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Society Builders

With your host, Duane Varan. Welcome to

another exciting episode of Society Builders.

And thanks for joining the

conversation for social transformation.

As you know, we are together engaged in a journey

of trying to discover and apply and develop a unity

of thought around the larger theme of society building.

And we're still just laying

the foundation for our discussion.

We're still just grappling to

understand the basics here.

And as part of that effort, for most

of the past year, we've been focused on

one of the key pillars of society building.

And here, of course, I'm talking about discourse.

And we focused on one specific discourse,

exploring strategies for depolarization to better understand

how to engage with the discourse.

And that has been such an exciting journey together.

Right.

Remember, if you want to continue exploring

the depolarization theme, I've now created a

new podcast series called Depolarizers, which continues

engaging with that discourse.

So just go to your favorite podcast platform and

search for 'depolarizers' to continue in that journey.

But today we embark upon a new sequence of episodes

that will explore another key pillar of society building.

And here I'm talking about social action.

Now, if discourse is the realm of change in

the world of ideas, social action is the realm

of action and the tangible expression of our principles.

And many initiatives will feature both dimensions.

For example, we may engage in

the discourse on race unity.

Here we're engaging in the realm of

ideas, of consultation, of discussion, within a

discourse centered on race unity.

But a natural fruit of this engagement might

be a decision to start hosting training sessions

to help people conquer their own prejudices.

And here we've now crossed from discourse

into social action, offering a tangible tool

to address a particular social malady.

So you can see how both discourse

and social action are often interconnected and

symbiotic in relation to one another.

So today we're going to start our sub journey

to try to grapple and understand how we can

best approach social action based on the guidance we've

been receiving from the Bahá’í World Center.

Now, by way of background, there are a number of documents

you want to have on hand in your own study.

Here there's a message of the Bahá’í

International Community called the Prosperity of Humankind

that was issued way back in 1995.

There's the statement on social action by the then

Office of Social Action, which goes back to 2012.

And of course, there's the units

of Book 12, which provide training

institutes specifically focused on social action.

So there's no shortage of materials

here to help cultivate your understanding.

But you've probably noticed a pattern in my episodes

where I tend to focus on just five of

the most important principles associated with a topic.

Because we're limited in the ground, we

can cover on any topic in a

relatively short podcast series such as this.

So we'll do the same thing here.

For Social Action, we'll focus on five

key principles for effective social action.

From a Bahá’í perspective, these five principles are.

Number one, our initiatives should grow organically.

Number two, they should reflect coherence

between the material and spiritual.

Number three, they should be

participatory, giving agency to all.

Number four, they should build capacity.

And finally, number five, they should reflect

an approach characterized by learning in action.

And we're going to discuss two

of these key five principles today.

So today we start our journey exploring the

fundamentals of Bahá’í approaches to social action.

So we start our journey with the principle

that our social action initiatives should grow organically.

Now, my understanding of this principle here is

that initiatives will often start small, may be

very, very small, and grow in a manner

that is self generative and that adapts and

responds to growing complexity with growth.

And this is important because our

approach requires the cultivation of the

resources necessary to execute the initiative.

And these are resources that will come from

within and grow in capacity to respond to

the growing demands along the way.

So our initiatives grow organically over time, developing

their own resources and growing capacity in a

manner that responds to the challenges and opportunities

it faces through critical reflection.

Okay, I'm already getting way ahead of myself, so

let's work our way through all of this.

Now, when we think of the classic development arena,

we're immediately visualizing two groups, a group of people

who have a group who don't have, and a

lot of resource going from the haves to the

have nots to remedy the shortfall.

So for example, a population lacks education.

Somebody may be a government, an aid agency,

maybe a super wealthy individual, but somebody spends

a lot of money building schools or other

resource intensive remedies to address that problem.

And when you think about it, that's the

image that usually comes to mind when we

think of development addressing a need.

It's haves giving to have nots.

And it's usually big, real big.

It's assistance being brought in to address

a need, usually from the outside.

So it's like there's a need and

suddenly a solution almost literally descends from

the heavens above to address this need.

Now I'm not going to criticize this approach here,

though of course there are clear problems with this

kind of approach and there are clearly desperate, desperate

occasions which demand this kind of relief.

But this is not the forum for that discussion.

My point here is that short of making a contribution

to an aid agency or lobbying government to spend more

money on the needs of the poor or on external

aid, there's probably not a lot you can really do

to help others within the orb of this paradigm.

