IDEAS FOR A BETTER WORLD

This paper tries to show that a new philosophy is growing with a potential power to change our traditional way of thinking. Under its concepts Clausewitz's basic ideas cannot be accepted.

1. A WORLD OF CONTRASTS Looking at the world of our days, we can see many contrasts. On one side a wonderful world with "islands" of progress and welfare. People trying to make the best in producing something new that can pull mankind ahead in all the fields of human activities: arts, sciences, health, environment, etc. However, even in these "islands", one can discover the other side that prevails in most parts of the world: ignorance, poverty, illness, intolerance, radicalism, violence, exploitation of the weak, demagoguery, corruption and so on. A state of things that leaves in the air a feeling of sadness that we even can see many times on the faces of people that apparently have all is necessary to be happy. It is a feeling that there is something wrong and that we could do more to find other concepts to make a better world. We know and we have to understand that the basic impulse of humankind is survival. First for themselves, and then for those closer to them: family, friends, and the community of which they feel to. be a part. It is natural. If we and the people we are concerned adjoint could get good conditions to survive and to live, the problems of "others" are not, in a first approach, so important. Once someone said that the history of mankind can be written by the history of wars. This is true. The most important events of our history are the history of power game. In other words, fights for domination or against domination under any of its forms, and under the rules and concepts that the people believe to be the best for themselves. And today, if we try to find the roots of the main problems of our world, we can see them reflected in almost all the power games of the past. What problems and tensions will we have in the future? They will be those that are being created by the power game we now have. 2. LACK OF UNIVERSAL VALUES And why have we such persistent problems during all our history? It is, in my opinion, because we do not have a universal and rational understanding of the purpose of our lives and of the natural laws of life. The answers for such questions are normally given by philosophies and by the religions we have, and the most part of the moral and ethical values derived from these answers are based in dogmas or traditions that we do not fully understand as being rational. Then, philo-

sophically speaking, we can see three main types of societies: (1) those that adopt materialism as philosophy and push the moral and ethical values to secondary positions; (2) those that adopt some kind of spiritualism as philosophy but only on the surface, applying and dealing with moral and ethical values in accordance with the conveniences and interests of the moment; (3) those that exploit the religious beliefs of the people as a tool in the power game, misunderstanding or deliberately distorting basic teachings in order to support radical and violent objectives. In order to understand the problem, we have to return to the history of western civilization. After the Christianizing of the Roman Empire a state of religious tyranny was established blocking the development of the sciences. It was the Middle Ages, the Age of Darkness. A time of so many atrocities committed in the name of supposed religious ideals. Against fifteen centuries of tyranny, with the Renaissance it was started the movement that turned mankind intellectually free. Actually, this movement was responsible for the material development we are reaching in our days but, at the same time, it was responsible too for another kind of tyranny we are now living: the tyranny of scientific materialism. Today we have a total divorce between scientific and religious issues. The actual "religion" universally accepted is that science that systematic refuses to consider or to deal with the spiritual aspects of man and of life. Without the support of science, most spiritual values that were given by the old religions remain misunderstood and qualified as illogical or irrational. We ignore or try do deal with those values in such a way that we can support the objectives and actions dictated by the rules of scientific materialism. As a consequence, the world, despite all the technological advances, remains with chronic problems, tensions, radicalism and violence. By making continual moral concessions we reach the concept that is dominant in our days, that defense turns in to a latent state of nuclear war where people are considered as things under the law of material interests.

3. THE REACTION AGAINST THE TYRANNY We understand that something new is happening and developing as a reaction against this tyranny of scientific materialism. It is a movement that has taken different ways in different parts of the world but that leads us to the understanding of old spiritual aspects of life under a scientific point of view. In its development this movement can provide a future healthy junction between the science and old basic teachings of many religions, without the prejudices and radicalism of the past. Then we will achieve a new way of thinking, a new philosophy as a base to support the necessary changes in order to work together for a better world. It will be the rediscovery of the human spirit. The sources that can be quoted in this subject are very extensive and spread throughout all the world. On the other hand many of them are mixed with concepts we normally consider irrational or were produced for people that did not take care to present their research, studies and conclusions with the support of a scientific

