LIFE: 
('the Will of God' or abstract intelligence)
in three distinct phases or themes
as
FREEDOM
(working out in three systemic aspects):

POLITICS
LAW
ECONOMICS
 

The network of government, an impulse of the thinking mind, exists on every level, international, national, provincial, community, organizationally, family and personal.  It is the hidden structure, the map or imprint underlying our understanding, and our interpretation, of all relationships.  Some are more aware of this than others.

In the manner of statesmen, thinking people are in the business of trying to understand the international significance of the various (often seemingly inexplicable) choices of nations, of governments, of groups, from a global perspective. Maintaining our more intensely informed dual life (personal and global) is made easier because of networks like CNN, Internet, and the combined worldwide multimedia network. Even the recent 'embedding' of war correspondents in Iraq made it possible for each of us, figuratively speaking, to be in two places at once.  As each nation, including our own, jockeys for position within the greater political Whole---we observe, we see.

Ideally, we retain a healthy affiliation with our own nation and, at the same time, transcend the sentimentality of patriotism to align ourselves effectively within our more significant international or global identity. From this objective perspective of wholeness, we learn about the mental/intellectual nature of the planetary network of Government, in its three aspects: Politics, Law and Economics.

The worldwide networks of Politics, Law, Economics on a global scale form an interlocking energy triangle we identify collectively as the Department of Government. (Remember, an energy triangle is entirely inclusive, each point including the other two and differing primarily in emphasis).

Unlike nations, the Department of Government is neither a governing body, nor an aspiring governing body, but is the response of the planetary intelligence to the more abstract Will of God. Growing fears about new age conspiracies or mysterious superseding world government are quite groundless.

POLITICS--the First Aspect of Government

Looking at government politically, we note three main ideologies: Socialism, Democracy, Communism. The others are mostly blends and cross-strains. Ideologies, as we have them today, unfortunately, are not actually the product of thoughtful synthesis but are merely the product of a devotional reaction to each ideal.

We find socialism, with a constitutional monarchy, in Great Britain; democracy, with a president, in the United States, and although communism still exists in many countries with a ruler having full authority, both Russia and China continue the process of redefining what, exactly, this ideal means. The current political restructuring of Russia has little to do with the fact of her political aspirations.  Remember also, any type of ideology may suffer under military or totalitarian repression, or thrive under enlightened rule, but most languish somewhere in between.

Behind each political ideology lies a superb idea--a spiritual idea--a specific, codified idea for governing by a systemized application of certain guidelines for the betterment of a group of people.

The primary focus:

An ideology is simply the body of ideas reflecting the social needs and aspirations of an individual or group, a nation or culture. In days gone by, an ideologist was called a visionary.

Assuming a people has requested a government, arranged to have certain people control the actions or behavior of the whole, to guide and direct the country, it's reasonable to ask why. To what ends or purposes does any such multi-layered network of government exist?

According to Alice A. Bailey, above and beyond the three primary Laws of the Universe stands an energy so unknown and unknowable only the quality of its effect has been touched. The name given to the effect of this great stream of energy is 'Freedom'. Freedom stands behind all ideals, including its three specific aspects of liberty, equality and brotherhood. This energy of Freedom is, equally, the driving force behind socialism, democracy and communism.

Borrowing  Mme. Blavatsky's famous equation about Spirit and Matter, it should be pointed out that Will is simply Intelligence at its highest point or power, and Intelligence is Will at its lowest.

SYNTHESIS/ABSTRACT 'WILL OF GOD'
seen politically as
FREEDOM (in three aspects):

In reality, one vast network of high-powered synthetic intelligence, of Government, encompasses the universe, expressing itself in solar systems, planets, nations, states, cities and families. Within that network, any change affects everything and everyone else. Each of socialism, democracy and communism is a group aspirational technique for aiding groups of people to reach higher perceived and articulated purpose.  In every case, this is the spiritually synthetic goal of Freedom.

Bertrand Russell once pointed out "Government and law, in their very essence, consist of restrictions on freedom".  And yet these restraints remain necessary to modify the conduct of exclusive nature of personalities interacting (sometimes violently) with each other. Here is the source of alarm when any government is disrupted by war, anarchy or strife.  As each individual recognizes his inherent relationship with others, beyond his immediate family, he becomes more inclusively self-governed.  Freedom is to the human spirit what government, religion and education represent to the three-fold personality.

