Spiritual Dimensions of Sustainable Development
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Source: Bahá'í Library Online (bahai-library.com), curated by Jonah Winters. Used by permission of the curator. Original citation: Arthur Lyon Dahl, Spiritual Dimensions of Sustainable Development, bahai-library.com.
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Spiritual Dimensions of Sustainable Development

Arthur Lyon Dahl

1996-03

When we think of development, we usually think first of economic development
to meet material needs, measured perhaps through growth in the Gross National
Product (GNP). Yet is that all that there is to development? Does economics
measure everything? It is clear that development must include not only
material progress, but social and cultural dimensions as well. For instance,
a developed society must have an effective legal system built up through
years of parliamentary action and judicial interpretation, yet this is
never considered by economists as a capital asset and included in national
accounts, despite a very high human investment and replacement cost. Because
development has such social dimensions, each society must define development
in its own terms to reflect its underlying culture, values and goals.
Development also has a moral, ethical or spiritual dimension. It is
after all basic human values that determine social interactions and cohesion.
How you think about other people influences how you interact with them
in various social and economic contexts. In biological communities, it
is genetic instructions and instincts that determine interactions, but
in people these interactions are largely governed by values which we receive
through education in the family, from religion, in school, and by observation
in society. If we need to restructure society to make it more sustainable,
we must start with its basic values.
Sustainability is not easy to define, but it implies maintaining a balance,
both in present society and over time. It is not a destination to be reached,
but a dynamic process requiring consideration both of our present balance
between parts of society and between society and nature, and of the future
potential to maintain that balance. Sustainability is like flight. Just
as many forces can push an aircraft off course, requiring corrective action,
so can many kinds of instability or imbalance push development in unsustainable
directions. It is in fact often easier to measure unsustainability, and
to focus our efforts on reducing such negative forces, than it is to define
sustainability itself.
By almost any measure, most development today is presently unsustainable.
Economic systems that focus only on physical needs and material development,
and lack an ethical dimension, have failed to deliver the promised results.
Today's social and environmental problems reflect the failure of our economic
systems to account for many real impacts and costs, giving a false impression
of economic success, often because they ignore the future. Our short-term
materialistic perspective is accumulating not only financial debt, but
resource debt, pollution debt, and human and social debts as well. As planetary
limits increasingly constrain development possibilities, the moral requirement
for responsible behaviour increases.
The concept of sustainability expresses an ethical position of justice
and solidarity within and between generations. It condemns present actions
that place a burden on or reduce the possibilities available to future
generations. It thus requires a long-term view and an integrated perspective
of the whole human and natural system. Sustainability also requires moderation.
As Bahá'u'lláh warned over a hundred years ago, "if carried
to excess, civilization will prove as prolific a source of evil as it had
been of goodness when kept within the restraints of moderation." It is
clear today that the natural systems of this planet have only a limited
capacity to absorb the impacts of modern society, and many human development
activities must be moderated to remain within those limits.
Therefore, for development to achieve sustainability, appropriate values
must be incorporated at all levels of society. Each individual should,
through education and individual investigation, adopt values to guide his
or her life. These should include individual goals for the refinement of
character, and belief in a social purpose contributing to the advancement
of civilization. The recognition, implicit in the concept of sustainability,
that individual good comes from the common good should inspire a spirit
of service to others. The need today is for group salvation, rather than
the invisible hand of self interest at the foundation of traditional economics.
Achieving sustainable development will require that many in wealthier societies
will have to sacrifice some of their immediate advantages for the larger
good and for the benefit of future generations. The motivation for this
can come from a sense of spiritual purpose, beliefs and values which can
provide the real foundation for commitment to the changes needed in society.
Today that commitment is best expressed as a sense of world citizenship
based on a recognition of the oneness of humankind.
Families have a key role to play, because it is in the family that the
education of each new generation begins, forming character and basic social
and spiritual values. The transmission of culture, ethics and morality
from generation to generation is an essential aspect of sustainability.
A society that does not transmit its heritage will collapse.
A sustainable community must be characterized by its sense of solidarity,
ensuring that everyone has a place with dignity and self-respect, just
as it respects the needs of the unborn future generations. The present
"Darwinian" values of market economics emphasize the economic efficiency
of the survival of the fittest. This of course implies that the unfit should
not survive, which in terms of individuals is morally unacceptable in any
modern society. We have privatized employment, but left unemployment and
other social needs a public responsibility. It is no wonder that businesses
are doing well and governments are deeply in debt, but this is not sustainable.
We need to redefine the measure of successful development not as the most
efficient use of money or capital, important as that is, but as the maximum
use of the available human potential in the community. This is the real
wealth-generating capacity of society, if we consider wealth to include
not only the material, but the social, cultural and spiritual dimensions
of life. In this new framework, it becomes an essential role of social
institutions to provide everyone with education and training, and then
to ensure that each person has an opportunity to use their skills for the
benefit of themselves and society. Work is not only an economic activity;
it has social and spiritual value and should be seen in that larger context.
It is also important for sustainability for local decisions to be taken
in a global perspective, as a community expression of the concept of world
citizenship.
There are also sustainability values needed for each cultural or ethnic
group. Instead of being divided by fear and prejudice, each group must
come to appreciate their own differences as part of that wonderful unity
in diversity that is the human race. Each should maintain and develop their
own cultural richness as a contribution to that larger whole that will
be the future sustainable society.
Values need to be injected into the corporate dimension of society.
This is basically a structural problem. In the legal framework for businesses
today, the only required measure of success for which managers are held
responsible is the profit earned for their shareholders, and any corporate
chief who neglects this is quickly replaced. Corporations have no positive
obligation to be of service to society or to play any other social role.
Many business people are highly ethical, but they are constrained by this
structural problem. The business structure is basically amoral and materialistic.
The State or national dimension is also one where new values are needed.
We know much of what needs to be done to achieve sustainable development.
Agenda 21, the action plan adopted at the Rio Earth Summit, is a good example.
It is frequently said that what is lacking is the political will to implement
these known requirements. Political will and the courage of leadership
come from values. The extreme exercise of state sovereignty is the national
equivalent of selfishness. What is needed today among States is a stronger
sense of shared responsibility, working for the common good and not just
national interest, recognizing that the real national interest in sustainability
can only be found in the common good of a harmonious world system. Nations
must respect each other and consult together, and not just wield power.
International cooperation expressing these values is essential for sustainable
development in an increasingly global society.
Spiritual values are thus not only relevant to the individual. These
higher levels of human organization also need to function by, and respect,
basic values. There is a collective spiritual dimension to a community
or society, like a soul in many bodies. In fact, this unity is a special
distinguishing characteristic of humanity that will be increasingly apparent
in its future evolution towards a sustainable world society.

The views
expressed are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect those of
the United Nations Environment Programme.

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-- Spiritual Dimensions of Sustainable Development (Used by permission of the curator)