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Advantages and Disadvantages of Global Unity & Disunity



ARTICLE | | BY Ashok Natarajan

Author(s)

Ashok Natarajan

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Abstract

Humanity has evolved from the family and local community over millennia through several stages to finally create the present fractured and unstable global community of nearly 200 nation-states, some of which are barely a few decades old. But already there are signs that the process of social evolution will continue until it eventually results in some form of a unified world community. The major challenges confronting humanity today all result from the inadequacy of a diverse community of sovereign nations competing with one another for power and advantage and their inability or unwillingness to act effectively and concertedly to address the problems of our collective existence. Recurring war and violence, persistent poverty, financial instability, widening inequality, ecological destruction and climate change are some of the salient features which compel us to conclude that the continued evolution is both necessary and inevitable. The material and social benefits of global unity will be immense in terms of greater and more equal access to knowledge, power and wealth, but they will bring with them a new set of challenges to ensure that peace and security are not achieved at the expense of freedom, cultural diversity and the fullest development of individuality.

Global human unity has been the undeclared goal of humanity all through history and it has been unconsciously pursued thus far. Civilization has been moving towards this goal in so many ways. Our concern right now is the unity of nation-states that merge into a global state. The birth of the global state necessitates the emergence of a global government. The UN which emerged following World War II is a precursor to a global government. Though it has failed to form its declared goal of world government, it has nevertheless done distinguished work in many fields. It stopped or helped limit the impact of many wars though it could not prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons and four decades of international tension during the Cold War. When the Cold War ended, the world missed a great opportunity to advance global progress towards formation of a world government.

“If world currency is created, it would lead to infinite increase in money supply.

Though we know only the physical world, it has a subtle dimension and there exist subtle planes of action not perceptible to physical eyes, such as the noosphere. In between lies the world of cyberspace that is run by electronics much as the physical world is run by electricity. Internet is the symbol of the world of cyberspace where the limitations of space and time have been almost abolished. As each line of activity needs a world body for its governance, formation of the world government necessarily requires the creation of numerous international organizations such as WTO. Air travel has come under such a global governing body with great many benefits both to the passengers as well as the airline companies. The main unifying factor behind such activities is the spread of information. Where there is willingness to share information, there unity is promoted.

Values such as customer satisfaction or money back guarantee are non-physical. These non-physical values have revolutionized commerce and have made it spread world-wide. Companies like Google and Amazon have moved to a higher level by becoming aware of the needs and requirements of their employees and customers. This singular attitude has uncovered an enormous social potential. As of now, we are only at the stage of fulfilling comforts and conveniences. Beyond this lies the zone of creativity and joy. When those elements are released, it will have the physical impact of restoring the climate equilibrium that has been disturbed. Joy is a measure of inner equilibrium which has the power to bring about an outer equilibrium and also solve the present water shortage. Attention to water can remove its scarcity.

Development comes from expansion which can be horizontal as well as vertical. While global governance looks like a horizontal expansion, it cannot be achieved without an expansion in the vertical dimension. Vertical expansion involves development in the quality of organization and administration, such as that which would be brought about by development of a world army, world currency, world language and world culture etc. Sri Aurobindo deals with all these aspects in his book The Ideal of Human Unity.

India has many different ethnic groups, each with its own language, culture and way of life. Each ethnic group has a language of its own about which it is very sensitive. When the British expanded their colonial control over India they created administrative provinces. After Independence in 1947, the national government wanted to announce Hindi as the national language instead of English, which the southern state of Tamil Nadu preferred. In 1952, the Indian government took an initiative to reorganize Indian states on the basis of language. While undertaking a fast demanding a separate Andhra Pradesh, a patriot died in the process. This generated social unrest greater than the one which occurred in 1947 for freedom. A commission was set up to look into the issue and the problem was solved. Sri Aurobindo commented that in the future, Indian culture would be cosmopolitan in character where all the regional cultures would mingle in a positive and healthy way. That, he predicted, would form the model for the future world. Such an intermingling of cultures has already been taking place in the US, which is one of the reasons for her strength. When two cultures meet, the mere interaction makes both their languages more vigorous. A meeting of Persian and Hindustani languages gave birth to the Urdu language which was Nehru’s mother tongue. As a result of heavy cultural interchange, American English is fast emerging as a world language. World currency and world army are additional factors that will only strengthen it more.

Money has a tendency to grow by exchange as well as by increasing trust. It emerged on the scene in the form of coins. It was a great mark of mental development when humanity chose to accept coins as money. It was an act equal to changing from observation to ideation. It has never been satisfactorily explained till today. It requires changing our focus from product to symbol. In Europe there has been a tradition of proxy wedding when the groom is away in the army. Such a thing is unheard of in India even today. Exchanging one product for another for the sake of a dubious symbol can be a risky affair. But money as a symbol was accepted for real and on the basis of that one act mankind made a tremendous advance in the proliferation of money. Coins in turn were replaced by paper currency and are recently being replaced by digital currencies. In both instances, it led to a great proliferation of money. Today the increasing speed of the internet and creation of new forms of money continue the trend.

“The emergence of global government is an inevitable development in the course of social transformation.