Now instead, I want you to imagine a different paradigm,

the kind of social action which you can directly participate

in, which you can get your hands dirty with.

We're not visualizing something that a group

of people does for another group.

We're visualizing what you can

do in your own community.

That's the kind of social

action we'll be talking about.

It's not about what you can do for others

half a planet away, it's what you can do

for your neighbors half a block away.

Now I know that's not as grand and dramatic,

that the problems you see locally don't appear to

be anywhere near as catastrophic or dire as the

problem somewhere else on the planet.

But for a moment, let's realign

here and imagine this challenge.

How can you help improve

conditions in your own community?

Because even though the plight of a people may

be far more desperate elsewhere, your capacity to to

impact change is probably greatest in your local community.

Now clearly your capacity to respond all starts

with you understanding the needs of your community,

of reading your society and identifying a specific

need which you hope to address.

And there are a number of factors which you may

want to weigh in this exercise like first and foremost

is there demand for a solution to the problem?

Is the need pressing enough where people

even want or aspire to a solution?

Now the chances are there are probably

many such needs in your community, problems

which people do want solutions for.

So even still you have to narrow your

focus because you can't solve all problems.

So there may be other criteria like are

there others other Baha'is, other like minded people?

Are there others who are open to joining you in

responding to this need that my weigh in your consideration.

And ideally you should probably consider

how all of this intersects with

your Bahá’í community's plans and initiatives.

Obviously ideally it should have a nice fit

within those larger plans in ways that integrate

well, that are complementary and where we can

be mutually supportive, generating synergies and not simply

taxing our limited resources.

So you want to think through how your initiative

might tie into other initiatives in your community.

And if it doesn't, well, that might reduce

the relative weight of a particular focus.

And you'll want to consider

whether your initiative is unifying.

Does it help bring people together?

Because some social action

initiatives are inherently divisive.

They're framed that way, even around

a noble cause like Justice.

Often this gets translated into action.

We're taking against someone, but we're not

in the us versus them game.

So we should pick initiatives that help bring

people together and not ones that pull us

apart, no matter how noble their cause.

And also critical, is this something

you can do together with the

people your social action ultimately impacts?

Because that's the whole point, that we

do this together with those affected.

And of course, is this something which speaks to you?

Is this something that resonates with you?

So these are the kinds of considerations which you

may want to weigh up as you decide where

to focus your energy, what problems to take on.

Now, having weighed all of this, once you've

defined your arena, you'll be tempted to think

big, to imagine a remedy that makes headlines,

solutions that solve the need forevermore.

Big vision is exciting.

It creates its own gravity.

It gets attention.

But, and this is an important but, we

probably don't have the experience or the capacity

or the unifying dynamic to realistically deliver on

vision of that scale to begin with.

So this is where we have to

translate that big, big dream into small

baby steps, because that's where we start.

Because getting our solution right isn't

about implementing a cookie cutter solution.

It needs to respond to our specific circumstances.

And it will take time and effort and

the raising of resources for us to understand

these circumstances and respond and adjust accordingly.

So our efforts should start small and

grow in complexity as experience accumulates.

Because there are a lot of ingredients

that evolve as we move across this

spectrum from smaller to larger initiatives.

Okay, let's use an example here to help visualize this.

Let's say that there is a real

need for greater education in our community.

Our schools are underfunded, teaching positions are

unfilled, children in our community are performing

poorly on standardized tests, etc.

So the classic development paradigm would wait for someone

to build a new school, to inject funds, to

send some dramatic resources to addressing this gap.

Or we wait for government to intervene, maybe we lobby

for that outcome, but at the end of the day,

we're still waiting for a solution from the outside.

But what if this aid doesn't descend

from the heavens for our Community.

What then?

Okay, this is where we come in.

Now we're going to take an organic approach

which is going to start small and grow.

So maybe our first initiative is super simple.

It's offering a homework club, for example,

to help students with their homework.

Now, our homework club isn't going

to solve the problem, right?

But it's a step, and that's the point.

And it's an opportunity.

An opportunity for us to work with

others in helping our community grow in

its capacity to address the problem here.

So immediately our initiative is limited

by our lack of tutors.

So we reach out to parents and to

older youth and begin growing our capacity.

And as our resources start to multiply,

our homework club starts to grow with

the capacity to help more students.

Little by little, day by day, the initiative takes

a life of its own and grows in complexity.

Maybe it moves into new opportunities.

Parents helping teachers by supporting them in

class, maybe helping train new teachers or

helping create new levels of dialogue between

teachers, parents and students.

