Civilization and Beyond: Learning from HistoryNearing, Scott
History
Civilization and Beyond: Learning from History
Nearing, Scott
Civilization -- History
Let no reader retort: Old things are best; old ways are most secure;
beware of the errors of human judgment, the lures and wiles of human
imaginings, the reckless enthusiasm of inexperience; the machinations
and subversions of the counter-revolution.
Whether he will or no, man has already advanced far along the path that
leads beyond the culture level of civilization into a culture pattern
which includes new means of association and new social institutions. The
most obvious examples of the universal pattern which the human race has
been developing during the present epoch are to be found in the "one
world" consequences of the planet-wide revolution in science and
technology.
Planetary fragmentation which accompanied the dissolution of Roman
civilization divided and sub-divided mankind into unnumbered
self-contained segments: families, tribes, classes, villages, cities,
kingdoms, principalities, nations, empires. They were separated from one
another by geographic, ethnic, ideological and political barriers which
were intensified by tradition, custom, migration, and the competitive
struggles among the elite for pelf and power. Ignorance and superstition
played a major role in the decentralizing process. Conflicts at various
levels led to further social segmentation and isolation of autonomous
social groups.
In the backwardness of those Dark Ages--curiosity, fellow feeling, mass
migration, the spirit of adventure, trade, travel and the need for
common action to master nature and repel enemies--broke down barriers
and created fields of mutual interest and general well-being, reversing
the trend toward fragmentation and replacing it by a trend toward
universality which reached its high point during the closing years of
the nineteenth century. The slogan of this movement was "United we
stand, divided we fall. The bell which tolls for one, tolls for all.
When one benefits all benefit. Peace, progress and prosperity promote
general welfare."
Two general wars in 1914-18 and 1939-45, brought pre-meditated,
deliberated suffering, hardships and death to multitudes. Each war led
to a clamor for peace and order that resulted in a World Court, The
League of Nations and the United Nations. The efforts at planet-wide
united action for peace and disarmament were paralleled and supplemented
by the growth of specialized public services for communication, travel,
scientific interchange, arms limitation. They were further augmented by
a spectacular expansion of trade, travel, capital investment and
scientific research and interchange.
Events since war's end in 1945 have marked out the steps which the human
race might take in the immediate future to deal with the new problems
arising out of the world revolution of 1750-1970 and to stabilize human
life on the planet.
Step 1. Revise the United Nations Charter to make all citizens
of member nations also citizens of the United Nations
and therefore under its direct jurisdiction.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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