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 An Exciting Idea with an Enormously Dull Name January 11, 2005 8:27 AM

by Jane Shevtsov. First published in the Daily Bruin

My generation of people in their teens and twenties has grown up with an implicit internationalism.

Since preschool, we have been learning about the damage people are doing to the Earth. Many of us are concerned enough about sweatshops in developing countries to avoid buying clothes we know are made there. Members of the Chicano student group MEChA wear t-shirts saying, "We didn't cross the borders. The borders crossed us." My own fifth-grade class learned to sing "We Are the World" for the school's winter pageant.

In "The Declaration of Independence of Cyberspace," John Perry Barlow referred to the Internet as "a world that all may enter without privilege or prejudice accorded by race, economic power, military force, or station of birth." Many of us came of age in that world.

The global environmental crisis facing humanity reveals our interconnectedness. Burning rainforest in Brazil causes ice at the North Pole to melt. Pollution from China's coal-burning power plants blows over to Southern California. U.S. chemical companies sell pesticides long banned in the United States to developing nations and the toxins return home on imported produce. On a more positive note, environmental groups like Greenpeace and the World Wildlife Fund work all over the world, and thousands of smaller local organizations now network using the Internet.

Where are all these trends, positive and negative, leading us? What do we do about growing global corporate power and the nuclear weapons stockpiles that still threaten us all? How do we react to the rise of nearly instantaneous communication and to those stirring images of the Earth against the cold blackness of space?

One response is world federalism - an exciting idea with an enormously dull name. I prefer to think of it as an acknowledgement of global citizenship and loyalty to all of humanity. World federalists believe we need a system of democratic global governance on top of (not instead of) national governments. Such a system would provide enforceable legal mechanisms for resolving conflicts, protecting human rights and safeguarding the environment.

The current United Nations can provide a base for this kind of world state, but only with many changes. A crucial change would be switching from one-nation-one-vote to a voting system based on population, so that a country with a population of one million does not have the same voting power as one with a billion. Methods of global law enforcement will also have to be developed. To learn more about the changes that will have to be made, check out the web sites of World Beyond Borders and the World Federalist Movement.  [ send green star]
 
Part 2 January 11, 2005 8:28 AM

Perhaps the most exciting aspect of the world federalist vision is the prospect of eliminating war. Just as California does not need to defend itself from Nevada, the countries making up a world state would not need weapons and armies to protect themselves from each other. Right now, the world impoverishes itself, spending almost a trillion dollars each year on ways to kill people. Just think of what could be accomplished if that money was available for peaceful ends!

Can world federalism possibly succeed? According to Paul H. Ray and Sherry Ruth Anderson, authors of The Cultural Creatives, the social movements that succeed in the long run are those that challenge cultural assumptions and reframe issues in a larger context. Some, like environmentalism, question widely held beliefs; others, like the civil rights movement, challenge people to live up to their ideals. Either way, the political and cultural arms of such movements together accomplish what neither could alone.

What cultural assumptions do world federalists challenge? We're saying, "People outside your borders are no less morally important than those inside them. It's not acceptable that children's chances of surviving are dictated by arbitrary lines around their place of birth."

In April 2002, human rights groups and world federalists celebrated the creation of the International Criminal Court. This is a permanent body for trying individuals suspected of committing war crimes, genocide, or crimes against humanity, including murder, enslavement, deportation, torture, rape, genocide and apartheid. Unfortunately, the United States has withdrawn from the treaty creating the ICC, but this will not stop the court from going forward.

There is a powerful reframe in the very term "crimes against humanity." Certain acts are so heinous that, if committed against civilians during a war, they are considered crimes not just against their specific victims but against all of humanity.

"For total greed, rapacity, heartlessness and irresponsibility there is nothing to match a nation," wrote Lewis Thomas in The Lives of a Cell. Surely we can do better than this. Indeed, if humanity is to survive, we have to do better. Our loyalties, as Carl Sagan put it, must be to the species and the planet.  [ send green star]
 
 February 04, 2005 4:17 PM

Jane;

I have been thinking about this article for a couple weeks. While addressing the negative your optimism is encouraging and inspiring.

World Federalism is exciting indeed1

But how do we work toward it. Your writing is a start. Some may read and think as i have been doing.

Unfortunately I think too many are 'too busy' with school, work,, family, and friends to consider how to work together for a better future.

How do we help people stop and think?

Thank you for your writing. This site and its ideas needs to grow.

 [ send green star]  [ accepted]
 
anonymous Exciting Names February 16, 2005 8:10 AM

I also agree that this is an excellent idea, and necessary for our survival with a reasonable quality of life as a species on this planet. However, I struggle with the name "World Federalism" a lot. As a political organizer, it sounds too manifesto-ish to me and I can't imagine how it would sound to a lay person.

Here are some of my ideas for names, and I think if we really want to spread this idea it will help a lot:

Global Sustainablity Network

Global Co-operative

United Committee for Sustainability

Sustainable Nations Organization

Any other ideas?

 [report anonymous abuse]  [ accepted]

 
Levana, February 16, 2005 12:27 PM

I agree completely! That's why World Beyond Borders has the name it does. In this article, I just wanted to give people language they could use to find more information. (Note the title!)
 [ send green star]
 
 February 26, 2005 9:54 AM

Communicating and meeting others with the same interests can increase an individuals feeling of being a citizen of humanity, not just one town or country.

The cooking group on Care2connect is an example.

Occupations and hobbies offer opportunities to connect with others.

Musicians play together who cannot understand each others words. I think of Austrian and Canadian guest playing with the Tokyo Symphony and the bands of Paul Simon and Harry Belafonte.

As a nurse I have been privileged to be with patients and families at a time of crisis. Clearly the love between people who have known each other since childhood is the same across all cultures. The expression of that feeling can be very different.

Working with people from very different cultures we sometimes get to discuss our similarities and differences.

Some cultures assume it to be impolite to agree with a compliment. Others easily agree that they excel at something.

Then the BIG barrier - language.

Isaac Asimov wrote of testing a Russian/English translation program. He typed in "Out of sight, out of mind" in English.

Then typed the resulting Russian for translation into English.

The result was, "Invisible, Insanity"

 [ send green star]  [ accepted]
 
anonymous the new civic engagement March 09, 2005 7:52 AM

I couldn't agree with you more, Kathy. There is a prevailing myth in political circles that civic engagement is dead. And, it is true that no one belongs to the Knights of Columbus anymore, but there are Knitting Circles for peace, Feminist book clubs, online communities like this and progressive Bible studies in every nook and crannie of America. People are more engaged than ever. Wherever people gather to kibbutz is a good place to start talking about global community cooperatives. (or whatever you want to call it.)  [report anonymous abuse]  [ accepted]
 
 March 09, 2005 7:59 AM

So how can we begin the conversation? This topic was a big one in the 40s and early 50s.  [ send green star]
 
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