2. GREAT CHALLENGES FOR WORLD PEACE
UNIVERSAL PRINCIPLES TO BUILD
A CULTURE OF PEACE
VOLUME V
Copyright © Miguel Angel Cano Jimenez
First English Edition: 2018
ISBN: 978-1984255044
Edited by the author: Miguel Angel Cano Jimenez
email: famcano2004@gmail.com
Cover Design: Sunil Cano

3. Great Challenges for World Peace
Chapter 1 Individualism versus Communitarianism
Chapter 2 The Problem of Economic Inequalities
Chapter 3 The Problem of the Deterioration of the
Democratic Societies
Chapter 4 The Problem of Moral Degradation of
Public and Private Life
Chapter 5 Clash of Civilizations or World Peace?

4. Everyone agrees that we live in a time of crisis. It is a
generalized crisis of values. In science and philosophy the
search for truth, certitude or rationality is in a dead end. In the
sphere of ethics, there is a total confusion about what is right
or wrong.
Society is plagued by problems, ranging from the increase in
youth violence, including child abuse, to problems such as
abusive use of alcohol and drugs, sexual offenses, abuse and
violence within the family, until the corruption of political and
financial elites.
Moreover, at the global level, we are immersed in a series of
regional wars and exposed to the growing danger of conflicts
or clashes between different nations, cultures and civilizations,
in addition to the serious threat of international terrorism.
INTRODUCTION

5. «Man, having been transformed into a thing, is anxious,
without faith, without conviction, with little capacity for
love. He escapes into empty busy-ness, alcoholism, extreme
sexual promiscuity, and psychosomatic symptoms of all
kinds, which can best be explained by the theory of stress.
Paradoxically, the wealthiest societies turn out to be the
sickest, and the progress of medicine in them is matched by
a great increase of all forms of psychic and psychosomatic
illness.»
Erich Fromm, On Being Human, Continuum, New York, 1994, pp.
36-37.
As Erich Fromm rightly points out in the following quote, it is
paradoxical that opulent societies are the ones who are plagued with most
psychological problems caused by conflicting human relationships that
lead many people to loneliness, depression and even suicide.

6. The root of current problems lies in the moral
emptiness created by the crisis of values.
Therefore, it is of utmost importance to research
for core values and universal ethical principles
that can be shared and accepted by all nations,
cultures and religions.
These universally shared values should serve as
a basis for a peace education that fosters
peaceful coexistence among individuals, families,
races, nations and civilizations, in order to
achieve a stable and lasting world peace.

7. In this volume, entitled Great
Challenges for World Peace, we
analyze the three great challenges
that humanity would have to
overcome if we are to achieve a
stable and lasting peace for the
new millennium.
Today, global solutions are
needed for all problems, be they at
the individual and family level as
well as at the national or global
scale, since they all affect the
majority of nations equally.
A first big problem is to end hunger and
poverty in the world and achieve a global
equalization of wealth.
The second big challenge of our day is to try
to solve the problem of moral degradation or
the widespread of corruption at all levels of
society.
A third major challenge is to control and
prevent the wars and conflicts between
nations, ethnic groups or cultures that caused
such disastrous humanitarian consequences in
the twentieth century, as well as to solve the
serious problem of international terrorism.

8. The source of inspiration and motivation
for this research has been the philosophical,
ethical and religious thinking of Sun Myung
Moon, an extraordinary man who dedicated
his whole life to world peace.
He founded the Unification Movement and
numerous organizations and institutions in
all fields of culture. He brought together
scientists, teachers, communicators,
educators, religious leaders, and political
leaders to participate in numerous
international conferences in order to work
for world peace, transcending national,
cultural, racial and religious barriers.
Like other great visionaries as
Jesus, Buddha or Socrates, he has
never written anything, but
throughout his life he has given a
vivid education through lectures,
sermons and public conferences.
For this reason, Dr. Sung Hun Lee,
a Korean scholar, put in order and
systematize the philosophical
thinking of Sun Myung Moon, which
is called “Unification Thought”,
because its claim is to harmonize all
contradictory schools and currents of
human thought throughout history.

9. «Humankind’s destiny is to bring together all the
points of view that are now divided against each
other. The philosophy that will lead humanity in the
future must be able to bring together all religions
and philosophies.(…)
If we continue the era of people congregating
together only by religion or race, then humanity
cannot avoid a repetition of war. The age of peace
absolutely cannot come unless we transcend
cultural customs and traditions.»
Sun Myung Moon, As a Peace-loving Global Citizen,TheWashingtonTimes
Foundation, USA, 2009, p. 291.

