Sermon for 10 August 2014, 1^st Unitarian Church of Alton, Illinois

FROM WORLD CITIZENSHIP TO WORLD REPUBLIC

Ronald J. Glossop

 

I.    Introduction

       A.   As we just read a few moments ago the sixth of the seven principles being supported by the congregations of the Unitarian Universalist Association is “ the goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all .”   We want to be world citizens living in a peaceful, free, and just world community.   That is a vision which I think that most if not all of us share, even if some have not devoted much time to thinking about it.  

       B.   The last words of Alfred Lord Tennyson’s hymn which we just sang get a bit more specific, indicating that the goal is “ the parliament of freedom” and “ federation of the world.”   He is talking of a democratic federal world government, a world federation with a world parliament.   Is that a goal which we Unitarian-Universalists all would really like to see fulfilled?   I hope so, and I hope to persuade all here that it is the right long-term goal for us, even if it is not something which we are likely to see accomplished in the next 75 years.   Political change is gradual and difficult, but it is real and among the most important and lasting kinds of improvement humans can ever bring about. Note how Tennyson speaks of bringing an end to all warfare and militarism.   What a vision that is!    

 

II.   Let’s take a moment to look back on the great progress humanity has already made.

     A.   It seems that our first homo homo sapiens or modern human ancestors living in Africa 200,000 years ago lived in small groups as gatherers and hunters just as chimpanzees do.  

     B.   What is generally viewed as the first great transition in the life-style of humans is the agricultural or Neolithic revolution which occurred separately in different parts of the world in the period from 12,000 to 4,000 years ago.   The key change was the planting and use of grains (wheat, rice, millet, and corn) which produced a reliable, easily preserved food supply but which also meant remaining in one place rather than living a nomadic style while hunting wild animals.   As a result many other major changes took place.

          1.   Permanent residences made of stone and wood were built. Property could now be accumulated.   Towns and cities were developed, and some even became relatively large.   Nevertheless 75-80% of the population were still involved in agricultural production.

          2.   Formal governments were established in these settled areas.   Competition and wars between settlements began along with the development of armies to fight wars.   Before long empires were established in Sumeria, Egypt, Babylon, China, and Middle America.

          3.   Writing was invented and formal education was established.   Significant divisions in society began between the few who learned to read and write and the many who didn’t.   The possession of a written language and having cities is still the main way of distinguishing between “ civilized societies” and those which are not civilized.

          4.   Animals were domesticated and were used to help do work as well as provide food.

          5.   Trading developed between communities, and professional skills became important.

          6.   For centuries the basic life-style of humans changed litle and only very gradually.          

     C.   The second great transition in the life-style of humans is the quite recent industrial revolution whose changes we are still experiencing.   It began in the last part of the 18th century in England as the result of humans gaining knowledge of how nature works and then using that knowledge to make machines to help us do our work, first our physical work, then our intellectual work ( computers), and now both kinds together ( robots).

          1.   Important developments preparing the way for the industrial revolution were the creation of the printing press with movable type, the increasing use of national languages, and breaking of the power of the Church to control intellectual thought & political power.

          2.   The industrial revolution led to a new level of competition between some nation-states for control of the whole world, with Britain establishing its dominance about 1900.

          3.   The prevailing viewpoint went from nationalism in 1500 to 1850 to inter-nationalism in the period 1850 to 1975 then to globalism assisted by photos of Earth from space.

          4.   The more rapid transportation and communication made possible by the products of the industrial revolution led to world wars but also to the breaking down of limited purely nationalistic and provincial ways of seeing the world.

          5.   The idea of world citizenship first advanced by some Greek philosophers in the 4th and 3rd centuries BCE has been accepted by more and more people in the 21st century as awareness of the planet’s unity and fragility has become more evident and appreciated.   

 

III.   What about the idea of a global government for the whole world community?

     A.   Some of those ancient philosophers who thought about world citizenship also thought about the desirability of a world government, and that idea has not been totally forgotten.

     B.   Italian author Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) argued that the Christian ideal of human unity and the end of war is a goal which requires having a world government ruled by a king.   He argued that if disputes arose between two rulers the only way of resolving them without war was to have one ruler of superior authority to determine what would be done.   

     C.   German philosopher Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) was a central figure in developing the idea of world government as well as of world citizenship or cosmopolitanism. He firmly opposed Dante’s idea of a single authoritarian ruler over the world.   He thought that ultimately it would be desirable to form a republic over the whole world  but that the best which could be hoped for at that time is a confederation of republican governments which would protect the rights of all people in them.   This would be like a United Nations where only democratic nation-states could be members.

     D.   As a result of the development and use of atomic weapons at the end of World War II new organizations such as the United World Federalists argued that the confederal United Nations did not go far enough and that the world needed a federal world government.

          1.   The key difference between a confederation such as the UN and a world federation is that in a confederation the national governments retain unlimited sovereignty.   We in this country should know about the big transition made in 1787-1789 from the Articles of Confederation where the 13 colonies each had unlimited sovereignty to the constitution of the United States of America where some of the sovereignty of the individual states was subordinated to the authority of the federal government.   The U.S. Civil War decided that the U.S. would remain a federal Union rather than revert to a confederation of states.

          2.   World Federalists say that the world as a whole should make that kind of change at the global level so that the relation between the nations of the world would be more like the relations between our states.   The European Union is seeking to make that same kind of change within Europe, but their progress toward that goal of federation is very gradual.

          3.   The slow progress of the Europeans and other continents toward creating regional federations makes it evident that development of a world federation is not something that is likely to happen very soon.      

