The Maholian Way - Part Four: Maholians as world citizens

How Maholians are connected to the world

It might be thought that, with Maholia’s emphasis on strong local communities and self-reliant economies, it would be relatively unconcerned about the fate of the rest of the world. But this is not the case, for two reasons. Firstly, people who are personally secure are much less likely to feel threatened by others who are ‘different’ or who might be conceived of as competitors, and thus they have greater ‘space’ to understand and empathise with such people. Secondly, there are strong ‘chains of relational links’ that connect Maholians to people around the world. Maholians are well-connected to each other, to organisations within their communities, and to the politicians who represent them. Through these connections, and particularly through community and political leaders, they have indirect connections with leaders, organisations and communities overseas. Knowledge and concern can make its way along such a chain carried by the force of the relationships that make up the links, but if any relational link is absent or not sufficiently strong, then the whole chain is broken or weak.

What happens in other industrialised societies is that some of these relational links are often weak or absent. People are less likely to belong to community groups, to be interested or active in politics or to know civic or political leaders.

The weakness of these relational links means that it’s harder for ordinary people to be aware of or concerned about the life circumstances of people elsewhere in the world. Action on global warming is a prime example of this. Though the issue has a high profile in the media and public debate, and though people around the world are probably already experiencing the consequences of global warming, their daily consciousness of the whole phenomenon and its worldwide consequences is limited, and thus they are not strongly motivated to act on the issue. As a result there is insufficient change in personal actions that contribute to global warming, and politicians are afraid to take the radical actions necessary because they fear a backlash from voters.

In Maholia, on the other hand, these relational links are very strong, which means that information can pass along the chains of links well. What’s more, the strong culture of social responsibility that exists in Maholian communities affects how Maholians think about and behave towards the rest of the world. There is a deep sense in Maholia that its citizens are also citizens of the world, and that all the world’s citizens need to be constructively connected and engaged in creating a world that works for all.

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