The Department of Government is associated esoterically, with first ray shamballic force, with power, with strength to rule and authority to lead, with the mind, with public opinion.  Government is, or should be, the channel of communication between the will of God (the synthesized abstract mind) and the consciousness of the race of men. And, at least in theory, political work is the method of that communication. Government as a whole can be seen as either the exclusive human reaction, or the inclusive conscious response, to this abstract Will whose effect is Freedom.

In Destiny of the Nations, pp. 21-2, Alice Bailey makes this suggestion: 'See the three main ideologies in terms of the three efforts which are emanating from the three planetary centres--Shamballa, Hierarchy and Humanity [and] you will gain a more synthetic...understanding of the slowly emerging world picture.

"Is it not possible these ideologies...are the response--distorted, and yet a definite reaction to the energies playing upon humanity from the two higher major centres? I...suggest the ideology which is embodied in the vision of [socialism]...is an erroneous but clear-cut response to the Shamballa influence of will; the ideology behind the democratic ideal constitutes a similar response to the universality which the love of Hierarchy prompts it to express; and that communism is of human origin, embodying that ideology which Humanity (the planetary centre) has formulated in its own right. The three aspects of God's nature are beginning to take form as the three major ideas and what we see upon the planet at this time are distorted human reactions to spiritual impulses, emanating from three different planetary centres, but equally divine...in essence".

Until we understand the fundamental differences between just government, self-government and good government, Alice says we won't actually understand the political aspirations of other peoples. These are descriptive of the ideas behind the three ideologies. In every country, clearly, all three approaches are present, here and there, within the multi-dimensional network of restricting energies ranging from federal government, through state and local, through corporate management to the political structure of neighborhoods and even within families. These three ideals (just government, self-government and good government) are also themes in individual awareness.  Naturally, all such ideals work out in dual form, as opposing ideas, with all the ramifications and extremism of which the human mind is capable.

We see the inner and outer workings of Government in the adjusting and balancing network of legislation, from international law through local law, from public and private educational systems down to parental guidance.  Interestingly enough, we can also see the personal response to these ideas both in methods of self-discipline and self-control, and in methods of imposed discipline and control over others. The financial or economic network parallels and interpenetrates these other systems from top to bottom.

From the angle of compassion, it appears every country is today ruled technically by 'dictatorship', good, bad or indifferent; appointed, self-appointed, or elected. For as we read newspapers or watch the news, it appears we are governed by exclusive personalities and legislated by exclusive personalities. Few statesmen, and many politicians, alas. The good news is because of better informed public opinion these individuals are being visibly held to higher standards than in the past.

Rather than consider how we can gain more freedom, let's look at the immediacy of how we can lose our freedom.

 "Extreme controlling ideologies, including both capitalism and communism can deny us mental freedom. Powerful military nations can deny our freedom. Totalitarian nations can deny our freedom. Religious dogmatism and claimed authority can deny our freedom. Wrong competitive greed, falsely justifying wrong values to live by, can deny our freedom. Individual failure to accept responsibility for common good can deny our freedom. If in gaining mental power we lose mental freedom, we lose all...Whatever undermines the essentials of a decent society must be controlled for the common good but by voluntary consent of man himself, not by dictatorship or indoctrination for any ideology".
--Foster Bailey --

What might the future hold as we gradually gain the collective wisdom to recognize those leaders who are inclusive in their thinking, and those who are not? Alice Bailey definitely did not envision as desirable any single, superior world government superseding our national governments but she did outline the logical extrapolations of the three major ideologies from The Externalisation of the Hierarchy, pp. 51-3:

"1. Government by a recognized Spiritual Hierarchy...related to the masses of people by a chain of developed men and women who will act as intermediaries between the ruling spiritual body and a people who are oriented to a world of right values. When this becomes possible...the planetary Hierarchy will have made a major Approach to Earth, and there will then be thousands of men and women in touch with their organization because they will be developed enough to be sensitive to its thoughts and ideas.

