Tigers Still at the Gates
TRANSCEND MEMBERS, 31 Mar 2025
René Wadlow – TRANSCEND Media Service
26 Mar 2025- The world citizen philosopher F.S.C. Northrop in his path-making book, “The Taming of Nations” (1953), likened nation-states to wild animals largely driven by instincts of power – the tigers at the gates. The task of the world society as expressed through the United Nations and the positive actions of world-minded intellectuals is to civilize that instinct by increasing the rationality of governmental decision-makers and by setting world-wide norms of conduct such as the Universal Declaration if Human Rights. As Northrop wrote “There is no orderly society except as a majority of the people in it agree upon at least some ideological principles – some specific economic, political, moral and legal rules that they are to use to order themselves normatively with respect to each other and to nature.”
Nations have become partly tamed, although the old instincts of the jungle are only slightly below the surface. Nations are still dangerous and can easily crush us by their weight if they get out of political or economic control. Nations are still reluctant to develop policies for the greater good or to live according to the norms that they have themselves set. The task of domestication still goes on to overcome the short-sighted cynicism and narrow national interest that is too often the working habits of states.
Fortunately, there are deeper currents at work in the world society that do not come from governments. Spiritual, cultural and social currents flow across state frontiers with little help from governments – and sometimes against the will of governments. New values and a new awareness of the oneness of life have spread from person to person, from group to group across frontiers. These currents of new values of an ecological perspective are transforming old institutions and helping to create new processes. As non-governmental voices become more creative, more universal in outlook, more discerning of the deeper currents of the world society, such voices will grow in influence.
Looking at the armed conflicts and strong tensions in the world society today, we see that the tigers are still at the gates. Our tasks of domestication are urgent.
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René Wadlow is a member of the TRANSCEND Network for Peace Development Environment. He is President of the Association of World Citizens, an international peace organization with consultative status with ECOSOC, the United Nations organ facilitating international cooperation and problem-solving in economic and social issues, and editor of Transnational Perspectives.
Tags: Conflict Analysis
This article originally appeared on Transcend Media Service (TMS) on 31 Mar 2025.
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