Encyclical on Good Will
By El Morya

Major Cause of Prolongation of Problems

Strange yet obvious though it may seem, the major underlying cause for the continuation of unrest which must be universally corrected upon earth is the attitude, held far too long, of regarding life as a mere spectator sport. Examination of the historical modes will reveal that difficulties have caused people to become embroiled in struggles which have resulted in needed corrections and reforms. Likewise, the soft living of modem civilization has tended to create indifference and aloofness on the part of the very people who are not only capable of changing the world, but who are also the ones whose natures admirably fit them to be the vanguard of constructive and progressive change.

Freedoms and Their Preservation

Significant changes in men's way of life and thinking have been injected into the social structure of the West through the Magna Charts, the transition from feudalism to capitalism, the industrial revolution, treatises on self-government, and tracts in defense of men's individual spiritual awakening during the Renaissance and Reformation. These trends, which reached their peak of expression in English common law, the Mayflower Compact, the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights, the Constitution of the United States, and many other instruments of freedom, progressively recognized the worth of the individual and his inalienable rights to be governed not arbitrarily, but by conscience.

Responsible, informed, and thinking citizens of democratic countries recognize that streamlined communication and transportation have reshaped the interplay of social, political, and military forces and the more remote areas of the globe, creating thereby the parallel need for a modern approach to world unity and good will in order to actively preserve hard-won liberties.

Certain it is that power blocs do not contemplate yielding to one another; neither does stalemate appeal to the aggressive and communistic states who see in the expansion of their own doctrines a reinforcement of the progressive rights of man. Scientific considerations have solved some problems while augmenting others; yet the rise of humanitarianism is in the minority of the people, while apathy is multiplied by the mass mind in the unenlightened self-interest policies of the very social organs and individuals best equipped to give assistance to the community. Throughout history the accent on personal gain has denied to the world its victory laurels of peace and achievement. Now it is vital that present opportunities, as well as the net gains of the past, are not robbed from mankind by these same sensual misdirections.