Memorandum on World Government
by Nataraja Guru
INTRODUCTION
PREAMBLE
Humanity is One
This is the a priori given basis of the World Government outlined in this Memorandum. The recognition of the unity and solidarity of mankind follows from the correct application of the scientific or unitive approach to the problems of humanity. Just as a belief in many gods is incorrect, so when humanity is considered relativistically as consisting of closed groups, however big, or justified in the name of power or practicability, such a view violates the first and fundamental principle of the indivisible unity of Man. Humanity is one by its common origin, one in its common interests and motives of happiness here on earth in everyday living, and one in its relation to the aspirations and ideals which bind human beings together by bonds of sympathy for each other. A Unitive and Absolute Value is at the basis of human life. This High Human Value knows no frontier either actual or ideological. It makes no discrimination between rich or poor, high or low, civilized or backward. Sympathy for suffering and indignation against injustice to fellow men transcends time and clime, and reaches out evenly or pointedly, as the case may deserve, to the uttermost recesses of the one world which man inhabits.
Human nature, both "good" and "bad" at once
To say that evil does not exist and that God created all men good will sound unrealistic to modern ears after all the experience of humanity which historians have recorded. To state, on the contrary, that evil is the basis of human life, leaves us equally unconvinced. The wary man would back out of the paradox involved by saying that the verdict would depend on the particular case, and refuse to generalize. He might even go further and say sophistically that the possibility of error or evil in human nature is what makes man human at all; and by the same token it could be argued that even evil must have a basis of goodness. Such arguments have brought human affairs up against impasses again and again. We are no nearer to the right answer to such questions than we were thousands of years ago. General skepticism drives people to sit on the fence. Irrespective of time or clime, wise men have repeatedly tried to teach us a way out of these dilemmas. There is a method and a theory of knowledge proper to wisdom which is not the same as that of logic, ratiocination or even "objective" or mechanistic intelligence.
A new yet time-honoured approach
Such an approach should be scientifically formulated. It will then resolve conflicting counterparts of a given situation or problem, unitively, without conflict. Just as One Humanity is true, so One Absolute justice for all mankind, One Goodness applicable to all mankind, and One God or Ideal of Human Happiness could be stated to be at the basis of common human existence. The ordering of human life on unitive lines is the function of the World Government as envisaged in the present Memorandum.
The science of dialectics
Whether human life is fundamentally good or bad does not concern us here so directly as whether it is possible to cancel out evil by the good residing in human nature itself, i.e., whether there is still hope for humanity to overcome ignorance by wisdom. The static verity of human goodness or badness should be viewed dynamically as belonging to the flow of human life shaping itself in time. Living unitive thinking is concerned with the progressive shaping of human life based on values which fuse into an ever newly integrated flux which is subject to a constant process of becoming. The old order changes giving place to new. It is in this sense that wisdom is a perennial way of contemplation. This wisdom forms part of a science which could be called dialectics. The Truth that makes men Free and the Knowledge that gives Power are open and dynamic human values to be understood in the light of dialectics. The "evil" that is necessarily present in human nature when viewed unitively according to dialectics, is as true as the "goodness" inherent in a human nature when viewed in a similar way. All values, positive or negative, when unitively understood, belong to a vertical scale of values which man must recognize, and every moment he has to choose between opposite alternatives. At each step here a constant process of dialectical revaluation is involved, whether in the life of each man, each unit group, or of humanity as a whole. Such an approach to world affairs is what this Memorandum recommends, and it is this which makes it so unique as legitimately to claim the attention of all lovers of humanity who are interested in a World Government which for the first time is scientifically conceived. This newly formulated science, wherein pure dialectical reasoning is applied to problems of the world, may be called the "Science of Geo- Dialectics."
