Sermon for 12 June 2011, 1st Unitarian Church of Alton, Illinois

 

WORLD CITIZENSHIP

Ronald J. Glossop

 

I.  Introduction

    A.  If you ask yourself “Where do I live?” or “Where is my home?”, what is your answer?

    B.  Obviously, the situation will influence your answer, but often the answer is your home town.  You are likely to say,  “I live in Florissant” or “I live in Alton” or “I live in Roxana.”

    C.  On the other hand, if you are at an airport traveling in this country, you are likely to say “I live in Illinois” or “I live in Missouri.”

    D.  If you are traveling outside of the United States and are asked this question, you would probably answer, "I live in the United States of America."

    E.  Since we are not likely to meet anyone from outer space, we are probably not very likely to answer this question by saying, "I live on planet Earth."  Not only are we not likely to say, "I live on planet Earth," but most of us also are not likely to even think of that kind of answer.

    F.  This morning I want to encourage you to start thinking of that fact all the time, to always have in your mind, "I live on planet Earth.”

    G.  I hope that you will go even further and say to yourself, “I am a citizen of the world" and “I am a member of the crew of Spaceship Earth with responsiblities for taking care of it.”

    H.  I also want to encourage you to think about the implications of thinking that important thought.  If I truly am a citizen of planet Earth and a member of the crew of Spaceship Earth, what other thoughts should come to mind.  How consequently should I be conducting my life?

 

II.  The place we regard as home is an important part of how we think of ourselves, of how we identify ourselves, of our personal identification.

    A.  It may not make a great difference, but I think that people who say, “I am a St. Louisan” have a slightly different image of themselves than persons who say, “I live in University City” or “I live in Ladue” or “I live in Wellston.”  Or to switch to Illinois, I think that people who say,” I live in Edwardsville” have a slightly different image of themselves than persons who say “I live in East St. Louis” or “I live in Alton” or “I live in Godfrey.”  Municipalities have their different characteristics, and those characteristics can influence the self-identity of those who live in them, often engendering feelings of pride or shame.

    B.  What is true for people living in different municipalities can also be true for people who live in different states.  There is usually some pride in one’s own state, but there are also other feelings.  I think that people who say “I live in California” or “I live in Texas” or “I live in Oregon” or “I live in Massachusetts” or “I live in Montana” have different self-images.

    C.  But the differences in self-identification due to residing in these different cities and states are virtually nothing compared to the linguistic and cultural differences among the almost 200 different nation-states of the world in which people live.  Are there any persons presently alive who have not thought of themselves in terms of their nationality, that is “I am an American” or “I am a Canadian” or “I am a Mexican” or “I am an Italian” or “I am a Japanese” or “I am a Pakistani” and so on?  In fact, this tie to the nation-state is the main way that most people tend to identify themselves. Nevertheless more and more people are changing their national identity, sometimes because they want to do so, but sometimes because they are forced to do so.

    D.  People who have made this kind of change from one country to another are just the ones who can lead the way in the switch to a new way of seeing ourselves, as residents of the planet Earth and not just of this or that country.

    E.  Another thing that can stimulate all of us to think of ourselves as citizens of planet Earth is seeing the well-known photo of the Earth from space.  I encourage all of you to look again and again at that photo of planet Earth with no national boundaries and with that background of black empty space, and meditate about its significance.

    F.  Astronauts who have actually seen the Earth from space, not just the photo, have been moved to make the most memorable statements.  For example, U.S. astronaut Edgar Mitchell said, “Suddenly, from behind the rim of the moon, in long, slow-motion moments of immense majesty, there emerges a sparkling blue and white jewel, a light, delicate sky-blue sphere laced with slowly swirling veils of white, rising gradually like a small pearl in a thick sea of black mystery.  It takes more than a moment to fully realize this is Earth . . . home.

    G.  That awareness can also be generated by news items about the planet's endangered ozone layer, about changes in the weather apparently triggered by global warming, about immigration pressures as people in poorer lands seek to find a better life in richer countries, and about the possibility of a bird flu or e.coli or yellow fever pandemic.  It is becoming ever more difficult to ignore what is happening in the rest of the world outside of our national borders.

 

III.  This transition away from thinking of ourselves & others primarily in terms of nationality is one of the transformations taking place as we move from the 20^th century to the 21^st century.