And who knows how far this can go?

There's literally no limit.

I mean, it could grow into a

full school, like literally anything is possible.

But it's cultivating the resources it needs from within

and it's gaining the necessary experience along the way

to respond to the challenges at every encounter.

And perhaps most important, it's a unifying force

in the community because along the way we've

remained focused on the means, on the how,

and we haven't compromised on this for expediency. Wow.

So exciting, right?

So you don't have to build

the grand headline grabbing remedy.

You just need to take a first

step and set a process in motion.

And one more thing here, it's important to

develop the capacity to see in your very

modest first steps the future on the horizon.

Seeing the end in the beginning, this

is such an important skill and it's

incredibly important in pursuing all our ambitions.

When you start small and build, it's easy to

become discouraged, particularly in the face of challenge.

You expect a good turnout at your first meeting, but

no one, or maybe only a few people turn up.

You feel like you're failing

and your initiative is doomed.

At those moments, you have to be able to see

beyond the immediate and understand how these small, modest steps

align with the great outcomes yet to come.

You need to understand how the

seed becomes the mighty oak tree.

And it's not just about seeing

the end in the beginning.

It's also about seeing how your small

contribution is part of a larger enterprise,

part of the advancement of civilization.

I've said before, this example of how everyone

is looking up to the skies and waiting

for the Kingdom of Heaven to magically descend.

And as Baha'is, we believe that one day we

saw this massive Airbus 380 in the sky.

And out of this Airbus came this massive crate.

And on the crate was written the

words 'Kingdom of Heaven on Earth'.

And the parachutes opened and this

massive crate landed on the beach.

And we rushed to open it up, only to

discover that it was a do it yourself kit.

All of God's great messengers have brought us the

blueprints for building the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth.

And we just need to roll up

our sleeves and build a way.

But my point in this context is that

in this process, we're all building to a

master plan, to a common set of blueprints.

And that gives even our small contributions meaning.

Because to make a single brick may not

be all that exciting, but to place that

brick as part of the greatest enterprise ever,

well, now suddenly that's incredibly exciting.

So we all need to develop the capacity to

see how our very modest contributions, how that brick

that I was talking about is part of this

incredible life transforming enterprise in the advancement of civilization.

Wow.

So this, I think, is what we mean by

organic growth starting small and growing organically towards higher

levels of complexity as we respond to the challenges

and opportunities we encounter, seeing the end and the

beginning, and understanding how we're part of something so

much bigger than ourselves.

Okay.

Our second principle is for the imperative

to achieve a dynamic, coherance between

the practical and spiritual requirements of life.

In other words, we need an approach

that recognizes that both the material and

spiritual are key ingredients to our initiative.

Now, the minute we use the word 'spiritual'

here, we have a problem, because it immediately

invites resistance, especially in the Western world, because

many are turned off by formal religious institutions.

And the minute you say spiritual, that's

the image that comes to mind.

So let's pause right here and reframe

what we mean here by spiritual.

Now, on a personal level, I think the thing

that truly makes us human is our spiritual essence.

We are spiritual beings with a material existence.

It's the spiritual that defines us, who we really are.

I believe the thing that makes humanity

distinctive is that we have free will.

And consequently, we have the ability to always

decide whether we do right or wrong.

We are entirely unique.

This way, we have the power of choice.

And to me, spirituality is about how we

exercise that choice, this capacity to choose to

do the right thing, even when it doesn't

appear to be in our immediate Interest to

transcend our self, interest for the greater good.

It's this capacity to do the right

thing that really defines who we are.

It's our character.

It's what really defines us.

Now, you may be uncomfortable

with the word spirituality.

Maybe there's another word that

better resonates for you.

Character.

Civic duty, virtue, values.

But however you phrase it, I want you to

visualize that force which guides our choices, that power

that calls us to be our best selves.

And I want you to think of

that force as an active force.

Now, what do I mean here by an active force?

Now, on one level, you can think of this

on a passive level, like how you respond to

the choices you are forced to make.

But you can also be proactive in cultivating this

capacity, finding more and more ways to do good.

And this is what I mean by being an active

force in your life, something which you cultivate and feed.

Like those two wolves we talked about in

our previous episode that lives inside each of

us one noble and one evil.

And the one that wins out is the one we feed.

So how do we nurture and feed this capacity?

So spirituality isn't just an impulse.

It's not just a reaction.

It's something we can grow and cultivate in our lives,

in the lives of our community, for all civilization.

