Bahai Philosophy and the Question of the Environment

4) Another structural problem of the social contract is related to the nationalistic presuppositions of the doctrine. In other words, the social contract is confined to the borders of a nation-state, and does not include all living human beings in the present. The category of citizenship is the exclusion factor in this social contract, so that as long as a policy is acceptable to the citizens of a particular country, regardless of the needs and interests of other human beings, the policy is conceived as just and democratic. The problem with this commonly accepted premise is that the institution of citizenship is the most important basis of social inequality for human beings at present. Citizenship, and not class position, ethnicity, or gender, is the most powerful and effective predictor of the life chances of a person in our current world. Aside from the fundamental injustice and hypocrisy of nationalistic exclusions, it remains a fact that the nationalistic construction and definition of social contract is one of the most important causes of environmental waste and degradation. As long as the interests of a limited part of the world can be secured at the expense of the interests of other parts of the world, environmental destruction in the form of internal consumption and export of the environmental costs to other parts of the world will remain the guiding principle of policy making, resulting in both environmental destruction and social injustice. 5) Finally, the modern conception of social contract does not include all natural beings but is confined to a small number of the human species. But such a social contract which can reduce the realm of nature to a mere conditional factor for the gratification of human desires is fundamentally opposed to the imperative of global solidarity and harmony. In contrast, the principle of the covenant is the central organizing principle of social and cultural life of the Bahá’í worldview. The concept of covenant has been emphasized in all the divine revelations, but in the Bahá’í teachings that concept has been further developed and refined. The idea of covenant is in fact the same as the social contract but without the limitations and exclusions of that concept. Human life, including human social and cultural life, is understood as a relation and interaction with the totality of reality. The notion of covenant affirms human relation, commitment, responsibility, and love for the totality of beings and not a small number of the members of one’s own group. It is in this context that the question of the covenant includes the democratic ideal, but in the context of cosmic solidarity and reciprocity. The idea of covenant makes human life a meaningful event in a meaningful universe. It is an affirmation of both the spiritual and transcendental reality of human being and the spiritual connection and interdependence of all beings. Needless to say, the implication of such an idea in terms of our discussion is both social justice and preservation of the environment.

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