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The 5th Epochal Revelation
-The Urantia Papers
PAPER 71
DEVELOPMENT OF THE STATE
71:0.1
THE state is a useful evolution of civilization; it
represents society's net gain from the ravages and
sufferings of war. Even statecraft is merely the
accumulated technique for adjusting the competitive
contest of force between the struggling tribes and
nations.
71:0.2
The modern state is the institution which survived in
the long struggle for group power. Superior power
eventually prevailed, and it produced a creature of fact
-- the state -- together with the moral myth of the
absolute obligation of the citizen to live and die for
the state. But the state is not of divine genesis; it
was not even produced by volitionally intelligent human
action; it is purely an evolutionary institution and was
wholly automatic in origin.
1. THE EMBRYONIC STATE
71:1.1
The state is a territorial social regulative
organization, and the strongest, most efficient, and
enduring state is composed of a single nation whose
people have a common language, mores, and institutions.
71:1.2
The early states were small and were all the result of
conquest. They did not originate in voluntary
associations. Many were founded by conquering nomads,
who would swoop down on peaceful herders or settled
agriculturists to overpower and enslave them. Such
states, resulting from conquest, were, perforce,
stratified; classes were inevitable, and class struggles
have ever been selective.
71:1.3
The northern tribes of the American red men never
attained real statehood. They never progressed beyond a
loose confederation of tribes, a very primitive form of
state. Their nearest approach was the Iroquois
federation, but this group of six nations never quite
functioned as a state and failed to survive because of
the absence of certain essentials to modern national
life, such as:
71:1.4
1. Acquirement and inheritance of private property.
71:1.5
2. Cities plus agriculture and industry.
71:1.6
3. Helpful domestic animals.
71:1.7
4. Practical family organization. These red men clung to
the mother-family and nephew inheritance.
71:1.8
5. Definite territory.
71:1.9
6. A strong executive head.
71:1.10
7. Enslavement of captives -- they either adopted or
massacred them.
71:1.11
8. Decisive conquests.
71:1.12
The red men were too democratic; they had a good
government, but it failed. Eventually they would have
evolved a state had they not prematurely encountered the
more advanced civilization of the white man, who was
pursuing the governmental methods of the Greeks and the
Romans.
71:1.13
The successful Roman state was based on:
1. The father-family.
2. Agriculture and the domestication of animals.
3. Condensation of population -- cities.
4. Private property and land.
5. Slavery -- classes of citizenship.
6. Conquest and reorganization of weak and backward
peoples.
7. Definite territory with roads.
8. Personal and strong rulers.
71:1.14
The great weakness in Roman civilization, and a factor
in the ultimate collapse of the empire, was the supposed
liberal and advanced provision for the emancipation of
the boy at twenty-one and the unconditional release of
the girl so that she was at liberty to marry a man of
her own choosing or to go abroad in the land to become
immoral. The harm to society consisted not in these
reforms themselves but rather in the sudden and
extensive manner of their adoption. The collapse of Rome
indicates what may be expected when a state undergoes
too rapid extension associated with internal
degeneration.
71:1.15
The embryonic state was made possible by the decline of
the blood bond in favor of the territorial, and such
tribal federations were usually firmly cemented by
conquest. While a sovereignty that transcends all minor
struggles and group differences is the characteristic of
the true state, still, many classes and castes persist
in the later state organizations as remnants of the
clans and tribes of former days. The later and larger
territorial states had a long and bitter struggle with
these smaller consanguineous clan groups, the tribal
government proving a valuable transition from family to
state authority. During later times many clans grew out
of trades and other industrial associations.
71:1.16
Failure of state integration results in retrogression to
prestate conditions of governmental techniques, such as
the feudalism of the European Middle Ages. During these
dark ages the territorial state collapsed, and there was
a reversion to the small castle groups, the reappearance
of the clan and tribal stages of development. Similar
semistates even now exist in Asia and Africa, but not
all of them are evolutionary reversions; many are the
embryonic nucleuses of states of the future.
2. THE EVOLUTION OF REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNMENT
71:2.1
Democracy, while an ideal, is a product of civilization,
not of evolution. Go slowly! select carefully! for the
dangers of democracy are:
1. Glorification of mediocrity.
2. Choice of base and ignorant rulers.
3. Failure to recognize the basic facts of social
evolution.
4. Danger of universal suffrage in the hands of
uneducated and indolent majorities.
5. Slavery to public opinion; the majority is not always
right.
71:2.2
Public opinion, common opinion, has always delayed
society; nevertheless, it is valuable, for, while
retarding social evolution, it does preserve
civilization. Education of public opinion is the only
safe and true method of accelerating civilization; force
is only a temporary expedient, and cultural growth will
increasingly accelerate as bullets give way to ballots.
