FULL TEXT OF REVIEW BY WILLIAM BASS
 

From: "At the Brink with William Dudley Bass" http://atthebrinkwithwilliamdudleybass.blogspot.com/2009/03/vote-yes-for-democratic-world.html

 Vote Yes! For Democratic World Government

As humanity continues to blunder toward global collapse where worse case scenarios are fast becoming the most likely scenarios, good people around the world wonder what they can do, if anything. Many struggle alone or in small groups in the cause of their choices, large organizations have gone deep to stay alive but focus upon only one cause, while the rest of us feel resigned, cynical perhaps, apathetic, demoralized, even depressed. I call this the "whatever syndrome," as in when you tell someone that this time the sky really is falling or the wolves are actually killing and eating the sheep they just shrug their shoulders, mumble "Whatever," and go back to doing whatever they happen to be doing.

Folks, there IS something positive each one of us can do.

Vote "Yes!" for Democratic World Government. And do it now. I voted "Yes." Tell others to do it, too. Go to the website http://www.voteworldgovernment.org/ and vote.

This is a worldwide internet-based voting via global referendum. You can find out more about it at its companion website http://www.rescueplanforplanetearth.com/.

I recently had the pleasure of reading a new book called Rescue Plan for Planet Earth: Democratic World Government through a Global Referendum. The author is Jim Stark of Canada. He lives in rural Quebec and served as a global anti-nuclear weapons activist during the Cold War.

His is a brilliant book. I have long struggled without success over what we can do to work with nation-state regimes, stateless nations, the UN and the Bretton Woods Three, or bypass all of them in some local-global grassroots initiative. Established institutions are inherently resistant to overtly surrendering power. The answer is to leverage telecommunications technology including the Internet as well as mail-in paper ballots from across Earth to launch, maintain, and sustain a Global Referendum for planetary democracy.

Jim Stark throws down a challenge for all of us, and it is a challenge any one of us capable adults can answer. His Global Referendum is a way to involve all of us, even if we disagree with it.

Vote World Government is an NGO, a non-governmental organization, active in the pursuit and creation of transparent, democratic world government. While some people quibble over the wording of its ballot proposition as it currently exists, it is simple and direct. The ballot proposition asks:

"Do you support the creation of a directly-elected, representative and democratic world government?"

That is it: "Yes" or "No."

There are things I like and don't like about Mr. Stark's book. It is short, and I love that. Short books are the way to go in today's busy, hectic world. Our "24/7/365" pace leaves us with less time to read and contemplate, not more. The book is direct, to the point, and combines deep vision with direct action. Many similar books are either visionary or pragmatic. Few are both. Jim Stark's book is one of those few.

The language of the book is a bit shrill for me, and the author makes no apologies for it as we approach the tipping point of planetary catastrophe including the real possibility of what he calls "omnicide," the killing of everything. In fact he seems proud of the word "shrill." From a marketing standpoint I would have avoided shrillness as a psychological turn-off to any clarion call.

I also take issue with assuming the best form of democratic government is going to be a European-style parliamentary form vs. the American three-way checks and balances system. I myself have not made up my mind which would be best for humanity. Both systems have their pros and cons. It would be best to leave that up to wisdom councils to sort out and a planetary constitutional convention followed by another referendum on that. I would imagine the best and brightest among us to evolve something even more evolved than what we have now. This is especially pertinent as we have experienced the paralysis and fragmentation inherent in parliamentary systems and the abuses and creeping "stealth" despotism that mar the American system. Jim Stark is upfront, of course, as favoring the Canadian system, which is indeed among the better ones on Earth, as he is Canadian and thus more familiar with it. The fundamental issue of the people taking public control of the Money Power is not addressed in the book. Such an important economic and financial issue must be addressed. For now, however, let's vote in this referendum!

These are all mere quibbles, however, quibbles. The greater priority is to get this referendum going worldwide. And that means starting locally.

Many will oppose us from all directions. There are those who desire world government alright, but are working hard to create a financial and political planetary dictatorship. It is a fascist regime disguised as "democracy." There are racists, religious fundamentalists, nationalists, and those in the Corporatocracy and the military-industrial-intelligence complex who will oppose democratic world government as a threat to their power. There are the quasi-libertarian conspiracy theory kooks who recognize the above menaces as real, which they are, but collapse every move toward a democratic world federation as part of the One World Government conspiracy. These me-firsters make no distinction between the forces of what author/activist David Korten calls Global Empire and Earth Community. Instead these freedom-without-responsibility types denigrate concepts of universal human rights and universal social responsibility.

There are also the capitalists who still cling to illusions of a free and unregulated marketplace and the communists who cling to the dictatorship of the proletariat as central state control who will oppose this. And there are the Anarchists who naively believe in no government or hierarchy at all but loose networks of individuals and neighborhoods cooperating together without competition and violence. I would imagine, however, that Jim Stark is right in his statistics-based assumption the majority of human beings would prefer a transparent, democracy world government of liberty, peace, health, and prosperity. And if the chance to vote in favor of such occurred most would vote "Yes."

The one significant move I wished Jim Stark and his colleagues could have done differently is insert the word "democratic" into the name of his organization and website, as in "Vote Democratic World Government." So many people, even if they laugh at the far-right wing conspiracy kooks, are still leery of the term "world government," fear global tyranny, and view the term "One World Government" as scary and ominous. Maybe Mr. Stark tried and the term was already copyrighted, the domain name taken, or it was viewed as too lengthy to effectively market. And we set aside differences to work together now. One step at a time, breathing as we go.

