Meredith Sprunger's Synopsis of The Urantia Book
Synopsis of Paper 71
DEVELOPMENT OF THE STATE
1. The state is a useful evolution of civilization; it represents society's net gain from the ravages and sufferings of war. Even statecraft is merely the accumulated technique for adjusting the competitive contest of force between the struggling tribes and nations…it is purely an evolutionary institution and was wholly automatic in origin.
2. The great weakness in Roman civilization... was the supposed liberal and advanced provision for the emancipation of the boy at twenty‑one and the unconditional release of the girl so that she was at liberty to marry a man of her own choosing or to go abroad in the land to become immoral ...The collapse of Rome indicates what may be expected when a state undergoes too rapid extension associated with internal degeneration.
3. Democracy, while an ideal, is a product of civilization, not of evolution. Go slowly! select carefully for the dangers of democracy are:
1. Glorification of mediocrity.
2. Choice of base and ignorant rulers.
3. Failure to recognize the basic facts of social evolution.
4. Danger of universal suffrage in the hands of uneducated and indolent majorities.
5. Slavery to public opinion; the majority is not always right.
4. Public opinion, common opinion, has always delayed society; nevertheless, it is valuable, for, while retarding social evolution, it does preserve civilization. Education of public opinion is the only safe and true method of accelerating civilization; force is only a. temporary expedient.
5. Popular elections may not always decide things rightly, but they represent the right way even to do a wrong thing. Evolution does not at once produce superlative perfection but rather comparative and advancing practical adjustment.
6. There are ten steps, or stages, to the evolution of a practical and efficient form of representative government, and these are:
1. Freedom of the person...2. Freedom of the mind ...3. The reign of law... 4. Freedom of speech...5. Security of property ...6. The right of petition ...7. The right to rule...8. Universal suffrage ...9. Control of public servants ...10. Intelligent and trained representation.
7. Much as it is to be regretted, national egotism has been essential to social survival. The chosen people doctrine has been a prime factor in tribal welding and nation building right on down to modern times. But no state can attain ideal levels of functioning until every form of intolerance is mastered; it is everlastingly inimical to human progress. And intolerance is best combated by the co‑ordination of science, commerce, play, and religion.
8. The laws of the ideal state are few in number ...The exalted state not only compels its citizens to work but also entices them into profitable and uplifting utilization of the increasing leisure which results from toil liberation by the advancing machine age. Leisure must produce as well as consume...poverty and dependence can never be eliminated if the defective and degenerate stocks are freely supported and permitted to reproduce without restraint.
9. Social evolution should be encouraged by governmental supervision which exercises a minimum of regulative control. That state is best which co‑ordinates most while governing least ...The status of any level of civilization is faithfully portrayed by the caliber of its citizens who volunteer to accept the responsibilities of statehood.
10. In advanced states, political service is esteemed as the highest devotion of the citizenry. The greatest ambition of the wisest and noblest of citizens is to gain civil recognition, to be elected or appointed to some position of governmental trust, and such governments confer their highest honors of recognition for service upon their civil and social servants. Honors are next bestowed in the order named upon philosophers, educators, scientists, industrialists, and militarists. Parents are duly rewarded by the excellency of their children, and purely religious leaders, being ambassadors of a spiritual kingdom, receive their real rewards in another world
11. Economics, society, and government must evolve if they are to remain ...The progressive program of an expanding civilization embraces:
1. Preservation of individual liberties.
2. Protection of the home.
3. Promotion of economic security.
4. Prevention of disease.
5. Compulsory education.
6. Compulsory employment.
7. Profitable utilization of leisure.
8. Care of the unfortunate.
9. Race improvement.
10. Promotion of science and art.
11. Promotion of philosophy—wisdom.
12. Augmentation of cosmic insight—spirituality.
12. The appearance of genuine brotherhood signifies that a social order has arrived in which all men delight in bearing one another's burdens...But such an ideal society cannot be realized when either the weak or the wicked lie in wait to take unfair and unholy advantage of those who are chiefly actuated by devotion to the service of truth, beauty, and goodness.
13. Here is the great test of idealism: Can an advanced society maintain that military preparedness which renders it secure from all attack by its war‑loving neighbors without yielding to the temptation to employ this military strength in offensive operations against other peoples for purposes of selfish gain or national aggrandizement?
14. Competition is essential to social progress, but competition, unregulated, breeds violence ...The ideal state undertakes to regulate social conduct only enough to take violence out of individual competition and to prevent unfairness in personal initiative ...In advanced civilizations co‑operation is more efficient than competition . ...later civilizations are the better promoted by intelligent co‑operation, understanding fraternity, and spiritual brotherhood.
15. Present‑day profit‑motivated economics is doomed unless profit motives can be augmented by service motives ...In economics, profit motivation is to service motivation what fear is to love in religion. But the profit motive must not be suddenly destroyed or removed; it keeps many otherwise slothful mortals hard at work.
16. Profit motivation must not be taken away from men until they have firmly possessed themselves of superior types of nonprofit motives for economic striving and social serving—the transcendent urges of superlative wisdom, intriguing brotherhood, and excellency of spiritual attainment.
17. The enduring state is founded. on culture, dominated by ideals, and motivated by service. The purpose of education should be acquirement of skill, pursuit of wisdom, realization of selfhood, and attainment of spiritual value.
18. In the ideal state, education continues throughout life, and philosophy sometime becomes the chief pursuit of its citizens ...Urantians should get a vision of a new and higher cultural society. Education will jump to new levels of value with the passing of the purely profit‑motivated system of economics. Education has too long been localistic, militaristic, ego exalting, and success seeking; it must eventually become world‑wide, idealistic, self‑realizing, and cosmic grasping.
19. Education recently passed from the control of the clergy to that of lawyers and businessmen. Eventually it must be given over to the philosophers and the scientists. Teachers must be free beings, real leaders, to the end that philosophy, the search for wisdom, may become the chief educational pursuit.
20. The evolution of statehood entails progress from level to level, as follows:
1. The creation of a threefold government of executive, legislative, and judicial branches.
2. The freedom of social, political, and religious activities.
3. The abolition of all forms of slavery and human bondage.
4. The ability of the citizenry to control the levying of taxes.
5. The establishment of universal education—learning extended from the cradle to the grave.
6. The proper adjustment between local and national governments.
7. The fostering of science and the conquest of disease.
8. The due recognition of sex equality and the co‑ordinated functioning of men and women in the home, school, end church, with specialized service of women in industry and government.
9. The elimination of toiling slavery by machine invention and the subsequent mastery of the machine age.
10. The conquest of dialects—the triumph of a universal language.
11. The ending of war—international adjudication of national and racial differences.
12. The world‑wide vogue of the pursuit of wisdom—the exaltation of philosophy. The evolution of a world religion, which will presage the entrance of the planet upon the earlier phases of settlement in light and life.
Discussion Questions
1. Are we engaged in too rapid changes in our society today?
2. Are we suffering from the weakness of democracy, such as the glorification of mediocrity and the slavery of public opinion?
3. Does our democracy have representatives who are “technically trained, intellectually competent, socially loyal, and morally fit?”
4. Is our society using leisure time productively and wisely?
5. How will our society be able to elliminate defective and degenerate stocks?
6. To what extent is the service motive replacing the profit motive in our society?
7. How can we improve the value-wisdom aspect of education?
A Service of
The Urantia Book Fellowship