    A. The shift from nationalism to internationalism and now to globalism is the continuation of a process that started over 500 years ago & which has really accelerated in the last 250 years

        1. New means of transportation (steam engines for ships & trains; gasoline & then diesel engines for autos, trucks, tractors, & trains; airplanes, & jet planes and bullet trains) have greatly changed the distances people can travel and want to travel.

        2. New means of communication (telegrams, telephones, radios, films, television, tape recorders, the internet, and cell phones) have changed the ways that people can communicate with each other, & have especially changed the distances over which we can communicate.

        3. It is a common observation that "Modern technological innovations in transportation and communication are making the world smaller every day."

    B.  Technological changes have also provided new ways for people to gain even more new knowledge about how nature works and about how human society operates.

    C.  These changes brought about by new scientific knowledge and the new products of industrialization are in turn producing changes in how we think about ourselves as well as about how we communicate with each other and about how we organize ourselves politically.

    D. There are no exact times which we can cite and say, "That is the year when nationalism gave way to internationalism" or now "That is the year when internationalism gave way to globalism."  These social changes are gradual, but that does not mean that they are not real.  There are real differences between the nationalism of the 17^th, 18^th, and 19^th centuries and the inter-nationalism which appears in the last part of the 19^th century and most of the 20^th century.  There are real differences too between the inter-nationalism of the 20^th century & the globalism of the 21^st century. But let me explain this distinction in greater detail because people often use the terms "inter-nationalism" and "globalism" interchangeably, as if they mean the same thing.

 

IV. The key difference between inter-nationalism and globalism is between viewing the world as composed of a collection of nation-states and viewing it as a single planetary community where national boundaries are becoming more and more insignificant.

    A.  The appropriate image for inter-nationalism is a map of the world or a globe where the different countries are in different colors, each one bordered by a solid black line.  On the other hand, the appropriate image for globalism is the previously mentioned photo of Earth taken from space where there are no national boundaries and where the oneness of the planet and its solitariness in space are very evident.

    B. It will help to recall that the word "inter-nationalism" comes from Latin terms meaning "between" or "among" nations.  In this inter-national framework people do not relate directly to each other as individual persons.  Rather we interact with each other as people from different countries and typically by means of national representatives in inter-national organizations.    

    C.  Although it is not possible to point to some single moment when the transition from inter-nationalism to globalism takes place, it seems that a significant development relevant to the beginning of this transition was the photographing of the Earth from space which was done in the late 1960s and early 1970s.  The best known image is the 'Blue Marble' photograph of Earth taken by the astronauts of Apollo 17 in December, 1972.

    D.  As is now quite evident to all, we are living in the age of globalization.  But that term "globalization" is usually taken as applying only to the domination of the global economy by transnational corporations, and that shift certainly is a major factor in the way that the global society is changing.  Indeed it is these transnational corporations more than any other of our institutions that are really already operating in a world without borders.

    E.  But we are also witnessing globalization, that is, the progressive elimination of national borders, in virtually all facets of human life:  disease (avian flu, HIV/AIDS), the internet, music, science, education, crime (drug trafficking, smuggling people and weapons across national boundaries, pirating patents and copyrighted material), athletics, tourism, and so on.  Consider how a growing proportion of people are even marrying across national borders, including some members of this congregation and their families.

    G.  Another aspect of globalism is the concern for preservation of the environment of the whole Earth.  When we think of problems such as global warming and depletion of the ozone layer & population growth & depletion of nonrenewable resources, it is obvious that national governments focused on limited geographical areas and acting separately in terms of national interest have no chance of dealing successfully with these problems which are global in scope.

 

V.  This transition from inter-nationalism to globalism has three implications for us.  

    A.  The first implication concerns how people think of themselves.  With inter-nationalism people regard themselves as members of one country but are aware that their country exists in a world with other countries with whom cooperation is possible.  In the case of globalism they think of themselves primarily as Earthlings, as citizens of the world, and only secondarily as citizens of this or that country.  Consider the way that most of us think of ourselves first as Americans and only secondarily as citizens of a particular state such as Missouri or Illinois.  Think of that perspective and go up one more geographical level to the Earth as a whole .