The geo-dialectical method
The geo-dialectical method consists of clearly recognizing the two counterparts which belong together in any given situation or problem to be eased or resolved in human affairs. Man is caught in necessity or bondage on the one hand, and, on the other, reaches out towards the contingent factor or freedom. If we could say that his necessity is symbolized either by the need for bread or common hunger, contingency is symbolized by the need to live and breathe freely, and in fulfilling one's life according to the inner urges within each man. Man has to fulfill life according to his own nature without being stifled or suffocated. Bread and freedom resolved into unitive terms of a central value spell Happiness. When each man is happy, all mankind is happy. When there is a general happiness of mankind as a whole, each man has his happiness most secure. No mother is happy unless her child also is happy, and no ruler is happy unless the subjects too are happy. To recognize and deal with the dialectical counterpart, while respecting fully the nature of the individual or the integrated personality of normal units called nations, in such a manner as to cancel out counterparts in unitive terms or positive human values conducive to human happiness, is the basis of the geo- dialectical method. Being an applied part of pure dialectics, the full implications of this statement can be clarified only after studying dialectics.1
Anomalies, absurdities and dangers of the mechanistic approach
The non-dialectical, non-unitive, mechanistic or unilateral approach which does not respect the integrated personality of nation or individual citizen gives rise to many anomalies, absurdities and disasters. If the case of a mother is taken up without including with it the case of the child, if the case of a ruler is taken without considering the ruled, or the master's case without the servant's, and even if we should forget to take into account that the one and the many are interdependent or reciprocally inter-related in a subtle dialectical manner, we invoke disasters large or small and sow the seeds of injustice and consequent suffering. Each man consists of what he is subjectively, and what he holds as dear as life itself, such as his money, his family, or even his faith. These adhere closely and result in the happiness that each person craves for. National and cultural groups also have integrated personalities of their own which cannot be subjected to a mechanistic treatment which is merely based on quantitative statistics or facts, without injury. Such roots of integration lie deeply buried in history. The partitioning of nations has resulted in genocidal tragedies.
Operating through decades or centuries, historical necessity gives the raison d'etre to the jigsaw puzzle patterns of the differently coloured patches on the mapped surface of the globe which school children are taught to distinguish as self-contained or autonomous political units, entities, states, countries or nations. Sometimes such patches tend to mark merely an area where an amorphous mass of people live who are dictated by external forces. Even while the child is being taught political geography, the patches change their outline or encroach on each other with a strange irrationality. These patches are not the result of any scientific ordering of the world, but are arbitrary and haphazard in their origin and growth. They have been traced by wars old or recent, whether just or unjust, and de facto status of certain units do not correspond to their de jure status in the present set-up of nations. The status of member nations in present day international bodies such as the United Nations depends on the veto or whim of the powers that be. No public or objective norms prevail here. Neither the natural law of the jungle nor any law consciously formulated in a manner in keeping with the much-vaunted dignity of man regulates internationalism at present.
The zero hour for the declaration of a World Government is past
In the days of chivalry willing combatants fought duels in strict accordance with certain codes of honour consistent with human dignity as understood in those olden days. But the day has now come when a brave general is reported to be proudly contemplating the extermination of "whole sections of people" by the latest weapons which human intelligence itself has placed at the service of irresponsible adventurers. Instead of the knight errant helping women and children in distress, humanity today hears of threats against the innocent and the unarmed. We hear of war criminals punished after wars have ceased, when we are not sure whether the punishment or the crime violates human codes of honour or justice. While their children wait for the horrible news outside the prison, parents get the electric chair for not keeping their own intelligence from helping those whom one nation or other suspects for the time being. Politics too strangely keeps changing its own complexion from day to day. Concentration camps and the lot of millions of displaced families who are denied "papers" year after year, making illegal even their right to work and earn a living, and thus in effect taking away their de facto status as fellow human beings, prove that the days of barbarity and slavery are not over. Exposed to fear and insecurity, humanity knows not which way to turn for consolation. Helplessly, it looks on with impotence when the dignity of humanity itself is at stake. The zero hour for the declaration of a World Government, at least in principle, is long past. Such a Government must voice human honour and self-respect. It must preserve the wisdom-heritage of humanity and hand it down to coming generations. Those who love humanity and absolute human values at every level and department of life must be protected. Those who hate their fellow men for reasons that are not universally valid are as good as not existing. Those who adhere to rival relativist values are bound, in any case, to cancel out one another. There is no real need to name the enemies of humanity because their days are numbered if humanity has any hope of survival at all. That humanity will survive, the supporters of World Government do firmly and solemnly believe. Therefore the time has come for all lovers of humanity to take a definite stand, avoiding double-talk, duplicity, compromise and doubt.
SECTION I
GENESIS
The World Government is an accomplished fact
The World Government came into being (in principle at least) at Long. 63o 25' West, Lat. 44o 32' North on Sept. 4, 1953. Utter Necessity was its justification. Very special states of stress, both personal and global, ushered it into being when a stateless person was forced into a closed territory against his own will or consent. Even a de facto citizen of the world already, with a fine record of service to the same closed territory or "nation", was denied the right to make a living or pursue his own happiness. There was no Government to represent him or stand by him. The World Government had therefore to be conceived as though "immaculately", though neither illegitimately, disloyally, nor dishonourably, born. Time waits for no man. Better now than never. Necessity knows no law. All is fair in love and war. These are some of the sayings that held good here. It take only two to start a quarrel or sign a pact, and only one to tell the truth. It is not numbers that can justify a government, but its intrinsic quality based on Absolute Truth or Justice. It takes but one to steer the ship to safety, though hundreds may weep and wail in vain.