And this Global Referendum to vote for a democratic world government is hands-down the best, most effective tool we have to leverage people and technology around the world in service of Earth and humanity. So go vote, and I encourage all of you to vote "Yes!"

Again, go here and vote:

© by William Dudley Bass

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FULL TEXT OF REVIEW BY Rev. Dr. Karen A. Hamilton
 

In his book, The Seven Pillars of Wisdom, Lawrence of Arabia speaks about those he calls the "dreamers of the day", reminding us that such people may act their dream with open eyes and make it possible.

It is important for the future of our world, indeed it is crucial for the future of our world, to dream the big dreams, the ones that have the height, depth and breadth to transform global governance, to achieve a democratically governed world. As the title of his book so clearly articulates, Jim Stark is one of those "dreamers of the day" dreaming of the achievement of democratic world government through a global referendum. His dream is not an abstract, theoretical one though, but rather a systematized programme of concrete details directed to what he calls the "...credible strategy that can get us from the current anarchy among nations to the democratically governed world we so desperately need".

Stark begins his book by setting out what he deliberately calls an "alarmist" articulation of the current context of our world, focusing particularly on the issues of nuclear weapons and climate change. He is passionate, he is graphic and although it is clear throughout the book that he is writing for an audience with some familiarity of the issues of world federalism and/or global governance, he spends enough time describing the dire state of the world so as to be convincing to those who have either not been reading or listening to any form of media for the last decade or who have been living on a different planet.

It is in the second chapter of the book that Stark lays out his particular purpose in writing. He reminds the reader that there are many books that discuss in detail the current dire state of world affairs and that there are a few which explain how a democratic world government would both work and be able to address that dire state. His book, however, "...is basically a plan to compel the creation of such a global institution. It presents a new and powerful political instrument, the global referendum, as the necessary tool that we, the people of the Earth, could use to achieve a democratically governed world in as little as a decade...".

Very, very admirable is the way that Jim Stark has thought through a global referendum in concrete detail. He uses fact, figures, numbers, geography, tables and charts in an extremely thorough way. He is also extremely articulate and well-reasoned in terms of the need for and the useful methodology of computers, the internet and social networking in the process of a global referendum. These are the areas in which Stark's thinking and book particularly shine. This reviewer found that every question he raised in these concrete areas while reading the book was answered in the very next section or chapter. Also very concrete and admirably practical is the reality of the organization "Vote World Government".

More problematic is Stark's use of boxes and interspersed quotes throughout the book. While this reviewer has some general sympathy for the use of both and found Stark's boxes and quotes often very applicable to his subject, nonetheless there are too many, and it is a distraction to reading. Also somewhat irritating is his frequent use of the term "omnicide", to refer to the killing of everything. There are references to it indeed on the internet but as a term still not in common use it is a distraction to Stark's point.

A more serious critique of Stark's book arises from current streams of World Federalist thinking. In comments such as those in the box on page 83, the reform of the United Nations is rejected and yet World Federalist policies, priorities, structures and individuals hold together both a critique of the UN and the belief that its reform is quite possible. Stark also seems unfamiliar with the current articulation of incremental federalism as it is laid out in such vehicles as the reports of the World Federalism's Council Chair.

Stark writes in a manner that reflects historical thinking in some areas of global context, rather than current realities. This is most clearly seen in his certainty that when the people of the earth clearly understand the depth and breadth of the planet's problems, they will see the necessity for a democratic world government obtained through a global referendum as the answer. This kind of thinking was recently challenged at the Couchiching Conference for Public Affairs, 2010. In a session entitled "Shifts in Power", speakers on the subject of China noted that interviews with young Chinese intellectuals clearly indicate that freedom of thought and economic prosperity do not necessarily lead to a striving for democracy. More generally, current conversations on global issues recognize that common acceptance of problems and issues does not necessarily lead to common agreement around the most effective solutions.

Also very noticeable throughout Stark's book is his tendency to think almost exclusively in nationalist terms. What is missing is a deeper, more articulated understanding that many current global conflicts are regional or intra-state. Climate change, a discussion of which is key to his book, is an obvious example of the regional or trans-state reality of our global context.

Stark's treatment of religion is quite paradoxical. In the latter part of the book he treats the religious nature of most of the earth's people with much more serious attention than is usually the case in materials on global governance and world federalism. But while Stark seems to recognize the wide-spread nature of religious belief on the globe, and the reality that religion has been and is sometimes deeply implicated in conflicts, he does not seem to have knowledge of current religious thinking on the very issues with which he is so concerned - nuclear weapons and climate change. In all Stark's plethora of boxes and quotes, very few come from religious sources, and his major example of religious attitude to climate change is an extremely dated one from the fringes of one particular religious tradition. Nonetheless, he does sometimes, though without consistency, see religion as a key factor in civil society and one that can be in accord with the vision he is setting out.

Jim Stark's book, Rescue Plan for Planet Earth, has both its strengths and its weaknesses, but it is a thorough attempt to portray in a concrete, practical way the steps to a democratic world government through a global referendum. Although areas of his analysis need to be re-thought and up-dated, the book serves as a good reminder and good map of the methodologies present, available and necessary as we act and dream together towards global democracy.