By Taansen Fairmont Sumeru
[Editor: The following links may be of interest: World Service Authority, World Citizen Foundation, and Build Freedom.]
The Citizens of Build Freedom recognize and honor all other individuals and organizations who are contributing to the spread of Freedom in the world, in the creation of a world free from domination and coercion, where individual rights, property, and liberty are universally respected.
Garry Davis is one such individual. Although his approach is somewhat different, his goals are similar. He founded the World Government for World Citizens in 1953, and the World Service Authority in 1954, "for global representation of Registered World Citizens."
"I am eager to express to the... war veteran Davis my recognition of the sacrifice he has made for the well-being of humanity." - Albert Einstein
A COMPARISON OF WORLD GOVERNMENT AND TERRA LIBRA:
DIFFERENT IN NAME; SIMILAR IN ROLE
While Build Freedom's approach is to reduce and eventually eliminate government as such, by replacing it with the SOVEREIGNTY OF ALL INDIVIDUALS and the decentralized global free market, Garry Davis appears to have taken an opposite approach, by establishing a new government, to serve the entire world. However, upon deeper examination, one finds that his "government" is not so different from Build Freedom's "no-government" as it at first might appear. This is because Garry Davis's idea of government is simply a service organization, to truly and humbly serve mankind, rather than to dominate, exploit, and rule.
It is only necessary to be cautious with such an arrangement, that in "serving" mankind, the freedom of the individual is maintained. It is imperative, in any organization claiming to serve the whole human race, to avoid the danger of it devolving into the few claiming to "represent" the many ... because that is where all the problems started, in the old coercive hierarchies of the past. (See further discussion on this point in the later section, "A Word of Caution," under "The Ideas at the Basis of WSA's Activities.")
The old idea of so-called "government" is a tight and tense organization of force, where the infliction of pain, taxes, and death is essential to maintaining an iron-grip domination. This is the old feudalistic approach of the dark ages, which is really obsolete now, even though so-called "governments" like that of the United States are still desperately attempting it. Thus, when most people hear the idea of a "world government," at first the implication is just more of the same nonsense, only on a world scale.
But the idea Garry Davis has of world government is more similar to the function of Build Freedom ... to simply provide information and services that furnish guidance towards total freedom ... for the one world family of human beings, regardless of nationality, race, culture, class, or religion. The goals of Build Freedom and Garry Davis's "World Government" are similar, and our missions run parallel.
"As long as there are sovereign nations possessing great power, war is inevitable. There is no salvation for civilization, or even the human race, other than the creation of a world government." - Albert Einstein
"I have long believed that the only way peace can be achieved is through World Government." - Jawaharal Nehru, Former Prime Minister of India
Like Build Freedom, Garry Davis's World Government for World Citizens and World Service Authority, headquartered in Washington, D.C., U.S.A., has no interest in the old barbaric and retarded attempts to dominate people, so characteristic of "governments" of the past. It has as its goals world peace, world harmony, the universal respect of individual human rights, the abandonment of systems based on coercion, and the spread of freedom and prosperity in a world of sovereign individuals. Thus, Davis's influence has been very beneficial for all of humanity, and his Vision is similar to that of Build Freedom.
PRACTICAL BENEFITS AND RESOURCES
The practical benefits and resources provided by Garry Davis's World Service Authority, available to everyone, include:
The most significant practical benefit in becoming a "Registered World Citizen," besides alleviating travel restrictions, is to feel that you are making a substantial and tangible contribution to the spread of world oneness and world peace. Since the trends of history are now quickly arriving at the dissolving of rigid nationalisms and the dawn of the single global family, why cling to your old nationalistic citizenship from the dark ages? Why wait for some future utopia, to become a World Citizen, when you can go ahead right now and begin participating? This is what organizations like Garry Davis's are providing.
THE PERSONAL STORY OF GARRY DAVIS
On May 18, 1948, Garry Davis, former Broadway actor and WWII bomber pilot, walked into the United States Embassy on the Place de la Concorde in Paris, France, and renounced his American citizenship. Since that spring day in 1948, Garry Davis has been a World Citizen.
"I wish to make clear that my original renunciation of nationality was in no way an act of disloyalty to or dissaffection for America. On the contrary, I consider my espousal of the one-world cause the highest act of loyalty I could perform both as an American and as a conscientious human being. In its negative aspects, my gesture was a personal protest to the exclusiveness of the institution of nationalism itself, which encloses all countries today and which has been, in fact, rendered obsolete by actual world conditions." ...