The validity of the World Government is not questionable
If even today the simple accident of being born in a so-called royal family can justify the formation of an absolute monarchy, it can be seen that no principle of geo-dialectics is violated by the formation of a World Government. The World Government has no territory other than the surface of the globe. It is not conceived as a rival to any existing government. It does not intend to duplicate any of their functions. Neither does it wish to be a parallel government, nor has it ambitions to be a super-state. On the other hand, it has no wish to occupy a second place among nation states. It has an absolute status of its own as understood in the light of the science of geo-dialectics already referred to. In the usually understood sense World Government has no programme of action or territorial ambition. It does not rule by threat, force, or the power of the magistrate or the police. Knowledge is its power and, instead of threats or punishments, it relies on the truth of the dictum that a word to the wise will suffice. Just as a ball of iron can be made white-hot without the ball itself suffering division, change, or control from outside, so the World Government proposes to influence humanity in and through humanity for humanity. Nothing is to be disrupted in the process. A certain type of truth which has been called "the pearl of great price", the "little leaven that leaveneth the whole lump" or that "Dharma (right way of life), even a little of which will save from great fear" is the pinch of Absolutist Wisdom which is to be added to the chaotic world situation so as to help us to reorientate and re-integrate and regulate human affairs. In other words, the World Government applies a subtle form of "vertical pressure" corresponding to spiritual heat or electricity. Order then emerges as with magnetized iron filings from non-magnetized chaos.
Confirmation of the World Government
A second step forward in the formation of the World Government was taken at Long. 77o 38' East, Lat.12o 58' North, on May 15, 1956. A recessive part of the world, never even to be suspected of any intention to dominate the world through its power, has been chosen this time as the location from where to confirm and sanction the first formation of the World Government at a dominant part of the world. To rise above suspicion, World Government has to be established neutral between the dominant and the recessive aspects of world political life. No one carrying the threat of the atom bomb in one hand and a message of peace in the other can be trusted by others who sail in the same boat. Relativism breeds rivals while the correctly dialectical or Absolutist approach unites and frees men in the name of a humanity which is understood unitively.
Between the initial formation of the World Government and its later more precise formulation and confirmation, nearly three years of experimentation, mediation and study have been undertaken. This second time, as stricter geo-dialectics would require, there were two sides represented by two men, in the solemn pact before the declaration of the World Government. One of these contracting parties represented the Good of All and the other represented the General Good. This subtle dialectical contract sets the pattern for the growth of the World Government. Such a formation of an actual government, at least in a nuclear form, has been duly announced. More conferences could be contemplated in the near future in different parts of the world, of those who represent the General Good or the Good of All, or both. The nuclear yet actual government will gather momentum by the good will of the people of the world from day to day so as to become an efficient and effective instrument for the reorientation and regulation of human affairs under the aegis of the Most High Principle of Goodness, or the Most Supreme Value of Happiness that humanity can accept to regulate its life. This Memorandum hereby greets all lovers of humanity with the happy news of the birth of the World Government. Its presence is to be felt, not especially in any fixed locality or centre, but all over or in every part of the world or wherever it can best serve its supreme purpose which is the political happiness of humanity. It is however the global, unitive one-world politics of all mankind with which we are concerned here. Because of its Absolutist character, this can be called both politics and no-politics at once, or a politics that gets rid of politics. In other words, World Government is based on the pure politics to be known as geo-politics.
SECTION II
OTHER PARTIAL APPROACHES
All approaches hitherto either negative or relativistic
To the natural question why we should not join hands with other organizations working already in the field of internationalism, we have to answer that there is the fundamental drawback that all of them are vitiated by either a "negative" or a "relativistic" approach. What we mean by these two expressions must be somewhat clear from what we have already said.
By negativism we mean that proposals for peace or disarmament have been based on a regret or a fear connected with wars just fought or wars expected. At such moments there is great volume of collective emotion available, and those who offer quick results get nations to pay large sums for preserving peace or in the name of security. The regret, however, passes, as also the fear. Positive attitudes take their places, and one organization which failed to fulfill its contract is succeeded by another in a modified form. This how the League of Nations was displaced by the United Nations. The latter may be expected to go the way of its predecessor as soon as its impotency in the matter of security peace becomes evident to all. It is patent that in spite of its declared intentions, the U.N. has not been able to make its member nations reduce their armaments, nor has it been able to mitigate the national excesses of its member nations. Of course in some matters it is better than nothing, but in other matters it is worse than nothing. Representatives of major nations get the chance of calling each other names at the glorified debates held under these bodies. With the points of order, the explanations of votes, amendments, counter-amendments and arbitrary powers of veto or methods of filibustering or blocking through satellite members, the U.N. has no power to implement even the smallest item in its own declaration of human rights, not to speak of objecting to the dangers of atomic tests. Actually, it is used by power groupings to sling mud at each other. At best it is a glorified debating society employing thousands of interpreters, stenographers and clerks who live and move in a beehive of modern buildings. They are obliged to keep the powers that be in good humour. Every effort has been made already to try and work through the U.N. by the sponsors of the present World Government. The story is too long to relate here. Suffice it to say that it has been a signal failure.
