Why Do We Need a New Enlightenment?

The first Enlightenment, despite its cracks and holes, paved the way out of a repressive past, and it initiated a trajectory that would unfold in scientific, political and social realms. It has meanwhile evolved like a living organism: partly healthy, partly not so healthy. Some of us are fortunate enough to inhabit and enjoy the healthy parts of this ‘living organism’ while many unfortunate people still inhabit the unwell parts of this living organism. The aim of the Second Enlightenment essays is to treat some of the ‘ill’ aspects of the first Enlightenment so that our world would become a healthier living organism for all those who inhabit it now and who will inhabit it in the future. And we can definitely say that the Second Enlightenment is already underway, with many good things happening. Despite the ills and turmoil around world, there are many positive developments in progress.

  • I Believe the Second Enlightenment Has Already Begun

The ideas I am proposing and advocating here are in the spirit of moving toward a Second Enlightenment – a Global Enlightenment.

The new Enlightenment will have to succeed in accomplishing the true substance of the Enlightenment mottos, updated to declare “liberté, égalité et fraternité et sororité,” “all men and women of all races are born equal.” The time has arrived to free ourselves from outmoded and impure democracies, dictatorship, militarism and fundamentalism in order to design new political processes that give people a fuller voice in governing themselves. The wealthy elites need to be taxed and their political influence kept at bay. We are eager for a world without any bullets to be fired at any human being or animal.

The unexamined jargon of freedom and security needs to be upgraded, replaced with a new level of freedom in which we the people can collaboratively travel to other countries freely, and speaking the language of respect, collaboration and love for all forms of life with the people of other cultures. It is time to let go of old and obsolete attitudes and strategies. The maturity of the new generation has a burden of transforming the three types of governments; those that are hated, feared and praised into a government of serenity and equanimity, in a Daoistic sense.

Ideas for How to Evolve Towards a Second Enlightenment

A Second Enlightenment does not imply the negation of the first Enlightenment but rather aims at learning from its flaws as well as introducing new ideas for manifesting ideals for an egalitarian and peaceful world.

In the 18 essays for Evolving Toward a Second Enlightenment, there are concrete ideas and examples for manifesting next steps. Please note: Some of these ideas that come in the follow essays may be personally challenging to consider. They demand honest reflection about the world today, and our lives and beliefs. They require a paradigm shift in many cases – re-imagining the world. Perhaps in some cases it means letting go of long-held ideas and seeing things in a radically new way, through new eyes that see the world as one entity, full of people who can collaborate and find innovative solutions for the good of all, rather than through the pinhole lens of an individual group or nation.

Hopefully these ideas in these essays will induce envisioning an equitable world where poverty is not acceptable, where nature and its endangered sentient beings is protected from our harms, where the voices of nations, even the deprived and insignificant ones, are equally heard and respected as the voices of fellow inhabitants on the globe rather than people of a particular flag. I hope these ideas spark real dialogues with anyone who will listen, anyone who is interested.

The new civilization is knocking on our doors…if we are unhappy about the nature of our transactional and precarious world, we may choose to open the door first to our heart and then make commitments to use our skills in whatever way possible in order to improve the world for our children, towns, cities, countries, starting ripple effects that will reach the other side of the globe.

The Key Principles of a Second Enlightenment

The original Enlightenment focused on some vital issues facing the world at that time: civil liberties, individual freedom, power vested in people rather than monarchies or religions, etc. I have identified a number of critical themes or principles that create a powerful foundation for the new thoughts and actions of a Second Enlightenment. These principles are embedded in the 12 essays, inextricably interwoven and impossible to separate from each other. These principles provide the grounding for the new ideas presented here.

Key Principle #1:  A Global Focus
Key Principle #2:  Focus on Ecology
Key Principle #3:  Human Rights, Freedom, And Equity for All
Key Principle #4:  Focus on Well-Being
Key Principle #5:  Focus on Interdependence
Key Principle #6:  Focus on Impermanence

KEY PRINCIPLE # 1:      A GLOBAL FOCUS

It is finally time to fully recognize what it means to live on a single planet, and act as one collective globe. This means stepping into a new mode of acting for global interests rather than national interests. Working together globally for the wellbeing of all is the critical principle here, and this can only be done if all the earth’s people can collaborate. Climate change is making this irrefutably clear – we cannot separate ourselves from each other’s air or sunshine. Adopting this principle would mean the earth’s people and governments would come together to solve problems collaboratively, rather than focusing on our separate nations. The air and climate are without borders!

Creating a global cooperative could take the form of fair global funds, giant global systems for health care, or global energy systems. It could mean a new representative world body, something like the UN or its replacement by a World Parliament, but updated, strengthened, and without weighted power structures. It would mean that all members of the world community would be accountable to each other equally, but would also be able to depend on the world community for support.