"Man's deadliest, self-imposed, restrictive device is nationalism...
"'Every man possesses the right of self-government...' wrote Thomas Jefferson in 1790." - from the book, The World Is My Country, by Garry Davis
That September, the United Nations General Assembly came to Paris, declaring the Palais de Chaillot "international territory." Davis asked the UN Assembly to serve as a World Government for World Citizens, sanctioned by Article 109 of its charter. But the UN asked the French Government to rid it of the troublesome idealist. Davis was expelled from UN territory by French police on 17 September, but not without worldwide publicity. Thousands of letters of support poured in, and momentum gathered. On 19 November again he addressed the UN Assembly, and was again forcibly expelled.
Worldwide support, including prominent thinkers such as Albert Einstein, Albert Camus, Albert Schweitzer, Lord Boyd Orr, Claude Bourdet, Richard Wright, Jean-Paul Sartre, André Gide, and Carlo Levi brought praise and increased attention from the media and public alike. Articles about him, mostly favorable, appeared in many French periodicals, plus The New Yorker, Life, Manchester Guardian, Montreal Gazette, Harper's, Moscow's Pravda (unfavorable), and many others.
"One of the chief objects of my gesture of renunciation was to demonstrate that the nation-state need not be overthrown. For, in fact, it does not exist. Men's minds need only be dis-abused. The nation-state is a whole-cloth myth, perpetuated by the slavery of tradition, unreasonable loyalties and pieces of paper which at best only pretend to recognize rather than bestow existence upon the individual. If I could show that it was possible for me to survive in the world without papers, cross frontiers without a passport and conduct myself as a free human being without benefit of any national credentials, I would be striking a blow at the very heart of nationalism itself." - from the book, The World Is My Country, by Garry Davis
Dr. Herbert Evatt, then president of the UN General Assembly, later received Davis and a World Citizenship delegation promising to transmit to the delegates the World Citizens' petitions. On 3 December 1948, at the Velodrome d'Hiver in Paris, attended by over 20,000 people, Davis read Evatt's response to his question as to whether the UN had a definite plan to make world peace. Dr. Evatt's answer was a categorical "no."
By early 1949, more than 50,000 letters of support had poured in from World Citizens around the world. That year Davis founded the International Registry of World Citizens. The same year, more than a half million people from over 150 countries signed up. (By now over 1,000,000 individuals from 150 countries have registered.)
When Garry started traveling out of France in 1949, he began experiencing what was to become a long series of confrontations, hassles, and problems at international borders, not surprisingly. Encounters with passport and visa officials became an education for him that was to fully capture the extent of the ignorance of mankind about the unity of humanity.
Bureaucrats typically had never met a person with no country, and were at a loss as to what to do with him. France tried to issue him papers essentially affirming that he was paperless.
"What intrigued me about my new credentials was that I had not sought them so much as that they had been foisted upon me. Both the American and the French governments had been so eager to issue me some form of document that they had twisted and tortured their laws in order to give me papers declaring that I was paperless, or symbols of existence to verify my non-existence. Who, I began to ask myself, was the beneficiary of this transaction? Surely it was not I. My sense of belonging to the human community, my self-awareness and indeed my self-esteem had not been increased. The true beneficiaries of my papers had been the nation-states themselves, I reasoned. It was they who had gained a measure of existence in the world, or come one human-unit further into being, for having issued credentials which I was willing to bear...
Papers give status, dignity and privilege to the issuing authority rather than to the bearer - although the opposite is generally assumed - and I believe that his is equally true in the case of passports, driver's licenses, honorary degrees, permits to practice law, licenses for marriage ... or even certificates of good health. In all such cases the individual unwittingly surrenders his right to assume command, status, or direction of himself in human terms by acknowledging and then accepting an outside authority's right to grant these things to him." - The World Is My Country
Aboard the ship S.S. America crossing the Atlantic, he met Dr. P. Natarajan, founder of the Gurukula Movement of South India. In conversation, he told Davis:
"The notion of world citizenship is grounded in an ancient, unitive science-philosophy known in India as Advaita Vedanta. Citizens come before governments, but men come before citizens. Until men are educated to have a global or universal attitude toward all life, there will be no true world citizens." - The World Is My Country
Davis was intrigued, and decided to make a trip to India some day, after staying in America for a while.