Now, as a civilization in particular, I

think we've dropped the ball here.

We've reduced life to the material dimension

alone, to the acquisition of things.

It's all about making money.

Money to buy, money to build, even

money to contribute to a worthy cause.

And there's no question that this

material dimension is real and necessary.

But if it's the exclusive focus of

our lives, then we'll see increasing erosion

in the spiritual dimensions of our lives.

And civilization will increasingly be

characterized by deteriorating values, corruption,

moral laxity, unethical behavior, violence.

I mean, the list goes on and on.

Baha'u'llah tells us "man's merit lieth in service and virtue

and not in the pageantry of wealth and riches."

So spirituality is an important part of our

human experience and we need attention to to

cultivating it both as individuals and societies.

And we shouldn't allow our aversion to form a

religion's failures to interfere with the need for feeding

and cultivating this dimension of our human experience.

We need such balance in our

lives, both as individuals and communities.

Yes, we need to address our material needs,

but we also need to cultivate our spiritual.

Abdul-Baha states that "While material civilization is one

of the means for progress of the world of

mankind, until it is combined with divine civilization.

The desired result, which is the felicity

of mankind, will not be attained."

He continues: "Material civilization is

like a lamp glass.

Divine civilization is the lamp itself.

And the glass without the light is dark.

Material civilization is like the body.

No matter how infinitely graceful, elegant and

beautiful it may be, it is dead.

Divine civilization is like the spirit, and

the body gets its life from the

spirit, otherwise it becomes a corpse.

It has thus been made evident that the world of mankind

is in need of the breaths of the Holy Spirit.

Without the Spirit, the world of mankind is lifeless.

And without this light, the world

of mankind is in utter darkness."

So this imbalance between the material and spiritual

is a key shortcoming in our lives today.

We need both material and

spiritual prosperity to advance civilization.

And this focus on the spiritual also means

that we focus on how we do things,

and not just on our ultimate goals.

Most movements focus entirely on the goal, on the ends.

And the means often justifies the ends.

And you don't worry about how you do things

as long as you get the job done, as

long as it propels you closer to your goal.

But that's not our approach.

In fact, with us, it's all about the means.

How we do what we do is even

more important than what we eventually achieve.

Baha'u'llah tells us: "One righteous act is endowed with a

potency that can so elevate the dust as to cause

it to pass beyond the heaven of heavens.

It can tear every bond asunder and hath the power

to restore the force that has spent itself and vanished."

So we're in the business of righteous deeds, of doing

what we do right, even at the expense of expediency.

That's essential to us finding balance

between the material and spiritual.

Because doing things right, that's what

spirituality looks like in action.

And that comes down to the smallest of deeds.

It comes down to making sure that our

deeds match the principles we uphold and cherish.

So there is power in working to do things right.

And as the Universal House of Justice

reminds us, achieving consistency between belief and

practice is no small task.

So that's coherence, making sure that our thoughts,

our words and our actions reflect the high

standards we espouse to live the life, to

bring our spiritual selves to the party here.

So we only got through the first two

of our five principles for social action.

Today we still have a lot of ground to cover.

Today we focused on the organic nature of our

initiatives, starting small and growing in scale as we

respond to the opportunities and challenges we face.

And we talked about coherence of finding balance

between the material and spiritual dimensions of life.

In our next episode, we'll continue our journey

exploring how our initiatives should be participatory, how

they should build capacity, and how we can

facilitate reflection to learn in action.

So we still have lots to explore.

So thanks again for joining in

the conversation for social transformation.

And please join me again next time as

we continue our journey exploring social action.

That's next time on Society Builders.

Society builders pave the way to a better world

to a better day A united approach to building

a new society society. There's a crisis facing humanity

People suffer from a lack of unity it's time

for a better path to a new society Join

our conversation for Social transformation Society builders Society builders Join

our conversation for Social transformation Society builders. So engage with

your local communities and explore all the exciting possibilities. We

can elevate the atmosphere in which we move. The

paradigm is shifting it's so very uplifting It's a

new beat, a new song a brand new groove.

Join our conversation for Social transformation Society builders Join our

conversation for Social transformation Society builders. The Baha'i Faith has

a lot to say Helping people discover a better

way with discourse and social action framed by unity

now the time has come to lift our game

and apply the teachings of the Greatest Name and

rise to meet the glory of our destiny.

Join our conversation for Social transformation Society builders Join our

conversation for Social transformation Society builders.