methodology. However, after almost twenty years of interest in this subject, I have come across some sources written in English that can be considered by persons that do not want to lose time with mysticisms and superstitions. These sources are: Dr. Joel L. Whitton, M.D., Ph.D., Chief Psychiatrist of the Toronto School System, author of the book "Life Between Life", (Warner Books, 1986), in cooperation with Joe Fisher, based upon thirteen years of research and more than thirty medical case histories; Dr. Ian Stevenson, author of the book "Twenty Cases Suggestive of Reincarnation", (University Press of Virginia, 1974); Raymond A. Moody Jr., author of the book "Life After Life", (Bantam Books, 1981). With these three books we can make contact with three different lines for research and study, without the necessity to use spiritual mediums that almost always are put under the suspicion of fraud. The first source talks about the therapy of past lives with the support of hypnosis. The second describes documented cases of persons, most of them children that has remembered past lives. And the third describes cases of clinical death and subsequent revival remembering facts that suggest a life out of the body during the period of clinical death. These books point us to many others on the same subjects. For me it is difficult to accept that all of these authors, many of them occupying important and respectable positions, are not worthy of some credit. Another source that discusses this separation between science and religion is Willis Harmann, B.S. and Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering, M.D. in Physics, teacher for many years at the Universities of Florida and Stanford, member of the Board of Regents of the University of California, reserve officer on active duty in the U. S. Navy during the World War II, and author of the book Global Mind Change. 4. THE NEW BASIC IDEAS The main aspects that are emerging from these research and studies can be summarized as follows: that actual human nature is much more complex than that normally accepted by science and brings together a spiritual part that survives with the person's individuality after what we know as "death"; that human life must be understood that this is not the first time that we are here and will not be the last; that mankind is under a process of evolution and development not only in its biological body but in all other aspects of its spiritual personality too; that there are natural laws that rule this process of evolution, basically within a method of learning by experience; that mankind, in its evolution, increase its freedom to make decisions and to choose its ways and, at the same time, increase its responsibility too for all its actions or omissions that result in significant effects in his global environment;

 that significant events in a human life are the consequence of his past actions or omissions and are integrated in the method to learn through experiences, and that his present life will determine what lessons will be necessary in the future. If these basic ideas are taken as valid, with the understanding that the most important thing in the a human life is not his material life but his global evolution, it is possible to infer an entire body of statements as guide for his action and for a better understanding of the most part of old religious teaching transmitted through dogmas, traditions or superstitions. We are all in a very large and complex school. In this process of evolution, each one of us is in a different level in accord with progress we had achieved in the past. When we suffer an aggression, for example, it is necessary first of all to understand why we are passing for such kind of experience and to learn, to insert in our personality the lesson embodied in that experience. Second, we have to understand that the individual responsible for the aggression is, in essence, in a stage of ignorance about the consequences of his actions: actually, they do not know what they are doing Of course, the purpose of a short paper like this is not to cover all the aspects that may be inferred from these ideas. In addition, it is not to convince or to prove them. It is only to explain that there are other points of view that we believe can grow in the future with the support of scientific methods and with a potential power to change our way of traditional materialistic thinking. We understand too that even if these ideas could be accepted, it would be almost impossible to apply them unilaterally and in a short space of time. It would have to be a question of the gradual education of mankind. However, it is necessary to begin the understanding of the natural laws that rule the spiritual evolution of mankind someday 5. CLAUSEWITZ BEYOND THE NEW IDEAS Beyond the basic statements of scientific materialism, we would have little to add about Clausewitz. Nevertheless, under the ideas we have exposed above, his teaching only can take mankind, in the short or long-run, to very hard and difficulty experiences. Let us look at some of his major ideas under the light of the philosophical tenets explained above. "War is simply the continuation of policy by other means." In this statement, we have a formal acceptance of violence as a valid and rational way to achieve political objectives and of the power game among nations. However, the power game is almost all a dirty game bringing to the fore hidden interests under the cover of idealism. All the violence one can apply will result in

