Francis Bacon on the Need of New Untried Means to Perform Things That Have Never Yet Been Performed

“It would be madness, and inconsistency, to suppose that things which have never yet been performed, can be performed without employing some hitherto untried means.” (p. 253) [Francis Bacon. Novum Organum: Instauratio Magna (New Instrument: The Great Renewal). Emphasis added. Note: Organum – 1) set of principles for use in philosophical and scientific research; 2)… Read More

(The) Communist Party Developed a Pyramidal Structure of Remarkable Organizational Efficiency: We May Regret the Application of the Tool, But We Have to Admire Its Technical Perfection

“We may think many things of the Communist Party: but we must recognize that the mechanisms it developed are of remarkable efficiency, and that we cannot deny them a democratic character, due to their constant care in keeping in touch with the bases, and of always ‘listening to the masses.’ (…) The strength of the… Read More

Fetish of Mass Suffrage Without Any Qualification Whatsoever

“Undoubtedly each man is competent in his own sphere, to say what he wants for his town or village and who will serve it best among those he knows. But when it comes to a question of deciding intricate issues of national and international import, it is but common sense that only those should exercise… Read More

Proposal of a System in Harmony with the Law of the Universal Brotherhood (Annie Besant, N. Sri Ram and Jai Prakash Narain)

“Some time ago Pandit Nehru, in one of his speeches, threw out rather vaguely the idea that some day, instead of the present manner of elections to the Indian Parliament, some system, less direct and more suited to conditions in India, might be considered. Since then, Mr. Jai Prakash Narain (…) has more definitely proposed,… Read More

India Should Evolve a New Model of Democracy

“If India can evolve a form of democracy in which there is some chance for the needed wisdom to come to the top, she will thereby be serving the best interests of her own people, as well as setting an example that might help and inspire other peoples.” (N. Sri Ram. On the Watch Tower, p.… Read More

Participatory Democracy (or the Democracy of the Future), in the Vision of Professor C.B. Macpherson

“Let me turn finally to the question of how a participatory democracy might be run if we did achieve the prerequisites. How participatory could it be, given that at any level beyond the neighbourhood it would have to be an indirect or representative system rather than face-do-face direct democracy? If one looks at the question… Read More

Principle of the Democracy of the Future in One of the Oldest Books: the I CHING

A worldview that contemplates an essential unity in relation to the deep nature of human beings’ consciences and, at the same time, a great diversity of capabilities, is certainly not something new. Millennia ago this same general notion, about the decisive importance of a clear perception, as well as a fair equation and a harmonization… Read More

How to Find the Best Is the Problem: To Solve It You Must Realise the Hopelessness of the Present Line of Ruling

“Brotherhood applied to Government claims for the wise and not for the ignorant (…) how to find the best? The Ideal is that the best should rule; but how to find them, that is the problem. Every one of us who studies must try to solve this problem, and the suggestions I am here making… Read More

Above All Things Teach the Doctrine of the Spiritual Grades or Levels, Which Have No Relation to the Outward Condition of Life

“Above all things teach the doctrine of the Spiritual Grades or Levels. The Christians made a serious mistake in requiring the same rule of all persons. Castes are as ladders whereby to ascend from the lower to the higher. They are properly spiritual grades, and have no relation to the outward condition of life. Like… Read More

(The) Banquet of the Gods

“I saw in my sleep a great table spread upon a beautiful mountain, the distant peaks of which were covered with snow, and brilliant with a bright light. Around the table reclined, twelve persons, six male, six female, some of whom I recognised at once, the others afterwards. Those whom I recognised at once were… Read More