Our future is international
"No Man is an Island" said the 17th century poet and Anglican divine John Donne in his 'Devotions'. What Donne meant was that human beings depend on one another, that being human assumes a network of relationships. Each one of us is someone's child, most of us are someone's brother or sister, cousin, aunt or uncle, mother or father, employee or boss, customer, colleague or agent. It is an essential truth of humanity that we need others and others need us.
Given our inter-dependency it is ironic that over the centuries most human conflict is a concomitant of our dealings with others. For at the same time as we need others we also desire independence, the feeling that we can cope alone, that we are self-sufficient. For most of us, most of the time, pragmatism wins. I want to drive my car but depend on the authorities to keep the road safe for me to do so. I want free choice in all manner of aspects of my life but accept that such choices require me to rely on others. Our world is a complex network of demand and supply relationships, of buying and selling, of give and take; the trade-off is our willingness to accept that "no man is an island", that we need others.
Since the world is rapidly shrinking under the influence of the electronic revolution, new realities are being forced upon us. In the distant past we could retreat into our home settlement, a village, town, or, in the last resort, country. As recently as 1938 the then PM Neville Chamberlain could infamously speak of "a quarrel in a far away country between people of whom we know nothing". Since human beings do not like too much change the familiar is much prized. There were always a few adventurers who roamed far away, indeed some acquired great wealth or precipitated important change at home, but most people stayed close to home and familiar things.
Put at its most simple and direct, there is today an imperative to go beyond our familiar ground for the whole world is our marketplace, our church, our garden, and our factory. From all sides we hear the voices of the world's poor, the sounds of famine, war and human misery. And we cannot pretend that we are separate, or distant, or that it is none of our business. Being human has never carried with it so much responsibility, just as it has never before had the potential for enjoying so many good things.
Since human beings are complex we get used to operating on several different levels simultaneously. Sometimes this seems monstrously hypocritical, as when we want to have a trading partnership that gives us preferential treatment yet at the same time resent making any sacrifice. An alien from outer space might smile at the debate about whether or not Britain should join the euro. Could it be we just want to have our cake and eat it? Or what about the building of detention centres to house immigrants? We want them built but not here thank-you. Or plans to reduce CO2 emissions? Yes, we need the reductions but not so as to affect our lifestyle. Sometimes we like to think that every man is his own island, while knowing deep down that we are, in fact, part of a human ‘continent', (not my word but Donne's).
I believe that education has a key role to play here. At the same time that we teach the young about citizenship and about their country, so we should also teach them about other's countries. Gone must be the agenda that raises one nationality above another or that seeks national advantage to another's detriment. Our new agenda should focus on the similarities between human beings rather than their differences, while not forgetting to celebrate those very differences. It should recognise the value of learning other languages, of reading other literatures and of understanding other faiths and value systems.
Education is the key to so much. It is, thank goodness, not the monopoly of the education system. If you want to learn about a society, look at the children of that society. See what are their values, how they treat one another, how they see the world. Yet children, also thank goodness, are not fixed but developing. Education offers the unique chance to help them to prepare for a brighter future. Education is not merely the key to the prosperity of an individual or of a nation but could be the key to the prosperity of the world. And this ‘prosperity' need not be financial gain at someone else's expense, but that genuine prosperity that goes hand in hand with fairness and justice, one that is co-incident with a reduction in war and its accompaniments.
For such a difference to be made requires vision and determination from all. Our future is international, whether we wrap ourselves in the flag of St George or not. More than ever before in our history Donnes's words re-echo forcefully " No man is an Island, entire of itself. Every man is a piece of the Continent, a part of the Main".
