Eighteenth International Conference on Diversity in Organizations, Communities & Nations

Abstract

Natural disasters, earthquakes, hurricanes, floods, and droughts have unleashed havoc and suffering in many recent tragic events. The nature seems to show its power in various forms. One can ask if these events have any connection with our modern, scientific, industrial, materialistic worldview and our way of life? We are facing problems related to diverse cultures which cannot be understood in isolation for they are interconnected and interdependent; for example, we face global poverty, pollution, extinction of animals and plants on a massive scale, ethnic and tribal violence, competition for resources, socio-political-economic power’s dominance and threats of wars and destruction. Ultimately, we have to see these problems as different faces of one single reality—leading to total annihilation of life. Descartes and Newton’s mechanistic worldview, and the scientific revolution, which provided the foundation for the development of Western culture and modernity, are inadequate to face the reality. This paper analyzes the natural disasters and humanistic problems as different aspects of the same reality and proposes a system of universal ethics for the sustenance of all-inclusive existence and harmony between diverse systems of life. The approach to the analysis of suffering is ecological and draws upon Indian philosophies in theory and practice.