Foundations of Creative Democracies

Cautionary Reflections

Firstly, we must be clearly aware of the implications of the complexity of today’s world, which entails continuous change, uncertainty and unpredictability. For example, no one can predict the real social impact of genetic engineering. They pose great challenges and serious threats to human life and cannot be faced by just having new ideas or more knowledge and thoughts. Today’s world requires the power to face the unknown, a key feature of intelligence. Even simple aspects of human life such as food and clothing become complex in a global world, not to mention the use of our savings by the banks. We need to begin with a strong base. We need an understanding and development of human life from its foundations and the simplicity of its origin in the creative freedom of reality and its intra-active intelligence, the power of all humans in our global world to meet and share meaning and interests.

Secondly, the aim of these pages is to discover with the reader the foundation and meeting point of human life, our creative intelligence, and the actual power we have to face all Essay challenges of and threats to the global world. Words about human life’s foundation such as reality, freedom, creativity and truth cannot be defined. These words are symbols or pointers referring to the sentient insight we can have into them.

Thirdly, there is the tendency to consider the foundations of human life — e.g., freedom, truth, love, beauty, etc. - as abstract generalisations that derive from particular experiences of reality and may be encapsulated in words. However, it is important to realize that these foundations are both ineffable and the most concrete reality we can immediately and deeply sense in everything, especially in our lives. Hence, the foundations, the roots, are the most concrete reality from which human life grows. In this vein, it may be worth recalling that the word concrete comes from the Latin concrescere ‘grow together’ and reflects how we grow together from our foundations in the creative freedom of reality. In other words, the whole, the universal web of intra-actions, its intelligence and creative freedom, are the most concrete reality. In contrast, it is the individuals - erroneously taken as independent concrete entities — which are the abstractions and narrow reality down. They are distinctions created by our dualistic language for communication purposes. We tend to view them as very independent and concrete entities, mistakenly identifying with them and thus suffering their individual inadequacies, fragility, vulnerability and lonely death. This results from ignoring the other silent selfless access to the unity of reality - our true identity. Finally, I apologize that, because my arguments all refer everything to their foundations, it has been difficult to avoid repetitions.

Foundations

In line with the foregoing, the following words should be understood as symbols pointing to the actual foundations (words are not things). They are presented through condensed formulations that I subsequently expand upon (see Basic Insights and Cultural Intelligence chapters below).

Freedom is the hallmark of reality (reality being understood as the ineffable source or origin of all that is) and freedom is unexplainable, unknowable but fully liveable. Creativity is the hallmark of freedom. Unconditional love allowed by freedom is the hallmark of true creativity - the creativity of reality itself. Finally, the hallmark of unconditional love is happiness.

In a few words, freedom, creativity, unconditional love, truth, beauty, and happiness are all the hallmarks of all that is real (of God in religious language), and intelligence is their agent. Our deep reality is in living them through our actions. Free, truthful, creative, and loving actions (what really matters) come from healthy and mature intelligence. This is where our true security lies, not, as is still believed, in any form of dominant power. When the awareness and care of these foundations is lacking, we become trapped in delusional thoughts, unable to freely live reality. We become puppets at the hands of dominant power. We live in a world built around pleasure and pain (pleasure always wants more and ends in pain), where the foundations of life become mere unachievable ideals and the best of life passes us by unnoticed, not to mention putting humanity’s survival at risk. Contrary to the supposed biological truth of “survival of the fittest” infused into economics, politics, and business where only the strongest, most selfish and ruthless survive, cooperation has played a far more important role in creating the Earth’s current breathtaking state of diversity and beauty. Life is constituted by complex dynamic feedback loops, and infinitely subtle intra-actions. In particular, freedom and love have actually played a major role in the emergence and survival of our species. Our current need for acting on creative freedom and living through unconditional love, is the main insight and the root sustaining and feeding this essay.

I use the expression ‘creative freedom’ as a symbol pointing to (not determining or describing) the ineffable ultimate reality, the source of all that is. This inexplicable but liveable reality has been also qualified as absolute from the Latin absolvō (“loosen, set free, complete”). Rather than imposing, reality always liberates through silently observing our own actions without judging them, and this liberation opens the possibility to unconditional love and so to happiness. As humans we have a wonderful opportunity to be aware of, sense and enjoy the inexhaustible loving energy of creative freedom which constantly renews the world.