By relativism we mean that some sort of duality as between "free nations" and others who are not so is still retained in the structure of the organization. The organization is not unitively conceived according to any science of Absolutism. Representation, admission, or expulsion are based on no uniform norms of any science universally or publicly formulated.
Private, partial or party organizations with world programmes
There are various religious, political or even commercial bodies which influence world affairs. There is the Communist Party which shapes the trend of world politics. Then there is the Catholic Church and various other bodies which have world programmes. Commercial combines and banking agencies fulfill openly or secretly many functions which properly should belong to a World Government. These serve humanity in good, bad or indifferent ways, but as long as a correctly formulated World Government is not there, no one has any right to find fault with whatever service they render or even with whatever exploitation they consciously or unconsciously exercise in world affairs. International organizations exist in many departments such as the Universal Postal Union, etc. Member nations may or may not ratify their resolutions, and even when they do so, the limitations of their own arbitrary sovereignty or nationalism are not wholly discarded. The approach to such problems is not based at present on any exact science such as we claim to be at the basis of the World Government as envisaged in this Memorandum. This class of organizations can be almost good or at the next best, but just as one cannot jump a chasm in two leaps or expect a prize for the number nearest to the one that wins the prize, so the wholesale scientific basis of the World Government is all- important. The science of geo-dialectics is based on a rare and precious way of higher reasoning without which no World Government can be expected to succeed. Such undertakings would not be justified even if they should obtain a large measure of success. Here almost true is not good enough. This same verity is couched in the old words that "good government is no substitute for self- government." The mandate for any government has to be derived from the people who are to be governed on the one pole and, from another pole, derived from the Absolute Justice implicit in any such government. Like religion or morality, there are two different sources to World Government. It has to be the resultant of ascending and descending dialectical counterparts. Such principles, however, can be made clear only in the light of general dialectics, which has still to be formulated and taught in the proposed Institute of Dialectics. Meanwhile we are here obliged to state with seeming dogmatism that partial and unscientific approaches to the problem of World Government are not valid.
SECTION III
UNIQUE AND POSITIVE QUALITIES
What the World Government is not
We have already stated in passing that the World Government is not based on power with the weapon of threats of punishment. Its authority is derived from humanity's need for it and from its rightness and justice. It has been mentioned also that it has no territorial ambitions or designs. It does not propose to arrogate to itself any functions that are being fulfilled already correctly by existing governments. No overlapping or duplication of functions in the scheme presented here. Neither is diarchy or a parallel form of government contemplated. However, in spite of this opposition, World Government will not be second to any other government. It will consciously avoid functioning even as a supra-state in the usual sense. If we should want to think of the political theory on which it is to be based, it can be said here in advance that it does not subscribe to the laissez faire doctrine. Much less does it adhere to the doctrine of "might is right", which, though more positive, is still outmoded. The Benthamian doctrine of "the greatest happiness of the greatest number" is also not in keeping with the principles of the present Government. It does not think quantitatively at all. That would make it fall into the capital error of being mechanistic or relativistic in its approach, which we have stated to be the very drawback we wish to avoid. It is based on a dialectical approach to world problems. What this implies we shall clarify as much as possible below.
Based on a solemn pact
The World Government is based on a solemn pact between the people of the world and their dialectical counterpart in the form of a wise lover of humanity representing the general good of humanity as a whole. Although stated in the form of two aspects, these counterparts form the obverse and reverse of the same coin called Absolute Happiness, Goodness, or Justice of Humanity. This is a unitive central value whatever the order-stimulus employed may be. Moreover, it is essentially a human value in keeping with the dignity of the human species. Bread and freedom will be provided for all when such a Government comes into its full swing of effective and efficient working, by the conscious co-operation and understanding of the people of the world. Stated in the most general terms, the task of the World Government will be the intelligent ordering of human life activities in a manner normal and natural to man, without violating his own innate dispositions, legitimate interests, or aspirations.