On 4 September 1953, from the Town Hall of Ellsworth, Maine, USA, he declared the founding of the World Government of World Citizens based on fundamental human rights. For Davis, the act was neither frivolous nor utopian, but entirely pragmatic and legitimate. Still stateless, he had been imprisoned 16 times since 1948 for lack of "valid" papers. Along with other stateless World Citizens, he needed a legal base from which to deal with national bureaucrats.
In January 1954, he founded the World Service Authority (WSA) in New York, as the administrative organ of the new government. It began serving thousands of World Citizens.
Many adventures followed, including travel to many countries. While in India, Davis studied with Dr. Natarajan, who taught him to be a "lover of humanity." Natarajan related that while he was teaching at the International School in Geneva, Switzerland, he would listen to the daily broadcasts of the United Nations debates and think about what was missing. The UN had only recently been formed, but Natarajan quickly pointed out the flaw. No one represented humanity. This was a missing function.
He taught Davis that "the maturing of wisdom develops along with the capacity to love. In fact, love is the cup that wisdom fills. And to be a lover of humanity," he said, "one must first acknowledge its existence. This is difficult for most people to do. It means giving up many false notions."
Garry Davis began learning to deepen his motive for being a World Citizen beyond merely a political solution to the war-making of nations. He began seeing a more positive motive, in the ability to love mankind as a whole, as a single family, and to work for the realization of the intrinsic oneness of humanity to dawn on all people. Thus became his mission.
Natarajan suggested that Davis go meet the Prime Minister of India, Jawaharal Nehru. The meeting was arranged. A long and interesting conversation developed between them. At one point, Davis said,
"'Our basic principles, of course, are yours,' I added, 'one world and one mankind.'
He looked up. 'One world, yes, and even one mankind ... but it is a difficult job. Look at the immense task we have right here, in uniting India.'
'Oh, we don't do any uniting, sir,' I said hurriedly. 'We start from the premise that mankind is already united and the world is already one. We merely advertise the fact, and when necessity arises, act upon it.'
'Yes, as a World Citizen, I dare say you would,' he returned mildly." - The World Is My Country
Similar conversations took place with government officials and bureaucrats all over the world. In Hannover, Germany, Davis met with some wealthy industrialists who liked his ideas. It was in their company that the first hand-drafted versions of World Government Currency were drawn up and distributed. Davis influenced many people of all kinds, in many countries, making them reconsider the limitations they had placed upon themselves with their thinking. He relates many funny stories, such as this one:
"A young man, a United States citizen, once asked my advice about a problem.
'I want to travel to Bulgaria,' he said.
'What stops you?' I asked.
In reply he handed me his passport, on one page of which was affixed a rubber stamp stating that the passport was restricted for travel to Bulgaria along with several other nations.
'How does this prevent you from traveling to Bulgaria?' I asked.
'They won't let me!' he exclaimed. 'That damn restriction! See for yourself.'
'Yes, I see,' I said, 'but if you really want to go to Bulgaria, come back in three days with your passport, and I'll fix it.'
'On the third day, he and his passport were back. Before he could protest, I produced a rubber stamp and quickly stamped the restricted page directly beneath the restriction.
'Hey, what the hell are you doing?' he exploded. 'That's illegal. You can't do that.'
'Here, read it,' I said, handing it back. He did so, stood for a moment perplexed, then burst into laughter.
'Of course, of course,' he said. 'Don't know why I didn't see it. Thanks a million.' The next time I heard from him was six months later after he had returned from Bulgaria.
The stamp I had affixed on his passport read: The above restriction is hereby removed. " - The World Is My Country
Today, the World Service Authority (WSA) is centered in Washington, D.C., with agents throughout the world. Over 400,000 WSA passports, World Government ID Cards, and birth certificates have been issued. Over 135 countries have recognized the passport on a de facto basis.
The phrase, the above restriction is hereby removed, has become a common theme in much of WSA's activities.
THE IDEAS AT THE BASIS OF WSA's ACTIVITIES
A Word of Caution
It is interesting to observe the beautiful unfolding of Davis's thinking. In general, his ideas are universally beneficial. One area, however, in which it appears he needs clarification, is in his blurring the line between the good of the whole and the good of the individual. For example, he greatly admires the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which was adopted in theory by the United Nations on December 10, 1948, even though in practice its good points have mostly been ignored. Although the Declaration says many good things, it still has one fatal flaw. It leaves open the door for the individual good to become secondary. The Declaration, for example, "mandates the right to organize a world electorate," where the few will represent the policies of the many, through a vote. Garry Davis praises this on page 12 of his book, Passport to Freedom. While it is admirable to bring wars between nations to an end, by replacing old dark-age nationalist governments with a new "world electorate" espousing world unity, it must be plainly seen that this still furnishes the mechanism through which government coercion and oppression can occur.
