The Dignity of Difference

1. Globalization's Moral Dimension: Enhancing Human Dignity

Their aim must be to enhance, not compromise, human dignity.

Economics and ethics intertwined. Globalization's economic and political facets are inseparable from moral considerations. Markets must serve all, not just those who can pay, and politics must empower the powerless. Ignoring morality leads to anger, resentment, and injustice, threatening global order.

Conversation as antidote. The greatest antidote to violence is open conversation, sharing fears, and listening to others. The proliferation of communication channels should broaden, not narrow, our perspectives. Public reason, using accessible language and logic, is essential for reasoned debate and global peace.

Jewish voice in global conversation. The author brings a Jewish perspective to the global conversation, emphasizing public reason and the need for understanding across cultures and creeds. The alternative is a culture of confrontation, fueled by visual images and extreme slogans, leading to events like September 11.

2. The Paradox of Peace: Beyond Conflict and War

War appears to be as old as mankind, but peace is a modern invention.

Peace as a modern invention. While war is as old as humanity, peace is a more recent concept, often imposed by empires or sustained by a balance of power. The post-Cold War world faces a new threat: non-state actors capable of global havoc, driven by religious hatred and willing to embrace suicide.

Religion's dual role. Religion can be a source of discord, but also a form of conflict resolution. Religious leaders must condemn violence in the name of God and actively promote peace, justice, and compassion. Faiths must find ways to acknowledge the integrity of those outside their faith.

End-of-days peace vs. historical peace. There is a fundamental difference between the end-of-days peace of religious unity and the historical peace of compromise and coexistence. The attempt to force the former can be the most formidable enemy of the latter. Peace means living with those of different faiths and texts.

3. Exorcizing Plato's Ghost: Embracing the Dignity of Difference

Can we see the presence of God in the face of a stranger?

Beyond universalism. The author challenges the Platonic idea that truth progresses from the particular to the universal, arguing that universalism can be as dangerous as tribalism. Instead, he advocates for a balance between universal principles and respect for local, particular, and unique cultures.

The Bible's anti-Platonic narrative. The Hebrew Bible reverses the normal order, charting a journey from universal humanity to the particular story of Abraham and his descendants. This emphasizes that universalism is the first, not the last, phase in the growth of the moral imagination. The story of Babel illustrates the dangers of imposing artificial unity on divinely created diversity.

Judaism's particularist monotheism. Judaism believes in one God but not one exclusive path to salvation. It recognizes the integrity of other faiths and cultures, seeing unity in the diversity of creation. This perspective calls for a new respect for the local, the particular, and the unique, balancing universalism with a recognition of the dignity of difference.

4. Responsibility in a Global Age: Reclaiming Control

As citizens, we have the power to arrange the new economy to suit our needs, and in so doing to determine the shape of our civilization.

The politics of insecurity. The rapid pace of technological, cultural, and economic change creates uncertainty and anxiety, leading to political and religious extremism. Change is running ahead of our ability to chart a shared future, with technology outpacing moral convictions.

Erosion of moral vocabulary. The dominance of the market has eroded our moral vocabulary, replacing "I ought" with "I want." This makes it difficult to deliberate collectively about fateful choices. We need to recover traditions that speak of human solidarity, justice, and compassion.

The need for moral principles. In the face of maximal uncertainty, we are best guided by simple moral principles: control, contribution, creativity, co-operation, compassion, and conservation. These principles can help us judge whether we are moving in the right direction and create a new global covenant of human solidarity.

5. The Market's Moral Case: Value Through Difference

It is precisely because we are not the same as individuals, nations or civilizations that our exchanges are nonzero-sum encounters.

The market as a mechanism. The free market is the best means for alleviating poverty and creating independence, dignity, and creativity. It embodies the idea that difference is the source of value and society itself. Trade becomes the most compelling counterforce to war.

The market's limitations. The market generates unequal outcomes, leading to unacceptable inequalities. The concentration of wealth while millions live in poverty is a scandal. We must think through the responsibilities of the rich to the poor and the criteria of distributive justice.

Biblical concept of Tzedakah. The biblical concept of tzedakah, with its basic idea of the economic requirements of human dignity, is more helpful than the Western polarity of charity and justice. It emphasizes the economic requirements of human dignity.

