this direction is made by the New Group of World Servers.
This first move involves a right comprehension of goodwill. These three systems, which are the three major systems, correspond to the three major rays of synthesis, of idealism, and of intelligence, which are only other names for the rays of Will or Power, of Love-Wisdom and of Active Intelligence.
4. Government by dictatorship. This type of government divides itself into three parts:
a. Rule by a monarchy, limited usually today by the will of the people, or rather by the politicians of the period, but symbolic of the ultimate rule of the Hierarchy under the Kingship of the Lord of the World.
b. Rule by the leader of some democratic country, who is usually called a president, or by some statesman (no matter by what name he may choose to be called) who is frequently an idealist, though limited by his faulty human nature, by the period in which he lives, by his advisors, and by the widespread corruption and selfishness. A study of such men who have held office in this capacity, made by a fair-minded neutral, will usually demonstrate the fact that they held office under the influence of some idea, which was in itself intrinsically right (no matter how applied), which was forward-moving in its concept, and belonged to the then new age. This relates them to the second ray.
c. Rule by dictators, whose animating principle is not one of the new age ideals, emerging in their particular time, but an idealism of a more material kind—a generally recognised present idealism. They are not usually reactionary nor are they found among the intuitive workers of their age, but they take what is grounded, settled and easily available—made so by the thinkers of their time—and then give it a material, national and selfish twist and objective, and so force it on the masses by fear, warlike means and material promises. They belong, therefore, more practically to the third ray methods of work, for they are intelligent, expedient, and materially constructive. True idealism, involving as it must the new age patterns, and religious incentives are lacking in their techniques. Nevertheless, they do lead the race on another step, for they have a mass effect in evoking thought, and sometimes eventual resistance, as the result of that thought.14
Certain great ideological regimes have divided the world into opposing groups. There are the great democracies, under which certain of the few remaining monarchies find a place; there are the totalitarian powers in which the ancient dictatorships and autocracies of the past are summed up. There is nothing new in the Axis policies. They are essentially reactionary groups, for tyrants, cruelty and the exploitation of the weak are part of ancient history. The democracies, with all their present ineffectiveness, have in them the germ of that which is truly new, for they are the expression of an upward surging towards self-rule and self-mastery by humanity as a whole. There is also the communistic ideal which is a curious blend of individualism, dictatorship, the ancient conflict between labour and capital, the Sermon on the Mount, and the worst aspects of revolution and exploitation. The lines which it will follow, even in the immediate future, are unpredictable3*.There are other countries and peoples whose governments are conditioned by their environment and who at present play no real determining part in world events, except in so far as a greater power uses them. Again, there are peoples and tribes who still pursue their little lives, unaffected by the turmoil to be found in the more highly civilised parts of the world.
Behind all this diversity of governmental methods, certain clear outlines are emerging which indicate wider fusions and a tendency to bring about certain syntheses. Various basic trends of thought are appearing which, in the new world order, will unfold into that major synthesis so much desired by the spiritual Hierarchy of the planet, and which, whilst preserving the large national and racial outlines, will produce an underlying and subjective state of mind which will end the age of separateness. Desire is today being evoked for the Federated States of Europe, modelled on the lines of the British Commonwealth of Nations or the United States of America; there is talk of a new order in Asia, of the Good Neighbour policy in America, of a Federal Union of the democratic nations; there is also the steady spread of the Soviet Socialist Republics. Certain major groupings would seem possible and probably advisable. They might be divided as follows:
1. A Federal Union of the great democracies after the war. This might include the British Empire as a whole, the United States, the Scandinavian countries and certain northern European nations, including Germany.
2. A Union of the Latin countries, including France, Spain, all the Mediterranean countries, the Balkan countries (except one or two which might be absorbed into the U.S.S.R.), and South America.
3. The United Soviet Socialist Republics and certain Asiatic nations working in collaboration with them, such as China, and later Japan.
These three great blocs would not be antagonistic blocs but simply geographical spheres of influence. They would all three work in the closest unity and economic relation. Each nation within the three blocs would preserve its sovereign independence, but between these independent nations and between these blocs there would be identity of purpose, unity of effort and the recognition of the economic control of a league of nations. This league, being formed of the representatives of all the nations and its inner governing body being chosen by the three blocs, would control all sources of supply, distribute all such supplies and determine all economic policies.15
One basic premise can be laid down: The platform of the leading ideologies is not necessarily wrong or wicked; it is the imposition by force and by a police state of an ideology, and its use by powerful men or groups for their own benefit, plus the keeping of the people in blind ignorance so that no free choice is theirs—which is fundamentally wicked and evil.
