BahÃĄâ•Žuâ•ŽllÃĄh and the New Era - Knowledge Rush

Political FreedomAlthough advocating as the ideal condition a representative formof government, local, national and international, Bahá’u’lláhteaches that this is possible only when men have attained asufficiently high degree of individual and social development.Suddenly to grant full self-government to people without education,who are dominated by selfish desires and are inexperiencedin the conduct of public affairs, would be disastrous. There isnothing more dangerous than freedom for those who are not fitto use it wisely. Bahá’u’lláh writes in the Book of Aqdas:—Consider the pettiness of men’s minds. They ask for thatwhich injureth them, and cast away the thing that profiteththem. They are, indeed, of those that are far astray. We findsome men desiring liberty, and priding themselves therein.Such men are in the depths of ignorance.Liberty must, in the end, lead to sedition, whose flamesnone can quench. Thus warneth you He Who is the Reckoner,the All-Knowing. Know ye that the embodiment ofliberty and its symbol is the animal. That which beseemethman is submission unto such restraints as will protect himfrom his own ignorance, and guard him against the harmof the mischief-maker. Liberty causeth man to overstep thebounds of propriety, and to infringe on the dignity of hisstation. It debaseth him to the level of extreme depravity andwickedness.Regard men as a flock of sheep that need a shepherd fortheir protection. This, verily, is the truth, the certain truth.We approve of liberty in certain circumstances, and refuse tosanction it in others. We, verily, are the All-Knowing.Say: True liberty consisteth in man’s submission unto Mycommandments, little as ye know it. Were men to observe