A World Government

[Alert Mongoose]

Is this remotely possible in the future? Is it the only way to stop current issues such as tax havens, man made global warming and nuclear weapons? 

I would argue that until we have this, we are on a slippery slope towards the end of humankind. No idea how you would work it though - any thoughts? 

[tongue_tied_danny]

22 minutes ago, Alert Mongoose said:

Is this remotely possible in the future? Is it the only way to stop current issues such as tax havens, man made global warming and nuclear weapons? 

I would argue that until we have this, we are on a slippery slope towards the end of humankind. No idea how you would work it though - any thoughts? 

I'd be up for that. The Republic of Earth. 

The official language could be Nadsat, like in A Clockwork Orange. 

We would need Judge Dredd style cops enforcing law and order.

[welshbairn]

The Emperor of the Wizard of Oz should be President.  

[JamieThomas]

[BFTD]

Thought we were playing Celebrity Jeopardy with Sean Connery when I saw the thread title. Bit disappointed, but I'll take Anal Bum Cover for $400 anyway.

Also, looking forward to the New World Order/Illuminati/Big Brother/general conspiracy chat that this will inevitably descend into.

[welshbairn]

1 hour ago, Alert Mongoose said:

Is this remotely possible in the future? Is it the only way to stop current issues such as tax havens, man made global warming and nuclear weapons? 

I would argue that until we have this, we are on a slippery slope towards the end of humankind. No idea how you would work it though - any thoughts? 

The current First World eruption of people resurrecting 20th century warlike philosophies to try and have a square go makes me think we're doomed to conflict forever, and a Startrek or Ian M Banks' Culture will never happen. Bit depressing tbh. Hopefully the Third World will save us.

[Benjamin_Nevis]

Excellent. Something else that goggle-eyed c**t Farage can fail to get elected to.

[NotThePars]

Unless we, at the very least, move towards international socialism the entire world is going to boil.

[JamieThomas]

Is VENEZUELA part of this? I can't help but think it somehow must be.

[wastecoatwilly]

Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people living life in peace, you
Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people sharing all the world

[Fullerene]

12 minutes ago, wastecoatwilly said:

Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people living life in peace, you
Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people sharing all the world

I might think you are a dreamer but I accept you are not the only one.
I hope one day to join you and the world will live as one.
 

[lichtgilphead]

I'd like to be under the sea
In an octopus' garden in the shade.

[Savage Henry]

7 hours ago, lichtgilphead said:

I'd like to be under the sea
In an octopus' garden in the shade.

More wisdom in those two lines than in the whole of John Lennon's Imagine.

[Antiochas III]

9 hours ago, welshbairn said:

The current First World eruption of people resurrecting 20th century warlike philosophies to try and have a square go makes me think we're doomed to conflict forever, and a Startrek or Ian M Banks' Culture will never happen. Bit depressing tbh. Hopefully the Third World will save us.

Tbf, the Star Trek's United Earth came about after a massive World War that almost sent Earth back to the stone age.  So you never know, fingers crossed.  

 

Can't see the Brits or the Americans going for Paris as the capital city though. 

[Granny Danger]

8 hours ago, Fullerene said:

I might think you are a dreamer but I accept you are not the only one.
I hope one day to join you and the world will live as one.
 

 

[renton]

10 hours ago, NotThePars said:

Unless we, at the very least, move towards international socialism the entire world is going to boil.

 

If the UK still employed several million Unionised Miners, then the leader of the Labour party would be a climate change denier. Enviromentalism and Socialism may belong to the same spectrum of progressive politics, but they are not substitutes for each other.

 

[Detournement]

Again a load of shite.

It wasn't a binary choice between closing the pits and burning coal until it runs out.

[NotThePars]

 
If the UK still employed several million Unionised Miners, then the leader of the Labour party would be a climate change denier. Enviromentalism and Socialism may belong to the same spectrum of progressive politics, but they are not substitutes for each other.
 

Capitalism won’t save us. By all means let the Kochs of the world kill us all for profits.

[renton]

 

50 minutes ago, Detournement said:

Again a load of shite.

It wasn't a binary choice between closing the pits and burning coal until it runs out.

 

1 minute ago, NotThePars said:

 

Capitalism won’t save us. By all means let the Kochs of the world kill us all for profits.

 

Your missing the point. It's a question of influence and interests. There is nothing specifically altruistic about Socialism - from an environmental point of view at least. It exists in the same continuum of Labour and Capital as neoliberalism does, it simply seeks to protect the influence of Labour - and particularly Labour wages - against the reaction of Capital to various crises as Neoliberalism seeks to diminish the role of Labour. This is a good and noble aim, of course and part of the progressive spectrum that seeks the most amount of empowerment and opportunity for the most amount of people.

However, it is still a sectional interest. Where Labour is a massive greenhouse gas producing behemoth, Socialism will seek to protect it. Much climate change denial, for example in the States, is tied to the local industry. You simply won't find a coal miner willing to see his livliehood diminished for some abstract, like climate change.

After all, while Labour and the Unions might be for world peace and against imperialism you probably won't find any of them willing to shut down the shipyards who exclusively build weapon systems used for continuing an implicitly imperial world view.

So when I say that if there was still an organised, Unionised large Labour force in the Mines, and in the Steelworks - and you told them that tomorrow the pit had to shut to stop the seas boiling, I guarantee you the local Labour MP would be standing up to their waist in the super-heated froth, flesh and fat slewing from their bones like so much pulled pork, declaring that it was in fact a wee bit nippy in the water.

Socialism can't save the world, even as it is a noble enough tradition in terms of protecting the rights and opportunities of millions. Capitalism certainly won't save the world. What is needed is a whole new paradigm. Technological revolution always tends to lead Political reform anyway. The Information economy, in it's way will kill Capitalism with far greater speed than any Sociological construct. As the cost of production tends towards zero it creates a fundamental crisis for Capitalism that it can't possibly solve. The guy  who came up with the Cntrl+C, Cntrl+V shortcut may have done more to advance the cause of the left than 100 years of accomplished Leftist thinkers....

[NotThePars]

So fully automated luxury communism? Cheers, mates.

 

No, sorry. I can’t understand how someone can look at the ideology of tech billionaires atm and have any hope that technology can save us. They’re practically trying to bring back feudalism and pull up the drawbridge. We need an ideological construct to drive how we use technology, not just rely on it as a neutral actor that is intrinsically progressive.