Baha’i Perspectives

leila May 4th, 2008

“If you want to preserve heritage, you must keep poverty.”

This was the claim of Laurent A. Rampon, director of the cultural preservation in Luang Prabang, Laos, in response to the city’s cultural erosion at the hands of tourist influx.

In my last post, I touched on the debate surrounding modernization. I presented both sides: that globalization’s opponents are wary of “development” because of its effects on culture, while its advocates maintain that it’s the price to be paid to bring nations out of poverty.

But, is there a middle ground? Can’t we argue that poverty, along with certain harmful traditions (among which are those that degrade women, such as the ever-contentious practice of female genital mutilation) are what prevent human advancement? Can we not argue that such traditions as slavery are likewise “cultural heritages” that needed to be abolished? Bahá’u'lláh counsels, in His Hidden Words:

Noble I made thee, wherewith dost thou abase thyself?

And similarly, would it be wrong to suggest that modernization need not equal the “Westoxification” that many see as stripping nations of their culture? That prosperity can result sans McDonald’s, The Gap, and Wal-Mart on every street corner, without the blossoming of mini-malls and homogenized suburbia? Are capitalism and socialism mutually exclusive, or can the “invisible hand,” as suggested by Adam Smith, be guided to lessen the wealth-poverty gap?

Bahá’u'lláh, the Prophet-Founder of the Bahá’í Faith, has revealed that the unification of humankind is a necessary and inevitable end to which we are working, whether we realize it or not. This vision, in turn, necessitates, and works toward, economic equality—for how are communities steeped in poverty able to effectively and equitably participate in the global arena?

This process of modernization and development is a slow and painful one, to be sure. But if we examine the history of humankind, we realize that out of disintegration comes integration. The growth pains are a painful but necessary part of humanity’s evolution. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá clarifies this concept another work, Some Answered Questions:

All beings, whether large or small, were created perfect and complete from the first, but their perfections appear in them by degrees. The organization of God is one; the evolution of existence is one; the divine system is one. … When you consider this universal system, you see that there is not one of the beings which at its coming into existence has reached the limit of perfection. No, they gradually grow and develop, and then attain the degree of perfection.

(‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Some Answered Questions, page 199)

Just as the messages of Prophets past were divinely ordained to unify family, tribe, and state, at the crux of Bahá’u’lláh’s message is the oneness of humankind. These processes were gradual, tumultuous, and often violent. If we look at today’s world, can we not argue that we are undertaking a similar, and far grander, project?

In this light, modernization, however flawed and sometimes harmful it may be in its present shape, is but a manifestation of this move toward oneness. As the world awakens and learns to cope with this reality, so too will the phenomenon of modernization and globalization begin to take on a more mature and culturally conscious form.

Tags: culture, modernization

• Arts & Culture , Baha'i Concepts , General Interest , Society
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