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KEY PRINCIPLE # 2:     FOCUS ON ECOLOGY

It is rather a shock to look back and realize that in the original Enlightenment, the earth and our fellow animals and plant inhabitants and the commons of water and air and land, were simply ignored. The Enlightenment was a ‘human-istic’ endeavor, not ‘earth-istic.’ But over the last 200 years in particular, we have come to great and powerful realizations about our earth and our beautiful yet damaged relationship with Her.

The urgency of repairing this relationship is paramount and the Second Enlightenment must absolutely make this a top priority. Without this, we will derail our human civilization entirely. In her thought-provoking book, Les Lumières à l´âge du vivant (2021), the contemporary French professor and philosopher Corine Pelluchon tackles the original Enlightenment for its serious shortcomings. In her insightful and up-to-date book, she describes ecology (nature, animals and humans) as being central to our comprehensive survival, while capitalism and materialism have increased their attacks on intellectualism, universalism and a new Enlightenment.

Related essays:

KEY PRINCIPLE # 3:  HUMAN RIGHTS, FREEDOM, and EQUITY FOR ALL

This theme takes on the enormous need to truly address circumstances that lead to unequal freedoms and constrictions of liberties, including governments and economic systems that keep the world unequal and unjust.

While the first Enlightenment made great strides in advancing the idea of individual rights and liberties, as it has been seen, those liberties in fact only extended to the narrow slice of population who looked like the Enlighteners themselves – white men. Over the years, progress has been made in addressing this great deficiency which had ignored horrors such as slavery as well as vast inequities between strata of people in societies as well as in the world. But much work remains in this area of freedom and equal – really equal – rights of all people, no matter their nation of birth or economic status, etc.

For example, not all countries have to choose the path of Western democracy. What actually matters is human rights and people having a say over their own destiny. The political model is only the façade. Governments must always exhibit a real and manifest respect for all humans as well as for nature. In addition, one could say that the true freedom of humanity would be when societies rid themselves from outdated, male-centered, immature autocratic structures. The vision of a new structure would represent freedom of humanity with better ways to govern ourselves; we can be more creative and have the courage to try new structures.

‘Equality,’ like the concept of ‘freedom,’ is another obscure and misleading term. Democracy came into existence as the result of The Enlightenment in order to address and curtail social, political and economic imbalances. But democracy has not ensured equality in a real sense. In a democracy, “equality” means ‘equal before the law’. Equality before the law has an important but limited application, but it is not always enough. It does not mean all receive equal medical, educational or social services, or that all receive equal treatment in the society. True equality would equate to truly equal levels of wellbeing and care for everyone in the society. Such inequality is not due to a lack of resources, but from the fundamentally lacking belief in true equality: why should poor people get equal medical care or education? In the eyes of the dominant elements of society, the poor have not worked hard enough and do not have equal worth. How can the poor pursue happiness as Thomas Jefferson envisioned?

Resetting the relationship between democracy and capitalism and finding the appropriate bounds of freedom will be critical in the Second Enlightenment. These concepts need to be recalibrated to support each other but also limit each other, always for the good of ALL people and nature.

Related essays:

KEY PRINCIPLE # 4:    FOCUS ON WELLBEING

It is time to shift our social evolution into a higher gear, suitable for our modern human needs and our ethical standards. A Second Enlightenment would therefore be focused on manifesting a world focused on the true welfare of all people and all parts of the earth, living in a healthy world together. The emerging Enlightenment is about protecting all humans whether weak or strong, sick or healthy, regardless of gender and identity equality. True globalism is like family life: everyone, despite their talents and flaws, has worth and a role to play. Everyone must be protected, safeguarding a sense of kinship rather than leaving the weak to perish in a monetary competition. The ethic of a ‘competitive’ freedom is highly problematic if the goal is the wellbeing of all.

This focuses also on the wellbeing of the entire earth, protecting the cosmic earth elements such as the rivers, lakes, soil, oceans, air, animals, and plants.

Related essays:

KEY PRINCIPLE # 5:   FOCUS ON INTERDEPENDENCE

Our long-term global and societal success comes with an embrace of the law of interdependency, both human interdependence as well as recognition of our interdependence with nature. Interdependence is a profound ecological phenomenon which elucidates our new understanding of the intricate web of life. It means we depend on animals, plants, air, oceans and the entire natural life. This law requires empathy for one another and all forms of life.

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KEY PRINCIPLE # 6:   FOCUS ON IMPERMANENCE

The illusion of permanence of cultures, civilizational structures, and political power structures must be abandoned. Our mortality keeps all politics temporary. Mortality and the passage of time is the cause of displacing power, and is behind all political shifts in history.  Therefore, rather than wait for death to force change in a system, we can be more aware and make changes consciously, when needed. Accepting the reality and inevitability of change would inherently make systems more flexible and natural.

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