Author: Ayatullah al-Uzma Nasir Makarim Shirazi
It is not only in the discussions of physics that we face a law called \”the Law of Reaction\” that for instance, if an objects hits a wall with a specific force then it will be moved in the opposite direction with the same force, but we found this law more sensible in social issues.
Historical experiences show us that changes and expanded revolutions have always been the direct reaction to the previous pressures; and maybe no expanded revolution has happened in the world unless there was a severe pressure in the opposite direction.
In other words, radicalism has always been the source of changes, for example:
1) Scientific Revolution of Europe (renaissance) – which was a reaction against one thousand years of ignorance and backwardness of the Middle Ages, and the pressures which have been made by superstitious custodians of church for keeping people backward, and suddenly they remove the factors of ignorance and fired the torch of science and fluttered the flag of knowledge everywhere.
2) The Great French Revolution in 1789 – which was an extraordinary political and social lunge against autocracy, class imperialism and oppression of governing regimes, and entered the French society and then other European societies to a new era of their history and replace the oppression and autocracy with the government of law, albeit somehow.
3) Revolution against Slavery in 1848 – which first started in England and was the result of extremely harsh and antihuman behavior of slaveholders with slaves that in one side started the fire of revolution in slaves themselves and on the other side in the impassioned feelings of societies for the slaves, and destroyed the slavery system, although another form of slavery which was more mysterious and expanded than that took its place and the school of \”imperialism\” was founded under the title of \”helping the improvement of backward countries\”!
Slavery system had to be finished anyway, but behavior of slaveholders with slaves speeded up the process.
4) Revolution against Imperialism – that in our time, was the direct reaction to antihuman behavior of imperialists in colonies and still is; and has become the cause of the growth of wisdom in colonized people and started the opposition against imperialistic powers, although mostly was not resulted in complete economical, social, political and intellectual independence, but the conditions become very different from the past.
5) Communist Revolution in 1917 – which was the reaction to the oppressions of capitalists and their uncounted violations of rights of laborious and enchained people. However, as I have said in its place, this revolution was not ended in the freedom of oppressed classes either, and another autocratic system took its place called \”Dictatorship of the Proletariat\” which was in fact the dictatorship of some few leaders of the party.
6) Revolution against Racial Discrimination – which is currently in progress in the world, is the reaction to severe pressures of whites on blacks and their extraordinary deprivation of social rights.
If we turn the pages of the history and go back to the past then we face the examples of the law of reaction everywhere.
History of prophets is full of series of changes, which their backgrounds were ready before, because of severe social pressures, and prophets led and grew these revolutions with divine teachings and advanced them in the right way.
Not only we find many examples for this law among real events of nations of the world in contemporary and previous history, but also the reflection of this law can clearly be seen in the myths and the legends of the nations.
It is mentioned in the story of \”Zahhak\” and \”Kave the Blacksmith\” that the snakes; which had appeared on the shoulders of Zahhak had to be fed by human brain and everyday they had to take brains off the skulls and feed the snakes with them in order that they remain peaceful!
The truth is that brains should feed the colorful and poisonous snake of “imperialism”; and intellectual imperialism is the root and the base of all imperialisms!
Then we see that among these deprived society, which was under the strikes of Zahhak, a blacksmith, who had seen the pressure of fire and his powerful arms had the ability of striking the hammer of revolution, rose and made the flag of revolution out of the same apron which had resisted many times against the sparks of fire, and destroyed the system of Zahhak and the final reaction happened!
There is also a discussion in today\’s \”psychoanalysis\” and \”psychology\” which is another reflection of this law.
This discussion tells us: If human desires are not satisfied in a proper way then these repressed desires retreat from the stage of \”consciousness\” to \”unconsciousness\” and forms a \”complex\” in that stage, but according to some other, unconsciousness is nothing except these repressed desires!