2. Government by an oligarchy [a handful] of Illumined Minds, recognized as such by the massed thinkers, and chosen by them to rule. This they will do through the education of the thinkers of the race in group ideas and in their right application....Education...will be utilized as the medium of reaching the masses and swinging them into line with the major ideas...through right understanding, through analysis, discussion and experiment....The Hierarchy will then work largely through the world scientists who, being by that time convinced of the factual reality of the soul...will constitute a linking body of occultists.

3. Government by a True Democracy...made possible through a right use of the systems of education and by a steady training of the people to recognize the finer values, the more correct point of view, the higher idealism, and the spirit of synthesis and of cooperative unity....When the world has in it more truly awakened,...thinking men and women, we shall see a purification of the political field taking place, and a cleansing of our processes of representation instituted, as well as a more exact accounting required, by the people, of those whom they have chosen to put in authority. There must eventually be a closer tie-up between the educational system, the legal system and the government, but it will all be directed to an effort to work out the best ideals of the thinkers of the day".

Any such vision, promoted, usually, by terrorism, war and other negative forms of relationship, will inevitably intensify international awareness.  This would facilitate the gradual transformation of partisan politics into true statesmanship because, after all, statesmanship begins with conducting global business, whatever that business might be.

LAW--the Second Aspect of Government

"Fundamentally, law recognizes the priority of the will of the whole over that of the parts; politics seeks to impose the will of each part upon other parts or upon the whole. Collective security is a process whereby the international society as a whole maintains, against recalcitrant members, its law forbidding aggression. The more effective this process is, the more its procedures are defined by law, the more will the balance between law and politics in the society of nations be weighted in favor of law". Quincy Wright, 'Towards a Universal Law for Mankind', Columbia Law Review.

"Law", considered by Alice Bailey, "is in reality the effect of the life of a greater entity as it encloses a lesser within its living processes". From a personal standpoint, this exemplifies the individual, subject to the group impulse, and the inability of the individual alone to change the impulse or evade the overriding issue. This is noteworthy on both a national or planetary scale. 

Laws are codified and legislated and once written are not easy to change or update because neither motivation nor personnel are available.

 "The present stage may be looked upon as a kind of new beginning: old laws, rules and values are no longer considered adequate, and a whole new system of relationships, values and rules needs to be developed and accepted as more appropriate to the presently changing circumstances". Dr. Jonas Salk, The Survival of the Wisest.

The primary problem with the existing world network of law and justice is the entire legal profession is 'precedent-based', depending almost entirely on what has gone before. This traditional orientation means, in practical terms, this global industry's orientation is to the past, not present, and certainly not to the future. Neither progress nor vision come easily to those who, as a whole, work with the law and yet, as the needs of society demand it, this is changing. Mediation and Children's Rights legislation, for example, are among the most forward-looking, fastest growing aspects of law.

All over the world, we observe antiquated, over-crowded prison systems; the ethics of execution and capital punishment; and a growing alarm about crime and punishment, life and death. In an experiment a few years ago in Austin, Texas, for example, prison inmates recently completed the building of new prison housing for themselves (at half the usual cost).  Inmates also found their new skills give them professional competence and a renewed lease on life.

Astrologically, the energies and priorities of Libra are said to govern the legal profession. As one of the great symbolic 'doors' or energy interfaces, Libra governs the balance between so-called right and wrong, negative and positive--and more important internationally--it manages the balance between East and West. This energy of intelligence we identify as Law controls the process of balancing relationships between ideologies and between nations, while the power of abstract force tends to blend them.

In spite of the suffering and bloodshed associated with war, military activity on any scale is a traditional, and often effective, personal reaction to the powerful impulse of law. Sadly, when military force is used either to enforce or prevent change, suffering ensues. As the global effects of last century's cold-war continue to dissipate, the traditional military solution is being transformed into a legal solution. (Symbolically, this in part is because the fiery Martian or military 6th ray devotional reaction is being rapidly replaced by a more dispassionate Neptunian response to the same energy, a refreshingly different quality!)  This is particularly clear in America where military bases are closing and law schools are overflowing. And many of the new nations of the former USSR still strive to transform within the law.

