he fires of the
twentieth century, is a reality that with every passing day opens
breathtaking new possibilities. A reality also being forced on serious
minds everywhere, is the claim of justice to be the one means capable of
harnessing these great potentialities to the advancement of civilization.
It no longer requires the gift of prophecy to realize that the fate of
humanity in the century now opening will be determined by the relationship
established between these two fundamental forces of the historical
process, the inseparable principles of unity and justice.

* * * * *

In the perspective of Baha'u'llah's teachings, the greatest danger of both
the moral crisis and the inequities associated with globalization in its
current form is an entrenched philosophical attitude that seeks to justify
and excuse these failures. The overthrow of the twentieth century's
totalitarian systems has not meant the end of ideology. On the contrary.
There has not been a society in the history of the world, no matter how
pragmatic, experimentalist and multi-form it may have been, that did not
derive its thrust from some foundational interpretation of reality. Such a
system of thought reigns today virtually unchallenged across the planet,
under the nominal designation "Western civilization". Philosophically and
politically, it presents itself as a kind of liberal relativism;
economically and socially, as capitalism--two value systems that have now
so adjusted to each other and become so mutually reinforcing as to
constitute virtually a single, comprehensive world-view.

Appreciation of the benefits--in terms of the personal freedom, social
prosperity and scientific progress enjoyed by a significant minority of
the Earth's people--cannot withhold a thinking person from recognizing that
the system is morally and intellectually bankrupt. It has contributed its
best to the advancement of civilization, as did all its predecessors, and,
like them, is impotent to deal with the needs of a world never imagined by
the eighteenth century prophets who conceived most of its component
elements. Shoghi Effendi did not limit his attention to divine right
monarchies, established churches or totalitarian ideologies when he posed
the searching question: "Why should these, in a world subject to the
immutable law of change and decay, be exempt from the deterioration that
must needs overtake every human institution?"(149)

Ba