We publish here in full the paper presented at the closing session of the X International Symposium, organized by the World Center for Humanist Studies, by the humanist Antonio Carvallo:
“Dear Friends of the Centre for Humanist Studies of the Americas CEHA and WCHS, World Centre for Humanist Studies for inviting me to contribute to this X International Symposium “Utopias in Motion: Paths to the Universal Human Nation”, sponsored by the National University of Cuyo, UNCUYO and the Faculty of Exact and Natural Sciences FCEN, and to the members of the Organizing Committee Daniel César Robaldo, Nadia Magali Robaldo and the Science Committee, Dr. Jacobo Alume, Eng. Carlos Guajardo and Dr. Lucas Hinojosa.
The Beginning
56 years ago, on the 4th May 1969 in this same place the “Utopia” of The Universal Human Nation was set in motion by Mario Luis Rodríguez Cobos, “Silo” founder of Universalist Humanism with a speech known as “The Healing of suffering” www.silo.net
That experience inspired my life and that of hundreds of others who had the privilege of been present then, and have dedicated their lives to the dissemination of his ideas across the world.
There and then, the “Utopia” of Humanizing the Earth towards a Universal Human Nation was born.
We all know a ‘utopia’ stop been such when it materializes. But before materialising in the physical world, in the social world, a utopia must materialise in our thoughts, in our feelings and in our actions. Then gradually it starts to become contagious, to communicate to others. Then a small molecule is born, then many others and social tissue starts to grow… When it reaches a certain mass the whole social body, its organs and expressions change… sort of following the patterns of creation at all levels.
In the system of thought of Universalist Humanism, it is understood that nothing exists in isolation in the universe, but in dynamic relationship with other beings within conditioning ambits. Everything is in perpetual motion, in continuous transformation. The universe is still under creation after the Big Bang about 13.8 billion years ago. Life is energy. Energy is never still but in perpetual transformation. Each one of us is a conglomerate of energy with different levels of vibration. Energy never disappears; it transforms…life is permanently evolving.
Our present world, and ourselves as individuals are also in permanent change and we can give direction to that change in a progressive and evolutive direction.
Silo did not teach about Universal Laws at the mountain… but some of these ideas did circulate at the time in small writings, amongst the initial groups of followers both in Argentina and Chile, igniting faith energy, joy for life and tireless action.
Silo spoke in the mountain about the existential experience of human suffering. A Master class about the origin of suffering in human mind and its expression as violence, in its behaviour both personal and social. He did not just describe this solipsism but also the way of escaping from it overcoming suffering in ourselves and in society around us.
He explained, that this can be done simultaneously within ourselves, and helping others to do the same by sharing the experience of hope, of joy and the possibility of transformation.
Since then, we intentionally brought these teachings all over the world, and in coming years began to see seeds germinating in the hearts and minds of thousands of people in all regions of the world.
Silo continued teaching and writing non-stop until he left this life in 2010. He created a body of doctrine translated today to many languages and growing further into the grasp of more people every day.
In a nut shell, it is a philosophy of life based on our own human experience that opens the way to self-transformation, expanding our level of consciousness to higher understanding and action. Our level of behaviour to nonviolence, compassion and solidarity towards fellow human beings, encapsulated in the ‘golden rule’ of “treating others as we like to be treated”.
This doctrine
It equips us to face the fact that, the western civilisation is in profound crisis. Due to its central position and having been the most powerful for the last few centuries. Its influence reaching all regions, today is pushing its crisis into the rest of the world. In a highly interconnected and interdependent world we are all affected by this crisis.
Its pretended “values” have turned obsolete. Its contradictions becoming obvious to all. The cult of violence power and money concentrated in the hands of few, while preaching equality and democracy, has reached a point of exhaustion. Their political and financial institutions worn out without a chance of renewal. Anti-values rampant, wars growing artificially with no intention of resolution…
It is obviously the end of an era, and the world must move decisively to another civilisational paradigm. In our view Universalist Humanism. A Humanizing force.