significant experiences over the subject and will result in some kind of equivalent future experiences over the agent, hard enough in order to teach them about its effects. To apply violence is to plant the seeds of the violence that will be suffered in the future. In addition, every one that has been, directly or indirectly responsible for the applied violence, will be enrolled in such a lesson. Then the war is only apparently, in the short term and vision, a valid instrument of policy. "Dual nature of war: used either to destroy the enemy or to exact a limited concession. Three broad objectives: enemy armed forces, country and will of the people. Two lesser grounds for peace: improbability of victory; unacceptable cost. Increase enemy effort through invasion; increase suffering; long duration. From some of the above ideas it has been inferred the concepts that increased and extended levels of violence in war until we reach nuclear weapons in our days. In some way, the same comments we made before can be repeated once again. If we could understand the global consequences of a war, with all its material and spiritual aspects, we would have much more to add in its cost. However, it is possible to add about "to destroy the enemy". Under the ideas that have been presented, the enemy can be destroyed only apparently. If the lessons inserted in the suffered experience were not understood, both sides, at least the most important performers of the event, may encounter in the future, probably once again as enemies, and so many times as those necessary to teach them how to live in peace. "Intrinsic violence of war. Moderation leads to logical absurdity. Trinity: violence, chance and subordination." Of course, if war has been a constant in the history of our civilization for thousands of years, it would be impossible to eliminate it in a short space of time, as it was commented before. But, if the ideas of responsibility over the cause and future effect are understood, one reaches the conclusion that all moderation and moral and ethical values, that one side can apply in the inevitable conflicts, will result in a decrease of violence suffered in possible future lessons. 6. CONCLUSION I believe that I have written enough to give a general idea about the subject. I just wanted to affirm that a very old philosophy is growing once again, improved and rationalized with the support of scientific methods; that this philosophy has the potential power to promote a revolution in our traditional way of thinking and to lead to another strategy for dealing with lifes problems and tensions. Through this philosophy it is possible to understand that the best instrument to promote our own progress, as individuals, groups, or nations, is to perform our

roles during our lives in a constructive way, supported by ethical and moral values, in order to promote the material and spiritual progress of all the people under our influence, and of mankind in general. Making this, by an indirect way, within a large understanding of life, we are working for ourselves too, we are constructing for ourselves and for others a better future. Under such concepts, the strategy we have to develop is not to defeat, to destroy our opponent, or to subjugate the weak, but for to transform them into friendly, responsible and productive partners. The best method to achieve this objective is to attack them with the power of ideas and of our own example in order to teach them, to change their ways of thinking , to make them less aggressive, more tolerant and cooperative, and more productive. Through this way, it will be created an environment for a subsequent and gradual effort to begin a decrease in the use of violence and war as instruments of policy, changing the power structure that will be better supported by moral power than through force. With such ideas, we do not want to say that everything in the past was wrong. Every significant event in our history has performed a role in our global evolution and taken place in the proper time in accordance with the circumstances of the moment. However, today we have another condition. The prestige of our science has the equivalent power of old religions in the past, and the modern means of communication open the doors and the ways for fast dissemination of ideas. Actually, we are living in times that are very difficult to maintain new relevant ideas and technologies confined in restricted areas. So if we understand the process and the need for changes we can act to improve it. The purpose of this paper was to show that smoke in the air that presages the possibility of fire is real and, in this case, what is better: to ignore it, to put it out, or to encourage it to glow in a positive way? HELlO HERTT GRANDE Washington, D.C., January 23, 1989.

HOW TO COMBAT TERRORISM Terrorism has happened during all our History. However, in the last years, it became a common way for those individuals or groups that cannot mobilize enough power to confront with success legal governments. They know that they cannot achieve a complete victory against those they consider and elect like their enemies, but they are not rational man and theirs objectives are illogical and inconsistent. Until now we had seen all efforts to combat this permanent threat of all days trying to control, hunt and capture or destroy terrorist organizations and their members, or governments that support then. With such objectives we had recently two major events the Iraqis War and Afghanistans War that result in the necessity of tremendous resources human and materials. In addition, we all can understand that such procedures affect negatively both parts in conflict. I know that every day we are creating news technological means to support our efforts to combat and control terrorism. But, we know, like happens in any war, that for every innovation, the enemy will find same way to deal with then. It will be, in my conception, a fight without end. Then, we must to think something different in this problem. It appears to me that almost all people used in terrorist operations are manipulated and used with base in their philosophical, political or religious believes. Most of them were received by brainwash methods from fanatic, radical and ignorant leaders, with the presumption to be the owners of the truth. So, we must attack these people in the roots that support their irrational actions. We must attack then hardly in theirs believes. However, if we try to make this directly, probably we will have new conflicts and wars. Then it will be necessary to work through indirectly ways. The strategy would be to offer the world a set of knowledge logical, coherent and rational about human spirituality, based on studies and scientific research, but without any connotations or religious interference. In matters of faith, especially those based on writings considered sacred by different cultures, it is virtually impossible to have absolute

