A WISER POLITICS

As the political process has become increasingly managerial and parties have tended to move to occupy the middle ground, ideas and values have become less important than competence. A wider vision and deeper understanding represented by earlier ways of thinking and feeling encourages us to reconnect with the Cosmos and the Earth. The word cosmopolitan comes from a combination of cosmos and the Greek term polis, and now needs to be redefined. The book falls into three parts, the first dealing with political myths and philosophies originating since the 16th century, while the second analyses elements largely missing from current political discourse, namely the feminine, indigenous knowledge, the natural world and its creatures, the numinous, the child and the self. Then the third part offers a more comprehensive myth of politics in the light of what is missing.

The overall view of the nature of humanity informs political thinking, so Machiavelli, Hobbes and Burke all sought ways of controlling human disorder represented by sin as an inherent quality. Following on, Locke, John Stuart Mill and Friedrich Hayek represent the rise of individualism and capitalism as usury was decriminalised and economics gradually came to occupy a central place. A different stream of thinkers prioritised equality and socialism, while the rise of Darwinism emphasised our competitive nature, even though Darwin himself had plenty to say about love and co-operation, a theme elaborated by Kropotkin in his famous book Mutual Aid. Darwin's co-discoverer Wallace held much more radical views and believed in the possibility of spiritual as well as social evolution. Romantic thinkers beginning with Rousseau held that the human being was free by nature and subsequently repressed by society. Jean makes it clear how important these underlying assumptions about human nature are and that we need to consider the nature of collective consciousness.

The thinking in this first part is dominated by men, with the exception of Mary Wollstonecraft. Non-Western races are regarded as inferior, as yet untouched by Progress. There is little regard for the natural world, even if Darwin's thinking encouraged us to view human beings as situated within nature. Then there is the rise of secularism and rationalism in the Enlightenment and a general ignorance about the effect of upbringing on later adult development. Jean fills in these gaps, drawing on the important work of Riane Eisler and highlighting the way in which feeling is largely excluded at the expense of thought. Anthropology began to develop in the late 19th century, so we now know far more about other peoples than we did and are less arrogant in our outlook. It is curious to reflect that even people like Sir JG Frazer uses words like 'primitive savage' to describe indigenous people. Another significant development is the re-emergence of the idea of nature as a living organism through the Gaia hypothesis and an increasing scepticism about purely mechanistic thinking. All this was prefigured by 19th-century German thinkers such as Goethe and Schelling, and also finds expression in the American transcendentalists like Emerson and Thoreau. The environmental movement is only 40 years old and still has to take its place at the very centre of politics.

In the third part, Jean reviews theories of human nature from Hinduism and Buddhism as well as Meister Eckhart and modern thinkers like Jung and Teilhard de Chardin. Her message is one of a journey towards wholeness based on individuation and integration of complementary qualities. Politics can also become more conscious by being more aware of the shadow and the tendency to be projected. Our highest aspirations have yet to be translated into politics, and it is not clear how a transformation of consciousness might impact on our institutions. In the first instance, we need a wider public debate about the scope and potential of human nature and values. Gender roles are already being redefined, but structures have yet to evolve in a corresponding fashion. Gradually, however, a planetary understanding of our role is emerging and along with it a planetary consciousness and a planetary ethic. Jean has made a valuable contribution to this essential reorientation towards a wisdom society. If your political thinking needs refreshing and extending, then this wide-ranging book is a valuable resource.