The World Government must govern its subjects actively or positively
It must be practical and effective in its functioning. Mere pious hopes like that of waiting to establish the kingdom of heaven on earth will not improve matters. A government worth the name must deliver the goods or benefits belonging to the domain of politics. It must make human life on earth less full of humiliation, helplessness or suffering. While this is right, the World Government must guard itself from falling into the opposite error of getting involved in a maze of overt actions which will fan feelings of rivalry and create more warring camps than ever. To avoid war, to guarantee collective security, to make co-existence possible or to practise the virtues of the pancha-sila of non-interference, or to cultivate an attitude of positive neutrality, have been the recommendations of some of the world's politicians for improving human affairs. These recommendations, though good as far as they go, embody the negative side of the virtue of international life. To leave matters well alone and not to make more rules than are necessary, are cardinal virtues for the World Government to cultivate. Stopping at harmless virtues which are still relative will not make a World Government function normally. The positive programme of World Government has at every stage to balance or cancel out the negative, so as to strike the just mean between war and peace, activity and passivity, hot and cold attitudes, co-operation and competition. A constant pressure has to be maintained between these opposing tendencies so as to throw up constantly a higher value as an ideal for humanity.
Positive pressure and vertical ascent
A man becomes a better man by intensely and consciously wanting to be good. When he is good he should mind his own business and not interfere with others. His own inner urges as a man, in so far as they are in keeping with human nature as understood scientifically in all its bearings, have to get the full play of expansion and expression normally, without clashing with others who want to have the same changes. Those deep-seated specific qualities which distinguish man and make him unique and unrivaled, must be brought out into creative expression instead of lying dormant or unfulfilled. If virtues such as these apply to the individual, they could apply equally to families as normal human life units. Rural or urban units could have personalities cultivating the same virtues or moral principles in keeping with a science or philosophy of human life. Bloated amorphous political units must also attempt to conform to the requirements of this geo-dialectical absolutist morality When all formations follow the same laws, the order which constitutes World Government can be expected. No feverish horizontal activity is here involved. A certain positive pressure resulting in a vertical ascent is what needs to be constantly maintained in human life. This pressure can also be compared to a moral or spiritual heat or to the magnetizing influence of a current of electricity. The principle of double negation and double assertion as known to scholastic philosophy in Europe should be understood as implicit here. Only a fuller treatise on geo-dialectics itself can clarify such matters more completely or elaborately.
SECTION IV
ACTIVE PROGRAMME
What the World Government actually proposes to do?
What the World Government actually proposes to do is first and foremost to bring to bear a new and total world outlook upon world problems. It will help to turn out more and more World Citizens. They will be human beings who have attained the full status of persons who represent the General Good and the Good of All. While making themselves happy according to the light or dialectal wisdom, they will constantly strive for the happiness of their fellow men in a manner consistent with the same wisdom. Such a balanced life between two interests unitively treated, will enhance the value of the individual in society. He will carry with him a subtle influence or presence. Such a man would be a modern version of a knight errant seeking the right kind of adventure to face in the name of his love of humanity. He would soon be appraised of innumerable opportunities presenting themselves to him where he can render signal service to his fellow men without going at all out of his way. Many such functions might lie outside the scope of geo-politics proper, with which alone we are concerned primarily in this Memorandum. However, this should not deter such a man or woman from placing his or her high personal credit at the service of the cause of World Citizenship and World Government. To call oneself a sovereign citizen of the world and consciously to affiliate oneself wholeheartedly to the noble idea, reveals in one who does so the true human value which a lover of humanity must carry with him, thus enhancing his value at once with reference to himself and with all others with whom it was his lot to live on earth. There are rights and duties that such an affiliation at once confers.
As such a status comes from an understanding of the science involved, there is no danger of groups of such men considering themselves as belonging to any superior caste or group. The danger of such a contingency need not, however, be ruled out. On the contrary all such World Citizens should be taught to keep this danger constantly in their mind, to correct themselves consciously, and to help fellow world citizens to do the same. The danger, however, should not deter humanity from launching the undertaking, just in the same way that burst boilers or air crashes do not deter man from navigation or flying. Moreover, by the overall unitive approach, which is the basis of the whole new outlook involved in the World Citizenship Movement, the danger of clannishness or caste- mindedness can always be counteracted consciously, even when the tendency is there. This unitive outlook is more deeply rooted than at that level of life where World Citizenship has to express itself, which at most, is the waking world of the conscious ego. The unitive approach to reality will permeate the sub-conscious, the infra- conscious, and the fourth stratum of transparent or direct awareness in the individual, so that the danger of exclusiveness as an individual will be countered very effectively. This is the definite advantage of the approach to world problems being actually a particular branch of the general science of Wisdom dialectics. This will further guarantee proportion, balance, normality, wholesomeness, harmony, and human grace or correctness to World Citizenship.
The success of the World Government depends on its ability to produce the right kind of World Citizen as its champion in different parts of the world. He could be described as the most important single asset on the side of the undertaking.
Political programmes can be made effective from inside, outside, from above or below the present formation.
