Language That Brings About Unity
World-Embracing Principles for Bringing About World Unity - Part 7
Language that brings about unity would be designed to sustain harmony within diverse communities and the entire world by conveying the underlying truth of the wholeness of reality. It would connect rather than divide, by expressing our commonalities and wholeness.
As a universal way of communicating our commonalities across boundaries and across differences, unitive language is a precondition for the realization of the unity of the human family and of world peace.
A critical and timely way the peoples of the world can come together in unity is in the choice of a common auxiliary language, or a common second language, to be used locally and globally, enabling all people to converse freely. This would not replace or override national or tribal languages but rather provide an alternative to be available when needed for achieving a common understanding.
We are beginning to see the early signs of this now with online apps that instantaneously translate one language to another. The world has become a neighborhood, with multiple languages being spoken right next to each other even when the native language of that neighborhood might be missing from the conversations going on around one. This is a sign of global unity. Yet it also points out that a common second language could easily be a solution for making any conversation anywhere all inclusive.
If we could all – the entire 8 billion of us – understand each other, regardless of our native language, we’d all feel less “foreign” to each other when we wanted to communicate something important, especially in building cohesive multilingual communities, which there are more and more now everywhere.
A universal auxiliary language would serve as a means of international communication, reduce and eventually eliminate misunderstandings due to language, become the cause of unity, and the greatest instrument for promoting harmony and advancing civilization.
In the early 1850s, Bahá’u’lláh recommended to the kings and rulers of various nations that a world language, either invented or chosen from the existing languages, be “adopted by all governments.” This would be taught in the schools of all nations as an auxiliary to their mother tongue.
This is a key principle, and why a world language is an essential precondition to world peace. It is well known that a national language promotes national unity. It needs to be equally understood that a world language would promote world unity.
Language may be the most critical component of how we interact with and relate to each other. Language is our original, innate tool for communicating who we are, what matters most to us, and what we care most about. The more carefully we choose the words we use, the more connected we become with each other.
Socrates said, “The misuse of language induces evil in the soul.” He was most likely referring to our choice of words, whether they unite or divide us, and what the speaker’s intention is in choosing certain words.
Language is being misused more often these days by greedy profiteers or deceitful politicians to get something they want by trying to take advantage of others. When language is proactively used to gain power by distorting or, even worse, turning reality into its opposite, it is very evident how damaging to one and all the misuse of language is.
The language we use comes with a responsibility – to honor what the words are intended to mean and the truth they are intended to convey.
Our language needs to reflect the reality that humanity is one family. In this regard, language is a crucial component of social transformation. Language has long been used to separate groups and classes of people who otherwise share a common cause. In these divisive times, using language to help bring about unity is critically important.
Language is the basis for the stories we tell and live by and can therefore be a primary catalyst for the evolution of consciousness. The use of unitive language in describing various parts of the unified nature of reality is now in its early stages of being understood and applied.