Public opinion, the mores, is the basic and elemental
energy in social evolution and state development, but to
be of state value it must be nonviolent in expression.
71:2.3
The measure of the advance of society is directly
determined by the degree to which public opinion can
control personal behavior and state regulation through
nonviolent expression. The really civilized government
had arrived when public opinion was clothed with the
powers of personal franchise. Popular elections may not
always decide things rightly, but they represent the
right way even to do a wrong thing. Evolution does not
at once produce superlative perfection but rather
comparative and advancing practical adjustment.
71:2.4
There are ten steps, or stages, to the evolution of a
practical and efficient form of representative
government, and these are:
71:2.5
1. Freedom of the
person. Slavery, serfdom, and all forms of human
bondage must disappear.
71:2.6
2. Freedom of the
mind. Unless a free people are educated -- taught to
think intelligently and plan wisely -- freedom usually
does more harm than good.
71:2.7
3. The reign of
law. Liberty can be enjoyed only when the will and
whims of human rulers are replaced by legislative
enactments in accordance with accepted fundamental law.
71:2.8
4. Freedom of
speech. Representative government is unthinkable
without freedom of all forms of expression for human
aspirations and opinions.
71:2.9
5. Security of
property. No government can long endure if it fails
to provide for the right to enjoy personal property in
some form. Man craves the right to use, control, bestow,
sell, lease, and bequeath his personal property.
71:2.10
6. The right of
petition. Representative government assumes the
right of citizens to be heard. The privilege of petition
is inherent in free citizenship.
71:2.11
7. The right to
rule. It is not enough to be heard; the power of
petition must progress to the actual management of the
government.
71:2.12
8. Universal
suffrage. Representative government presupposes an
intelligent, efficient, and universal electorate. The
character of such a government will ever be determined
by the character and caliber of those who compose it. As
civilization progresses, suffrage, while remaining
universal for both sexes, will be effectively modified,
regrouped, and otherwise differentiated.
71:2.13
9. Control of
public servants. No civil government will be
serviceable and effective unless the citizenry possess
and use wise techniques of guiding and controlling
officeholders and public servants.
71:2.14
10. Intelligent
and trained representation. The survival of
democracy is dependent on successful representative
government; and that is conditioned upon the practice of
electing to public offices only those individuals who
are technically trained, intellectually competent,
socially loyal, and morally fit. Only by such provisions
can government of the people, by the people, and for the
people be preserved.
3. THE IDEALS OF STATEHOOD
71:3.1
The political or administrative form of a government is
of little consequence provided it affords the essentials
of civil progress -- liberty, security, education, and
social co-ordination. It is not what a state is but what
it does that determines the course of social evolution.
And after all, no state can transcend the moral values
of its citizenry as exemplified in their chosen leaders.
Ignorance and selfishness will insure the downfall of
even the highest type of government.
71:3.2
Much as it is to be regretted, national egotism has been
essential to social survival. The chosen people doctrine
has been a prime factor in tribal welding and nation
building right on down to modern times. But no state can
attain ideal levels of functioning until every form of
intolerance is mastered; it is everlastingly inimical to
human progress. And intolerance is best combated by the
co-ordination of science, commerce, play, and religion.
71:3.3
The ideal state functions under the impulse of three
mighty and co-ordinated drives:
1. Love loyalty derived from the realization of human
brotherhood.
2. Intelligent patriotism based on wise ideals.
3. Cosmic insight interpreted in terms of planetary
facts, needs, and goals.
71:3.4
The laws of the ideal state are few in number, and they
have passed out of the negativistic taboo age into the
era of the positive progress of individual liberty
consequent upon enhanced self-control. The exalted state
not only compels its citizens to work but also entices
them into profitable and uplifting utilization of the
increasing leisure which results from toil liberation by
the advancing machine age. Leisure must produce as well
as consume.
71:3.5
No society has progressed very far when it permits
idleness or tolerates poverty. But poverty and
dependence can never be eliminated if the defective and
degenerate stocks are freely supported and permitted to
reproduce without restraint.
71:3.6
A moral society should aim to preserve the self-respect
of its citizenry and afford every normal individual
adequate opportunity for self-realization. Such a plan
of social achievement would yield a cultural society of
the highest order. Social evolution should be encouraged
by governmental supervision which exercises a minimum of
regulative control. That state is best which
co-ordinates most while governing least.
