How to Achieve True Global Unity On Planet Earth

Great Debates
1

Ok, so with the advent of the internet and other telecommunications networks that has, by far, brought people from all walks of life and continents together, one would’ve thought that by now humans would’ve had began the process of understanding people from various cultures, ethnicities and societies spread across our planet in an attempt at initiating world peace and unity, no matter how small the project and members of this ‘one community’. I mean just think about it, with movies like the Zeitgeist and its promotion of the Venus Project, surely by now others would’ve been inspired and followed suit.

Scientist have proved–through tracing our DNA to one individual long ago–that humankind is but one big family. The evidence is overwhelming and indisputable.

So my question is: what are the viable strategies available to humankind for ‘reuniting’ with our ‘brothers’ and ‘sisters’ and when can they be implemented?

My opinion for tackling this problem, I think, could rest with Philosophy. People should be able to understand that despite the apparent physical differences, we are all one. But that’s just my opinion. I would however like to hear the views of others, so please feel free to express them here. :slight_smile:

2

Unfortunately we’re still the same greedy horny stupid creatures we’ve always been. Until that changes, humankind will remain its own worst enemy.

3

I don’t think anything that starts with *Zeitgeist *as a primary ingredient is going anywhere useful.

4

Shouldn’t we be working on changing this?

It was just an example, but am sure you get my drift.

5

All attempts so far to change basic human nature have failed miserably.

6

Should I take it from this that you disagree that we’re making progress? I would say we certainly are.

I doubt things will ever be perfect. We’re fairly tribal, although we at least have the ability to feel like anyone can be members of our “tribe”, and tribes are generally not mutually exclusive. But obviously some people have narrower ideas for who fits into their tribe, and there will always be people we don’t like.

I like to think your mention of the internet is a relevant one. You can meet all kinds of people here, from all kinds of different places. We can chat with people in countries demonized by our own societies and learn that they’re not so bad after all. Hopefully, this will happen more and more as the internet gets more and more available and mixed up. You don’t see a lot of Pakistanis, Chinese or Russians online, but hopefully that will change soon and the communication will make it almost impossible for us all to realize that we all have a lot in common. That’s just a fantasy of mine, really. A few years ago I used to play a game online with randomly-assigned long-term “teams”. Our team, which was led by a not-particularly-open-minded American woman, ended up with a Lebanese boy in it. Sadly, he died after playing with us for a while, but I think our American learnt a lot from chatting with him. On the other hand, in another, more casual game I used to play there was a Pakistani woman who appeared quite “normal”, but if you looked at her Facebook page you could find pictures of dead American soldiers and one of her few “likes” there was Mohammed Omar.

Or maybe aliens would help. A more different “them” might create an expansion of who is “us”. Maybe aliens are the best hope for humanity. Who knows?

7

I sadly agree with Gyrate. We are our own worst enemy. Yet the evolution of society is toward global unity and a common heritage. And the process has been going on for greater than a century with the first global treaties such as Geneva and Berne conventions and the creation of the Universal Postal Union and similar organizations. Not global in adoption, but any country could be a signatory to it, and one is often considered a pariah if they do not.

The pace increased with the United Nations and other organizations such as the IMF, WTO, etc. Regular people got in on the act with the creation of events such as Earth Day. The photos of the pale blue dot have helped increase a global consciousness. But how many have seen them and truly understood their significance?

Yet as much as the hippies and Zeitgeist would love to see an overnight transition to some kind of Gaia consciousness, we are not one. They are over 20 major languages with 50 million plus speakers. And an estimate of over 6000 spoken languages still extant (though many are critically endangered.) There are at least 500 separate cultures across the planet - from shared music, cuisine, fashion, along with religious, spiritual and secular practices. And that number seems to be increasing rather than decreasing as new subcultures are constantly being created.

And I think that is a good thing. A global outlook is important, but I do not want it at the expense of our beautiful diversity. I love discovering and experiencing other cultures - music, food, art based on centuries old heritages, or lately, watching the fusion of many into something original.

The beauty of the internet, IMHO, is that is allows both tasks to be accomplished. It allows one to be a global citizen and interact with equals across the planet, and follow global issues. Yet it also allows access to all these cultures, both as participants and as ‘tourists’.

