On the surface, the world is facing triple crises – financial meltdown, environmental degradation and climate change, and the spread of terror and weapons of mass destruction. 

However, if we scratch beneath the surface, we will find that these crises are mere symptoms of a deeper malaise. The world we live in is divided between 3.3 billion inhabitants in the market and 3.3 billion people living in the periphery. By 2030, there will be more than 8.5 billion on our planet. And if we maintain current growth rates, we will still have 3.3 billion in the periphery. These 3.3 billion people do not merely suffer from developmental deficit. They also experience the deficit of political opportunities and dignity.

We have created a world with spaceships, antibiotics, computers, and skyscrapers. However, we have also created a world that is short in compassion towards almost half of the human species and ruthless towards other species. Scientific reports indicate that temperatures will rise and many of the world’s glaciers will melt by 2050. This will result in the shrinking of rivers, disappearance of lakes, death of flora and fauna and the depletion of sea life. The inequity and environmental injustice we find beneath the surface are symptoms of even deeper problems.

At the deepest level, mankind needs to determine whether its driving force should be mere power or certain principles. This will depend on our understanding of the nature of man – whether it is good or evil. When we understand the true nature of man, we will be able to construct a model of global governance derived from it. 

In the 3rd century BC, the Chinese philosophers were the first ones to initiate a debate on the core question of how society should be governed. Mencius professed that the nature of man was intrinsically good and it should apply to the society. Therefore, the institutions of governance should be benevolent and shaped to harness the best of the human spirit. Xunzi advocated that the nature of man was evil and therefore the state should be shaped to exercise control. Han Fei went a step ahead and argued for a strong state. Since then Xunzi’s and Han Fei’s theory of a powerful state and a power-driven world has attracted not only rulers in China, but also those elsewhere in the world.

Unfortunately, for almost a thousand years, nobody in the world revived the debate initiated by Mencius and Xunzi. A millennium later it surfaced again when Thomas More recommended a society based on the goodness of human nature, fairness, equity and a benevolent and accountable state in his Utopia. At the same time, Machiavelli created the model of a ruthless state, constantly involved in expanding power, trampling ethics and principles, in his treatise, The Prince. The model presented by Machiavelli was inspired by the life of Cesar Borgia, a cruel prince who had totally failed once he lost the benefit of his father’s patronage. And yet state after state since then has followed Machiavelli. Rousseau and Kant tried to introduce balance but without any success. Hobbes’s view that man is a wolf and needs to subjugate to a powerful state has dominated.

The worldview promoted by Xunzi, Machiavelli and Hobbes over the last 2300 years has created powerful states that are constantly competing for more and more power. The competition for power in the higher orbits invokes more of such competition in lower orbits. It creates a world where everyone wants to maximize his own interests at the cost of others, giving rise to conflicts and arms race. It is a world in which a few bankers profit at the cost of millions of depositors. It is a world in which a few energy companies enrich themselves at the cost of 6.6 billion inhabitants of the earth. It is a world in which terrorists and manufacturers of weapons of mass destruction build palaces, while 100 million people died in various wars of the 20th century and several hundred million may perish if major wars take place in the 21st century. 

Even if we solve the current financial, environmental and security problems of today, we risk encountering worse threats tomorrow. The swelling number of unemployed youth, underestimated at 100 million at present, the number of children dying due to malnutrition and lack of basic healthcare, underestimated at 100 million per decade, and the number of people without access to water and electricity, much underestimated at 1,000 million are not merely statistics. These numbers are about the lives of real people. 

The economists who study the statistics may prepare policy packages for alleviating poverty. Those who actually experience deprivation may train themselves in stealing material for radiological or biological weapons to destabilise the world as we know it. The winners in the game of power purchase more and more sophisticated weapons. The losers in the game of power may acquire cruder and more unpredictable weapons. On the surface, one side is legal and the other illegal. Beneath the surface, both are practitioners of the Xunzian and Machiavellian thinking. 

The greatest priority for mankind is to exorcise the ghost of Xunzi and seek the blessings of Mencius. It is to rid the phantom of Machiavelli from our neck and practise the wisdom of Thomas More. It is to abandon Hobbes’s assumption that man is a wolf and to draw a new social contract for the world, as Rousseau had envisioned for the ancient regime. Indeed, our challenge is to recognise that the power driven model we have adopted since the establishment of the first state in Egypt some 5000 years is now outdated, ancient, dying and dangerous. We need a new global social contract based on ethical and collaborative principles.

I am not arguing for a world devoid of power. It is not possible to have such a world in reality. Also, I recognise that the pursuit of power has made much of material progress possible. Power produces entrepreneurs and politicians. It is an essential ingredient for the movement of life on the earth.

However, unrestrained power that makes us callous not only towards half of the planet’s population but also plants, animals, rivers, lakes, glaciers and the climate is self-destructive. It must be restrained by the operation of certain universal principles. Just as we need a horse to run the cart and reins to restrain the horse, we need power to move the economy and principles to restrain it. We need a balance between power and principles, which I would describe as the basic balance for the sustenance of life and the advancement of human civilization.

A world ensconced in basic balance between power and principles will be a world where new rules for technology transfer, intellectual property rights, exploration of space and seas, trans-boundary watercourses, transfer of financial resources will prevail. It will be a world where the death of ten million children every year due to malnutrition will be considered a crime against humanity and all leaders, from regional to global, will provide their time and resources to eliminate it. It will be a world where warmongers will find no enemies and terrorists will find no cause.

Lest you believe that such a world will be a boring place, there will be other interesting challenges to pursue. How to tap solar energy in space and distribute it to all people even though only a few companies will have the technology to capture and deliver such energy. How to turn the tide of seas that are rising and rivers that are shrinking so that we all may benefit from their bounties. How to create global education so that our future generations treat our world as one community rather than a set of bickering countries.

I once took a simulated flight out of the earth in Disneyworld. It made me realise what a little dot our planet is when we look at it from the vicinity of the sun, the centre of the solar system and how it vanishes if we look at it from still farther away in our galaxy. It is so sad that we have allowed the ghost of Xunzi to rule our minds because we have treated every inch of our land and water as a big deal. The greatest priority for mankind is to acquire greatness of mind to understand the teachings of Mencius and Rousseau and humility to realise our dot like presence in the universe. Our habit to treat symptoms has only given birth to a new generation of problems over the last five millennia. It is about time we question the foundation of our belief system and go deep inside our mental framework to its root. Once we reach there, we will find a smiling Mencius.

(This essay was first published in Green Herald Magazine as cover story on the occasion of the WEF Annual Meeting of New Champions held in Dalian, China)