Outlawing Nations and Starvation
The other day I watched a documentary about the space station. Several astronauts mentioned how they were struck by the visual fact that there was no way to discern national or state boundaries from space. There are land masses, but no lines of division as we see on maps and globes. Of course, this seems obvious, but is not, as the astronaut's remarks show. We are so used to looking at maps, and living in our separate countries, that we think these divisions are real rather than very recent artificial inventions, and very destructive ones at that.
Nationalism is a terrible curse and it can be reversed. In fact, for us to work together as a globe before it is too late, we had better do so. If we do not begin thinking of the entire earth as our home that needs protecting we are doomed.
We must radically rethink life on this planet. The things we assume are inevitable, and that we take for granted, must be re-examined. It is one world, it is not a world of naturally separated nation-states who must compete with each other, boast about their superiorities, and, not infrequently, go to war with each other killing enormous amounts of people and devastating the environment. What if we outlawed nations? It is a concept we created, it is a concept we can reverse.
What if we outlawed starvation and poverty? If you look at so-called “primitive” tribes, you will seldom, if ever, see some people incredibly thriving while others are starving. Why is this? Well, for one, in a small tribe it is impossible to look away or not notice that people you have known for a life-time are starving, or living in terrible conditions right before your eyes, so you do something about it. You make sure these people are looked after.
In today’s modern “civilization”, it is very easy to not see these “others”, they are left to live in the most undesirable areas and their circumstances are carefully kept away from our eyes and ears. If we have polluting factories, or waste to dispose of, this is where we put it. The people who live in terrible conditions do not live near us so we don’t really know or see them. Consequently, they are not real to us, and it is easy to ignore them.
But what if, like the supposedly “primitive” tribes that we have supposedly progressed beyond, we too made starvation and poverty wholly unacceptable? What if, when such conditions exist, we skim money off the most outrageously wealthy of us and use it to raise up people in terrible straits? Is this the dreaded “Communism” that so terrifies the right and the rich, or is it just basic human decency? Does Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos really need more than one billion dollars? Or even one hundred million? Their actual wealth is well over 150 billion each and quickly climbing.
It is not evil to be rich. No doubt they put in great sweat, labour, and creativity to achieve their wealth. What is evil is for this unnecessary excess — far above what they can ever spend — to exist in their personal possessions while others are starving and living lives that no one would willingly tolerate for those people they care about or even knew personally. After all, you can only own and use so many cars, houses, and super yachts. Would it really be so horrible to tap this enormous unused surplus to save people's lives? What if personal wealth was capped at some nonetheless high figure - say one billion
dollars, or horrors, “only” one hundred million dollars, and people who earned such amounts were guaranteed lifetime security from hunger and poverty so they never had to worry about survival ever again no matter what? What if the same was granted to everyone?
Sounds utopian? It is not. We can do this. By rethinking what we take for granted, by reexamining our basic premises, we can make this world not only less precarious, but in a relatively short time, a true paradise for all, humans and all other species as well. But first, we must truly begin to be willing to abandon what we have been brought up believing is inevitable and start thinking of what is possible.
We can save the world. We can end nationalism, we can end starvation and poverty, we can end the slaughter of the innocents all over the world, we can end pollution, we can create paradise. All we need is the courage to think anew, and the courage to act.
Eric G. Weiner