71:3.7
The ideals of statehood must be attained by evolution,
by the slow growth of civic consciousness, the
recognition of the obligation and privilege of social
service. At first men assume the burdens of government
as a duty, following the end of the administration of
political spoilsmen, but later on they seek such
ministry as a privilege, as the greatest honor. The
status of any level of civilization is faithfully
portrayed by the caliber of its citizens who volunteer
to accept the responsibilities of statehood.
71:3.8
In a real commonwealth the business of governing cities
and provinces is conducted by experts and is managed
just as are all other forms of economic and commercial
associations of people.
71:3.9
In advanced states, political service is esteemed as the
highest devotion of the citizenry. The greatest ambition
of the wisest and noblest of citizens is to gain civil
recognition, to be elected or appointed to some position
of governmental trust, and such governments confer their
highest honors of recognition for service upon their
civil and social servants. Honors are next bestowed in
the order named upon philosophers, educators,
scientists, industrialists, and militarists. Parents are
duly rewarded by the excellency of their children, and
purely religious leaders, being ambassadors of a
spiritual kingdom, receive their real rewards in another
world.
4. PROGRESSIVE CIVILIZATION
71:4.1
Economics, society, and government must evolve if they
are to remain. Static conditions on an evolutionary
world are indicative of decay; only those institutions
which move forward with the evolutionary stream persist.
71:4.2
The progressive program of an expanding civilization
embraces:
1. Preservation of individual liberties.
2. Protection of the home.
3. Promotion of economic security.
4. Prevention of disease.
5. Compulsory education.
6. Compulsory employment.
7. Profitable utilization of leisure.
8. Care of the unfortunate.
9. Race improvement.
10. Promotion of science and art.
11. Promotion of philosophy -- wisdom.
12. Augmentation of cosmic insight -- spirituality.
71:4.3
And this progress in the arts of civilization leads
directly to the realization of the highest human and
divine goals of mortal endeavor -- the social
achievement of the brotherhood of man and the personal
status of God-consciousness, which becomes revealed in
the supreme desire of every individual to do the will of
the Father in heaven.
71:4.4
The appearance of genuine brotherhood signifies that a
social order has arrived in which all men delight in
bearing one another's burdens; they actually desire to
practice the golden rule. But such an ideal society
cannot be realized when either the weak or the wicked
lie in wait to take unfair and unholy advantage of those
who are chiefly actuated by devotion to the service of
truth, beauty, and goodness. In such a situation only
one course is practical: The "golden rulers" may
establish a progressive society in which they live
according to their ideals while maintaining an adequate
defense against their benighted fellows who might seek
either to exploit their pacific predilections or to
destroy their advancing civilization.
71:4.5
Idealism can never survive on an evolving planet if the
idealists in each generation permit themselves to be
exterminated by the baser orders of humanity. And here
is the great test of idealism: Can an advanced society
maintain that military preparedness which renders it
secure from all attack by its war-loving neighbors
without yielding to the temptation to employ this
military strength in offensive operations against other
peoples for purposes of selfish gain or national
aggrandizement? National survival demands preparedness,
and religious idealism alone can prevent the
prostitution of preparedness into aggression. Only love,
brotherhood, can prevent the strong from oppressing the
weak.
5. THE EVOLUTION OF COMPETITION
71:5.1
Competition is essential to social progress, but
competition, unregulated, breeds violence. In current
society, competition is slowly displacing war in that it
determines the individual's place in industry, as well
as decreeing the survival of the industries themselves.
(Murder and war differ in their status before the mores,
murder having been outlawed since the early days of
society, while war has never yet been outlawed by
mankind as a whole.)
71:5.2
The ideal state undertakes to regulate social conduct
only enough to take violence out of individual
competition and to prevent unfairness in personal
initiative. Here is a great problem in statehood: How
can you guarantee peace and quiet in industry, pay the
taxes to support state power, and at the same time
prevent taxation from handicapping industry and keep the
state from becoming parasitical or tyrannical?
71:5.3
Throughout the earlier ages of any world, competition is
essential to progressive civilization. As the evolution
of man progresses, co-operation becomes increasingly
effective. In advanced civilizations co-operation is
more efficient than competition. Early man is stimulated
by competition. Early evolution is characterized by the
survival of the biologically fit, but later
civilizations are the better promoted by intelligent
co-operation, understanding fraternity, and spiritual
brotherhood.
71:5.4
True, competition in industry is exceedingly wasteful
and highly ineffective, but no attempt to eliminate this
economic lost motion should be countenanced if such
adjustments entail even the slightest abrogation of any
of the basic liberties of the individual.
6.
THE PROFIT MOTIVE
71:6.1
Present-day profit-motivated economics is doomed unless
profit motives can be augmented by service motives.