They don\’t stay calm inside the human self and continuously try to express themselves; reactions of these complexes are the very difference in people but it is possible to say that they usually express themselves in one of the following forms:
1) Through making mental disorder and disordering the consciousness
2) Through escaping from the society and isolation and pessimism
3) Through unaware revenge from the society which has made him/her this
4) Through satisfactions in imaginative and imitative forms
5) Through \”sublimation\” and flying to more superior levels
For example, assume that a boy falls in love with a girl and again assume that he couldn\’t have married her because of her parents strong disagreement; this firing love will be drove from the consciousness to unconsciousness and not only it won\’t be destroyed but it will soon express strong reactions.
Maybe it makes him mad; or puts him in isolation forever; or makes him a revengeful and dangerous criminal; or diverts him to poetry and literature, and brings him to his love in the world of poetic dreams.
But sometimes, maybe this material love changes to a deep divine love, and disengages himself from other than God and flies like an enlightened pious man of God; albeit, these differences are because of other mental differences and preparations and various spiritual backgrounds of people.
Therefore, we see that mental pressures always face the revolutions and strong reactions, which is another feature of the law of reaction.
Conclusion: This law tells us that the current condition of the world is ready for a revolution.
Pressure of wars, pressure of oppressions and tyrannies, pressure of discriminations and partialities, accompanied by failures and hopelessness of humans from current laws for removing or decreasing these pressures, will finally show its strong reaction.
Finally, these repressed human desires form a massive social complex, under the light of advancing knowledge of nations that exits from the inner self of societies and shows itself by a hyper speed movement and disorders the current system of human societies, and make a new plan.
A plan in which there is neither the signs of unstopped nuclear competition nor the signs of this much of tiresome conflicts and bloody fights, imperialism, autocracy, oppression, injustice and suffocation.
And this is another sparkle of hope for the bright future, which a universal society expects.
Social Necessities and Obligations
The purpose of “social obligation” is that the condition of human living reaches a level in which he feels the necessity of a matter and accepts that as an “obligation”.
We also know that at the beginning every human is in the way that wants to be completely free and wants to have no restriction, but gradually understands that this freedom deprives him/her from many social life advantages and harms his/her genuine desires; and if he/she doesn’t accept some restrictions called “the Law” then the society in which he/she lives will move to chaos and will be destroyed.
Here, accepts the regulations, principles and laws.
By the advancement of societies, restrictions are being increased day by day and still we accept them as “necessities”.
We express a simple example for this issue: About traffic laws, when a person has a high speed vehicle wants to go anywhere he/she wants freely, parks in anywhere he/she wants, drives with any speed, passes the crossroads without stopping, but soon he/she understands that if he/she performs these acts then there is no reason also for others not to perform, and the result is chaos and various kinds of dangers.
Therefore, today any child knows that it is not a correct act. Regulations should exit, although it takes hours to reach the destination; penalties and string discipline (but fair and wise) should be available, otherwise everyday hundreds of people lose their lives or their vehicle in this way.
We call this social “necessity” or “obligation”.
But it is important that a “real need” of the society appears in the way that the necessity of its existence could be accepted by everyone or at least thinkers and leaders of the society; and firstly it needs the improvement of social awareness and rationality of people of the society, and then relation with the appearance of unfavorable results of the current conditions of the society and impossibility of continuing the way.
Accordingly, (for example) we see that cries against the pollution of the environment have no results, and nobody listens to accepts the regulations of cleaning the environment; but when people see that for instance, air of a city like Tehran has become so much polluted that continuous illnesses threatens its people, breathing has become hard, eyes are irritated, and according to statisticians each day ten persons become blind, saliva becomes dark, by spending some hours in the city, the signs of skin diseases and gradually the signs of cardiovascular and breath diseases have appeared, here people accept severe regulations and are happy of destroying the factories, which have been build with enormous amounts of money, removing thousands of smoker vehicles and abstaining from many of profitable economical activities which cause air pollution.
