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The Future of the Twilight
Club and
The Creation of a Moral Community
The vision of the Twilight Club is eternal, as its message is
immortal. Throughout history, in the West as well as in the East, its ethical
themes appeared countless times, in myriad different manifestations, in
languages and expressions appropriate to the times and the cultures in
which they appeared.
In the Poets’ Code of Ethics, the original founders of the Twilight
Club distinguished a set of codes of ethics, based on the idea which
Alexis Carrel later called the Science of Man, intended to appeal and
apply universally to the whole of humanity. In today’s terminology,
they are:
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1. The principle of human solidarity through the act
of giving instead of taking
2. The principle of human unity through the knowledge of oneness of
all humanity
3. The principle of social harmony through the development of
character and intelligence
4. The principle of human development through the discovery of the
inner Self
5. The principle of thinking instead of remembering and repeating in
education
6. The principle of work for the ennoblement of the human soul
7. The principle of human essence as Mind, not body; as immortal
Spirit, not mortal flesh; and as being good, not being bad
8. The principle of judging moral character based on people’s deeds
toward others, not on their beliefs, doctrines, creeds, or dogmas
9. The principle that the Poets’ Code of Ethics is based upon
universal cosmic law
10.The principle that there can be a synthesis between science and
religion
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These
are really the thoughts of all men
in all ages and lands,
they are not original with me,
If they are not yours as much as mine
they are nothing
or next to nothing
If they are not the riddle
and the untying of the riddle
they are nothing,
This is the grass that grows wherever the land is
and the water is.
This is the common air that bathes the globe.
—Walt Whitman
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These are particular manifestations or expressions of the eternal
vision and the immortal message for the balanced evolution of humanity,
individually and as a whole. For the purpose of morality or ethics is
to create ever-increasing balance and harmony within and among people,
from which spring forth happiness and fulfillment, the pursuit of which
is the univeral purpose of human life.
The Twilight Club is an ethical movement dedicated to the realization
of this universal purpose of human life, to pursue happiness and
fulfillment through the creation of ever-increasing balance and harmony
within and among people, and thereby to achieve the balanced evolution
of humanity, individually and as a whole.
Evolution is cogently defined by the evolutionary systems theorist
Erich Jantsch as the process of "self-realization through
self-transcendence." The philosopher Alfred North Whitehead viewed
evolution as the manifestation of "creativity," the cosmic
drive towards the endless production of new syntheses. The philosopher
Herbert Spencer, founder of the Twilight Club, who was one of the first
thinkers to apply the theory of evolution to philosophy and ethics,
presciently saw that ethics is an integral part of the successful
evolution of human society, and that the trend of moral decline would
therefore precipitate its devolution.
The trend of moral decline exists today, as it did when the Twilight
Club was first established. It was against this trend that Herbert
Spencer, along with other philosophers and poets, founded the Twilight
Club. It is against this trend that we now establish the new Twilight
Club. However, the Twilight Club is not merely against the trend of
moral decline, which would simply make it a reactionary movement, but,
more importantly, it is for the creation of ethical society and moral
community. Study of history shows that all successful societies had
strong moral bases, and that social morality and economic prosperity
are indissolubly linked.
As the world moves ever deeper into the Information Age, necessitating
a radical reconfiguration of social, economic, and political
organizations, humanity is confronted increasingly with an
unprecedented yet inescapable challenge: to transform its basic modes
of thinking and action in accord with emerging technologies and the
resultant societal reorganization, while establishing a strong moral
foundation upon which to build a new civilization.
Where there is no evolution, there will be devolution; where there is
no self-transformation, there will be self-dissolution. In the receding
shadow of the Industrial Age, in the dawning light of the Information
Age, humanity faces a crisis and an opporunity, unprecedented in both
their nature and scope, that is, a crisis of
self-devolution/dissolution, and an opportunity for
self-evolution/transformation. And though it is primarily technology
that drives the outer transformation of the world, it is the inner
ethic that makes that transformation succeed.
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The
purpose of civilization is not the progress of science and machines,
but the progress of men.
-Alexis Carrel
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The Twilight Club is a philosophic movement whose main theme is
eloquently expressed in the immortal sentence of Edwin Markham: “In
vain do we build the city if we do not first build the man.” The Greek
philosopher Heraclitus said, “A man’s character is his destiny.” We can
say the same about the destiny of a civilization: “The character of a
civilization is its destiny.” The original intent of the Twilight Club
founders was to alter the very character of our civilization by
building the character of men and women through the practice of
universal ethical principles, and thereby to make an impact upon its
destiny.
The new Twilight Club inherits this original intent of the founders,
and gives it new expression, befitting to the new century, and to the
new millennium. In fact, at the dawn of the Information-Knowledge Age,
the immortal message of the Twilight Club is becoming more relevant
than at any other time in the past to the well-being of humanity and
its civilization.