Silo formulates it as Humanizing the Earth by moving towards a Universal Human Nation, spread throughout the world and sharing talents, resources, knowledge, nonviolence, cultures, races, feelings of solidarity, faith and compassion…
The utopia is not in the formulation because this is the essence of the Humaine. The utopia lies in the inertia and deficiencies of functioning of the human psyche. Its increasing difficulty of adaptation to new conditions.
The obstacle is not nature, as its resources are abundant and we have technology advancing at an exponential rate. if we wish to protect it, regenerate it and make it even more productive. The obstacle lies in the resistance to change imposed by our living habits, the greed and indifference of governments and corporations.
Neither are communications an impediment since we have the best in human history, reaching every corner of the world in real time.
The problem lies with the human being, its archaic behaviour, it’s habits and resistance to change. In a life trapped by an inexorable structure of contradiction, fear, suffering and violence that perpetuates itself by contaminating the world around.
The problem is how to break that chain of determinism affecting the present and obviously the future.
I would like to quote Silo in his talk “Humanism and the Crisis of Civilization” at the Academy of Sciences, Moscow, June 18, 1992:
“As you know, we are talking about the vital situation of crisis in which we are immersed today and, consequently, about a moment of rupture in the beliefs and cultural assumptions that formed us. To characterize the crisis from that point of view, we might attend to four phenomena that directly impact us:
Driven by the technological revolution, the world is changing rapidly, causing changes that clash with the established structures and habits of life of both societies and individuals.
The mismatch between the speed of technological acceleration and the relative slowness of social adaptation to change is generating progressive crises in every field, and there is no reason to suppose that this process will stop – indeed quite the contrary, it will tend to increase.
The unexpectedness of events prevents us from foreseeing what directions those events, the people around us, and in particular our own lives will take; it is not, however, change itself that concerns us so much as the increasing unpredictability of that change.
Many of the things we once thought and believed are no longer useful. But neither are the solutions in sight, from society, institutions or individuals—all of whom are suffering these same difficulties. And while we need signposts and references, our traditional references are proving to be obsolete and asphyxiating.”
This was expressed 33 years ago.
Today science recreates and empowers itself, at fast pace, now with AI, which accelerates its qualitative and quantitative progress, technology and the natural sciences physics, chemistry and mathematics are beginning to have an almost independent impact on the human evolutionary process and science in general. The hypotheses of science are evaluated as soon as they are formulated by researchers, and recommendations, objections and risks are automatically reformulated. Incorporating masses of information, which could only be evaluated over a long period of time, until recently.
In the operations of his own consciousness, the human being though, does not have the ability to quickly detach from prejudices and fears. Given the tacit or imaginary imposition from their own academic, social, family, group circles, and other affiliations that give them “identity”, “stability”, “sense of belonging”, “individuality”. In other words, from their own “mental landscape”, their own past. That mental landscape, defined as Formational Landscape, in Silo’s Psychology works.
Through this mental invisible landscape every new perception filter, being modified by that prism in our memory. Intriguing but fascinating phenomena the constant repetition, the mental habits that impede us seeing the new as new and therefore to adapt.
Individualism, the cult of the individual as separate from the social whole, from the work team, from its ‘faculty’ in the broad sense. Individualism associated with success. The lack of solidarity towards others. Fierce competition for ‘success’, and money, the prevalence over the group, has become a mental illness of Western civilization. Its Nemesis.
It is a society of rivals, from elementary education, primary school, and university. The other is a potential enemy who sooner or later will fight against you to obtain your position, your power, your money. These anti-values are educated in the family and from the first years of formal school. Private education is a privilege because of its prohibitive cost for most families. Then, from these bastions of privilege and exceptionalism, they develop the ideologies that condition the mentality of children as a ‘landscape of formation’. The typical order of the oligarchies the ‘elitism’ control liberal democracies without exception.
That individualism leads you to fear the other, to try to neutralize him, weaken him/her, make him depend on your power and domination and eventually defeat him.
So, in business, in sports, in the couple, family or social relationships, at work, in science and technology and of course and absolutely, in power, and influence over money and nation state. Of course, also at the geopolitical level, in the relationship between states.