Once the reorientation of the spirit or the change of heart in regard to world problems has taken place in a given individual, and he feels keenly that he has to do something for the furtherance of his ideal, it is possible for him to do it from where he happens to be naturally. If he is a legislator he can stand for election on a World Government ticket. The immense popularity of the One World idea will only enhance his chances of success. According to qualitative geo-dialectical principles it would not be wrong of him to enter any given council, big or small, national or local, urban or rural, swearing allegiance to the head of that group or the head of several groups for the time being; for in doing so he would be recognizing only the symbolic absolutism implicit or inherent in the person (president or monarch) who happens to be at the head. Moreover, in terms of universal human values for which he is a politician, there is no contradiction or conflict between the interests of that particular political unit and in the human interests of the world itself taken as a unit. There is a geo-dialectical secret involved here which could be brought out by a homely example. If an old well should be hidden by a flood which covered it later, the water that quenches the thirst is the same water whether it comes from the hidden well part or from the lake over covering it. There is no conflict possible between two concentric circles. This is the ancient wisdom found in the Bhagavad Gita, which comes to the rescue of world politics by which all the walls of the Jerichos in the world must fall. The blast of absolutism form inside or outside the wall, or both together, by those place superiority above, or in, as it were, helpless positions below, dominant or recessive men or women the world over, have only to want real solemn earnestness to make the World Government effective. Thus the world Government work will become most practicable, positive, and irresistible.
How to practise world politics from inside
When once elected to a local or national body on a World Government ticket, the man or woman concerned takes a course of action in keeping with the principles of humanity and world morality or value comprised between the two poles of bread and freedom. Taking his stand on the norms and standards of geo-dialectics the World Citizen generally takes a middle-of-the-road position in respect of leftist or rightist parties, and generally supports the president when Absolute Justice, Morality or the Ideal are not violated by his position. When resolutions are moved or voting is explained he gets a chance of placing before those who are politically minded a new approach based on global human interests. He can bring token cut-motions on armament budgets when disproportionate, and the people's sense of justice can be appealed to. If he should be ousted from the Council the people will follow him into the street if his cause is just and in the name of the interests of the common man and humanity at once. Here, for the present, the possibilities of such action from inside must be left to the imagination. When permanent support to the world approach is certain, "mundialization" within such units is not impossible. symbolic acts in keeping with the code of honour or morals proper to the World Citizen could be resorted to, resembling Tolstoyan or Gandhian methods as revised in the light of a stricter geo-dialectical science.
The practice of world politics from above
Men, and more especially women, who occupy positions of influence or who have resources at their command, can study the plans of World Government and bring their weight to bear on the side of supporting human rights and preserving the best in the heritage of mankind, whether in art, culture, or wisdom. Dante, Shakespeare, and Kalidasa belong to humanity first, and the claims of particular nations for them are only incidental. There is also the one perennial contemplative tradition based on a science of the Absolute which is the common property of humanity. In preserving these and in protecting the common wisdom heritage of mankind the best interests of the common man will be secured also.
Poor men, who have to make a living wherever it is at present available to them, are kept from freely reaching out to their God- given opportunities by artificial man-made rules. These rules must be broken down. Travel becomes more and more difficult and rules are piled upon rules by nations big and small for no valid or justifiable reason except to retaliate in the name of national pride or exclusiveness. Parochialism, tribalism, casteism, and nationalism have much in common with fanaticism or blind orthodoxy. A world philosophy and religion critically and scientifically ordered will help to relieve the existing asphyxiating conditions wherein miserable men and women have to live in the prison of criss-cross rules which is the present world. All modern people are keenly aware of this stifling atmosphere. The well-to-do, the influential, or at least their wives, must take interest in the poor, not to disrupt anything or anybody, but to bring just that kind of legitimate pressure which will ease the trouble of the common man. There can be a World Order of Ladies or Knights who could function as supervisors, permission authorities, world guards or witnesses of natural integrity, peacemakers or arbitrating advisers in the numerous walks of life in all matters ranging between the gaining of bread and the gaining of personal or spiritual freedom. Premarital, post-marital, and familial arbitration or advice, helping juveniles and children from possible maladjustments, the re-education of delinquents, psychological guidance, a pedagogy which respects the personality of the child, co- operative centres for the reclamation and relaxation of persons caught in the stress of life or in conditions of tension, and occupational guidance or treatment�these are only a few of the fields in which the World Citizen could help the lot of humanity from wherever he or she might be living. A complete philosophy and a way of life shaped on unitive and absolutist lines is of course presupposed here. It will be the task of the World Institute of Human Affairs to elaborate, formulate, and make this available in the different languages of the world.