By considering this example we return to the main discussion: Maybe in the 17th and 18th century, people imagined a paradise in the 20th century by observing eye-catcher industrial advancements, they thought that with this fast development of industries there will be a day that:
Underground resources will be discovered one after another;
The hands of science will finally control the power of “atom” which is the most important and the biggest energy resource;
Humans will realize the dream of flying to skies;
By hitting a button, the house will be cleaned, the food will be ready, the clothes and dished will be washed, the rooms will be warm in winters and cool in summers; by hitting a button, the land will be plowed, seeds will be sown and finally equipped machineries will collect, clean and pack the crop and make it ready for being used…
And in that time, the man sits and enjoys this much of peace and comfort!
But they didn’t believe that industrial and mechanical human won’t have more welfare in life, but by the advancement of technology, new disorders and the giant of new problems appear; ifrit of “the World Wars” will dominate the centers of industry by its terrible shadow, and demolish that in a short time in the way that it might not be seen even in dreams!
Now, understands that how much their life has become dangerous!
If in the past they talk about wars in which some thousands of people were died, now the discussion is about the war, which its result is the destruction of human civilization on the earth and returning to the Stone Age!
Gradually, they understand that previous regulations are not enough for keeping the current conditions and great victories in industry and civilization, and should accept new regulations.
Gradually, the time will come that the “existence of a united universal government” will be felt as a “necessity” and “an unavoidable reality” for ending the hard armament competition, for ending the increasing conflicts of big powers and for taking the world away from the chasm of war, that finally this factitious and troublesome borders should be removed and all the people of the world live under one flag and with one law!
The time will come that social rationality will reach a level in the world that people see that the unfair distribution of wealth in its current form – that in one side of the world and even sometimes in one side of the city, there are so much wealthy people whose dogs and cats also have hospitals, physicians and dentists and luxurious bedrooms, but on the other side, people are falling on the ground like yellow leaves of fall because of hunger – will have a terrible future; and without a fair system of distribution of wealth, the world won’t see peace; but wealthy and poor, backward and developed countries both will be in discomfort.
When these issues become a “necessity” because of the appearance of unfavorable reactions of the current conditions and improvement of general rationality then revolution and change will be certain; as it was the same in the past.
Therefore, “social obligation” is another effective factor that moves the people of the world toward a life mixed with peace and justice by its powerful functionality, and places the pillars of a universal government according to a new plan.
It was being discussed that according to evidences, whether the future of the world is peace and justice or destruction and degeneration?
Hitherto, we’ve found clear evidences for the first possibility through four ways, but it may be said against this expression that if it is in this way then there is no sign of going toward such destination in current conditions of the world, but contrarily, the current conditions are more disappointing than promising!
We also accept that the first look confirms this opinion; but more consideration shows that today’s mankind has taken stapes and are also taking toward that great goal and there are signs of self-awareness in his thoughts and life.
Although, these steps are not so much great, and even some of them are not serious, but whatever it is, there are considerable steps for intellectual preparation of the environment.
Some examples of these evidences will be mentioned as follows:
A) Establishing Universal Councils and Adoption of Universal Declaration of Human Rights
We know that the First and the Second World War, which was similar to bipolar disorder in the world of humanity, left awakening effects against its deadly results.
Following the First World War, “League of Nations” was founded; but after a while the roars of cannons of the Second World War destroyed its remains.
But, that short time experience caused a comparably stronger foundation of a world center and source called “United Nations” to be placed and an interesting charter called “Universal Declaration of Human Rights” to be adopted.
We don’t deny that some of its articles are similar to our famous story of “bell” and “the cat”, and it is not possible to find a person in order to place the bell on the cat’s neck in present conditions; and it is not deniable that this step, with its all deficiencies, is an important step which have been made, and at least all the people of the world believe in this thinking way, although, they limp in execution of that!
Consider well; aren’t the following articles, which are quoted from “Universal Declaration of Human Rights”, the same issues which we were searching for in previous discussion?!
Article 1: All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
Article 3: Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.
Article 5: No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
Article 6: Everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law.
Article 7: All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law…
Article 26: Everyone has the right to education … Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms…
Article 29: Everyone has “duties” to the community in which alone the free and full development of his personality is possible.
