Three leading ideologies of the world (part 2)

In the final analysis, the main problem of world government is the wise use of ideas. It is here that the power of speech makes itself felt, just as in the department of religion or of education the power of the written word, of the printed page, is felt. In the field of politics, the masses are swayed by their orators, and never more so than now through the use of the radio. Great ideas are dinned into the ear of the public without cessation—theories as to dictatorship, communism, nazism, fascism, marxism, nationalism, and democratic ideals. Methods of rule by this or that group of thinkers are presented to the public, leaving them no time for consideration, or for clear thinking. Racial antipathies are spread, and personal preferences and illusions find expression, bringing about the deception of the unthinking. The man who has a golden tongue, the man who has the gift of playing with words and can voice with emphasis people's grievances, the juggler in statistics, the fanatic with a certain and sure cure for social ills, and the man who loves to fan race hatreds, can ever get a following. Such men can with facility upset the balance of the community and lead a body of unthinking adherents to a transient success and power, or to obloquy and oblivion.

In the aggregate of this play with ideas, and in the constant impact upon the human consciousness of the great concepts which lie back of our evolutionary process, the race is developing the power to think, to choose, and to build a sure foundation. Through the evolutionary presentation of these ideas there is a steady march towards a liberty of thought (through the old method of experiment, of discard, and of renewed effort with ever newer concepts) which will enable mankind to build true to the great thought patterns which underlie the outer structure of our world. The attentive minds of the age are constantly being made sensitive to these patterns, so that the individual mind can recognise them and wrest them out of the darkness into the light of day. Thus will the true patterns be made available, to play their part in leading the race towards its destiny, towards those deeper realisations which mould the racial types, and to that synthesis of understanding which will result in a realisation of Brotherhood.¹⁷

I would here remind you that it is the expansion of consciousness and the production of increased sensitivity and perceptive awareness which is the goal of all divine and hierarchical effort. The goal is not for betterment of material conditions. These will automatically follow when the sense of awareness is steadily unfolded. The future of humanity is determined by its aspiration and ability to respond to the idealism which is today flooding the world.

At this time also a still further step is taking place. Everywhere and in every country men are being taught in their earliest years that they are not only individuals, not only members of a state, empire or nation, and not only people with an individual future, but that they are intended to be exponents of certain great group ideologies—Democratic, Totalitarian, or Communistic. These ideologies are, in the last analysis, materialising dreams or visions. For these, modern youth is taught that he must work and strive and, if necessary, fight. It is therefore surely apparent that behind all the surface turmoil and chaos so devastatingly present today in the consciousness of humanity, and behind all the fear and apprehension, the hate and separativeness, human beings are beginning to blend in themselves three states of consciousness—that of the individual, of the citizen, and of the idealist. The power to achieve this, and to be all these states simultaneously, is now reaching down into those levels of human life which we call "submerged classes."

All this is very good and part of the ordained plan. Whether it is the democratic ideal, or the vision of the totalitarian state, or the dream of the communistic devotee, the effect upon the consciousness of humanity as a whole is definitely good. His sense of world awareness is definitely growing, his power to regard himself as part of a whole is rapidly developing and all this is desirable and right and contained within the divine plan.

It is of course entirely true that the process is spoiled and handicapped by methods and motives that are highly undesirable, but human beings have a habit of spoiling that which is beautiful; they have a highly developed capacity of being selfish and material, and because the minds of men are as yet practically untrained and undeveloped, they have little power of discrimination and small ability to differentiate between the old and the new, or between the right and the more right. Having been trained in selfishness and in material attitudes while under parental control and in the educational systems of the day, their trend of thought normally runs along these undesirable lines.

In the Piscean Age which is passing, the youth in every country has been brought up under the influence of three foundational ideas. The result of these ideas might be expressed under the terms of the following questions:

1. What shall be my vocation in order that I may have as much of the material world as my state in life and my wants permit?

2. Who are the people who are above me, to whom I must look and whom I must honor, and who are those below me in the social order and how far am I able to mount in the social scale and so better myself?

3. From childhood I have been taught that my natural inclination is to do wrong, to be naughty, or (if the setting is narrowly orthodox) that I am a miserable sinner and unfit for future happiness. How can I escape the penalties of my natural predilections?

