“The whole world, wherever and however we survey it, offers us the sad and pitiful spectacle of a vast, an enfeebled, and moribund organism, which is being torn politically and strangulated economically by forces it has ceased to either control or comprehend.”

Politically a similar decline, a no less noticeable evidence of disintegration and confusion, can be discovered in the age we live in—the age which a future historian might well recognize to have been the preamble to the Great Age, whose golden days we can as yet but dimly visualize.

The passionate and violent happenings that have, in recent years, strained to almost the point of complete breakdown the political and economic structure of society are too numerous and complex to attempt, within the limitations of this general survey, to arrive at an adequate estimate of their character. Nor have these tribulations, grievous as they have been, seemed to have reached their climax, and exerted the full force of their destructive power. The whole world, wherever and however we survey it, offers us the sad and pitiful spectacle of a vast, an

enfeebled, and moribund organism, which is being torn politically and strangulated economically by forces it has ceased to either control or comprehend. The Great Depression, the aftermath of the severest ordeals humanity had ever experienced, the disintegration of the Versailles system, the recrudescence of militarism in its most menacing aspects, the failure of vast experiments and new-born institutions to safeguard the peace and tranquillity of peoples, classes and nations, have bitterly disillusioned humanity and prostrated its spirits. Its hopes are, for the most part, shattered, its vitality is ebbing, its life strangely disordered, its unity severely compromised. 

- Shoghi Effendi (‘The Unfoldment of World Civilization’)

“the outstanding characteristics of a decadent society, a society that must either be reborn or perish.”

• The recrudescence of religious intolerance, of racial animosity, and of patriotic arrogance;
• the increasing evidences of selfishness, of suspicion, of fear and of fraud;
• the spread of terrorism, of lawlessness, of drunkenness and of crime;
• the unquenchable thirst for, and the feverish pursuit after, earthly vanities, riches and pleasures;
• the weakening of family solidarity;
• the laxity in parental control;
• the lapse into luxurious indulgence;
• the irresponsible attitude towards marriage and the consequent rising tide of divorce;
• the degeneracy of art and music, the infection of literature, and the corruption of the press;
• the extension of the influence and activities of those “prophets of decadence”
• who advocate companionate marriage,
• who preach the philosophy of nudism,
• who call modesty an intellectual fiction,
• who refuse to regard the procreation of children as the sacred and primary purpose of marriage,
• who denounce religion as an opiate of the people,
• who would, if given free rein, lead back the human race to barbarism, chaos, and ultimate extinction—

these appear as the outstanding characteristics of a decadent society, a society that must either be reborn or perish. 

- Shoghi Effendi (‘The Unfoldment of World Civilization’)

“the strife that divideth and afflicteth the human race is daily increasing.”

Such, we might well admit, is the state which individuals and institutions alike are approaching. “No two men,” Bahá’u’lláh, lamenting the plight of an erring humanity, has written, “can be found who may be said to be outwardly and inwardly united. The evidences of discord and malice are apparent everywhere, though all were made for harmony and union.” “How long,” He, in the same Tablet, exclaims, “will humanity persist in its waywardness? How long will injustice continue? How long is chaos and confusion to reign amongst men? How long will discord agitate the face of society? The winds of despair are, alas, blowing from every direction, and the strife that divideth and afflicteth the human race is daily increasing.” 

- Shoghi Effendi (‘The Unfoldment of World Civilization’)

What happens when “the light of religion is quenched in men’s hearts and the divinely appointed Robe, designed to adorn the human temple, is deliberately discarded”

No wonder, therefore, that when, as a result of human perversity, the light of religion is quenched in men’s hearts, and the divinely appointed Robe, designed to adorn the human temple, is deliberately discarded,

• a deplorable decline in the fortunes of humanity immediately sets in,
• bringing in its wake all the evils which a wayward soul is capable of revealing.
• The perversion of human nature,
• the degradation of human conduct,
• the corruption and dissolution of human institutions, reveal themselves, under such circumstances, in their worst and most revolting aspects.
• Human character is debased,
• confidence is shaken,
• the nerves of discipline are relaxed,
• the voice of human conscience is stilled,
• the sense of decency and shame is obscured,
• conceptions of duty, of solidarity, of reciprocity and loyalty are distorted, and
• the very feeling of peacefulness, of joy and of hope is gradually extinguished. 

- Shoghi Effendi (‘The Unfoldment of World Civilization’)

“Should the lamp of religion be obscured, chaos and confusion will ensue, and the lights of fairness, of justice, of tranquillity and peace cease to shine.”

“Religion,” He, in another Tablet, has stated, “is a radiant light and an impregnable stronghold for the protection and welfare of the peoples of the world, for the fear of God impelleth man to hold fast to that which is good, and shun all evil. Should the lamp of religion be obscured, chaos and confusion will ensue, and the lights of fairness, of justice, of tranquillity and peace cease to shine.” “Know thou,” He, in yet another connection, has written, “that they who are truly wise have likened the world unto the human temple. As the body of man needeth a garment to clothe it, so the body of mankind must needs be adorned with the mantle of justice and wisdom. Its robe is the Revelation vouchsafed unto it by God.” 

- Shoghi Effendi (‘The Unfoldment of World Civilization’)

“The weakening of the pillars of religion hath strengthened the hands of the ignorant and made them bold and arrogant.”

There can be no doubt that the decline of religion as a social force, of which the deterioration of religious institutions is but an external phenomenon, is chiefly responsible for so grave, so conspicuous an evil. “Religion,” writes Bahá’u’lláh, “is the greatest of all means for the establishment of order in the world and for the peaceful contentment of all that dwell therein. The weakening of the pillars of religion hath strengthened the hands of the ignorant and made them bold and arrogant. Verily I say, whatsoever hath lowered the lofty station of religion hath increased the waywardness of the wicked, and the result cannot be but anarchy.” 

- Shoghi Effendi (‘The Unfoldment of World Civilization’)