The idea of the "collective will" is referred to by Davis as being mentioned in Article 21 of the Declaration. As long as any organization claims to represent the "collective will," it sows the potential seeds for future loss of individual liberty. It is this very failure to distinguish between the good of the collective and the good of the individual, that has been at the basis of much of the oppression and corruption in history.
While Davis's wish to end war and bring world unity is praiseworthy, and his tireless service in liberating countless people from the restrictions of nationalist institutions is admirable, his ideas on exactly what role his World Government will play, need refinement.
Any group, whether a "World Government" or whatever it calls itself, needs to abandon the notion of collectivist human rights that it claims to "represent," and favor instead the freedom of the individual. Garry Davis speaks of the sovereignty of the individual, which shows that he recognizes it. But if his recognition is to be clear and complete, then he will drop his ideas of the "collective will" and the "world electorate," which are incompatible, contradictory opposites to the sovereignty of the individual.
If the freedom of the individual becomes absolute, the good of the whole is automatically and simultaneously achieved.
The abuse of such freedom will inevitably occur, but it will decline over time, as familiarity with the new freedom brings maturity. And the consequences of abuse, resulting from too much freedom, are far, far less than, and greatly preferable to, the consequences of restriction, subjugation, and coercion, resulting from thousands of years of too little freedom.
Philip Dubois, a freedom-oriented attorney, put it this way, in relation to freedom of communication in a country: "We can have the kind of country where people can speak freely and privately and take the consequences of that. Or we can have the kind of country where they can't, and take the far worse consequences of that."
If you set up a group that is supposed to serve the world, and fail to explicitly clarify its mission as the good of individuals everywhere - individual property, individual rights, individual freedom - then you have left the door open for the possibility that the small group will someday start deciding for others, acting on behalf of others, legislating for others, and eventually ruling, dominating, coercing, and exploiting others... all in the grand name of "liberty, justice, and freedom." How many countless pathological actions have been committed against people by priests and politicians, down through history, in the name of "God," "social good," "liberty," and so on? The way to prevent this retardedness from being repeated in the future, is by making sure the mission of any "world group" is crystal-clear about being against collectivist ideas, where the few act for the many; and being in favor of ideas of individual freedoms, individual rights, individual property, and individual decisions.
This is why the political sentence in Davis's Credo of a World Citizen is potentially dangerous. It says:
"Politically, a World Citizen accepts a sanctioning institution of representative government, expressing the general and individual sovereign will in order to establish and maintain a system of just and equitable world law with appropriate legislative, judiciary and enforcement bodies."
No matter how high their stated principles, inevitably the course of events have accumulated with sufficient energy so as to overwhelm the best intentions of such "representatives." Tidal waves of seemingly insoluble dilemmas present themselves with such increasing force and quantity that their high principles soon start going out the window. This is because ultimately, the very idea of using "representatives" reduces precision, and allows the possibility, even the likelihood, of confusion and misrepresentation. Using representatives diminishes the power of those who are represented, to communicate directly. It therefore compromises individual sovereignty and freedom.
Why are representatives, or any kind of government, even necessary? If decisions affecting billions of people need to be made, why not let the billions of people themselves make the decisions, and communicate them via computers? The technology already exists. The coordinators of this could operate like a business, much the way 900-number operators conduct public polls. This information can be easily networked and processed by a group operating as a free market business. Who needs a "representative government?" Furthermore, there should be many such free market businesses, all providing similar needed global services, so as to keep a healthy level of honesty and friendly competition, and prevent a monopoly.
No ideals, no matter how virtuous, can be decided by a few on behalf of the collective. Each individual must have the complete and absolute freedom to discover his or her own ideals and virtues, without having them voted, mandated, legislated, coerced, mind-controlled, brain-washed, or even lightly promoted by any "world government," "world electorate," or other hierarchy.