The result of all this is to breed in the race a deep-seated sense of material and social ambition and also an inferiority complex which necessarily breaks out into some form of revolt in the individual, in racial explosions or, again speaking individually, in a rabidly self-centered attitude to life. From these distorted tendencies and retrogressive ideals the race must eventually emerge. It is the realisation of this which has produced in some nations the overemphasis on the national or racial good and on the State as an entity. It has led to the undermining of the hierarchical structure of the social order. This hierarchical structure is a basic and eternal reality, but the concept has been so distorted and so misused that it has evoked a revolt in humanity and has produced an almost abnormal reaction to a freedom and a license which are assuming undesirable dimensions.

The widespread demand of the youth of the world today (in some countries) for a good time, their irresponsibility and their refusal to face the real values of life, are all indicative of this. This is to be seen at its worst in the democratic countries. In the totalitarian states it is not permitted on the same scale, as the youth in those states are forced to shoulder responsibility and to dedicate themselves to the larger whole, and not to a life of material vocation and the wasting of their years in what I believe you slangfully call "a good time." This good time is usually had at the expense of others, and takes place in the formative years which inevitably condition and determine the young person's future.

I am not here speaking politically or in defense of any governmental system. A forced activity and then a forced responsibility, relegate the bulk of those so conditioned to the nursery stage or the child state, and humanity should be reaching maturity, with its willingness to shoulder responsibility and its growing sense of the real values of the standards of life. The sense of responsibility is one of the first indications that the soul of the individual is awakened. The soul of humanity is also at this time awakening en masse, and hence the following indications:

1. The growth of societies, organisations and mass movements for the betterment of humanity everywhere.

2. The growing interest of the mass of the people in the common welfare. Hitherto the upper layer of society has been interested, either for selfish, self-protective reasons or because of innate paternalism. The intelligentsia and the professional classes have investigated and studied the public welfare from the angle of mental and scientific interest, based upon a general material basis, and the lower middle class has naturally been involved in the same interest, from the point of view of financial and trade returns. Today this interest has reached down to the depths of the social order and all classes are keenly alive and alert to the general, national, racial or international good. This is very well and a hopeful sign.

3. Humanitarian and philanthropic effort is at its height, alongside of the cruelties, hatreds and abnormalities which separativeness, overstressed national ideologies, aggressiveness and ambition have engendered in the life of all nations.

4. Education is rapidly becoming mass effort and the children of all nations from the highest to the lowest are being intellectually equipped as never before. The effort is, of course, largely to enable them to meet material and national conditions, to be of use to the State and no economic drag upon it. The general result is, however, in line with the divine plan and undoubtedly good.

5. The growing recognition by those in authority that the man in the street is becoming a factor in world affairs. He is reached on all sides by the press and the radio, and is today intelligent enough and interested enough to be making the attempt to form his own opinions and come to his own conclusions. This is embryonic as yet, but the indications of his effort are undoubtedly there; hence the press and radio control which is found in all countries in some form or another, for there can never be any permanent evasion of the hierarchical structure which underlies our planetary life. This control falls into two major categories:

Financial control, as in the United States.

Government control, as in Europe and Great Britain.

The people are told just what is good for them; reservations and secret diplomacy colour the relation of the government to the masses, and the helplessness of the man in the street (in the face of authorities in the realm of politics, conditioning decisions such as war or peace, and theological impositions, as well as economic attitudes) is still pitiful, though not so great and so drastic as it was. The soul of humanity is awakening and the present situations may be regarded as temporary.

The purpose of the coming educational systems will be to preserve individual integrity, promote the sense of individual responsibility, encourage a developing group consciousness of basic individual, national and world relationships, meanwhile extroverting and organising capacity, interest and ability. At the same time there will be an effort to intensify the sense of citizenship, both in the tangible outer world of the physical plane and in the Kingdom of God and of soul relationships.

In order to bring this about, and thus completely change the present world attitudes and wrong emphases, the drastic and catastrophic present planetary situation has been permitted.¹⁸

Humanity is today more sensitive to ideas than ever before, and hence the many warring ideologies and hence the fact that — in defence of their plans — even the most recalcitrant of the nations has to discover some idealistic excuse to put before the other nations when occupied with any infringement of recognised law. This is a fact of great significance to the Hierarchy for it indicates a point reached.

Modern man is apt to condemn the ideology which is not familiar to him and for which he has no use. He repudiates those ideas which do not lie at the back of his national and personal life or tradition and which would not suit him as an individual nor meet the need of the nation to which he belongs.