agreement. However, it is not the case in scientific issues, even when based on assumptions difficult to prove. When medicine, for example, recommends the need for a cardiac surgery with open chest, usually the patient accept it whatever their race, culture or religion. Therefore, something like this has good conditions for success in our days without great reactions and expenses. The religions does not have more the same power to block new statements about the human spirituality as in the past and the expenses to support a research project in this field would be much smaller than any common project to develop war weapons. At present, a number of events that can be studied in more depth, impartiality and integrity by the Science have become obvious and well known, such as phenomena of near death, past life memories of children and past life therapy. The near-death phenomena, including those related by blind from birth, are almost unquestionable evidence of the existence and survival of a non-material part of our individuality , confirming beliefs have grown by almost all the world's religions. Reports of past-life memories, especially of children, pointing as confirmation of the concepts related to reincarnation. Other words, that each of us has had other life experiences before and still have many others. On the other hand, therapies lifetimes show the links that may exist between the problems and conflicts of the present life and our actions and behaviors of our remote past. Only with the conclusions related to these three fields of research, it will be possible to infer a set of concepts consistent and coherent, showing the existence of natural laws governing the development and progress of the spiritual essence of all living beings and human beings in particular. A project such this, conveniently worked and disseminated, would like to detonate a nuclear cultural bomb, affecting not only the potential terrorists, but also all other agents of criminal activities, dishonest, immoral or illegal that still exist in human societies. The basic concepts that could emerge from these studies would be the following:

 That in humans there is a spiritual part that survives the death phenomenon of the physical body, while maintaining their individuality, aggregate of knowledge and experiences lived before. That is not the first time that this "spiritual part" is present in this world and that this opportunity to the material life will not be the last. That similarly to what occurs in physics, in our relations with all other living beings, with our environment and, in particular, with our fellow, every action has an equal reaction in the opposite direction, as a natural mechanism induces us to live in harmony. We learn through our successes and failures, but always with the goal to grow and to evolve intellectually and morally. In fact, these concepts are already part of different doctrines spread around the world, but usually with different garments or mixed with many other inconsistent or difficult to rational acceptance. In addition, the only way to filter them out is with the help of research methods adopted by science, allowing the formation of a body of knowledge about our universal spirituality that can be widely disseminated. And, contrary to what one might imagine, such a project would not come to the weakening of traditional religions, but as a confirmation of the most important part of who claim for centuries: the existence of the soul, its survival after death phenomenon and mandatory harvest all that we sow in our lifetime. In matters of faith, especially those based on writings considered sacred by different cultures, it is virtually impossible to have absolute agreement. However, it is not the case in scientific issues, even when based on assumptions difficult to prove. Be sure! Think about it! All great change in our history resulted from changes of ideas, changes in traditional ways of thinking prevailing in every age. What we need now are not new weapons of destruction of property or lives and, yes, the destruction of ignorance and misconceptions, especially those related to human spirituality.
HELlO HERTT GRANDE Curitiba, January 30, 2013.

Notes: The author is a Brazilian Army Officer retired and had been attending the National Defense University, as an invited international fellow, during the years of 1988 and 1989, half year in the Industrial College of Armed Forces and the same time in the War College. During the course, he received as schoolwork the duty to write a paper about Clausewitz, when he should answer same specific questions. Then he discuss with his sponsor demanding that they left him free about what to write rather than to answer such questions. It would be the way to bring something new in the discussions. Then, he wrote the paper Ideas for a better world. Since that time, unfortunately, we had an increase of terrorism over our entire world. Now he return to the same basic ideas, but in better conditions to see then explored. It is what he tries to explain in a new text: How to combat the terrorism. He is also the author of the book "Politics, Power and Strategy under the light of the Human Spirituality", even without translation to English. The book, in digital edition in Portuguese, can be obtained from Amazon.