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Gail, things do seem to be compounding these days - war, terror,
environmental disasters (we haven't seen anything yet!), AIDS, now SARS, and God
knows what else. It's a time of enormous test for humanity. We don't
need aliens. We're bad enough ourselves!
Ed Weick
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Thursday, April 03, 2003 10:08
PM
Subject: Re: [Futurework] Pax Democratica
- a proposal
Ed, you wrote:
>However, we may be into a very different ball game in the future, a
perpetual, long-term war between established powers and supranational networks
of organizations that purport to represent the aggrieved and oppressed and use
terror to make their case. If anything could drive the poles I've
postulated into common cause, that might.
Yes, terrorism could. I keep expecting too
that environmental degradation, of the sort that William Ward wrote about,
might do so, but the separate incidents don't seem to add up to having a
sufficiently pervasive effect. I watched again the other night the old
classic, The Day the Earth Stood Still. Half an hour without electricity was
deemed enough to catch attention worldwide!
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Thursday, April 03, 2003 6:53
PM
Subject: Re: [Futurework] Pax
Democratica - a proposal
I don't think they could be international organizations unless you
consider the EU to be an "international organization", and it may still have
a long way to go. I don't personally see large and powerful (or
potentially powerful (e.g. Russia)) countries being willing to give anything
up unless it is to their advantage to do so. However, we may be into a
very different ball game in the future, a perpetual, long-term war between
established powers and supranational networks of organizations that purport
to represent the aggrieved and oppressed and use terror to make their
case. If anything could drive the poles I've postulated into common
cause, that might.
Ed Weick
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Thursday, April 03, 2003 4:45
PM
Subject: Re: [Futurework] Pax
Democratica - a proposal
Ed,
Interesting. A lot of horsetrading I think is a useful idea. I agree
with the notion of several centres of power but think it important that
they not be mutually exclusive, like nations. That is why I was thinking
of a Commons that included both the US and many of the countries in the
UN. The three would then be overlapping, and overlapping with the
Commonwealth, the European Union, etc. A multiplex or web, rather than a
detente. So I don't think we are far apart but I seem to
be making my "edges" fuzzier than yours! What do you
think? Could the four or five "poles" be international organizations
rather than countries?
We have so much to learn about how to avoid war!
<snip>
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