When a nation expands beyond its borders, money plays a significant role. The EU was patterned after the US and as such it marked a considerable progress in European affairs. However, her failure to establish a political union with a federal government and independent central bank has prevented the Euro from acquiring full effectiveness. German reunification brought about many problems of which currency is important. It led to a massive currency shortage but later on paved the way for its expansion. If world currency is created, it would lead to infinite increase in money supply. In theory, the power of Money and knowledge are infinite and only the limitations of social institutions are limiting their creation. In theory, the function of knowledge is to bring out the unknown.

When humanity gives up its ignorance, evolution will still move forward and it will bring out and give expression to what is already known within ourselves. The discovery of the reality of infinity is a movement from ignorance to knowledge. The computer stands at the border between ignorance and knowledge. It helps us to overcome impossibilities. The arrival of Indian numerals has made arithmetic very easy to learn. When insurance was first introduced, the premiums charged were high because there were few policies issued. Later, the whole society accepted the value of insurance and the cost for each insuree fell as risks were spread over a wider population.

This article covers both advantages and disadvantages of world unity. This phenomenon of duality is present in all walks of life. But in this case the advantages of unity are so predominant that one is tempted to ignore the disadvantages though they are present in a small measure. American society is very mobile and people are willing to go wherever jobs are available. This has helped to alleviate the stress of unemployment. Europeans tend to be more stationary and it is difficult to persuade a person to take up a job that is more than 50 miles away from his hometown. Stationary habits breed local attachment while mobility removes such an attachment.

“Political equality can only become a reality when it is accompanied by economic equality.

Creation of global government is a further step in social transformation. Social existence began at the physical level and only much later moved to the mental level. At some stage the concept of society emerged, a landmark in human thought. When people realized the importance of others for their own security, they formed social groupings instead of attempting to destroy others. As a first result, people began to live in collective settlements. Farming that provided food for the whole society became possible with the beginning of sedentary collective life. People lost their antagonism towards others who lived in the same settlement and reserved their hostility for those outside the community. What began as the local community later evolved into the present day Nation-State. Competition between communities evolved into competition between nations. The next evolutionary step is for the nation-state to evolve into the future world state, in which there will be no ‘other’ who is perceived as a foreign threat.

UNESCO has launched a publication on the emerging social transformation. It is a sign that the thought has matured in the social consciousness of humanity. It is bound to further ripen into solid action. Up until now, national boundaries have been erased by imperial conquest. But the formation of the European Union and the United States of America is based on a higher way of living. The world stands to benefit greatly from the formation of the global state in the field of education. This field has been badly affected by two factors. One is memorization which has its origin in the period before the invention of the printing press. The other is that even though printed books were introduced centuries ago and the Internet now provides information at everyone’s fingertips, the teacher is still regarded as the primary source of knowledge for education. Little has been done to replace the role of the teacher. Inadequate attempts have been made to shift the emphasis in education from transfer of information to stimulating thinking on the part of the student.

The Dictionary and Encyclopedia are landmarks in the history of education. When a student thinks on his own and interacts with other students and teachers he becomes alive in his mind. Learning becomes a process of thinking which means that the curiosity of the student has been awakened. When a student thinks on his own, his learning pace becomes 10 times faster than when he is simply taught. Many methods are known for awakening the student’s curiosity. The American educator Glenn Doman has practiced his methods with great success. A global government will enable all such methods to be combined together for maximum benefit of the children. Once the student’s curiosity has been awakened, the information of the whole world is at his disposal. Such an arrangement will considerably shorten the time required for study. Learning takes on a practical dimension and opens up the possibility of earning also. This will have a revolutionary impact. Any student studying by this method can abridge the time required for learning by 10 years and acquire the knowledge of an adult citizen by age 15 instead of 25.

The emergence of global government is an inevitable development in the course of social transformation. It is a movement away from the physical to the mental. When the physical plane is saturated, the excess energy moves up from there towards the mental. It cannot be stopped, though its course can be made to deviate as we have seen since the Great Crash of 1929. Capitalism which died during the Great Depression has been kept on life-support for the past 90 or more years. The collapse of Communism in 1990 marked the beginning of the end for capitalism as well, not its final victory as so many concluded at the time. Its life cannot be extended further. We see that the cry for liberty could not be silenced since the break-out of the French Revolution. The same applies to the demand for equality. Economic equality has not yet been achieved and a wide inequality is the prevailing norm nowadays. Political equality can only become a reality when it is accompanied by economic equality. This process will be completed only when social and psychological equality are also achieved. Besides liberty and equality, there is also fraternity. The addition of fraternity is inevitable in the long run. The only reservation about such a development concerns the desirability of full equality before individuality has been achieved. Premature imposition of equality could lead to the suppression of individuality rather than its fullest development.

World government can infinitely multiply the dissemination of knowledge, social power and money. Any of these goals achieved prematurely could do harm. When it is achieved in excess measure, knowledge may lead to superstition and excess power may turn into cruelty. When money supply is in excess, its evolutionary role as a builder of society gets diluted. Abundant knowledge can be absorbed through wider education which can serve as a corrective measure. If values are in abundant measure, they can absorb excess power and thereby prevent its misuse. Abolition of competition on a universal scale will promote cooperation. We see excess of money in the US has prompted the country to act negatively in the UN. America’s withdrawal from UNESCO endangered its very existence. What type of global government we get depends on what type of leadership we have. Global currency, language, world army and visa all await their birth in Time.

About the Author(s)

Ashok Natarajan

Fellow, World Academy of Art & Science; Secretary, The Mother’s Service Society, Pondicherry, India