The agent of this loving creative freedom of reality I call universal intelligence: an intra-active intelligence embodied in the web of intra-actions constituting the creative evolution of all existences in the universe.

Notice, I am referring to universal intelligence, in its multiple embodiments, rather than telling a story about the meaning of the universe and ourselves in it. As seen in the next section, I am interested in the agent rather than its creations. This universal web of intra-actions is the basic model we have of the universe, and the intra-actions themselves serve as its agent, universal intelligence. The universe is evolutionary and the continuous process of creation by each existence can be seen as a precarious, transient, tentative, and creative embodiment of this intelligence in a particular form of intra- action. This continuous creation of the universe is subtly sensed by our immediate contact with reality that never repeats itself. Repetition is the result of thought interested in the regularities of the world, in knowledge at the service of our needs and interests. Hence, the universe is much more than matter, energy and information, which are basic abstract conceptions of the scientific model of reality. Rather, it is the concrete and beautiful body of universal intelligence. Here we discover the unity of intelligence in the plurality of its intra-active creations. Pluralism does not mean lack of unity or the autocratic separation of subjects and objects but rather diversity and living harmoniously. Once humans are aware of this unity in the pluralism of existence, they can identify with and feel the unity, rather than the individualism that separates us.

Like creative freedom itself, universal intelligence cannot be defined or limited, and consequently human intelligence as an embodiment of universal intelligence, cannot be defined either. It is the unknowable creator of knowledge. We become aware of this intelligence both immediately and through its creations, which cannot determine or limit it. A musician’s freedom and creativity when interpreting of a piece of music is immediately felt by each listener distinctly and in ways that cannot be determined and adequately described by words.

Human intelligence is an outstanding embodiment of universal intelligence Human intelligence is a spontaneous “here and now” intra-active creative agent connecting all humans with the rest of the universe, especially with all forms of life. It is not mere individual thinking - which is simply a tool of intelligence that serves to address our needs and interests. Intelligence primarily shows itself through social practice, on which human life depends. The quality of human intelligence is clearly reflected by the quality of its intra- active creations such as families and all kinds of associations and organisations.

As part of life’s intelligence, human intelligence is primarily rooted in our senses, rather than merely in the conceptual or rational. Human intelligence is characterised by the awareness of its own freedom, highlighted by language and our recognition of the limiting factor of words for the things themselves, which are intrinsically free. Indeed, it is much easier to connect with and share feelings and sensations through music rather than through the thousands of words available in our language.

Realising that human intelligence is an embodiment of universal intelligence — rather than identifying ourselves with its transient and individual embodiment — is key to discovering our true and free identity. Becoming aware of the ineffable creative freedom of reality, which constitutes human intelligence is fully accessible to everyone. However, only a minority of sages such as Buddha or Jesus have gained full awareness of and actually lived this core element of human identity as a way of life. It is a deep and common identity not to be confused with the ego. That is, not to be confused with the necessary identification of individuals through a set of physical and psychological features or superficial identities. The sages made two alternative ways of life clear: we can live either in models of reality or in reality itself. This second option does not mean running away from the world. It involves keeping needs and freedom in harmony, the first at the service of the second, which makes creative living the first, most effective and happiest way for us all.

Human intelligence has five constitutive powers and two operating levels Human intelligence has five constitutive creative powers (CCPs), which attest to its cultural or intra-active nature. They are: interest in reality or the energy of intelligence, semiotic communication or the word creating the world relative to our needs and interests, subsidiary symbiosis of organising life together, enquiry to face the unknown and freedom to be creative (these CCPs of intelligence are further developed below insisting on their intra-dependence). When separated, they degrade at the service of self-interest and domination. Their quality is the quality of intelligence. They are our true powers to face any problem and to enjoy life.

Furthermore, human intelligence operates at two intra- dependent levels: Intelligence of need: Intelligence of need, which addresses our needs, interests and desires through bodies of knowledge. This prevalent understanding of intelligence includes two dimensions:

• Functional or instrumental intelligence, which is epitomized by the work of the techno-sciences, and
• Axiological intelligence, the intelligence of the heart, which concerns the creation of meaning and values, as exemplified by artistic creation or ethical discussions.