As the world becomes reconfigured in accordance with the logic of the
Information-Knowledge Age, the originality or the genius of an
individual will become more and more valued. In an age where
information is readily, abundantly, and instantaneously available, how
original a person’s information-based creation is, to a much greater
degree than ever before, will determine his or her success in the
world. Thus, the question of self-knowledge and original thinking will
become one of the most critical career and business issues throughout
all industries.
Also in keeping with the nature of the Information-Knowledge Age, the
value placed upon social and commercial intercourse will become
increasingly more metaphysical, and the degree of materiality will
steadily decrease in all spheres of human interchange. (Information or
knowledge is metaphysical, because it is formless, weightless, and
beyond the physical.) The degree of materiality is inversely
proportional to the degree of spirituality. Therefore, the
metaphysicalization of human interchange, and the concomitant decrease
in the degree of materiality, betokens the trend of the
spiritualization of humanity.
Further, as the world moves deeper into the Information-Knowledge Age,
the “faster-than-light” compound increase in information will effect a
geometric increase in the rate of change. As this occurs, the state or
nature of change itself will change, and the phenomenal world will
become qualitatively more relative and unpredictable. Thereupon,
humanity will start looking into that which is eternal, immutable, and
universal in establishing its standards of value, of action, and of
knowing and thinking.
Combined with the spiritualization of humanity, the whole human
discourse will shift towards that which is eternal, immutable, and
universal—in which context only can we truly understand, create, and
adapt to unceasing change. The Information-Knowledge Age will thus
progressively evolve into the Kosmic Age in which materiality and
spirituality converge, the physical and the metaphysical sciences
integrate, and balanced human unity is actualized through
self-knowledge, eternal truth, and universal principles.
All this, however, is not a prediction, nor is it an historic
inevitability, but it is a possibility that is attainable for the first
time in history, if there is sufficient collective will for its
attainment, and if there are effective channels for its manifestation.
The Twilight Club is uniquely qualified to be such a channel, with its
distinguished history of service, and with its distinct body of
knowledge developed over the last 120 years by some of the greatest
thinkers of all times, such as Herbert Spencer, Ralph Waldo Emerson,
Walt Whitman, Alexis Carrel, Andrew Carnegie, Thomas J. Watson, and
Walter Russell.
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Cosmic
man is replacing materialist man.
—Walter Russell
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The Twilight Club is a catalyst for the
creation of a new global civilization in which technology advances
concomitantly and harmoniously with moral consciousness to the benefit
of humanity-in which individual liberty, autonomy, and rights are
respected, while individual responsibility to communities is practiced,
and thus world balance is maintained-and in which metaphysical and
physical sciences not only harmoniously coexist, but also may develop into
a new synthesis to reach further into the frontiers of knowledge.
The Twilight Club is not an organization to join, but an ongoing
project in which to participate based on the individual’s own
initiative. Though we do not subscribe to moral relativism, we are
nevertheless committed to the idea that the locus of thinking is only
and always within the individual, that the provenance of action is in
the thinking of each individual, and that human action therefore is
authentic only when it is initiated by the individual based on his/her
thinking, understanding, and commitment.
The Twilight Club is committed to raising moral consciousness and
propagating ethical practice around the world, but is not interested in
enforcing particular moral or ethical precepts-so long as the ethical
projects in which the participants are engaged are aligned with our
universal moral standards distilled in the original Poets’ Code of
Ethics.
The Twilight Club is committed:
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• To pursue eternal and universal truth above all
else;
• To develop wisdom which consists in the capacity to sustain a
dialogue with people that hold different points of view from my own;
• To maintain the integrity and quality of the conversations and the
projects arising within or from the Twilight Club in accordance with
its eternal vision and universal standards;
• To empower and support individually-initiated and
collectively-channeled moral actions or ethical projects arising
within or from the Twilight Club in accordance with its eternal
vision and universal standards.
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Looking at the world today—its violence, its conflict, and its
corruption—we are all compelled to agree that an ethical society or a
moral community is far from having been achieved on earth. Therefore,
the immortal message of the Twilight Club needs to be heard throughout
the world—in the silent core of being of every man and woman. The
Twilight Club will engage people with global visions in powerful global
action, individually-initiated and collectively-channeled action, to
bring about a new civilization characterized by love not fear, by
compassion not hatred, by harmony not conflict, by peace not war, by
happiness not suffering, and by unity not alienation.
The time is now for all of us, blessed with understanding and
commitment, to Think Kosmically and Act Globally to engender a New
World in which balanced evolution of humanity, wherefore happiness and
fulfillment, is accomplished, inspired by the eternal vision and the
universal moral principles envisioned by the philosophers, poets, and
businessmen who founded the Twilight Club over 120 years ago.
Come and participate with the Twilight Club in the projects that are
worthy of your commitment.
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The moral law, properly so called, is the law of the perfect man -
is the formula of ideal conduct - is the statement in all cases of
that which should be, and cannot recognize in its propositions any
elements implying existence of that which should not be.
—Herbert Spencer
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