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Unity? How is it that we all want unity, and then find multiple ways to prevent it? As Thomas Carlyle once said: “Men’s hearts ought not to be set against one another, but set with one another, and all against evil only.” “But why?” you might ask. Because “union does everything when it is perfect—it satisfies desires, simplifies needs, foresees the wishes, and becomes a constant fortune.” (Etienne Pivert de Senancour) We all know this. Religion and politics speak of it in professed aspirations—while propagating relentless forms of division in the name of factional dominance. For this reason, Chivalry-Now seeks to unite people through principles deemed “universal” based on reason and conscience. It is possible to distinguish good from bad, right from wrong, on our own. Indeed, we are better off when we develop and refine that capacity. We become less gullible, more responsible, and complete. Nature’s Law urges us to weigh things for ourselves. Conscience pulls us in that direction, even as greed and selfishness habitually interfere. Humanity must not remain under the juvenility of moral tutorage forever. Our capacity for catastrophic error is too great. Spiritual growth demands that we move toward personal autonomy, rather than base our values on party loyalty, theological paradoxes, questionable prejudgments, reward and punishment—or, more succinctly, fear. There is great good to be had when we liberate the deeper aspects of our moral potential by waking up and shaking it to life. Chivalry-Now does this by appealing to every person’s conscience—for there is nothing more intimately personal, moral, and spiritual than conscience. Sociopaths who have none prove this by their deviancy. Leaders who ignore it are a plague. The insecure, their views constantly dependent on others, never grow up. We expound unity based on moral principles that transcend political or religious factionalism. You can be an atheist, Jew, Catholic, Muslim, Buddhist, Protestant, or Hindu and still unite over common values. The liberal/conservative divide might make that difficult, if not impossible, but nonpartisan or anti-partisan impulses can free us from that. Unity IS available for the asking.
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