Friday, July 27, 2012

WRONGS THAT NEED CORRECTION

POLITICAL WRONGS

Our society presently consists of a multitude of independent and semi-independent nation-states.  Many of these are ruled by governments and leaderships that exhibit much injustice and wrongdoing.

For one thing, various degrees of dictatorship still exist in many countries.  The justfications frequently resorted to by dictators are the concepts of national security and/or national power.  All of our citizenry must be kept in line, or our nation will be weak and trod upon by our neighbors or our enemies.  But it must be remembered that "centralism"--as well as nationalism--should never be permitted to constitute a pretext for dictatorial control.,  A multitude held together by force is not properly united--and usually eventually falls apart, via seemingly inevitable foreign conflict or domestic revolution.  An interesting bit of possible evidence of this may exist in the proposition  or adage that "no war has ever occurred between two democratic states."  (Can anyone come up with one?)

Of course, nations would not need to maintain "national strength" if there were no nations.  In a world of nation-states, strength must always be maintained to the extent necessary to preserve domestic peace.  But, in a world without borders, all of the world would be "domestic."  Serious domestic disturbances that should occur anywhere would be dealt with as "crime" on behalf of the entire world populace.  No longer would alleged misbehavior on the part of one nation--state be the occasion for a contest between its army and that of another  (or perhaps several other) nation-state(s).  Instead misbehavior or crime would be clearly defined by written statutes, objectively and logically arrived at by legal experts representing a consensus of the will and welfare of the entire world.  In actuality, an event constituting such a violation would likely be committed by far less than what would constitute a national entity--and it would be easily dealt with by the balance of mankind, via our single governing body

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History tells us that once upon a time, European colonies in South America, and in other parts of the world as well, were operated like private estates.  Given this form of political past, the residents within such p;laces are usually unable, after withdrawal of the discipline imposed by the former colonial power, to construct a solid and united governing body.  Instead, the division and internal strife that would frequently arise following liberation would impose a need for a strong authoritarian form of government, often in the person of a single powerful and domineering leader.  In addition, many of these newly independent nations are frequently beset by chronic economic crises.  It is said that such conditions create a desparate need for powerful leadership, and thus usually lead to a form of authoritarian one-party rule.  In a number of cases, cruel and brutal side effects of such a type of national government have consisted of summary imprisonment, torture, unexplained disappearances, and outright murder, instituted or tolerated by the leadership, in order to quell any forces within the place that may disagree or speak out too loudly.

The form of government that I bellieve in would have a solid worldwide political and economic basis--because it would consist of the government of the world and oversee the economy of the world.  Thus, although conversion to a single world government would entail disentanglement of any and all places from political or colonial domination by others, it would not precipitate weakness or helplessness in any quarter.  Instead, the whole world would be a s strong--in fact, probably stronger--than the sum of its parts.  For "In union there is strength."  And in the presence of such economic and political strength, there would be no need or opportunity for the coming to power of an authoritarian form of government having need to rely iupon improper actions such as mentioned above to acquire or maintain its position.  On the contrary, it is hoped that the governing authority that would be thus created would be constituted and function only for the welfare and betterment of all of mankind and society.  Liberty and oppoortunity for all, within such necessary constraints as should be required to be imposed by reasonable concern for the freedom and welfare of the rest of mankind, must, and would, always be paramount.

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A condition within our world that is the basis of many of our difficulties, and thus requires correction via elimination, is the existence throughout the earth of arbitrary, often historically accidental, political boundaries.  Boundaries, in and of themselves, produce a requirement that the people residing on the two sides of the line, "coexist," i.e., live alongside each other in peace.  Ironically, these people on both sides of this boundary frequently happen to be related to one another--genetically, economically, and/or culturally. 

Historians tell us that "wars come about because nations simply do not believe that they can go on coexisting."  Moreover, we recognize that a second "prime purpose of nations at war" is the conquest and acquisition by nation "A" of additional territory (better known as "real estate") from nation "B."  Excuses for nation "A" to attack, and in the process to extract some additional real property from, nation "B," have been many and varied for centuries.  But, at this point looking at and taking heed from our current scientific and technological capabilities, we hear fair warning that "mankind might not persist beyond [one more] century...unless all nations adopt low-risk and sustainable policies...."  (Martin Rees, Our Final Hour )  Surely this includes, and very critically consists of, the cessation of warfare--with our neighbors, as well as with the people on the other side of the globe.

The most obvious means of enabling nations to coexist, and to obviate the need for nation "A" to attempt to confiscate territory from nation "B" (and perhaps, in so doing, to bring about mankind's doom) would be to create an atmosphere wherein nation "A" and nation "B" were parts of one and the same nation--i.e., parts of a single worldwide nation.

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