Jain Spirit 2003 06 No 15

Author(s): Jain Spirit UK
Publisher: UK Young Jains

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GLOBAL NEWS
Book Review
Diversity on a Human Scale
THE DIGNITY OF DIFFERENCE - HOW TO AVOID THE CLASH OF CIVILIZATIONS by Jonathan Sacks Published by Continuum ISBN 0-8264-6397-5
partial. Fragments of it lie everywhere. Each person, culture and language has part of it; none has it all. ... Nothing has proved harder in the history of civili- sation than to see God, or good, or human dignity in those whose language is not mine, whose skin is a different colour, whose faith is not my faith and whose truth is not my truth. There are surely many ways of arriving at this generosity of spirit, and each faith must find its own."
so JONATHAN
"SACKS JONATHAN
SACKS
The Dignity of Difference
HOW TO AVOID THE CLASH OF CIVILIZATIONS
Jonathan Sacks is the chief Rabbi of The United Hebrew Congregation in London. The Dignity of Difference is a book of Jewish reflections on contemporary issues of politics, economics, environment and ethics. In this book, Jonathan Sacks has been able to distil his thinking in lucid and accessible language, which I would recommend whole-heartedly to the readers of Jain Spirit.
"There are many similarities between the Jewish view and the Jain view of truth. The Jain idea of anekanta means that it is impossible for the intellect and for the language to conceive, grasp or express truth in its entirety, therefore any human formulation of truth is a particular point of view. So, when we hold a particular point of view, we should also respect other people's points of view with humility. Without mentioning the idea of anekanta, Jonathan Sacks celebrates the diversity of cultures, views, opinions and religions. "Judaism is about the miracle of unity that creates diversity," says Jonathan Sacks. This is exactly the basis of anekanta. Sacks further writes: “We will need to understand that just as the natural environment depends on biodiversity so does the human environment depend on cultural diversity, because no one creed has a monopoly on spiritual truth; no one civilization encompasses all the spiritual, ethical and artistic expressions of all mankind." Sacks continues: "Truth on the ground is multiple,
The Dignity of Difference
brought about by globalisation is fundamentally benign." There appears to be a contradiction here. Sacks seems to want his cake and eat it. Economic globalisation leads to monoculture and destroys diversity. How can it be benign? As Albert Einstein said, "you cannot solve problems with the way of thinking that led to their creation in the first place."
The problems of environmental destruction, inequality and the gap between rich and poor are created by global capitalism. The fundamental principles of the market economy are based on materialism, profit and economic growth. These principles are not compatible with the ideals of reverence, responsibility and restraint. Sacks would like to see the market economy of global capitalism operating benignly, but he fails to see the essential contradiction in that view. The global market, in particular, has been responsible for developing the monoculture prevalent in our time. The world is dominated by the sameness of products; same kind of architecture, same kind of food, same kind of films, same kind of clothing, all around the world. So the Jain idea of anekanta would advocate a more locally based and human scale economy. Only then can the dignity of difference truly be achieved.
Towards the end of the book, Sacks presents a covenant of hope, which is perhaps the most radical and farreaching concept in the book. In presenting the idea of covenant, Sacks is at his best. Our society at the moment is obsessed with contracts. Sacks wants us to move from contracts to covenants. The concept of covenant is very close to the Gandhian idea of trusteeship.
As we follow the ideas of Jonathan Sacks in the book we meet with his analysis of the free market and the globalising economy. Here Sacks advocates that the leaders of multinational corporations and big businesses must follow moral principals. Sacks believes that markets depend on virtues and he suggests three
restraint. However, in Sacks' opinion, "the sheer growth of international trade
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Jain Spirit June - August 2003