Towards one world, one government

I know there are a great many people who are experiencing intense discomfort and suffering during the Covid-19 crisis.

I, though, am in the very fortunate position to say I am not.

I am not ill. My family and loved ones are all well.

I am safe and I have enough bully beef and two-minute noodles in my kitchen cupboard to last me till the end of lockdown (and probably quite a little beyond).

I have been very fortunate to be able to continue working.

You see, I was very lucky to be able to quickly relocate my little household to the flatlet at my office in Walmer.

It’s actually very comfortable and it gives me the ability to be at “mission control” while my exceptional team have continued almost seamlessly to work from their rapidly established home offices via VPN e-mail and WhatsApp (and of course our new friend, Zoom).

Strangely though, I see that in spite of these longer working hours (that “home office” arrangements tend to result in), I am finding much more time for reading, meditating and reflecting.

I suppose it’s the simple nett effect of spending less time running up and down.

In fact, I was reflecting just this morning (over a luxuriously drawn-out, yet mediocre, cup of coffee) how true it is that in times of crisis we come to see what is of value.

To me it is clear as day that there is great value in remaining connected, in having loved ones to care for and to be cared for by, and in having a curious mind.

But there is also a whole list of things I can now see have no value and that I’ve been doing simply out of force of habit, and not because I’ve thought them through.

In this list I include meeting reps, commuting, mindless meetings, daily shopping and even my morning fix at the Seattle coffee shop!

But in addition to the personal stuff, my mind begins to wonder about what it is we have been doing habitually on a political scale that we can now begin to see makes no sense at all.

There can be no doubt the Covid-19 crisis is making it abundantly obvious that the world’s political systems are not designed (if they are designed at all) to address any of the significant threats that face our species.

As we speak, governments, presidents and sovereigns around the world are attempting to combat a global pandemic with political mechanisms and tools evolved to deal with  challenges and threats at state level.

This will simply not do!

From what I can gather, it seems that over the last 200,000 years or so, our species has formed itself into groups of varying sizes to deal with the prevailing threat of the time.

In that way genes were passed down that gave the ability and inclination to function as a family unit where the duties of food gathering, child rearing and protection could be shared, thus warding off the ever-present threat of starvation or attack.

As time went on, larger communities began to make more sense.

If the warlike clan across the river from you had 150 strong men, then you had better make sure you had 160 strong men so as not to be annihilated by them in times of scarcity.

Historians tell us that larger and larger competing political systems arose over the centuries to defend themselves against continually growing threats.

This pattern has continued to the point where, by the time World War 2 came around, states had such large armies that they could (and did) cause the deaths of more than 26 million people.

It is the various parliaments, military councils and royal houses of the exact same type that engaged in World War 2 that, to this day, still take decisions meant to guide our precious planet.

When I think of it, I struggle to find one single problem of any significance that our species is facing that is not global in scale.

Climate change is a global problem; nuclear proliferation is a global problem; human trafficking is a global problem; as are poverty, overpopulation, migration, water scarcity and habitat destruction of both wild animals and people.

The threats we face as a species today require that we take immediate action to move to the next logical step in political organisation.

This is the incredibly complicated step of forming a new and overarching global government.

This is where our energy should be focused, debating and discussing what this kind of government should look like and what its powers should be.

The discussion must start now, ahead of the next crisis that we know will come and whose shape we know we are notoriously bad at predicting.

We need to know that the conspiracy theorists, the flat-earthers and the anti-vaxxer types will have a lot to say about a “return to colonialism” and the illuminati lizard people taking over.

We will need to rationally and calmly weather this storm.

Each of us will need to take to the streets (or to Twitter) and make our voices heard in what will surely be a brutal fight towards One World, with One Government.

We may, with time, come to see this pinnacle of all achievements as the lasting legacy of this terrible virus.