The Unfoldment of World Civilization: 1936: “the impotence of present-day institutions to avert the calamities with which human society is being increasingly threatened”

February 24, 2026

1936: “the impotence of present-day institutions to avert the calamities with which human society is being increasingly threatened”

The disastrous failure of both the Disarmament and Economic Conferences;
the obstacles confronting the negotiations for the limitation of Naval armaments;
the withdrawal of two of the most powerful and heavily armed nations of the world from the activities and membership of the League of Nations;
the ineptitude of the parliamentary system of government as witnessed by recent developments in Europe and America;
the inability of the leaders and exponents of the Communist movement to vindicate the much-vaunted principle of the Dictatorship of the Proletariat;
the perils and privations to which the rulers of the Totalitarian states have, in recent years, exposed their subjects—

all these demonstrate, beyond the shadow of a doubt, the impotence of present-day institutions to avert the calamities with which human society is being increasingly threatened. What else remains, a bewildered generation may well ask, that can repair the cleavage that is constantly widening, and which may, at any time, engulf it?

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

From Ruhiyyih Khanum

In 1936 he wrote The Unfoldment of World Civilization; once again, as he so often did, Shoghi Effendi links this to the passing of 'Abdu'l-Bahá. It was a further exposition of the state of the world, the rapid political, moral and spiritual decline evident in it, the weakening of both Christianity and Islam, the dangers humanity in its heedlessness was running, and the strong, divine, hopeful remedy the teachings of Bahá'u'lláh had to offer. Important and educative as these wonderful letters of the Guardian were they provided, in their wealth of apposite quotations from Bahá'u'lláh's own words which the Guardian had translated and lavishly cited, spiritual sustenance for the believers, for we know that the World of the Manifestation of God is the food of the soul. They also contained innumerable beautifully translated passages from the beloved Master's Tablets. All this bounty the Guardian spread for the believers in feast after feast, nourished them and raised up a new strong generation of servants in the Faith. His words fired their imagination, challenged them to rise to new heights, drove their roots deeper in the fertile soil of the Cause. (Ruhiyyih Khanum, ‘The Priceless Pearl’)