Liberating intelligence: Liberating intelligence, which is the selfless contemplative intelligence of the unknowable core of reality, from which deep freedom, insight and creative actions emerge. Liberating intelligence is more subtle and often ignored. It is the silent intelligence of the unity of reality which allows observation without the divisions introduced by knowledge and thought. There is no outside observer, just silent contemplation: truth, beauty, creativity and the joy of life.

These two operating levels of intelligence are meant to work intra-dependently, that is in symbiosis. When the intelligence of need works alone, independently from liberating intelligence, it becomes a mere programmed intelligence, limited to applying knowledge (something that artificial intelligence can excel at). However, when the intelligence of need integrates liberating intelligence, they become creative intelligence, incomparable to machines. In creative intelligence, these three dimensions of human intelligence, the functional, the axiological and the liberating, operate in intra-dependence and harmony, something humanity as a whole has, as yet never achieved. Although here I cannot enter into it, human intelligence, my main concern, is an outstanding member of the plurality of life’s intelligence, meaning intelligence coming from all aspects of life; plants, animals etc. We should learn much more from this great body than we currently do because all these lives are embodiments of the unique universal intelligence, the intra-active agent of creative freedom whose body is the whole universe as a web of intra-actions.

Caring for the creative intelligence that we inherit from birth is the essence of a true education and its care should be part of our children’s fundamental education for life. An education whose ultimate goal should be happy, fulfilled humans rather than mere producers and consumers. Furthermore, beginning from the foundations of human life opens the opportunity to care for the majority of humanity, for inclusivity and diversity: creating a caring democracy that promotes the wellbeing and full development of all people regardless of sex, race, class, and other differences.

Creative intelligence has been neglected

All humans have inherited the power of creative intelligence from birth but for many it is just out of reach because its key, liberating intelligence, lies dormant and uncared for. Societies have neglected it for centuries and subsequently this power has not yet been given the chance to fully develop. However, this can be changed, and I call the societies who are meant to reverse this neglect, creative democracies.

As mentioned before, only a minority of sages have enjoyed the wisdom of a harmonious intelligence, contributing to its growth and thus allowing us a glimpse of new possibilities for a happy human life on Earth. Over time, they have been set apart and exalted, praised as extraordinary human beings and even worshipped. However, to fully value their contribution to the development of intelligence, we should view them for what they are, as subjects of teaching and meditation inspiring a life of freedom and so of unconditional love. This teaching is the main aim of religious institutions founded on these sages as symbols of liberating intelligence, the timeless and selfless intelligence. Religions should continuously recreate these teachings to face the changing needs of society.

Conversely, Jesus and Buddha have been worshiped as symbols of liberating intelligence and, at the same time, been used to justify the killing and plundering of wars in their names. Dominant power, including the religious one, corrupts everything, even in the name of truth. The Bhagavad-Gita relates how the warrior prince Arjuna hesitates to fight and kill his friends and relatives in the opposing army. The god Krishna then advises Arjuna to follow his unique ‘dharma’, the duties he must fulfil to contribute to the cosmic order. Arjuna proceeds to follow his dharma as a warrior and kills his friends and relatives, becoming victorious and one of the most beloved heroes of the Hindu world. In the Bible, it is written that Moses raised his arms and prayed to God that his army will kill his enemies’ armies. This is still read in churches today. How does this fit with Jesus asking us to love our enemies?

If we listen attentively to these great teachers, we can become aware of who we actually are: embodiments of creative freedom and its intelligence, and thus responsible for its development. However, this important role is limited as they cannot change this world alone. Instead, a social embodiment of creative intelligence needs to take place. It can be achieved through an integral, thoughtful education involving all humans, both as lifelong learners and educators.

Creative democracies are the societies that nurture and live from creative freedom, which is the true power of the people, and therefore they are the true democracies.

Creativity in these societies does not only pertain to the arts and techno-sciences but to every aspect of daily life. The creativity exercised in human relations (i.e., widening and deepening friendship) is fundamental for a healthy society. Creative democracies are the social embodiment of the five creative powers, and the three dimensions of creative intelligence working intra-dependently and in harmony.

The foundations of creative democracies (creative freedom, truth, beauty, unconditional love and intelligence as their agent) are not merely beautiful ideas or aspirations. They are concrete realities, facts to discover and to live in full awareness. They are recognised through action, not through knowledge or thoughts. They are the roots from which everything real grows and acts, the best of life together. They are the foundations of a peaceful and happy human life. Without them we lose touch with reality and global suffering is unavoidable.