New Outlook
New Oulook
“A TECHNICIAN,” we are told, “is a man who knows everything about his job except its ultimate purpose and its place in the universe.” One of our directors told of sitting recently in a conference of scientists and engineers at which the idea was set forth that the only duty of the scientist is to apply straight thinking to whatever problem is assigned him by the man who pays his salary; that the scientist himself has no responsibility for the use his employer makes of his skill and talent.
Our friend remarked to the man sitting next to him, “I feel that if they were discussing the most effective kind of knife blade with which to slit a throat, they would be just as ready to thoughtlessly use my throat to test the blades as to use a piece of string.” The man agreed. This overdevelopment of the intellectual analytical side of life at the expense of neglecting and permitting to atrophy the philosophical and spiritual side makes contemporary society so lopsided that, like an unbalanced flywheel going at ever increasing speed, it is cracking up, and if the process continues it will soon, as we all know, fly apart.
The central task to which the New Outlook addresses itself is that of stimulating a new current of ideas and aspirations in modern thought; of developing in the minds of men an understanding of ultimate purpose, and of the relation thereto of each man’s life and work.
“Earth could be fair” if the technology (machines and knowledge) man now has were applied to the welfare of mankind, instead of being consumed and wasted, as at present, in a struggle for power among a limited number (and their followers), each of whom has more power than the entire world possessed a century ago.
The power some political rulers and some economic rulers possess in this age could probably be administered in such a way as to benefit both themselves and others if they were balanced individuals with an equal amount of spiritual power within. If they were saints, in other words, they could probably be trusted with this power. But they are not.
Or, if there was a keen enough sense of the worthy ends of life among their followers and subjects—a sense of responsibility, expressed in the life and actions of common men—this might be sufficient to balance the tremendous physical power wielded by the rulers of mankind.
Because of this lack, the drama of present society may be in its last act. Whether the curtain will fall soon or whether the play will go on, depends on the ability of the race to achieve some such balance.
The thesis of the New Outlook is that power without purpose tends to be destructive of those who wield it, as well as those subject to it; and that man himself is lost unless he can develop an awareness of purpose and direction—unless this world can determine what kind of a world it wants to be.
While the concentration of power is one of its worst aspects, no solution to our fundamental problems is to be achieved merely by distributing physical power among other individuals whose vision and sense of responsibility is less even than the small amount of power and influence they have at present. Therefore, mere physical philanthropy or social, political and economic tinkering is of little value apart from the infusion of ennobling conceptions of life.
By “spiritual power” we mean the power of the human spirit, which includes courage, persistence, aspiration, friendliness, and even more. As an individual comes to understand and accept as his own the highest ends of man, he will grow in power with people (rather than power over people), and thereupon will tend to bring about fundamental economic and social change.
It is our belief that the cultivation of such spiritual power among men in adequate measure to balance the physical power now possessed by mankind is the essential task for those who see life-forces in their universal aspects, and who would save mankind from its present mad, purposeless race to nowhere.
This is the function of New Outlook.
~
“There could be a happy world, where cooperation was more in evidence than competition, and monotonous work is done by benevolent and beneficent machines, where what is lovely in nature is not destroyed to make room for hideous machines whose sole business is to kill, and where to promote joy is more respected than to produce mountains of corpses. Do not say this is impossible: it is not. It waits only for men to desire it more than the infliction of pain. There is an artist imprisoned in each one of us. Let him loose to spread joy everywhere.” — Bertrand Russell, (From Last Essay, 1967)
War crimes. Expel Russian Federation from the United Nations (UN) now! [v2]
Zelenskyy’s 10-step Peace Plan and its importance, incorporating the details from the Joint Communiqué issued in Riga, Latvia, on October 24, 2024
A New Call To President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the Leaders of Europe,.
Epstein name-dropped Putin as client..The Alpha and Omega of the Epstein Cover-up ~ Clean New Deal megapost
Charlie says Epstein with his little friend Ghislaine and Ghislaine’s father Robert Maxwell, who is obviously a spy of the Israeli intelligence agencies but there was something else going on here..
This ~ as relayed by Volodymyr Zelenskyy!
[Rev. 3, 8.3.2025] A single whisper is faint, but millions banding together can roar loudly enough to topple a kakistocracy and demand The Clean New Deal
What It Means to Be an American Patriot Beyond Political Affiliation
Some text visible on the blackboard behind Alfred Korzybski