Strengthening Civil Society

June 26, 1995

Q: In an ideal society, what should be the relative balance of influence of civil society in relation to government and commerce?

In an ideal society, there must be scope given to individual expression, but there must also be regulation of individual expression so that none of the basic qualities of human expression, greed and so forth, will dominate the society. So individuals, who have excess greed, excess desire for power, will not get the scope to exploit others with these desires. So there must be a kind of net, if you will, that government provides.

But the main flow will not be from the government. It will be the spontaneous flow of the individuals. For example, there may be the system of collectives, but though there is a system, they will not be run, operated or even initiated by any governmental body. There will be one opening for each collective, and the people of particular areas may organize themselves according to their interests and needs.

So in an ideal society, there is more dominance of the civil sphere than of the government influence. There is more dominance of the individually initiated actions rather than government programs. Government will merely set the structure and provide regulation of excess. But, within this scope, it will be non-government programs all initiated by the individuals. So who runs the collective? Let us say there is a farming collective. Will it be run by the government? No, no. It will be run by the farmers. Who will establish? The farmers will establish. Who will run? The farmers will run. Who will regulate? The farmers will regulate. And only, should there be difficulty, will government become involved.

The same would be true of so many different activities so that government involvement will not be 90 percent, it would perhaps be 50 percent. The rest of the commerce and activity would be strictly the independent efforts of the individuals involved, and their own initiative to form collectives. So you see, this Proutist system promotes individual initiative, individual development, which promotes people exercising their full capacities without being thwarted but does not allow for excesses which will harm others. This is the fundamental approach of Prout applied in all areas. In certain approach, only 30 percent would be government operated. The rest would be private enterprise, independent, civil.

Q: Is there presently a problem of a weakening of civil society and if so how can civil society become properly developed? What role should proutists play in strengthening civil society?

This is a very knotty problem. At present in the United States civil society still has some strength, but it is not as strong as it could be. This is not because of the aggressiveness of government, it is because of the weakening morale of the people. It is a result of a lack of pride and a lack of firm commitment to the society. You know, a society is only as healthy as the people who compose it, as their love for the society, their enthusiasm for the society, their willingness to work for the society. In a society that is weakened, so many of the people become addicted to alcohol and drugs, so many of the people feel they are hopeless, that their life will go nowhere, that the world is going to hell. This type of mentality will not build a healthy society, and people with such a defeatist attitude cannot build a good society. In such a situation, government is forced to take a more dominant role because the people cannot maintain themselves.

So it must be asked: what brings people to this place where they cannot believe in their own society, where they cannot wish to build and improve their society and the lot of their local community? What brings people to not care about these things and to take drugs and to drink alcohol and to be cynical and sarcastic? I believe that at the core of this you will see that the people feel there is no real scope for their expression or for the fulfillment of their desires within the scope that is allotted. For one reason or another they have come to the conclusion that they cannot be successful within the existing structure and they develop a negative attitude. If that negativity and defeatism is too deep, the use of drugs and alcohol, stupefying substances, will become greater, and the exercise of individual initiative will go down.

You see, a healthy society is built on spiritual health and upon moral health. If these things are not there, then there cannot be a healthy society, and prama is disturbed and prema is disturbed. And if prema is disturbed, then the whole society goes down and, in that case, government becomes more because civil society cannot maintain. For civil society to maintain and to grow and develop, there must be a spiritual rejuvenation of the society and a sense of hope and a sense of positivity to come in the people. This cannot happen in the present circumstance because the people are oppressed by so many different factors. They are oppressed by the ongoing threat of nuclear war. They are oppressed by the greed of multinational corporations. They are oppressed by the high cost of living expenses and inflationary pressures. They no longer feel that their initiatives will bear any fruit, and many people become quite cynical and quite disenchanted. Furthermore, in the United States there has been a decline in religion. Fundamental values, fundamental morality, has degenerated. Belief in God and a higher power has degenerated, and organized religion has fallen away. At the same time, all of the living standards are going down, and education itself is becoming harder and harder to obtain.

So the overall lifestyle is degenerating, and the spirit of the people is somewhat depressed. They feel that, in such a great and massive chain of events, ruled by such grand forces as multinational corporations and governmental forces, they can affect nothing, and so they turn to drugs and violence. But they do not have the heart, the spirit to move forward. Their spirits are defeated, and in such a condition you cannot build a healthy civil society because the core of it is spirit.

So you see, much of this dilemma is caused by the ravages of capitalism along with spiritual crises and the influence of materialism. You know, capitalism and materialism are not simply economic problems or an economic approach. It is also a mental state, a philosophical approach. With the advent of modern science and the emphasis on materialism, their thinking has become very concrete, very materialistic, and the hearts of the people have grown very restless. Some have turned to the east for vitality and solutions. Some have turned to drugs and alcohol. Others have turned to violence. This is not a healthy society; prama is disturbed.

If Proutists would help the people, they must give them something to hang their hope upon. And there are two things I recommend. One is spiritual life, and the other is Prout philosophy. Give it out, let it be known, wide spread, that there is a solution to some of these problems. There is a practical solution which is not greedy, which is not exploitative, and which is not oppressive as communism is. Let them know that there is hope for the future. Give the people hope. This is what they need the most in this country: hope. Hold out a loving hand filled with hope. Give philosophy which can bring hope for the people. In that way, you build the people, you give them something to work towards. Prama cannot be restored automatically. It will take time. It takes time to balance a society which has become imbalanced. Civil section cannot come up when the hopes of the people, the dreams of the people, are thwarted and they feel their humanity is small and fragile and their capacity to effect good is very diminished. Such frustrated people will become violent or cynical. Give them hope, give them direction. Prout is what they need. With this philosophy they can build a new society.