Ruthless competition based on narrow-minded
self-interest is ultimately destructive of even those
things which it seeks to maintain. Exclusive and
self-serving profit motivation is incompatible with
Christian ideals -- much more incompatible with the
teachings of Jesus.
71:6.2
In economics, profit motivation is to service motivation
what fear is to love in religion. But the profit motive
must not be suddenly destroyed or removed; it keeps many
otherwise slothful mortals hard at work. It is not
necessary, however, that this social energy arouser be
forever selfish in its objectives.
71:6.3
The profit motive of economic activities is altogether
base and wholly unworthy of an advanced order of
society; nevertheless, it is an indispensable factor
throughout the earlier phases of civilization. Profit
motivation must not be taken away from men until they
have firmly possessed themselves of superior types of
nonprofit motives for economic striving and social
serving -- the transcendent urges of superlative wisdom,
intriguing brotherhood, and excellency of spiritual
attainment.
7. EDUCATION
71:7.1
The enduring state is founded on culture, dominated by
ideals, and motivated by service. The purpose of
education should be acquirement of skill, pursuit of
wisdom, realization of selfhood, and attainment of
spiritual values.
71:7.2
In the ideal state, education continues throughout life,
and philosophy sometime becomes the chief pursuit of its
citizens. The citizens of such a commonwealth pursue
wisdom as an enhancement of insight into the
significance of human relations, the meanings of
reality, the nobility of values, the goals of living,
and the glories of cosmic destiny.
71:7.3
Urantians should get a vision of a new and higher
cultural society. Education will jump to new levels of
value with the passing of the purely profit-motivated
system of economics. Education has too long been
localistic, militaristic, ego exalting, and success
seeking; it must eventually become world-wide,
idealistic, self-realizing, and cosmic grasping.
71:7.4
Education recently passed from the control of the clergy
to that of lawyers and businessmen. Eventually it must
be given over to the philosophers and the scientists.
Teachers must be free beings, real leaders, to the end
that philosophy, the search for wisdom, may become the
chief educational pursuit.
71:7.5
Education is the business of living; it must continue
throughout a lifetime so that mankind may gradually
experience the ascending levels of mortal wisdom, which
are:
1. The knowledge of things.
2. The realization of meanings.
3. The appreciation of values.
4. The nobility of work -- duty.
5. The motivation of goals -- morality.
6. The love of service -- character.
7. Cosmic insight -- spiritual discernment.
71:7.6
And then, by means of these achievements, many will
ascend to the mortal ultimate of mind attainment,
God-consciousness.
8. THE CHARACTER OF STATEHOOD
71:8.1
The only sacred feature of any human government is the
division of statehood into the three domains of
executive, legislative, and judicial functions. The
universe is administered in accordance with such a plan
of segregation of functions and authority. Aside from
this divine concept of effective social regulation or
civil government, it matters little what form of state a
people may elect to have provided the citizenry is ever
progressing toward the goal of augmented self-control
and increased social service. The intellectual keenness,
economic wisdom, social cleverness, and moral stamina of
a people are all faithfully reflected in statehood.
71:8.2
The evolution of statehood entails progress from level
to level, as follows:
71:8.3
1. The creation of a threefold government of executive,
legislative, and judicial branches.
71:8.4
2. The freedom of social, political, and religious
activities.
71:8.5
3. The abolition of all forms of slavery and human
bondage.
71:8.6
4. The ability of the citizenry to control the levying
of taxes.
71:8.7
5. The establishment of universal education -- learning
extended from the cradle to the grave.
71:8.8
6. The proper adjustment between local and national
governments.
71:8.9
7. The fostering of science and the conquest of disease.
71:8.10
8. The due recognition of sex equality and the
co-ordinated functioning of men and women in the home,
school, and church, with specialized service of women in
industry and government.
71:8.11
9. The elimination of toiling slavery by machine
invention and the subsequent mastery of the machine age.
71:8.12
10. The conquest of dialects -- the triumph of a
universal language.
71:8.13
11. The ending of war -- international adjudication of
national and racial differences by continental courts of
nations presided over by a supreme planetary tribunal
automatically recruited from the periodically retiring
heads of the continental courts. The continental courts
are authoritative; the world court is advisory -- moral.
71:8.14
12. The world-wide vogue of the pursuit of wisdom -- the
exaltation of philosophy. The evolution of a world
religion, which will presage the entrance of the planet
upon the earlier phases of settlement in light and life.
71:8.15
These are the prerequisites of progressive government
and the earmarks of ideal statehood. Urantia is far from
the realization of these exalted ideals, but the
civilized races have made a beginning -- mankind is on
the march toward higher evolutionary destinies.
71:8.16
Sponsored by a Melchizedek of Nebadon.
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