TOWARD A NEW TOMORROW

I have devoted many years of spare-time hours to the composition of a book entitled World Unity. 
(It consists of the contents of this Blog since its inception).  What has impelled me--more accurately, what has compelled me--to do so can be summed up in a few sentences.

Through the years, I have become increasingly aware of the foolish ideas and outdated assumptions that most of the world--including basically all of mankind's leaders--continue to espouse, take guidance from, and act in accordance with.  And more importantly, I have observed--via evidence that should be readily apparent to all of us--that civilization, mankind, life, and the world itself are all in states of grave danger by reason of our apparent blindless to some simple facts:

1.  That humanity, who in earliest times developed as and into separate groups, has become interwoven into a single worldwide "family" of civilized beings, and possessors of ever-increasing degrees of intelligence and capability.

2.  That, despite this, most of us continue to blindly cling to the baseless, illogical, and erroneous concepts that humankind is actually composed of a number of separate self-interested factions, each abiding within insensibly defined lines, and each ever-watchful of--when not outright hostile toward--their respective neighbors.

3.  That each of these sub-families regularly surrender their fortunes and well-beings to a host of leaders, whose powers have been derived via force, heredity, or popularity--instead of competence and capabilityfor the operation of this vast and complicated mechanism that comprises our world.

4.  That we have thus permitted our twenty first century existence to have developed into, and to continue as, a factional monstrosity, composed of alliances born of strategic and economic rationale; torn by hatred, violence, and revenge; and directed by leaderships that are improperly motivated and frequently lacking in the skills needed to guide and direct our planet and the society that dwells upon it. 

5.  That, realize it or not, we are now therefore perched upon a precipice of likely disaster, which will visit probable catastrophic effects upon most, if not all, of civilization, mankind, life, and the world, in the not-too-distant future.

Readers of the foregoing will certainly include "realists," who will decry what has been said as impractical nonsense.  They will warn that absence of national boundaries, defended by national armies, is a ridiculous, naive, and even dangerous idea.  Their view of the world is of "a violent brew of selfish and conflicting" interests (Scott A. Hunt, The Future of Peace), wherein it is normal for opposing camps to be regularly composed, defined, and modified as daily events should dictate; and to wage battle between and amongst one another on a regular basis.

But a small measure of reason is all that is necessary to readily penetrate this haze of outmoded--indeed, ancient--logic.  It has been my purpose herein to demonstrate that nation-states, managed by nationalist and factionalist leaders, are today meaningless and dangerous vestiges of the past.  Within them, many continue to blindly subscribe to and maintain the rationale of the group, emphasizing and "rallying 'round" some thread of supposed common identity, and employing this as justification for alienating, vilifying, and even perpetrating injustice and violence upon, other groups---whose members are usually in many ways quite similar to themselves.  As a consequence of this, priorities and agendas are everywhere confused and contradictory.

In the United States, for example--which has become a nation of sports fans and warriors--we pay millions to football players and spend billions upon military equipment and warfare.  We do battle and sacrifice lives in the interest of national concerns and principles that are factional in origin, and sometimes of questionable merit.

At the same time, in places that command insufficient economic or poolitical significance, we, our allies, and our competitors, permit truly horrendous wrongs and problems to arise, exist, and continue unabated.  Children starve and die, from diseases that are easily prevented and cured.  Genocide is practiced in wholesale proportions; and afforded but mild verbal reprimand, when not blindly ignored altogether.  Millions continue to live in utter poverty, amidst appalling living conditions; while not that many miles away, mansions and condos costing seven and even eight figures in U.S. Dollars are routinely advertised and sold.  In the name of sovereignty--which in this instance translates into support for business interests within the particular nation-state--governments refuse to give wholehearted support to environmental reform, while our planet plummets onward toward ecological disaster.

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The age of cultures developing in unknowing isolation ended long ago.  The age of group members needing to maintain security for themselves sole via loyalty to each other and distrust for the rest in order to sjurvive has also become naturally extinct.  This was  noted long ago by Charles Darwin, who observed that as tribes united into ever-larger communities, reason would impel all to extend their sympathies to all members of the united group--and subsequently, theoretically, to "men of all nations and races."  This view is confirmed and augmented by Albert Einstein, who, in his Ideas and Opinions, suggests that all of mankind ought join together into a single supranational state.  Indeed, he warns, "there is no salvation for civilization, or even the human race, other than the creation of a world government."

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We need to recognize, before it is too late, that we all do constitute but a single community.  We need to stop destroying one another for the sake of nationalist and factional ideals.  Instead we should recognize our obligations to assist one another, in a common quest for happiness and security.

In his 1965 inaugural address, U.S. President Lyndon Johnson reminded us that "we are all passengers on a dot of earth [hurtling through space]....How incredulous it is that in this fragile existence we should hate and destroy one another?"

And, during the demise of the Iron Curtain, in a 1987 speech delivered in Prague, Czechoslavakia, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev warned that "Today the world's nations are interdependent, like mountain climbers on a rope...[who] can either climb together to the summit or fall together into the abyss."

In the eighteenth century, a Russian playwright named Denis Fonvisin remarked that a man alone in a room, with a pad and pencil in his hand, can effect change, and even be a savior, within society.  During prior years, and subsequently as well, a host of authors and political philosophers have somewhat done that very thing--expressing, commenting upon, usefully criticizing, and providing helpful guidance to, society's ever-onward progression through nationalism, alliances, international organizations, and today's globalization.  As was declared by a Senate leader in 1964, during the enactment of the Civil Rights Bill in America,  "No army can withstand the strength of an idea whose time has come."  And it seems as if the time and ideas for new and further improvement for mankind and society are today once more upon us.

The fact that certain modes of behavior, or methods of governmental functioning, are widespread, across time and/or place, does not mean they cannot be changed, or should not be changed.  It is my primary purpose herein to urge that traditional forms of authority be replaced as necessary, in a sensible and orderly manner, by rational, impersonal, universal rules directed solely toward targets consisting of benefit to society and security for mankind.  In this manner, earthly happiness, through the exercise of reason and logic--which is feasible--will become realizable--and hopefully eventually accomplished.

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Over the years, my memory keeps returning to an account I read in more than one book about something that occurred on the Western Front during World War I.  There, on Christmas Day in 1914, the fighting suddenly stopped.  German and Allied troops emerged from their trenches and approached each other.  They wished one another a "Merry Christmas," exchanged little hastily devised gifts, and even engaged in friendly games of football (soccer).  The next day, the warfare resumed, by the selfsame participants--who apparently knew and accepted the grim credo they were condemned to follow:  that "there was no way out of the war, except through death...or victory." (J. A. S. Grenville, A History of the World in the Twentieth Century)

But today, I disagree.  Today, there is a way out of our grim circumstances.  If enough of us begin to climb out of our trenches--trenches that have been dug by our predecessors over the centuries--ditches reinforced and preserved by erroneous beliefs and assumptions, and by refusal to recognize obvious truths and solutions--and approach one another in confidence that change can be accomplished, by simply beginning the process of working toward it--then one day, a bright new tomorrow will dawn--for civilization, mankind, life and our world.

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