And finally the last article of this Universal Declaration blocks the way of all exploiters:
Article 30: Nothing in this Declaration may be interpreted as implying for any State, group or person any right to engage in any activity or to perform any act aimed at the destruction of any of the rights and freedoms set forth herein.
Again, we remind that we are not dupe to believe these beautiful mottoes, which are like a “sweet dream” and has lots of work to become practical, as performed issues in current disordered conditions of the world, or ignore the incapability and weakness of big universal councils in solving lots of problems.
But we should ignore its existence, which is the reason of entering humanity to a new era, like pessimistic people.
We know that in fact, “United Nations” is considered as a “mother organization” and it has branches which one of them is “Security Council”.
The difference of this “child” with that “mother” is that the “mother” doesn’t have executing power and its resolutions are series of official advices to the countries of the world.
Accordingly, sometimes pessimistic people name this universal council “tribune”, “universal speed hall” or “without-government parliament” and like that; but whatever it is, it has this benefit that all countries of the world participate in voting based of “equality”, and its resolutions have considerable spiritual and mental effects on public opinion of the people of the world.
But its child “security council” has enough executing power and capability! And if it wants then it can execute its resolutions, but unfortunately, it doesn’t have enough voting power; because each of the five powers (United States, USSR, China, France and United Kingdom) which are permanent and forever members of the council! can solely nullify any decision by their negative vote and this “veto” right, which is the memento of the age of imperialism on the forehead of this important universal center, usually cripple it in important decisions!
Therefore, one of them has executing power but doesn’t legislate and the other one legislates but doesn’t have the power to execute!
But, by having these problems, this “half-complete center” of United Nations and its achievement, this noisy and few-effective center, if we want to be fair, has been able to perform some works, although small; and regardless of its work, its feature is the reason for a new thinking way to be created in the world which has been started from “semi-serious” and even joking levels and is moving toward more serious levels; because all countries of the world, by having all differences and disagreement of schools and method, feel that they need its existence and consider its nonexistence very bad.
B) Talking about General Disarmament
Although this expression has not gone beyond talking, commissions and bureaucracy yet; and still what is going on outside the commissions of universal disarmament is an evidence for “the advancement of armament competition”, but general acceptance of this opinion by the people of the world shows that a kind of self-awareness has appeared in the universal conscience; and at least all of big and small government are satisfied that they spend a large part of their wealth for destructive scrap metals which has specified the most powerful brains of scientists for their advancement and development, while these “assets” and “brains” are highly needed in “construction issues”; and everyone is scrambling to save himself/herself from this big and dangerous trap, and may the day come when great economical and human assets are being attracted to fundamental issues and the centers of needs and pains.
One of universal centers announced statistics about the costs of keeping military soldiers from each of the big governments, soldiers who are the youngest and the most living members of the society, and in other words, the costs of destroying this great power every year.
And this center expressed large figures like astronomical figures that showed there are also new thinking ways beside these false plans, the thinking way which says this plan is not continual and should be revised.
And this is considered as another great step toward that goal.
C) The Attack of Peace!
In today’s world, everyone is talking about peace, even certain militants! Because hatred of war has become prevalent, and frightening destructions of the World Wars has not been forgotten and never will be!
Although, enthusiasm for peace, still like many of human desires, has not gone beyond a dream, and everywhere is being used as a motto, and even fire-starters of the wars carry it with themselves; but anyhow, this conditions show that a “general thirst” has occurred to everyone for “panacea of peace”, and indeed the people of the world demand that as the main basis for the development of all plans.
Especially, by considering that today’s wars are so much costly that it is possible for a country to move backward tens of years in economy and civilization adding to bearing billions of financial damages and thousands of casualties in only some days in the war.
This public desire should never be underestimated; because sprouts of any change and revolution firstly grow in the depths of minds as a “desire”, an “unsupported demand” or a “pleasant motto”; then converts to a “necessity” and an “unavoidable reality” and gradually changes the pillars of the society.
Armistice of previous wars of Vietnam and the United States has been ignored five hundred thousand times, according to press! But finally, we saw that it reached the serious level and necessity, which had to be realized, had been realized by the victory of Vietnam.