The War College of the United States (during a 10-month graduate program in military philosophy and tactics, with admission based on intense competition among officers of all military forces), stresses that the military exists only to carry out the political agenda of the nation at any given time. War takes place only when political intent is translated into military terms and applied by 'armed force', armed forces. Success is not measured by land taken or body count, but by whether or not the political objectives are achieved. As enlightened public opinion transcends the political scheme of things, the prior need for a strictly military solution might instead evoke a legal solution.

If you think about it, an orderly, functioning world society is less an ideal than an inevitability. Already, most major law firms maintain International Law specialists, upon whom international business agreements depend. No doubt the anticipated increase in Libra influence in the 21st Century will lead to a more conservative new type of 'order' that results from planetary law.

It may appear a bit like a patchwork quilt at the moment, but while each nation continues to maintain its own judiciary system, seen as a whole, there exists a perceivable, functioning planetary system of law and justice. A revitalized, simplified, international legal network, based upon growing international perception of the justice of right human relationships (or human rights), is rapidly superseding military intervention and aggression. Although the United Nations is, essentially, our planetary civil service, we will continue to see the increased use of United Nations Forces as 'international peace keepers' and, hopefully, not as a collective military force in the world.

A poignant question remains: Why does this magnificent international court of law at the Hague remain virtually without political clients? The International Court of Justice was brought into the United Nations Charter in 1945, and only one thing prevents a strong, illumined functioning. Parties to a dispute, or countries in dispute, must accept its jurisdiction by agreement, in advance, binding them to obey the Court's ruling. This, in practice, means disputes of political importance are rarely submitted to it. And there it sits. While young people from opposing groups continue to die to settle what, essentially, are legal, economic, or political disputes.

Every head of state must intuitively know what Abraham Lincoln pointed at when he said "He who moulds public sentiment goes deeper than he who enacts statutes or pronounces decisions. He makes statutes and decisions possible or impossible to be executed". Public opinion, increasingly coherent--and recognized--shoulders this task on a world scale.  International legislation is but another great facet of human maturity.  In the future, also, many currently intransigent, often unreasonable disputes among nations about borders, water rights, and fishing rights, for example, can be translated into purely economic terms, and then many ages old disputes can be settled equitably, under law, and laid to rest.

ECONOMICS--the Third Aspect of Government

When we think about the economic aspect, we are confronted by the reality of what Alice Bailey called 'the dynamic Principle of Sharing'. We've entered a new economic age, and in these early hours it is difficult to see far. This lack of clarity is compounded by the 'apparent' duality of material vs. spiritual in ethical, qualitative terms. It helps to recall H. P. Blavatsky's revelation 'matter is spirit at its lowest point and spirit is matter at its highest', forming a related duality in consciousness. In reality, spirit and matter (spirituality and materialism) are simply two sides of the same coin, so to speak, and the ethics involved in the use of money is colored entirely by perspective.

Guided by principle, we see the slow, steady formation of a variety of international interest groups and coalitions, banding together to tackle problems of world security, to deal with world economic issues, and to preserve the legal integrity of existing nations while committing each and all to a definite part in the work of the planet. The emerging World Bank appears to be one such group but there are many.

While there are a multitude of economic philosophies East and West, money itself can only be truly grasped as a means to an end, for it is nothing in itself. Money is simply a way of keeping score, or of tracking power. The most accurate way to view the economic network of the planet--a vast, ever moving network of energy distribution--is not in terms of dollars, yen or pesos, but as a continually flowing redistribution of power.  Many well-meaning people (because of the volatility of its illusory, fiery nature) shy away from the idea of Power, even as they speak of it.  When working with true power, with spirit, with abstraction of any kind, the protection, always, is thinking in terms of a group, in consciousness.

Money, as energy, can be realistically and esoterically understood in terms of power. As our relationships grow, power is realized as responsibility. Real power IS responsibility. Where any general redistribution of power is concerned, it's helpful to realize each ideology will prefer its own distinct economic method.  In time, a planetary technique or perception will be generally synthesized to include all three economic ideals, as a practical matter. So far, 'national assistance' appears to hold the key but it holds the danger of creating national dependents. This is well underway in international financial markets where money is handled electronically as an energy. The power of an informed and compassionate public opinion can help effect this synthesis as governing bodies are held more fully accountable for their decisions, not only by their own people, but by international public opinion.  Long gone are the days when leaders could act without the reactive intervention of other peoples.