Although Garry Davis fails to identify or eliminate the contradictions between his stated ideal of individual sovereignty, and the collectivist statements in his Credo of a World Citizen and in the U.N. document he praises, Declaration of Universal Human Rights, he does clearly acknowledge:
"The truth is: no one can hand us freedom or security. And no one can exercise our reason and conscience on our behalf. Every one of us is absolutely and solely responsible for his or her thoughts and actions regarding our personal welfare. Only when we secure and use our conscience and reason will we discover the joyful world of sovereign humanity." - Passport to Freedom, Ch. 3
However, he shows fuzzy thinking again in Chapter 6 when he says,
"Humankind in turn represents the ultimate sovereign on planet Earth, the whole of which each of us is a part. Any government that refuses to recognize humanity as the ultimate sovereign is actually denying the source of its own authority. Plainly, no constitution can deny, inhibit or limit the sovereignty of humankind."
And in Chapter 13 when he says:
"... you place yourself at the threshold of a new allegiance - to humanity and the world."
While the intent of these statements is appreciated, namely, to transcend national differences and realize planetary harmony, nevertheless he makes the mistake of identifying humankind as a sovereign, in singular, rather than human beings as sovereigns, in plural. At first glance, most people may think this difference is insignificant. But it is precisely in such "insignificant" mistakes from where all the evil of politics begins. It is much better to nip it in the bud.
By calling humankind a sovereign in singular, the way is opened for a certain "select" few to eventually claim to be the "spokesmen" for this singular "sovereign humankind." Since obviously "humankind" doesn't have a single voice, but five billion voices, there is no way for every individual on the planet to automatically agree on the thinking of this singular entity called "sovereign humankind."
Therefore inevitably there are always a few who will presume to speak on behalf of this entity, claiming to be its voice, and expecting everyone else to pay heed. This is exactly what priests and politicians have been doing, down the ages, fooling the people for their own greed on behalf of "God" or "justice" other supposedly great "entities" or "ideals." And it is under the guise of these so-called "noble ideals" that some of the greatest crimes and violations of the individual have been committed. It is fuzzy thinking like this that sows the seeds for later corruption, domination, and oppression.
The correct way, as defined by what is most universally beneficial for all individuals, is to replace nationalism with an unconditional, uncomprimised, and complete sovereignty of all individuals everywhere, free from domination and coercion of any kind, where the individual rights, property, and liberty of all individuals without exception, are universally respected by everyone all the time.
The world this idea creates is one where no one would ever even dream of imposing his or her will over another, or interfering with the freedom of another. To move towards this kind of world, no single idea or entity can ever be allowed to take priority over the freedom and rights of the individual, as applied to all individuals individually.
Garry Davis needs to understand this. His thinking again sounds fuzzy when he says:
"Only through the recognition and enforcement of world law can our basic rights be protected and the warmaking of the nation-states be stopped." - Passport to Freedom, Ch. 28
This raises the question, what does he mean by "enforcement?" Does he presume to think he will use weapons of force to defeat all the armies of the world? This would be wrong in principle, not to mention grossly ineffective - impossible. There is no way we can compete with them on that level, and even if the fantasy were to come true, that we were to succeed in using violence to actually defeat all the violence, what would that accomplish? It's like using a pesticide on crops ... a billion pests are killed, but the few who are the strongest survive, and within a few weeks a billion have reproduced again, this time a much stronger strain. So now you have to use even stronger pesticide, and on and on it goes. Likewise, if you use violence to defeat the violent, the mind of the enemy still remains. As soon as he can get arms again, you're back at war. Peace cannot be achieved this way.
"You cannot fight fire with fire."
If Davis does not mean enforcement through weapons, then what does he mean by "enforcement"? He doesn't say. As it is, he left his statement as a contradiction in terms. You cannot "enforce world law" and at the same time have "rights protected" and "the warmaking of nation-states be stopped." If a world government were to succeed in actually ruling the world through "enforcement," then it would be nothing more than the Orwellian dictatorship and police state on a global scale.
What is the alternative? If there are no police and no armies, you might ask, how will criminals be dealt with? The answer is: People can use "neighborhood watch" programs, "citizens arrest" tactics, "private eyes," and other free market approaches. There is no need for a "government" to do it, especially when you consider all the monstrous abuses of a population that come with making the mistake of empowering a government with force.
One of the most fantastic advantages of this idea, is that then the millions of people employed in militaries and police forces worldwide, and the trillions of dollars in funding they receive, could all be converted to constructive peacetime projects working for the social good.
