Principles and aims of the New Atlantis Foundation

each trying to dominate the others and impose its own values, creed or social organisation on them.

There are historically two main causes for this attitude of competition and partisanship. The one is material, the other is concerned with the development of mankind. The material cause is that men have always had to fight one another for the means of livelihood. Food, shelter and clothing have been scarce and not freely available to all. But now, with the immense advances in science and technology of the last two centuries and the ever-increasing rate of this advance, there need be no problem in providing enough material wealth for everyone. We are restricted only by the misuse of our resources, including preparations for war and reckless waste of raw materials, and by failure to agree upon a fair distribution of the world’s wealth. The problem is no longer how to produce wealth but how to co-operate to distribute it equitably and use it for the benefit of all. For if we were all in agreement about this, human intelligence would soon overcome the so-called economic and financial problems.

The other cause concerns the development of mankind over the last few thousand years from tribal and family consciousness to individual consciousness; from a state of consciousness in which a human being felt the reality of his tribe or family within him to be as intense as that of his own self to a self-consciousness in which his own individuality is predominant. The process of attaining selfconsciousness involves separating oneself from and setting oneself over against others. The individual first establishes his own identity by acting differently from others, by acquiring possessions or power for himself, by holding and fighting for his own beliefs and opinions, and by other means of self-assertion. The struggle is repeated every time a child seeks to establish his own identity independently of his parents. The impulse to fight and to compete has been caused as much by this inner drive towards individuation as by physical necessity. But true individuality relies innerly upon itself and does not require any outer resistance to confirm its reality.

The attitude of competition and partisanship is thus not only physically a hindrance to the production and equitable distribution of the world’s wealth; it is also preventing any advance towards world order and world peace. Although true individuality relies innerly upon itself, it cannot be realised in isolation, but only in relationship with other persons. The final and perfect attainment of individuality is that universal awareness by which each person realises himself in relation to the world whole. He will still belong to a particular