The Good Life

More than one group contends there never can there be sufficiency for all while affluence exists for some. This is only partially correct. Actually, the most glaring and basic global mal-distribution of energy today is neither economic inequity, nor the 'gross materialism' which so many of us love to hate. This most formidable and dangerous mal-distribution of energy is simply the centralization of power, goods, and especially, services in cities in every nation, all over the world. This for several reasons. It's an occult fact 'focused power produces glamour where wrong identification is involved'. Esoterically, decentralization of power, goods and services is both reasonable and desirable.

Knowledge is a form of power, for example, and millions of rural people have no schools. Access to transportation is power, and many developing nations still have few country roads. Water is power and many thirst. Food is power and many starve. The general redistribution of energy through the developing global economic network will take place most effectively through the general development within each nation, rather than one country to another.

Oddly enough, the developing global multimedia network holds the potential for this decentralization. In a small way, this was demonstrated in Los Angeles, California, after the last earthquake temporarily destroyed the major highways into the city. Within days, many companies had connected their employees by computer/telephone linkups and were fully functional from their homes in different towns.

Educational experiments are already profoundly changing old methods as a few superior teachers reach classrooms via interactive television. When more homes have such interactive multimedia facilities, the increasingly dangerous warehousing of children in centrally located buildings in cities will give way to decentralized education--available for the first time to all people of every age.

Health services, too, are dangerously centralized in large city hospitals, where expensive, highly specialized medical services dominate the health care industry. Grassroots movements in all nations have been active for over twenty years in efforts to decentralize health care through growing numbers and types of primary care facilities, many of which are run by nurses, not doctors. Although this complicates the financial incentive of the medical industry in many countries, specialized care is now being seen as a vital luxury, rather than a general necessity.

The key to decentralization of power which will ultimately provide the revelation of economic equality, is the willingness to share--especially when sharing or making do with less is not convenient. In this context, the Zen saying 'full mind/empty house' is the ideal.

Blending the Vision

Statesmanship, Law, Economics--all of these strands of guiding purpose emerge from and are built upon inner thought patterns leading towards greater freedom. These sometimes conflicting thought patterns are producing governmental crises and experiments all over the world. At their worst, these ideas generate the impulse to commit genocide which we see wreaking havoc in various places in the world, even today. At their best, these creative thought patterns are producing and clarifying three ideologies, three aspects of government, and three approaches to a better world-oriented or peaceful planetary society:

The 'new world order' is nothing more than our newly emerging, perhaps slightly more orderly, world community now barely visible in political, legal, and economic ramifications--in countries ruled by socialism, democracy and communism. While national arrogance continues to exhibit itself every day in the United Nations, among most nations there is a growing acceptance of 'place' in the planetary hierarchy of enlightened nations. This international sense of order has emerged right under our noses, gradually, through grassroots movements expressing through all ideologies and all three aspects of government. And, even in the face of crises, hopefully, the United Nations will prove sufficiently flexible to exemplify this growing inclusiveness.

Whether they know it or not, all thinking human beings, all who vote, or who simply complain, are vitally involved in the working out of the naturally hierarchical Department of Government. Each of us is born a unit, in touch through the mind, within the powerful global network of government--political, legal and economic. Collectively, as observant, objective, thinking individuals, we constitute a growing factor in the public consciousness. Our opinion, if expressed, helps produce the growing transformation from nations often in conflict with each into global understanding or spiritual living.  This is best achieved as we supersede national thinking and opt for the international perspective.

Practical wisdom requires our indifference--not indifference to others, but indifference to their shortcomings.  We look beyond those differences which annoy us in order to supersede our personal sentiment towards any specific national group or government (while maintaining a respectful, participatory, national identity).  Begin to live with greater energy, enthusiasm and power in our wonderfully spontaneous if not yet manageable world. Marvel at the complexity of how our planet operates. Respect each other.  For in the power and quality of our expressed respect--not for 'other peoples' but for the rest of our all too human family--and for the integrity of each sovereign nation lies our future.