    B.  The second implication of the shift from inter-nationalism to globalism concerns our use of language .  With inter-nationalism one accepts the situation that different nations & different nationalities will use different languages and that communication will require interpreters and translators, possibly assisted by various kinds of modern technology.  This inter-nationalism will also function better if individual persons learn to use several different national languages.  But in the case of globalism there must be one common language for all Earthlings, not only to facilitate communication but also to sustain community solidarity.  Consider the difficulties that occur when there is no single language for the whole society such as with Quebec in Canada, the Basques in Spain, the Hungarians in Romania, or the present difficulty in trying to create a European Union.  Technological translation can’t replace face-to-face communication.

        1.  One also cannot ignore the connection between identity and language use.  When people do not use the same language, it is difficult for them to view themselves as belonging to the same community.  They  just can't easily communicate with those "other people."

        2.  When one begins to think of one language for the whole Earth, the natural question to ask is, Which language would it be?

           a.  At the moment, it seems that English is on its way to becoming the single language for the whole world, but the proportion of the world's population which uses English as its first language is declining, from about 10 percent in 1950 to about 5 percent now.  There are 2 1/2 times as many people who use Mandarin Chinese as their first language, and the economic influence of China in the world is increasing rapidly.  Also native speakers of Spanish now outnumber those of English, & their influence within and outside the United States is growing.

           b.  But a justice problem arises with the use of any national language for the whole world. The speakers of that national language are a minority of the world's population, but they have a great advantage in international meetings.  This injustice arouses resentment, as is now occurring in much of the world against the use of English in international contexts.  Think of how you would feel if you had to use Chinese in order to participate in the world community.

           c.  The logical solution to this world language problem is to use a created language which is no one's native language but which as been designed to be easy to learn and to use.  That was the aim of Polish physician L. L. Zamenhof when he created Esperanto and gave it to the world in 1878. The use of Esperanto has spawned a movement of idealists committed to the welfare of a global community based on a common language which at the same time permits the preservation of national languages for national communities.  The development of the internet has now given the Esperanto movement new life despite some national governments.  

    C.  The third implication of the inter-nationalism-to-globalism transition concerns the appropriate focus of political loyalty.  In inter-nationalism the primary loyalty of individuals is to their national governments.  Inter-national policy-making organizations such as the League of Nations and the United Nations and the World Health Organization and the Universal Postal Union and the International Atomic Energy Agency may be created to deal with international problems, but these organizations aim to assist cooperation among the national governments.  In globalism the primary loyalty of all Earthlings would be to a democratic global government, a world federation over the national governments, similar to the way in which our national government is over the state governments.  Even now some individuals may have a greater commitment to the welfare of the whole global community than to their own nation-state; but until the political institutions are changed, they are likely to face obstacles as they try to act in accord with that global commitment.  They can try to work through various non-governmental organizations, but they may find it difficult to get around the restraints placed on them by their national governments.  National governments typically require primary loyalty to themselves, and don't reliquish that requirement until they decide to become part of a larger political unit, something which is now occurring in Europe as the various countries there agree to become part of the European Union.  Globalism will be fully implemented only when the national governments of the whole world are integrated into a democratic world federation.

 

VI.  So the question for each of us now is, Are we ready to make the transition from inter-nationalism to globalism?  Are we ready to think and act as world citizens?  Are we ready to be not only passengers on planet Earth but members of the crew which must take care of it?

    A.  Are we ready to think of ourselves primarily as Earthlings, as citizens of the world, and only secondarily as Americans?

    B.  Are we and our children ready to learn the global language Esperanto, which can provide the linguistic base of support for our commitment to the global community?

    C.  Are we ready to support political institutional change from the inter-nationalistic United Nations to a global democratic world federation?  And are we ready in the meantime to give our time and financial support to globally-oriented non-governmental organizations such as Citizens for Global Solutions, Earth Action, World Beyond Borders, Amnesty International, the World Federalist Movement, the Universal Esperanto Association, the Sierra Club, Doctors Without Borders, the Democratic World Federalists, the Association of World Citizens, the World Constitution and Parliament Association, the International Association for Religious Freedom, the Unitarian Universalist UN Office, the International Council of UUs, and so on?

    D.  Whether we ourselves are ready for this transition or not, are we getting our children and grandchildren ready for it?  Will they be ready for the global community in which they will have to live?  Is our religious education program preparing them for world citizenship?

    E.  Are we, and they, ready for the global community of the twenty-first century?  Are we, and they, ready to think of ourselves as world citizens and to act accordingly?