The practice of world politics from below
Individual men and women are caught in the barged wire frontiers, both ideological and actual, of rules and interdictions against freedom to pursue happiness freely and peacefully on the surface of the God-or-Nature-given earth. There has been no way hitherto for the articulation of their grievance. Not content with enforcing the rules of his own country, police belonging to stranger countries have begun to help the other country in enforcing wrong rules in the name of internationalism. There is thus a double barrage of many absurd rules which themselves are multiplied beyond reason or necessity. The clever ones get away with every restriction somehow, but the lot of ordinary man becomes difficult. One has to linger only for a few minutes at passport or permit offices to be convinced of the large volume of suffering to which men and women are subjected. To refer even to a few typical cases would be outside the scope of this Memorandum and would mar the sobriety of style which we wish to preserve here as far as possible. In one of his works Ruskin got a paragraph from a daily newspaper printed in red ink, because the subject was shocking to all decent human sentiment. The untold sufferings of the common man because of red-tape and regulations would have to be printed in some other ink if it is to find a place in a Memorandum such as this is intended to be.
What the common man could do is to register with the World Government as a World Citizen and try to bring a vertical conceived pressure to bear on the situation. He has to rely on numbers here to cope with the machinery of governments which have a great deal of inertia in them. All shoulders have to be applied to the wheel to set affairs going normally. The trumpet blasts for absolute fairness from outside the walls of Jericho have to resound in consonance with the trumpet blasts from above, or inside.
The overall functioning of the World Government
The inarticulated feelings of the soul of humanity or the emergent personality of the people of the world has to find its voice in the World Government. The point of the view of the World Government has to be broadcast unhesitatingly in no uncertain terms and even with authority. Truth must be given a chance to prevail. Relativistic compromise is what makes humanity at present weak. These are facts which need no repetition here. As the World Government emerges more and more to public view, it will represent the conscience of humanity and will spotlight from day to day the errors detrimental to humanity's interests. In such a task it must keep clear from tacitly or openly becoming a tool in the hands of any existing power block. Even if help should be obtained from some one quarter more than another, the World Government must be above suspicion in pointing out mistakes. The cheap headline world of propaganda must be avoided. A "Voice of Humanity" and a World News Agency may be started to serve the cause of the World Government.
The issuance of World Passports
The issuance of World Passports has already commenced. This would ease the situation arising in the cases of millions of persons who have no national status within nations. The response of nations is already there. Such persons will henceforth belong to the World Government. Their combined voice will and must be heard through the instrumentality of the World Government.
Proclamation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Proclamation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights made by the United Nations at Paris 1948 gives a legitimate overall function covering many points so far remaining unimplemented. Many major and minor nations are already committed to the thirty articles in this Declaration. In brining vertical pressure to bear on this matter of implementation of that Declaration, the World Government would be in fact only helping the great number of nations to be true to their avowed undertakings.
To have a World Committee
To have a World Committee to give assent to the World Government and its functions form time to time and to hold World Conferences to compare notes and do all that is incidental to the formation and correct functioning of the Government, are also matters which are naturally to be provided for as normal to the programme of the Government as it is expected to unfold and expand quickly or gradually as the outside conditions and innate forces warrant. Powers of supervision and assent may be vested in a Representative Select Committee of those who are wise normally or who have received proper training in the Institute of Dialectics connected with the World Government.
SECTION V
JURISDICTION, REVENUE, RESOURCES, ETC.
Territorial jurisdiction
The territorial jurisdiction of the World Government is the surface of the Earth. It does not think about owning any limited area to run its own primary Government with land taxes, frontiers to protect, and defense arrangements. Overweighed with these items, present governments are in many ways outmoded remnants of the past which must all be subjected to drastic revision. These revisions will take place automatically when the World Government as envisaged here begins to be more and more effective. Mundialization of select units of administration is not to be ruled out.
Revenue
Revenue is to be derived from the principle of indirect taxation as it prevails even now. Though indirect, the revenue will be by mutual consent. Service rendered by the Government could be charged for and, while prime necessities will be exempt even from such taxation as far as possible, items of luxury could be freely taxed. Such matters will be attended to by the World Service Authority under the World Government. Indirect taxation is a form of profit which it is open for the World Government to make against services rendered. In fact trade combines and banking corporations - not to speak of religious bodies - even now exist, which have enormous assets sometimes as large and general of many existing governments. Economic and financial experts can see through the irregularities of some of the present monetary and other arrangements in which, by words such as "going off the gold standard" or in dividing the world into "hard" and "soft" currency areas, wealth is conserved in pockets which when examined by standards of absolute justice, do not belong to them. Gold is stored in vaults without use for the artificially inflated credit of power blocks, and various book adjustments are made behind the back of the common man to whom the money really belongs. World banks and world currencies exist already without the regular consent of the people of the world and what is called a loan to one country from another is not really a loan, but a long term commercial deal. It would not be impossible for the World Government to have its own credit and currency valid the world over, and planned on some rational human basis such as one day's labor equals one day's food and shelter in a 30 or 40 hour week (or even less) in a world where competition has been counteracted by co-operation, and where labor-saving devices are employed for more human conditions.