The recognition of these facts would lead to two results if correctly applied: first, the individual who accepts and is devoted to a particular ideology would cease fighting other ideologies for he would remember that the accident of birth and of background is largely responsible for making him — as an individual — what he is and determining his beliefs. And, secondly, it would bring to an end the attempt to impose a personally or nationally accepted ideology (political or religious) on other nations and persons. These are basic steps towards eventual peace and understanding and hence I emphasise them today.¹⁹

I suggest, therefore that you endeavour to see the three major ideologies with which you have perforce to deal in terms of the three efforts which are emanating from the three major planetary centres at this time: Shamballa, The Hierarchy and Humanity. You will thus gain a more synthetic viewpoint, and a deeper understanding of the slowly emerging world picture.

Is it not possible that the ideologies which we have been discussing are the response — distorted and yet a definite and determined, sensitive reaction — to the energies playing upon humanity from the two higher major centres? I would like to suggest that the ideology which is embodied in the vision of the totalitarian states is an erroneous but clear-cut response to the Shamballa influence of will; that the ideology behind the democratic ideal constitutes a similar response to the universality which the love of the Hierarchy prompts it to express, and that communism is of human origin, embodying that ideology which humanity has formulated in its own right. Thus the three aspects of God's nature are beginning to take form as three major ideas and what we see upon the planet at this time are the distorted human reactions to spiritual impulses, emanating from three different centres, but all equally divine in their essential natures, and in their essences. Ponder on this.

I have brought this to your attention and discussed these basic modern schools of thought because the potency of their idealism is affecting every person, capable of thought, upon the planet. Not one of you is immune from their effects; not one of you but is inclined to range yourself upon one side or another, fighting furiously and under the cloak of so-called "adherence to principle" for what appeals to you. Most of you are, nevertheless, far more affected by the methods employed to materialise the ideas and by the quality of their exponents than you are by the ideas themselves. These you could hardly define if asked to do so. You are affected by their impact upon your emotional bodies (not your minds) after these divine impulses have filtered through from the Shamballa and the hierarchical centres into and through the human centre and have then been seized upon and applied to specific national, racial and political conditions. You are hardly at all affected by the pure idealism which gave them birth and which lies behind them as the motivating (though unrecognised) impulse. You cannot grasp or view these great mental trends as does the Hierarchy. Hence much of your confusion and your difficulty.

If we consider these three great planetary centres and their relationships in tabular form we can get the general idea more clearly in mind:

 I.          Shamballa................................Will or Power.......................... Planetary head centre, spiritual pineal gland.

             The Holy City.......................... Purpose, Plan                      

                                  Life Aspect.

             Ruler: -  Sanat Kumara, the Lord of the World. The Ancient of Days. Melchizedek.

II.         The Hierarchy..........................Love-Wisdom...........................Planetary heart centre.

            The new Jerusalem..................Consciousness.

                                  Group Unity.

            Ruler: -  The Christ, The World Saviour.

III.       Humanity.................................Active Intelligence.......................Planetary throat centre.

          The city, standing foursquare... Self-Consciousness

                                Creativity.

           Ruler: -  Lucifer. Son of the Morning. The Prodigal Son.

These three centres are closely interrelated and must be thought of in their entirety as expressions of divine livingness, as embodying three great stages in the unfoldment of God's plan and as constituting the three major centres in the body of the "One in Whom we live and move and have our being." Students who have studied as you have can relate if they so choose, these three centres to the three solar systems, referred to in A Treatise on Cosmic Fire —

1. In the first solar system, the centre which is Humanity was prepared, and the principle of intelligence came into manifestation (the 3d Ray).

2. In the second solar system, the Hierarchy of love made its appearance and must eventually come into full manifestation upon the physical plane, thereby enabling the Love of God to be seen (the 2nd Ray)

3. In the next solar system, the centre which we today call Shamballa will manifest (intelligently and through love) the will aspect of Deity (the 1st Ray). It is only however in this second solar system that all these three centres, expressing the three divine aspects, meet simultaneously at various stages of livingness. It is interesting to note that it is only through human beings that these centres can ever come into true functioning activity.

Little is known of Shamballa except by Members of the Hierarchy to Whom that centre is the goal in the same way that the Hierarchy is, at this time, the goal for humanity. Shamballa is the directing centre for the Hierarchy. Little is really known of the will of God except by Those Whose function it is to interpret and express that will through love, intelligently applied. They know what the immediate purpose is and Their major occupation is the working out of that will into manifestation.