I do believe humanity will have a shared awareness one day, and hopefully sooner than later, but we will never become one single culture with a single language. (My greatest pet peeve with Star Trek was its overly homogenous planets. I imagine if intelligent life exists out there, it will be as fractured as ours.)
I do expect within the next century some form of true global democracy, at least a World Parliament.

As for strategies, there are several groups out there promoting one form of globalization or another. From the Catholic church to the Venus Project. Pick whichever one you feel the strongest affinity towards and work toward their goals.

8

We spend our whole lives just trying to understand ourselves, and the internet just adds to that load. You use the word “Philosophy” as if there were just one. What exactly do you mean when you use that term?

9

Humans are basically rational creatures, and we respond to incentives. If peaceful co-existence is incentivized, then we will co-exist peacefully. If bloody conquest is incentivized, we will conquer bloodily.

In the last sixty years or so, the prosperity to be had from free trade, globalization, and refraining from ruinously expensive wars, has produced a Golden Age for humanity. While moral development was surely part of this, the obvious material benefits were as well.

So, it seems that to achieve True Global Unity requires that people benefit from it in a material way. Further, a prisoner’s dilemma, wherein the optimal strategy is for everyone else to peacefully cooperate while you betray them, would have to be actively worked around, as would a Hobbesian trap of gaining an advantage by being the first to break the Global Unity.

Considering all that, I’d argue that the linchpin is a powerful world government. With a global Leviathan, there’s no benefit to be had by betraying the peace of the rest of the world, as the Leviathan can exact terrible vengeance on behalf of the wronged.

10

Soccer Hooliganism rather disproves the thesis of the OP.

Even if there are no discernible physical differences between groups of human beings, we’ll create our own - language, football club, butter side up or down. It’s not even a new story. Recall the story of Cain and Abel. Brother against brother is one of the oldest stories in the world.

Systematically changing human physical qualities to serve this sort of purpose is monstrous, at the very least because it wouldn’t work at its intended goal.

11

I just think that the rate of progress is way to slow, not really premeditated enough.

Ancient Philosophy, you know, mysticism; theosophy; freemasonry; occultism and the like. Imagine being able to discover a universal quintessence (though intangible and invisible, yet perceptible and palpable and verifiable by all who undergo the prescribed occult rituals over a period of time) that we all possess and can activate. A realization that a human being is much more than the allusions of biology, physics and chemistry; being able to perform these occult exercises irrespective of one’s global geographical placement and attaining the same results; namely, an experience of consciousness independent of the physical body and the opportunity to interact with other human beings on this planet in a similar state and then finally coming to the conclusion that our physical differences are merely a smokescreen for our one universal nature. In that state, no amount of ‘tribalism’ or any other social factors, for that matter, would dissipate our essential similarity and oneness.

12

Hostile aliens.

13

The only way to achieve world peace is to conquer the world, and ensure all weapons are confiscated by the conquering army. Even then you’ll have pockets of active resistance. People will fight with rocks and sticks if they can’t get anything better. And pretty much anyone with access to the internet or any number of books on the subject can make something better.

14

No-throwing all the silly woo into a big pot then feeding it to the masses isn’t going to bring about the Age of Aquarius.

edited to add: You really should look up the definition of the word “Philosophy” before you use it in a sentence.

15

Ok, then how do you suggest we go about it?

16
  1. Get rid of all the woo you just suggested. Most of it contradicts each other and gets in the way of the reality most people on Earth have to deal with every day.
  2. Realize that different people in different areas are going to have different needs and develop different philosophies(using the actual definition of the word) to deal with those needs. Before you try to come up with the answers, find out what the questions are first.
  3. “Occult rituals” are crap, and are definitely not universal in nature. Biology, physics and chemistry are not illusions-they are the means to better the lives of people.
17

Great idea!

18

So far as that goes, perhaps; but most people can not understand philosophy.

19

It certainly is, particularly item #1. Spreading a naturalist, reality-based worldview would do much more for peace and unity than yet another fake supernatural ethos. Because the sort of ritual you described doesn’t actually work, all that ever comes of it is more strife and factionalism.

20

Including the OP, apparently.