6. Compassion as Justice: Redefining Economic Obligations

Religious suffering is at the same time an expression of real suffering and a protest against real suffering.

Globalization's inequalities. Globalization has led to vast inequalities, with the world's wealth concentrated in relatively few hands while millions live in poverty. This is a scandal that is no longer sustainable. We must speak the silent cry of those who suffer from want, hunger, disease, powerlessness, and lack of freedom.

The role of religious communities. Great responsibility lies with the world's religious communities to be a counter-voice in the conversation of mankind. They must speak the silent cry of those who suffer from want, hunger, disease, powerlessness, and lack of freedom.

The concept of Tzedakah. The biblical concept of tzedakah, with its basic idea of the economic requirements of human dignity, is more helpful than the Western polarity of charity and justice. It emphasizes the economic requirements of human dignity.

7. Creativity Unleashed: The Power of Education and Information

Religious suffering is at the same time an expression of real suffering and a protest against real suffering.

Information technology revolution. The revolution in information technology has an ethical dimension. Each previous revolution – writing, the alphabet, and printing – created new social and political possibilities. Information technologies democratize access to knowledge.

Primacy of education. Education is the single greatest key to human dignity. One of our aims must be to bring every child on earth within its radius. Education is the single greatest key to human dignity.

Religious perspective. A religious perspective is particularly helpful because each revolution gave rise to new forms of civilization: writing to 'cosmological' societies, the alphabet to monotheism, and printing to the Reformation. We must ensure the primacy of education among the priorities of international aid.

8. Civil Society's Vital Role: Covenant Over Contract

Society depends on the existence of certain relationships that stand outside economic calculation.

Intrusion of the marketplace. Danger arises when one institution exceeds its proper bounds and colonizes areas that have a different logic and dynamic. Monetary exchange is the appropriate mechanism for some transactions but not all.

Institutions of civil society. Society depends on the existence of certain relationships that stand outside economic calculation: families, communities, congregations, and voluntary associations. These are the institutions of civil society, and they have become seriously eroded in consumption-driven cultures.

Survival of the group. The survival of any group depends not only on competition but also on habits of co-operation. These are endangered by the intrusion of the logic of the marketplace into relationships that are covenantal as opposed to contractual.

9. Conservation Imperative: Sustaining Our Shared Future

We are damaging the biosphere in ways that will be deeply harmful to future generations.

Environmental responsibility. The danger posed by the global economy to the natural environment is well known. We are damaging the biosphere in ways that will be deeply harmful to future generations.

Duties to nature. Post-Enlightenment ethics finds it difficult to construct bonds of moral obligation here. Neither nature nor persons not yet in existence are moral subjects. How then can we have duties to them?

Ancient wisdom. We are best guided by a more ancient wisdom: that we do not, severally or collectively, own nature but instead hold it in trust on behalf of those who will come after us. We are guests and guardians on earth.

10. Conciliation Through Forgiveness: Breaking Cycles of Hate

Who is a hero? One who turns an enemy into a friend.

The power of forgiveness. Forgiveness is a stunningly original strategy. In a world without forgiveness, evil begets evil, harm generates harm, and there is no way short of exhaustion or forgetfulness of breaking the sequence.

Peace is a paradox. Many traditions praise it and decry conflict and war. Yet in war, even ordinary people become heroes. In pursuit of peace, even heroes are often afraid to take the risk.

Religion and politics. Religion and politics speak to different aspects of the human condition: the one to binding people together in communities, the other to mediating peaceably between their differences. The great tragedies of the twentieth century came when politics was turned into a religion.

11. A Covenant of Hope: Choosing Life for Future Generations

Therefore choose life so that you and your children may live.

The choice facing mankind. At the end of his life Moses, who had led his people from slavery and brought them to the brink of the promised land, assembled them and gave them a fateful choice: 'See I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. Therefore choose life so that you and your children may live.'

Generosity of moral and spiritual imagination. As our capacity for destruction grows, so too must the generosity of our moral and spiritual imagination. I pray that this affirmation will be echoed by many voices from many faiths.

A global covenant of human solidarity. Under conditions of maximal uncertainty, we are best guided by relatively simple moral principles - I call them control, contribution, creativity, co-operation, compassion and conservation, and suggest that these six Cs are the prelude to a seventh - a new global covenant of human solidarity.

Last updated: March 28, 2025