Behavioural inertias represent an obstacle and a loss of capacity for adaptation, for the construction of synergies, especially at the level of nation states. Always in struggle, always looking at each other with suspicion and consequently fear.
This distracts attention, energy, and resources from the major common issues of our time. The environment, violence, poverty, insecurity, human rights and the well-being of all.
We ought to produce a mental change, a change in the psychological culture towards a culture of peace, solidarity, equity. The well-being of all, not a few.
Silo’s philosophy, Universalist Humanism, returns to each one us the responsibility for change, as individuals and by influencing society around us.
Not governments, corporations, armies or supernatural forces.
There arises our utopia with a simple, profound and universal message.
Responsibility returned to the individual in the deep sense. A different way of being in the world. Conscious life. The challenge of awakening, the mental level of self-awareness. Overcoming violence in oneself and in the society around us “Treat others as you want to be treated”. The Theory of Action; work with our inner force, and attentional development; reconciliation with ourselves and others; are some of the development and self-improvement works proposed by Silo. Abundant literature on Silo’s doctrine you can find in several languages, free of charge at www.silo.net
Today’s world is changing at a fast pace its general orientation.US / White West Hegemonism is been rejected by most countries, jointly the largest populations and economies in terms of GDP:
A new sensibility is developing
In China, India, the rest of Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America the a new social and political sensibility is emerging and strengthening in appropriate institutions. This is expressed in consensus associations, in social movements. Between states, regional SCO Shanghai Cooperation Organisation; partnerships in South and Central America, CELAC; in Africa, the African Union in the Middle East and Central Asia, in Southeast Asia, in BRICS, partners and candidates add up to more than 80% of the world’s population, and growing.
They aspire to a new multipolar world order, a redefinition and modernization of the UN, including the reform of the Security Council where a few countries, not representative of today’s world, arbitrarily impose their vetoes by immobilizing the resolutions of the Organization. Among others, the resolution of the conflict between Israel and Palestine, recognizing both states and the territorial limits of 1967.
A new world order is underway. Committing to the care of the environment according to international agreements; affirming the role of the International Court of Justice, protecting it from coercion by third states.
A just international order requires a fair order within nation states. If citizens know and feel that their rights are legally protected at the international and regional level, they will not hesitate to elect governments committed to that international order within their states.
All this is achievable and we are not too far from achieving it at the global level if we persevere in the defence of human rights. In our immediate environment.
Communication between populations, for tourism, work, sports, studies, employment, culture, etc., is increasing every day and at a greater speed and in growing volumes. This human exchanges undoubtedly positively affects cultural exchanges and better understanding of other cultures. Habits, aesthetic conceptions, fashions, languages, all facilitated by advances in communication technologies, covering other geographical spaces in real time.
The people
Within the “system” of beliefs, values, mentalities, ideologies prevalent in the cultural substrate of the white West, ‘The West’ in the fashionable geopolitical jargon.
The common people, without money and without power; voters, consumers, tax payers, the workforce, the people, and all other derogatory terms, are worthless.
But they are the force (social energy) that the “system” seeks to exploit and manipulate, since it is perfectly known by the elites that, without their energy, nothing can be done
Power and money elites who reinforce and protect each other are strong only, if they manage to manipulate, persuade, divide and use the people.
To do this, they use their ‘media’ that endlessly disinforming disseminating false narratives, interpretations of reality, omissions, lies or distortions of events to persuade, confuse and divide the populations to support their positions.
They are always summoning people, trying to channel their energy into their own designs and interests, to sell their products, to gain in influence, money and power.
These are the deities worshiped in this historical cycle in decline. These are the deities, the religiosity, the historical myth of our time.
People are talked about, but they are despised, stripping them of their humanity, their intentions, their essential needs and their freedom.
The ideology of the system is oppressive despite its mask of freedom. Exactly the opposite of freedom. That, we Humanists call violence.