We have, for instance, the great crisis in the world today presented by the conflict between Communism and the democratic point of view. I mention this first because it is the one which is occupying a prominent position in the eyes of all men everywhere. This presents a dominant spiritual opportunity. The democratic attitude, dedicated as it claims to be to human freedom (however little of that freedom is yet truly attained) is—because of that freedom factor—sponsored today by the Hierarchy. Communism being an imposed ideology, forced on the people by totalitarian authority, is regarded as evil. It is not the communistic theories which are necessarily wrong; it is the technique and the methods, rampant in the totalitarian lands, which are counter to the spiritual plan. Imposed Communism and all totalitarian methods imprison the human soul, and breed fear and hatred everywhere. Should the democratic principles therefore be imposed upon the world or any part of the world by a totalitarian regime, it would be equally wrong...
True Democracy is as yet unknown; it awaits the time when an educated and enlightened public opinion will bring it to power; towards that spiritual event, mankind is hastening. The battle of Democracy will be fought out in the United States. There the people at present vote and organise their government on a personality basis and not from any spiritual or intelligent conviction. There is a material, selfish aspect to Democracy (rampant today), and there is a spiritual aspect, little sought after; there are material and spiritual aspects to Communism...
There is again the ideology of Socialism which is regarded by some as a basic evil. Socialism can degenerate into another form of totalitarianism, or it can be more democratic than the present expressions of Democracy. These issues will emerge clearly in Great Britain, where the socialist point of view is gaining ground among the masses, but which at present is a mixture of nationalisation of the public utilities and of free enterprise—a combination which may have true value, if preserved.
There are other ideologies in the political, social and economic fields but these with which I have dealt constitute a triangle of schemes undergoing national and political experiments in different countries throughout the world. All of them have a religious and spiritual side; all of them are tainted with materialism; one of them is wickedly totalitarian and is finding followers; another is the victim of the stupid lack of interest of its people; another is in the throes of an experiment which may or may not prove successful. Under the impact of these ideologies the spiritual growth of the human family is fostered, because the emerging spiritual factor (under the evolutionary law) is ever present, and always there is to be found a tendency towards God and divine expression.
From the standpoint of the Hierarchy, these three ideologies are three aspects of one great spiritual event; the outcome of the interplay between them can eventuate in an increased spiritual approach to divinity or (if the Forces of Light do not triumph) they can drive mankind deeper into the pit or prison of materialism. The intense political interest of the Catholic Church, plus its gross materialism, acts as a great handicap to the steady gain of the spiritual position; if however, the Catholic hierarchy can renounce or relinquish its material and political aims and present the love of God in its beauty, it can do much to lead humanity out of darkness into light.
That is why the issue is stressed between Christianity and Communism—a controversy emphasised by the Roman Catholic Church, but one into which the communistic nations are already drawing the Protestant churches.
If the United States can equally renounce its gross materialism, it can give a lead to the world along spiritual lines which will be beyond anything yet demonstrated and, aided by Great Britain, the two great democracies, expressing right human relations and the fellowship of man, can do great things for the race. Great Britain is learning a sense of values, and being drawn away from materialism through great privation; it is hoped that she will consciously renounce materialism.
I would like to remind you here that the spiritual Hierarchy of our planet cares not whether a man is a democrat, a socialist or a communist, or whether he is a Catholic, a Buddhist, or an unbeliever of any kind. It cares only that humanity—as a whole—avail itself of spiritual opportunity. It is an opportunity which is present today in a more compelling way than ever before.
The general effect of these clashing ideologies and the result of the war among the world religions have started men thinking in every land. Men are emerging out of the mental lethargy which has characterised them for so long. The man in the street is today thinking, pondering, wondering, planning and deciding. In past centuries, it was only those who had benefited by education and those in the "upper brackets" who thought and planned. This tendency to thought indicates the coming into activity of a new and better civilisation, and this is preparatory to spiritual events of major importance. The spirit of man, usually unconsciously, is driving onwards towards a more spiritual civilisation and culture. I did not say towards a more religious expression of truth. A more spiritual inter-relation is on its way and the establishing on a worldwide scale of right human relations indicates this. We shall have eventually a spiritual focussing which will be divorced from the present orthodox religions, but which will be in tune with the hidden, spiritual factor in all religions. Men are not, in reality, looking for the Christ to come as a religious leader; they look for Him to come to them in the field of their greatest need, to point the way to resurrection and the revelation which will inevitably follow man's renunciation of the material values.16
2* Initiation is a process of expansion of consciousness which is characterised by achieving a spiritual control over physical (the First Initiation) and emotional natures (the Second Initiation). From the esoteric point of view the First and the Second Initiations are not the major initiations or are the “initiations of the threshold”.
3* The statement needs additional clarification: 1) Here the Teacher speaks just about an ideal as that of an implemented idea with its distortions attendant to the incarnation; 2) this fragment is written in 1940 which is after the repressions of 1936-1938, and so the Teacher has doubts about the further vector of development of the communist ideal of the USSR: which path this development will take – the path of individualism or dictatorship of labour, the path of the Sermon on the Mount or “the worst aspects of revolutionism and exploitation”. 3) Here we should take into an account that the Masters intended (see “The Externalisation of The Hierarchy”) that the Second World War would not be expressed on the physical plane.
