Philosophical Questions: Government

[ysabetwordsmith]

People have expressed interest in deep topics, so this list focuses on philosophical questions.

Do you think there will ever be a global government? If a world government did come to power, assuming it wasn’t particularly cruel or evil, would it be a good or bad thing?


Complicated. Humanity has, over time, grown into bigger and bigger groups. Trouble is, they're not actually good at the ones bigger than a monkeysphere. If we're being generous, we allow for tribe or clan or village level being reasonably functional somewhat beyond that.

But a government? Not so much. Even in the face of a severe threat to species and biopshere alike, humanity cannot get its shit together.

Now the Baha'i Faith had this whole outline for the Lesser Peace and the Most Great Peace. Unfortunately we passed the opportunity for that path about six exits back. :/

I think a global government would be possible in theory, but is unlikely in practice, at least in the foreseeable future. And beyond that, humanity would be lucky to survive shitting in its own nest.

That said, if a healthy and functional global government arose, it would certainly be a big improvement over the current flaming clusterfuck. The challenge would lie in balancing unity and diversity. And of course, how you define "global" because some folks, like the Sentinelese, have made it really fucking clear at spearpoint that they don't want to deal with outsiders.

Comments

[dewline]

I think that we need to put in a lot of work to make sure that, if a global government does happen, it's a competent and kind one.

[thewayne]

I think the EU shows some promising first baby steps towards a unified government. Also that there's no way off this planet in a 'save the planet/space arc' way without a unified planetary government. We're no where near sufficiently socially evolved as a species to have a world government, there's no telling how long it will take - there's too much greed and too little social evolution.

Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

>> I think the EU shows some promising first baby steps towards a unified government. <<

It did in the beginning, but now it's feeling the strain from earlier choices. They've really struggled to balance unity and diversity.

>> Also that there's no way off this planet in a 'save the planet/space arc' way without a unified planetary government. <<

I'm not sure about that. A bunch of different countries have space programs. Sure it would be easier to get farther with a unified program, but multiple places are capable of launching an orbital or lunar colony already, if they chose to do that.

>> We're no where near sufficiently socially evolved as a species to have a world government, there's no telling how long it will take - there's too much greed and too little social evolution.<<

Agreed. They're missing a lot of essential skills.

[siliconshaman]

I wish I could say I'm hopeful on that score... but I think it more likely we'd end up with some fascist dystopian nightmare of a global dictatorship. Imagine a world where China turns most if not all the other countries into vassal states, imposing "democracy" Chinese style on everyone.

Well ...

[ysabetwordsmith]

Thing is, a rigid tyranny has the same kind of weight limit as an exoskeleton: too big and it quickly collapses under its own weight. Russia and China are probably right around the maximum in this context, struggling to hold what they have and finding it difficult to expand.

Not to mention China fucked itself decades ago and cannot go much farther due to its 4-2-1 problem.

[greghousesgf]

Absolute power corrupts absolutely, folks!

World government

[dialecticdreamer]

When I was a teen, I could believe that a world government, the UN writ large, rather than China or Bolivia or France's system(s) scaled to cover the planet.

Now... Now, that hope is deader than eight-track tapes. I have seen too many horrible acts by my own, supposedly "democratic" and "inclusive" government to trust anything larger in scope than an HOA... and there is a REASON that there are so many terrible stories centered around the actions of various HOAs.

The next question becomes whether a world government is necessary to achieve a spacefaring society.

Honestly, I don't think so. It might take two nations working cooperatively, but as soon as they get a ship out to the asteroid belt to begin harvesting water and mining--or even simply using the wasted general "rock" as part of construction, the countries which have access to that technology and the resulting resources, will jump FAR ahead of their former peers.

Then, the midrange exploration and resource grabbing will create a new form of wildcatting. If we can survive a century or so of THAT, complete with "we're too far from government or police," we'll probably have a new form of Travelers-- clans that focus on their exploration and mining, with only minimal presence on Earth.

We'll also develop several new languages, pidgin and trader languages, then insider languages, especially for the various Traveler sects.

Over the century after that, humans will finally try to unify again, possibly in time to establish actual colonies not shipbound or on Earth (or the Moon).

IF we last that long. IF.

I'd love to be able to believe that we can weather the chaos and crises ahead.

Re: World government

[ysabetwordsmith]

>> Honestly, I don't think so. It might take two nations working cooperatively, but as soon as they get a ship out to the asteroid belt to begin harvesting water and mining <<

That makes sense. I mean, they've already done the hard part getting off the planet. The real question is whether anyone wants to launch a colony, and so far they can't be arsed to do it.

>>Then, the midrange exploration and resource grabbing will create a new form of wildcatting. If we can survive a century or so of THAT, complete with "we're too far from government or police," we'll probably have a new form of Travelers-- clans that focus on their exploration and mining, with only minimal presence on Earth.<<

Heh, yeah.

>>IF we last that long. IF.<<

Big IF, considering that humanity has chosen to wipe out the conditions under which it evolved.

Not...as long as it's seen as internal

[(Anonymous)]

If, however, there was something *outside* Earth? If we colonized the other planets in the 'system? Or met some aliens?

Then we might unite the whole world. But until then, our differences keep us diverse, for good *and* ill.

[injunjane]

the problem of 'global government' at the current stage of our evolution as a species and as a society is that the differences between cultures are still so profound that nobody will come to agreement on whom to elect. So much distrust and mutual hatred.

Actually, there was UN for many years as a sort of global governing institution, and what? They're a helpless bunch of bureaucrats parasitizing on donations from global powers and playing to their tune

I don't think 'government' is the key now. Rather unions of independent states, such as EU