The most hidden secret is that human energy moves the world. Like any organism, without energy dies. The best capital available is the human being. Conscious, intelligent, creative and industrious. There is nothing that is not created and used by human beings. When populations are educated and their basic needs are satisfied, they in turn create the wealth of states, as producers and consumers in a virtuous cycle of development. The myth of capital as the only, or main conditioning factor for economic growth is a big lie.
It is the human being, with its talent, work, and intentionality, who creates, transforms and develops the natural world.
When the Republic of China was established in 1948 under the political leadership of the Communist Party, it did not possess any capital but the labour effort of its own people. A millenary culture, disciplined and laborious, with a social supportive sense. No Western state supported China with capital, credit, or technology. China built its first dams to generate electricity by hand. Today they are the first economy in the world with the most advanced technology. How do believers in financial capital, banking, and money explain it? Well, they prefer not to, because explaining it would lead them to abjure their beliefs and recognize the fallacies of their ideologies.
When the system of anti-values of the West is exhausted, by the simple abandonment of the support of the people, it will be left aside and the search for new principles and values will become a priority. That moment seems to be looming closer every day more indicators in that direction become visible.
The centrality of the human being and its fundamental rights and needs must be addressed.
The recognition of violence and the need to overcome it. Identifying its roots and transforming them. Waking up to a real meaning in life. Is urgent
The theme of human freedom. It is not proposed, nor understood. It is not a priority either for today’s culture.
Violence is an expression of the lack of freedom and the contradiction with which it is experienced at a deep level in each one of us.
The real possibility of modifying it and the transformation of the human being
To that aim we have expanded and deepened the World Forum of Universalist Humanism founded in Moscow in 1993 as a joint initiative by the Russian Academy of Science and The Humanist International. After abandoning the rule by the Communist Party of the USSR and declaring instead an Association of Independent States, Michail Gorbachev and Perestroika became the hot spot of the world. We Humanists went there to study the process, get acquainted with the Perestroika phenomena, and perhaps and why not share the principles and values of Universalist Humanism.
A fructiferous relationship developed thereafter. Members of the Academy of Science founded the Humanist Club of Moscow. Suggested to organise a Humanist Forum in Moscow in 1993. Inviting Silo as key Speaker. Later the Academy bestowed on Silo an Honoris Causa Doctorate in recognition of his contributions to Peace, Nonviolence, Psychology and Human Sciences.
Since then, Humanist Forums have taken place in many countries in all continents with the participation of thousands of people.
Now that the global culture has reached a point of crisis and Humanity seems to have lost its North, we have felt as a matter of urgency the need to establish the Forum of Universalist Humanism as permanent, with a predominantly virtual format.
The Forum, based on the work of ‘Thematic Tables’ is open to everyone, with the sole limitations to participate of those supporting discrimination or violence of any form. Other than that, is open to all.
A Secretariat coordinates the flows of information amongst thematic tables, and the general calendars of activity. New tables can be stablished according to the interest of participants who set up their own procedures, frequency of meetings, languages used and topics of study.
The 1st open Assembly took place on January 25th 2025 and the 2nd open Assembly on April 5th. Both well attended included participants from 48 countries from the Americas, Europe, Africa and Asia.
At the moment there are 15 thematic tables in operation ranging subjects such as Education; Health; Peace and disarmament; Colonialism; Human rights; Gender Violence; Humanism in Different Cultures; Social Ecology and Climate Change; Revolutions and Psychosocial Phenomena; Universal Basic Income and Economy; Sports and Arts for Peace and Nonviolence; Population Displacements linked to Wars and Armed Conflicts; Proposals for a Global System Change; Peace in History and History of Peace.
We believe The Humanist Forum can become an active contributor to the change of mentality that the complex present world demands. Common people must have a say, and become able to actively study and achieve constructive conclusions in regard to the fundamental problems of our times.
Creating awareness based in the experience and views of the common citizen. Sharing views and approaches and learning from one another. This empowering bottom-up education approach free of charge for all, can have important and transformational effects for the in depth understanding of this new world and culture where we Human beings must be the central value and concern. Setting thus the basis of a new civilization. The Universal Human Nation.
Many thanks to all.