     E.   Nevertheless many matters confronting our global community show that such a major change in the governance structure of our world community needs to be considered.

          1.   Modern science and technology continues to develop more destructive weaponry than the atomic bombs used in 1945, including both bigger and smaller bombs which use nuclear fusion.   Also biological and biochemical weapons of mass destruction now exist which are much easier and cheaper to build and develop than nuclear weapons.   There are also new kinds of weapons such as lasers and drones and robots and new kinds of cyber warfare.   As happened in both World Wars, we won’t be aware of how devastating these new weapons can be until after the actual fighting begins and one side decides to do anything necessary to keep from losing the war.   In 1962 during the Cuban Missile Crisis, humanity was saved from annihilation by Khrushchev’s decision to back down during the confrontation between the Soviet Union and the United States.   He consequently lost his leadership position in the Soviet Union, but he deserves the gratitude of all of humanity.

          2.   Besides the possibility of war humanity also confronts huge problems such as pollution and global warming and depletion of essential resources, problems with which the national governments seem unable to deal as they insist on acting only on the basis of their own short-term narrow national interests.

          3.   Another important aspect of the existing international system is the economic competition between the various national governments and between the separate business enterprises.   Within countries this competition is regulated by the national laws which aim to protect the environment, tax the business for the benefits it enjoys, and protect the rights of the workers.   It there were a world government, it could enact the same kind of regulation at the global level to protect the global environment, tax the business for the benefits it enjoys, and protect the rights of employees.   What happens when there is no elected world government to regulate the economic competition and protect the interests of the workers?   Without a global government, the people are at the mercy of the transnational corporations as they play the national governments off against each other.   Which government will tax them least, give them the most subsidies, and put the fewest regulations on them to protect the environment or the rights of their workers?   The result is ever more profits for businesses and a lack of concern by businesses about protecting the environment and the rights of the workers.   That means an increasing gap between the rich and the poor, both within nations and in the world as a whole.

          4.   International commerce would also be facilitated by a single international currency just as commerce has been facilitated within the European Economic Union by the use of the euro in many different countries.   But it would be fairly difficult to have a single global currency without having some kind of global government to regulate it.      

     F.   Fortunately little by little some very important changes are being made in our global governance structures such as the creation of the International Criminal Court (ICC) where individual national political and military leaders can be punished for committing genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity.   Unfortunately, this important Court is not getting the support which it needs from many national governments.   Another new idea being advanced for national governments is the Responsibility to Protect Principle which theoretically gives other member nations of the UN the right to intervene when a national government fails to protect the rights of its own people.   The problem is the continuing distance between stated theory and actual practice.

     G.   One reason that it is not more evident that the world needs a world government is that the very powerful U.S. government sometimes does what a world government should do, usually with the assistance of NATO.       

 

IV.   One of the greatest concerns people tend to have with regard to the idea of a federal world government is the danger that it could become a world tyranny and one person could become dictator over the whole world.  

     A.   People had the same concern with the creation of the United States of America.   There was a real fear that George Washington would become another tyrannical King George just like the King of England who had been the enemy during the Revolutionary War.   Because of that concern the Founding Fathers of the country made a concerted effort to make sure that the Constitution called for an election of the President every four years plus Representatives elected every two years & Senators chosen by the State Legislatures every six years. It also contained checks and balances between the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of government as well as between the state governments and the new federal national government.     

     B.   In chapter 6 of my 1993 book World Federation? I respond to the various objections I found to the world federalist ideal.   One proposal I made is to have the world government under the control of a five-person Executive Council rather than a single President.   The world could be divided into 8 or 9 regions or continents of relatively homogeneous cultural characteristics, and it could be stipulated that no two members of the Executive Council could come from the same region.   A rotational system could be adopted so that each member of the Executive Council would serve as chair for a limited period of time, maybe three months.   Each year one new member could be elected to the Executive Council for a five-year term by the world parliament and there would be a limit of two terms.   Such a ruling Executive Council would be somewhat similar to the executive system which exists in Switzerland.   I think that such a system would provide substantial assurance that the world government could not be taken over by a dictator.

     C.   When a federal world government is created, the Constitution should contain a Bill of Rights for individuals and also a Bill of Rights for national governments.          

     D.   Like any other government, a world government would have the power to do good things or bad things, so the challenge for us is to establish one that does good things.     

 

V.   Our present-day transition from inter-nationalism to globalism is important for each of us.

    A.   Each of us should think of ourselves first as citizens of the world community and only secondarily as citizens of this country, just as we now usually think of ourselves first as citizens of the United States and only secondarily as citizens of Illinois or Missouri.

    B.   With regard to community loyalty, our concern for what is good for our country should be subordinated to what is good for the whole world community.   Simultaneously, we should do what we can to help transform the sometimes ineffective UN into a democratic world federation just as our national Founding Fathers transformed the often ineffective Articles of Confederation into the federally structured United States of America.  

    D.   In order to do our part in assisting the transition from inter-nationalism to globalism we should support UU non-governmental organizations as well as other NGOs such as Amnesty International, the Sierra Club, Doctors without Borders, Heifer International, Human Rights Watch, & so on. Such NGOs are the bridge we need during this transition.

 

VI.   Our UUA 6th principle of promoting “the goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all” will not be easily accomplished.   It is not something that we can do quickly, but it is the kind of goal we need, a goal that will keep challenging us and our children and our grandchildren, and even generations after that.   It also a goal that challenges each of us at this very critical moment in human history as we live through this exciting monumental transition of our human community from inter-nationalism to globalism.