We have, therefore, three great centres and from them emanate three types of energy which are taking form as the three governing ideologies in the consciousness of the race. Old ideologies still persist; subsidiary schools of thought are everywhere to be found; distorted interpretations and travesties of reality abound on every hand; on all sides the dead level of the people (the ignorant masses) is played upon by these energies and men become victims of the exponents of the ideologies — past, present and future.

Forget not that behind all of them stands He Whom we call the Lord of the World. When all these temporary experiments have been tried and when humanity has been led on in its consciousness from one stage of understanding to another and of recognised interrelation, the kingdom of God will be established upon Earth and the Ruler of the Earth will then work through the Hierarchy to produce that synthetic living creative response from nature (of which humanity is a part) which will enable each kingdom fully to reveal the glory of God. Shamballa will work through the Hierarchy and the Hierarchy, in its turn, will reach the various kingdoms in nature through the medium of Humanity, which will then enter into its pre-ordained and destined function. It is for this that all is taking place. The time of fruition lies relatively far ahead but in the meantime humanity is experimenting or is the subject of experiment; it is exploiting or being exploited; it is learning the lessons of enforced obedience or the dangers of selfish license; it is victimised by powerful personalities in every land and this without exception, or it is being guided in right directions (and this again without exception) by the emissaries and disciples of either Shamballa or the Hierarchy. All vaunted freedom or vaunted control is but the temporary reaction of a humanity which is swept by ideas, controlled by ideals, impulsed by selfishness, impregnated by hates and yet all the time is struggling to express the higher and better qualities and to free itself from the thralldom of ancient evil, the slavery of ancient codes and the curse of ancient habits of thought and living. It is what is happening behind the scenes to mankind as a whole which is of moment; it is the unfoldment of the human consciousness which counts with the Hierarchy, and that unfolds in response to the presented conditions in any country or countries. Let me assure you that under the pressure of modern life, under the strain of the imposed present conditions and civilisation, plus the mental concern, the terror of marching armies, the thunder of the many voices and the stress of the worldwide economic stringency, the human consciousness is rapidly awakening from its long sleep.²⁰

Intelligent appreciation of the situation and a general capacity to present to the mind the underlying conditions has now been achieved by the bulk of the intelligent people upon the planet and, though the point of view is necessarily coloured by national traditions, inherited ideas and policies as well as by environmental control and bias, the race has gone a long way towards its final emancipation. There is, therefore, a certain measure of free will displayed, and this constitutes an entirely new factor and a most satisfactory development. But I would remind you of a most important point and that is that the masses of the people—the middle classes, the bourgeoisie and the proletariat (I use these words in their general sense and simply because of their significance and meaning)—are still victims of authority, of control, and remain relatively unthinking and childlike. This means that the true conflict is between a small minority to whom the issues are illuminatingly clear and who have definitely ranged themselves on one side or other of the embattled forces. A mere handful of men, the direct descendants or rather the reincarnations of the leaders in the ancient Atlantean conflict, are now on earth, directing the forces of light or of darkness and bringing into being a direct line-up of millions of men whose will is that of their leaders.

The lines of cleavage have grown steadily until now they can be expressed in terms of a humanity which is oriented towards the higher spiritual and altruistic values and whose keynotes are sacrifice, group good and world understanding, and those whose focus is predominantly material and whose aims are selfish, animated by ambition and the spirit of acquisition.

It was the acuteness of this situation, and the wide extent of the cleavage, which induced the watching Hierarchy to permit a direct inflow of the Shamballa force (in spite of its attendant risks) to pour into the world. The objective was to stimulate the free will of the masses; the result upon them has been relatively good as it has led to the formulation and expression of the great world ideologies—Fascism, Democracy and Communism as well as that peculiarly distorted blend of Fascism and Communism which goes by the name of Hitlerism or Nazism. All these ideologies are fostered by the desire of the masses for the betterment of the condition in which the populace in any country lives and it has become focussed, expressive and creative by the force of the Shamballa influence. But another result of this inflow of the will-to-power has been to stimulate a certain group of outstanding personalities in many lands so that they have assumed control of the masses and can thus determine the policies and methods—religious, political and social—of the different nations. In every nation a relatively small group of people decide all important issues and determine all major national activities. This they do either by force, terror and deception or by persuasion, fair words and the application of ideological motives. Of this situation in the world the Lords of Destiny are availing themselves in order to bring the ancient conflict to an end and so enable humanity to pass into the new Aquarian Age relatively free and with a clearer understanding of right human aims, right relationships and man's predestined future.²¹