'u'llah, Founder of the Baha'i Faith, of which we are the
Trustees.

"The winds of despair", Baha'u'llah wrote, "are, alas, blowing from every
direction, and the strife that divides and afflicts the human race is
daily increasing. The signs of impending convulsions and chaos can now be
discerned, inasmuch as the prevailing order appears to be lamentably
defective." This prophetic judgement has been amply confirmed by the
common experience of humanity. Flaws in the prevailing order are
conspicuous in the inability of sovereign states organized as United
Nations to exorcize the spectre of war, the threatened collapse of the
international economic order, the spread of anarchy and terrorism, and the
intense suffering which these and other afflictions are causing to
increasing millions. Indeed, so much have aggression and conflict come to
characterize our social, economic and religious systems, that many have
succumbed to the view that such behaviour is intrinsic to human nature and
therefore ineradicable.

With the entrenchment of this view, a paralyzing contradiction has
developed in human affairs. On the one hand, people of all nations
proclaim not only their readiness but their longing for peace and harmony,
for an end to the harrowing apprehensions tormenting their daily lives. On
the other, uncritical assent is given to the proposition that human beings
are incorrigibly selfish and aggressive and thus incapable of erecting a
social system at once progressive and peaceful, dynamic and harmonious, a
system giving free play to individual creativity and initiative but based
on co-operation and reciprocity.

As the need for peace becomes more urgent, this fundamental contradiction,
which hinders its realization, demands a reassessment of the assumptions
upon which the commonly held view of mankind's historical predicament is
based. Dispassionately examined, the evidence reveals that such conduct,
far from expressing man's true self, represents a distortion of the human
spirit. Satisfaction on this point will enable all people to set in motion
constructive social forces which, because they are consistent with human
nature, will encourage harmony and co-operation instead of war and
conflict.

To choose such a course is not to deny humanity's past but to understand
it. The Baha'i Faith regards the current world confusion and calamitous
condition in human affairs as a natural phase in an organic process
leading ultimately a