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Only a few years ago an education in differences of references fulfilled a specific if limited need. That was at a time when we thought of other places and peoples largely out of curiosity or in terms of unusual vacations. It was the mark of a rounded man to be well traveled and to know about the amazing variations of human culture and behavior. But it wasn't the type of knowledge you had to live by and build on.
Then overnight came the great compression. Far-flung areas which had been secure in their remoteness suddenly became crowded together in a single arena. And all at once a new type of education became necessary, an education in liberation from tribalism. For tribalism had persisted from earliest times, though it had taken refined forms. The new education had to teach man the most difficult lesson of all: to look at someone anywhere in the world and be able to recognize the image of himself. It had to be an education in self-recognition. The old emphasis upon superficial differences had to give way to education for mutuality and for citizenship in the human community.
In such an education we begin with the fact that the universe itself does not hold life cheaply. Life is a rare occurrence among the millions of galaxies and solar systems that occupy space. And in this particular solar system life occurs on only one planet. And on that one planet life takes millions of forms. Of all these countless forms of life, only one, the human species, possesses certain faculties in combination that give it supreme advantages over all the others. Among those faculties or gifts is a creative intelligence that enables man to reflect and foresee, to take in past experience, and also to visualize future needs. There are endless other wonderful faculties, the workings of which are not yet within our understanding — the faculties of hope, conscience, appreciation of beauty, kinship, love, faith.
Viewed in global perspective, what counts is not that the thoughts of people lead them in different directions but that all men possess the capacity to think; not that they pursue different faiths but that they are capable of spiritual belief; not that they write and read different books but that they are capable of creating print and communicating in it across time and space; not that they enjoy different art and music but that something in them enables them to respond deeply to forms and colors and ordered sounds.
These basic lessons, then, would seek to provide a proper respect for humanity in the universe. Next in order would be instruction in the unity of human needs. However friendly the universe may be, it has left the conditions of human existence precariously balanced. All people need oxygen, water, land, warmth, food. Remove any one of these and the unity of human needs is attacked and the human race with it. The next lesson would concern the human situation itself — how to use self-understanding in the cause of human welfare; how to control the engines we have created that threaten to alter the precarious balance on which life depends; how to create a peaceful society of the whole.
With such an education, it is possible that some nation or people may come forward not only with vital understanding but with the vital inspiration that people need no less than food. Leadership on this higher level does not require mountains of gold or thundering propaganda. It is concerned with human destiny; human destiny is the issue; people will respond.
