IANARWW (I am not a right-wing wacko), but I would point out that there have been serious proposals that arguably could be seen as (very) small steps towards establishing a world government.
Examples include the international criminal court and a global tax on currency transactions (to benefit the UN).
I realize that this does not answer your question, since you seem to want examples of more radical proposals. But, to the extent your question is “Why do some people seem to fear world government even though world government is not a realistic possibility in the near future?” I think my answer is relevant.
The Kyoto Protocol is a treaty, not a government.
(But I guess treaties are “government things;” I don’t exactly make treaties with my neighbor when I want to borrow the newspaper.)
Followers of the Baha’i faith are pretty big one-worlders too. They’ve been promoting an international government and language for about 150 years. There are about 7 million of them in the world today, but they probably aren’t what the black-helicopter crowd is worried about.
We really all SHOULD BE the “black helicopter crowd.” These guys and the “Michigan Militia” types aren’t REALLY against a one-world government per se, but a U.N. (as they perceive it) type of dictatorship.
As far as opinions, yeah, I’d be all for it on the condition that the one-world government would be subject to the U.S. Constitution and Democrats weren’t involved.
Let me clarify my colleague manhattan’s statement: The question here is not “Is a world government a good idea?”, or “Should people fear a world government?”, both of which would belong in Great Debates. Likewise, the question is not “Hey, Dopers! Do you, personally, support World Government?”, which would be an IMHO survey. The question here is “Have there been any prominent individuals or groups which have publicly supported the notion of a World Government?”, which is a valid, factual General Question.
I remember seeing an interview with Isaac Asimov on TV, many years ago. They asked him what he thought future civilizations will think of us. And he said something to the effect that our inability to form a single world government would be viewed as our greatest failure.
You mean the World Bank is not the world government?
Seriously, I think the UN is the world government, but its “citizens” are nations rather than individuals, and it holds very little power when compared to its leading “citizens”.
[IMHO hijack]
I have to throw in my standard response to all government-related discussions:
Personally, I think we should use hard-earned tax dollars to pay drug-crazed homosexual flag-burning felons to come into citizens’ homes to confiscate their guns and teach Satanism to their children. But that’s just my opinion. Some folks may disagree.