11. 1. Historical roots of the
modern individualist vision
2. Exacerbation of modern
individualism encouraged by
metaphysical, economic,
moral, and naturalist
theories
3. Criticism to individualism
4. Individualism from the point
of view of individual purpose
and purpose for the whole
CHAPTER 1 INDIVIDUALISM VERSUS COMMUNITARIANISM
5. The communitarianism of Amitai
Etzioni: A social order based on the
voluntary acceptance of a shared core
values
6. Harmony and complementarity between
individualist and communitarian visions
7. The Three Great Challenges Facing
Humanity
8. An ideal world based on the principles of
interdependence, mutual prosperity and
universally shared values

12. The controversy between individualists and
communitarians is a debate whose roots go back to
Democritus and Aristotle, emphasizing one that things
must be explained by reducing them to its simplest parts,
while the other indicates that the whole or organisms
have their own laws and purposes that cannot be
explained from the parts.
In moral and political philosophy, the controversy
between individualists and communitarians —that is,
between those who emphasize the supremacy of
individual autonomy and rights and who instead highlight
the duties towards community and common way of life—
is one of the debates, as Cortina points out, «which have
resulted in a higher number of publications, congresses
and meetings.»
Adela Cortina, Hasta un pueblo de demonios,Taurus, Madrid, 1998, p. 89.
In this chapter we are going to try if it is
possible to harmonize these two visions,
which apparently seem opposite and
contradictory.
We will begin by referring to the liberal
roots of individualism and its evolution,
then moving on to the reasons that have
led many moral and political philosophers
over the past few decades to openly
question the individualist view that
prevails inWestern democracies.
And we will end up referring to the
communitarian paradigm and to the
possibility of harmonizing both visions.
INTRODUCTION

13. As is well known, modern individualism has its
roots in the bourgeois revolutions of the eighteenth
century and the liberal theorists who promoted and
justified them. His revolutionary proclamations were
a plea for the natural rights of individuals to life,
liberty, and property.They demanded that all human
beings be treated with equal dignity and rights,
against the abuses of power, tyranny and corruption
of the monarchs and the aristocratic class.
They fought against a hierarchical and classist
social system that legitimized through bloodline and
family inheritance the royal authority and the abusive
privileges of the nobility. Privileges such as the
monopoly of wealth and land ownership, the
hoarding of all public offices, and judicial
prerogatives, which left the common people and the
emerging bourgeois class in a clear helplessness.
They advocated freedom of religious and
political beliefs, as well as freedom of
expression and association.All this in order to
avoid imprisoning or condemning people to
death for having different beliefs, and
preventing the official or majority religion to
persecute minority religions, along with the
usual practice of kings and rulers to eliminate
their opponents or political rivals.
HISTORICAL ROOTS OF THE MODERN INDIVIDUALIST VISION

14. Perhaps the greatest achievement of modern
democracies has been the consolidation in a large
part of the present world of the right to freedom
of religious and political beliefs. In other words,
tolerance and respect for the plurality of beliefs
and ways of life;The right not to be judged or
condemned for having different ideas from those
of the rulers, as well as freedom of expression
and association, freedom of movement and free
initiative.
However, the ideal of all men being equal and
living fraternally as brothers and sisters,
unfortunately, has not been realized. In the
capitalist democratic nations, equality of
opportunity is more nominal than real.This is
because they failed to achieve economic equality.
This is a goal that should also have been
pursued, since the original ideal of democracy
was precisely to create a society in which all
human beings were like the brothers and sisters
of a large family, in which there were no class
distinctions or economic status.
Achievements and failures of modern liberal democracies

15. In fact, the bourgeois revolutionaries
soon became a new capitalist
"aristocracy," seizing privileges, wealth,
and power.
They behaved in a similar way to the
old aristocracy they criticized, with the
only difference now that the social status
or value of people is measured by the
number of digits in their bank account
rather than the high birth or lineage.
One of the main reasons for this failure
is the progressive emergence of a selfish
individualism that has always infested
capitalist democratic societies from the
beginning to the present day.
Achievements and failures of modern liberal democracies

16.  Modern Atomism
 Adam Smith’s EconomicTheory
 The hedonistic utilitarianism of Bentham
 Malthus’ Naturalism and Spencer’s Social
Darwinism
 The egoistic and hedonistic lifestyle
prevailing in modern democracies
EXACERBATION OF MODERN INDIVIDUALISM ENCOURAGED BY
METAPHYSICAL, ECONOMIC, MORAL, AND NATURALIST THEORIES

17. EXACERBATION OF MODERN INDIVIDUALISM ENCOURAGED BY
METAPHYSICAL, ECONOMIC, MORAL, AND NATURALIST THEORIES
Let us now see how
individualism —starting from an
initial just defense of human
dignity and the natural rights of
individuals against the oppression
and tyranny of the old regime—
was exacerbated with the rational
support of certain metaphysical,
moral, economic and naturalistic
theories.

18. In the first place, the early liberal theorists
used atomism —which at the time was very
popular among scientists— in order to rebut
the arguments of the conservatives who
justified the hierarchical structure of the
monarchical system, arguing that it was the
most appropriate and natural because it
resembled the hierarchical whole of the
cosmos and living organisms.
This atomist vision led them to highlight in
an exaggerated and exclusive way the
individual rights of the people, ignoring the
duties that each individual has toward others.
This view encouraged individuals to seek only
their personal or family happiness by forgetting
to contribute to the well-being of their
communities, nations or world, as Goodwin
explains:
Thus, they rejected any philosophical, political or
religious view that spoke of a cohesive and harmonious
social whole, and that encouraged people to live for their
communities and nations, since this would be to fall back
into tyranny