As we have already said, the most valuable single asset of the World Government is the World Citizen. Since World Citizens can be found by virtue of the rightness of the cause in any part of the world in unlimited numbers, the assets of all well-intending people anywhere in the world are already in effect those of the World Government. A revised living and organic system of accounting and budgeting has to be devised. There being no duality of ends and means in this work, receipts and disbursements need not necessarily show large figures. After all, on final analysis, large-scale banking is nothing but book-keeping.
SECTION VI
CONCLUSION
Unitive approach
When it is said that wars begin in the minds of men, it is already conversely admitted by even full-fledged politicians that the solution to world problems are of a spiritual order. The doctrine of dialectical materialism, which puts necessity and hunger first, follows another line of approach. Both these approaches can be reconciled in a unitive approach to world problems as implied in the present Memorandum.
Let us consider the armaments race which is due to mistrust and fear of other nations. A serious proposal from the World Government is sure to have an almost magical effect in easing the tension of mistrust between nations. The dehypnotization of the mentality of mutual suspicion will save every nation, large or small, from the lop-sided provisions at present made in their budgets. Let world opinion merely support the idea of the World Government and a tangible relaxation will be felt at the poles in the personality of nations which breeds mistrust, and even theoretically respected authority can avoid the waste of billions of dollars for the world as a whole.
Various incidental items
Let the World Government honour the farmer instead of vexing him with ever more items of taxation; let it start co-operative colonies to ease the tension of competitive life, such as those known as the Kibbutz now working successfully in Israel, where there is no money exchanged at all; let it start fair-price shops taking a percentage in the place of a tax and so effectively eliminate the middleman, the black-marketer and those who corner the necessities of life and make great and disproportionate profit at the expense of the common man; let it create clubs or pensions for persons obliged to pass their lives in eternal boredom, by means of colonies which will give them a natural outlet for expression and opportunity for light occupation without competition for the young, the old and the weak; let it confer titles or honours on people who render signal service to the needy and thus give them a legitimately deserved chance to shine in the eyes of their fellow men. Such are some of the miscellaneous ways�too numerous to list completely�by which the World Government can justify its existence while it gathers momentum to be finally effective.
Decentralization and the cancelling out of problems
Another method full of possibilities for the World Government, is decentralization and the method of the cancellation of the plus and minus of a given situation. For instance, capital is the cause of the sufferings of labor. Large mills are responsible for slums. Promiscuous religious charity is responsible for begging. These pairs that are interdependent could be canceled out one against the other without punishment or reform coming from the centre. The head and the tail aspects can be canceled out dialectically without central interference. The World Government can help in the ordering of such matters, taking into consideration the counterparts involved in each problem.
New states
There are many new states which require a new and fresh constitution. They could be guided by the World Government so that their new constitution would be framed in the spirit of World Government itself. This would save their disruption when world- mindedness in politics becomes a fully accomplished fact.
Need for sacrifice on the part of World Government sponsors
The sponsors of World Government have ever to keep before their minds that only through sacrifice and renunciation can such a noble idea be ushered into being. Human unity is an idea which is valid in theory at present. For people to adhere to the idea earnestly, they have to be sure that those who stand for it are not themselves lovers of power or grabbers of goods with unholy greed. Such a detachment should not be merely superficial, taking only the outward form of abstinence or even austerity. Happiness in the contemplation of the Self in its Absolute sense alone brings that blissful self-sufficiency which belongs to one who is able to be an exemplar of Wisdom. This contented state of happiness is induced by knowledge of the Science of the Absolute. A human being attains to his full stature as man when he is happy with himself, and thus in himself represents this high human Value. Such an ideal is within the reach of every human being without distinction of race, religion, nationality, sex, or even station in life. The humblest can walk in the way of the Absolute. Even a bad man who has taken the decision to regulate his life with reference to this final Absolute Norm of human life becomes by that mere decision equal in spiritual status to the greatest of wise men.
Thus having referred finally to the fountain-source of Wisdom from which one has to drink if one is to become a World Citizen in the fullest sense of the term, we hereby commend this memorandum with all its imperfection to the attention of those spirits who are favorable disposed to examine it with sympathy and earnest understanding. Let those who are not of this category at least spare the sponsors of the Memorandum from their disadoption of it and consequent disparagement of its contents. Such is the prayer with which this document goes out to lovers of Wisdom and of humanity.