The Path to World Government, Part I

“We live in an era of great transformation.  Citizens everywhere can feel the ground shifting from under them, from terrorism to pandemics to job insecurity, but we do not yet have a road map of the changes, let alone a blueprint for how to address them.”

Anil Hira, Ph.D.
Simon Fraser University, British Columbia, Canada
in “The Futurist” May-June 2007

“Still, even with Israel’s atomic honesty and America’s embrace of a new world full of nuclear-energy programs and a growing number of mutually-not-so-deterred states, no one has yet thought through just  how hair-raising this new world is likely to be.  Without any luck, in 15 to 20 years, we could see a Middle East, an Asia, and even a Latin America full of nuclear weapons-ready states.”

Henry Sokolski, Executive Director
Nonproliferation Policy Education Center
in the Wall Street Journal, December 15, 2006

 A MESSAGE FOR YOUNG PEOPLE

YOUR DILEMMA:

Never mind graduation day speechifying, the obligatory optimism of politicians, and the hazy beatitudes of religious leaders, you guys are in for a rough time.  Scientific advances and other innovations will, of course, help but I would not bet on their fully countering the forces arrayed against you.  Least effect of all will be your entirely justified pleas that none of this is your fault.

First let me very sketchily remind you of the predicament you are in and then propose what I perceive to be your only avenue of escape.

To begin with, your future is inevitably entwined with the overall state of the world that currently is none too promising and is slated to get worse.  Even those who detect some improvement in human affairs over recent decades would have to agree that, if mankind’s situation is not unalterably calamitous, it is, at the very least, decidedly precarious.  No one would dispute that you will inherit a world in which misery abounds and you will be left to cope with it.

Many of humanity’s shortcomings you will inherit have been self-inflicted.  Consider the following much-abbreviated list:

Economic ills: Whereas capitalism has proven to be the preferable system, it remains a seriously flawed one.  It creates boom and bust cycles that ravage businesses and investment, its distribution of wealth is outrageously distorted, it is largely heedless of the environment, and it leaves in its wake an underclass suffering a marginal existence.

Political ills: When all is said and done, there is no form of government that has proven itself capable of operating smoothly over an extended period.  Democracies cater to the short term demands of public opinion that is more often misplaced than not.  Dictatorships are repressive, brittle, and incur disorderly regime changes.  Discontent and civil disruption are commonplace under both systems.  Governments of all stripes routinely succumb to uncontrolled spending that creates economic dislocations.

International ills:  The irresolute floundering of the United Nations aside, the world has no dependable means of preventing conflict between nations.  Past catastrophes resulting from this crucial vulnerability will seem child’s play compared to what could result from the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and the ability to deliver them anywhere in the world via intercontinental missiles.

Social ills: The availability of decent education, health care, nutritional needs, potable water, and decent housing are denied to billions of people the world over.  Growing populations and the diminished acreage of arable land will, no doubt, make matters worse.  Political and economic refugees will grow in number straining whatever resources are available to care for them.

Sadly, alongside the evils humanity has inflicted upon itself, there is another equally damaging set arrayed against us by a powerful external adversary.  I am speaking, of course, of a vengeful Mother Nature ready and able to make amends for the indignities we have inflicted upon her.  And she is prepared to do so on many fronts.

The seas: pollution of coastal waters, extensive areas of ocean covered with rafts of floating refuse, fisheries depleted or destroyed altogether, sea beds and coastal strips coated with oil, coral reefs eroded, rising water levels due to global warming

Fresh water supplies: contamination from industrial sources and sewage, shortages created by demand from growing populations, groundwater levels shrinking, reduced river flows due to climate change

The land: soil erosion, infiltration of salt water, depletion of minerals from over farming, encroachment of available farmland by urban development, radioactivity from weapon sites

The atmosphere: Increased levels of carbon dioxide, hazardous air pollution in cities, acid rain,

Obviously the world is a humongous place with humongous differences in living standards.  One can find pockets of improving conditions everywhere and no one can be certain as to how it will all work out.  Nevertheless, I believe my basic thesis stands: your generation faces an unprecedented heap of trouble.

THE ONLY WAY OUT:

The above list is hardly exhaustive.  One could fill a library with books treating these ills in detail, but, surprisingly perhaps, these problems, as numerous and as disparate as they are, have one thing in common:

None are amenable to a genuine overall solution under the world’s present multinational setup.

Allow me  to rephrase that.

The major problems facing the world today can only be tinkered with by our existing 195-nation framework; they cannot be sufficiently resolved to make a meaningful difference to humanity at large.

That’s a pretty sweeping statement, agreed.  One would think that matters such as economic prosperity could be fully addressed at the national level, but that is simply not the case any more.  Thanks to globalization, currency markets,  capital flows, international banking, and multinational stock exchanges no single country can exercise full control over its economy.  And the same holds true, clearly, of the other items on the aforementioned list both in regard to our self-inflicted problems and those imposed upon us by a vengeful nature.

But what then of international cooperation, study groups, conferences and the like?  Certainly there has been no shortage of words expended on behalf of every world problem imaginable, but, for the most part, without discernible effect.  National interest, distrust between competitive nations, disputes over financing, and sovereignty matters have conspired to kill or delay most every constructive measure while it is still in the cradle.  All of which leads to the corollary conclusion:

The only way mankind can extricate itself from an ongoing and ever more insidious deterioration of its civilization is through the auspices of world governance.

HOW TO PROCEED:

Advocates of world government have staged countless conferences, established innumerable societies, written hundreds -thousands, for all I know-of learned papers to promote a cause that is so overwhelmingly persuasive that one cannot imagine it being obstructed.  Yet real progress in this direction has been virtually nil because prior efforts have always begun with the premise that 195 national governments can somehow be induced to surrender their individual prerogatives and cooperate-an aspiration as likely of fulfillment as herding an equal number of cats.

The futility in involving national governments in the achievement of a truly worldwide system is perhaps best exhibited by the United Nations.  Whereas it has, on the margin, done some good work, when it comes to the solution of the world’s major problems we are no better off now than we would have been had that institution not been in existence for the last 65 years.  Indeed, its very presence is a distraction from a viable path to a genuine world government.

So to the absolute necessity for world governance, I would add another axiomatic proposition: world governance must evolve from the bottom up in a process unhindered by the participation of existing governments.  And therein lies the solution.  You, my young friends.

But before you impulsively grab your “Youth for World Government” placard and bolt out the door, a little contemplation is called for.  Street demonstrations may, on occasion, have some purpose, but, at this stage of the game, they would be premature to say the least.  If you are determined to get yourself imprisoned and/or killed, please do it in the name of some other cause.

*    *    *