A perfect analogy to illustrate how world law can be managed through a World Court of Justice without the use of violent force, is the example of the international standard of time. Greenwich, England, has a "world clock" against which all the other clocks are measured. Is anyone forcing you to set your watch by it? No, that would be ridiculous. If you set your watch half an hour later, no one is going to point a gun at you and put you in jail because of it. You have created your own disadvantage, by being late for your appointments.
Like that, the World Court can simply set the standard of individual rights, freedoms, ethics, laws, and so on. Enforcement using weapons and jails will be made obsolete.
Garry Davis has made some major contributions to the well-being and advancement of mankind. That is why we are appreciating him by taking this much time to study his ideas. And, because of this, we would like to see him round out his rough edges, and polish his thinking even further. It would be well for him to sharpen his blurry vision on notions like "enforcement" and the other issues raised in this section. Otherwise, he has done a magnificent job of penetrating to some of the deepest solutions to the problems of the human species on Earth.
Davis's Brilliant Insights on "Paper Power"
The more people advance in intelligence and awakening, the more we realize that what we've been calling "governments" are really just illusions. They're really just groups of people with no intrinsic superior status; no intrinsic right to dominate. The same is the case with the groups of people they pretend to dominate, called "nations" - they are also illusions. These illusions have been supported by nothing more than the thin, ephemeral communication of concepts and ideas - usually via pieces of paper - which can change at any time. Tomorrow morning, if a billion people wake up and think differently, all those concepts - and the pieces of paper that register them - could disappear. Government could evaporate overnight.
"Nations are a myth, perpetuated by the slavery of tradition, blind loyalty and pieces of paper that pretended to legitimize the existence of human beings. I would survive without papers, I thought. I would cross frontiers without a passport, acting as a free being without national credentials of any kind. I would strike a blow at the very heart of nationalism and prove that the nation-state didn't really exist but was only a creature of our minds...
Who or what gains most in the document game - the individual or the authority that issues them? ... In each paper transaction, the individual is actually surrendering freedom. Instead, the documents legitimize the existence and privileges of the institution that provides the paper.
Whether it is a passport or driver's license, a degree or license to marry, the dynamic is the same. You surrender the right to assume command or determine your own direction by accepting some outside authority's power to grant these things. A person who hangs a degree on the office wall unwittingly admits that he has forfeited his power of discernment to an institution. The document says he is educated; education itself is thus vested in the institution. The degree is the graduate's receipt for having bargained away his intelligence. The person who provides the paper, usually a bureaucrat, doesn't think about such issues. Enmeshed in hierarchy, bureaucrats surrender their humanity and substitute anonymous power for individual personality. Ask for a bureaucrat's name and you'll often receive a brush-off. Personalizing the process is considered offensive, since the official is considered merely part of the machine.
The cog in the machine is anonymous, and acts without personal responsibility. The machine itself, meanwhile, has the power to dominate and punish anyone "inside" its domain. Documents are the central tools that consolidate and extend this power...
Like a foreign country, I had become suspect simply because no national law or regulation covered my actions... In the eyes of the nation-state, I no longer 'existed.'
On the other hand, by permitting me to give up my nationality, the United States had also done something quite profound. It had denied its exclusive sovereignty and, in the same stroke, had recognized the sovereignty of individual human beings." - Passport to Freedom, by Garry Davis, Chapter 5
Sovereignty and Identity
Davis brings out an important observation about the contradictions in most national constitutions.
"Virtually all modern constitutions refer to "the people" as sovereign...
When we agree to act in a reasonable way toward one another, something ennobling and profound occurs: we become a community...
So far, so good.
But most national constitutions also contain a crucial caveat. In some places it is called 'national security,' in others 'public order.' Whatever the label, it essentially overrules sovereignty and nullifies human rights. When human rights collide with national security, the result is typically outright violation, with disastrous consequences for any citizen in the way. Ultimately, security becomes a euphemism for aggression, an excuse for violence against nature and other living beings." - Passport to Freedom, Ch. 6
Davis thus pinpoints a fundamental weakness in most national constitutions, created by the conflict between two opposite, coexisting, and irreconcilable principles. He then continues with an on-key discussion of the paradoxes in various other social agreements, including the Nuremberg Principles and the International Court of Justice.
Davis then further develops the theme of identity. He faced the irony that, although he wanted to prove that he could live and travel without national identity papers, he ended up having to create his own papers anyway, to replace the others. His individual human-beingness was more important than nations, but in practice, the obsession of the bureaucrats with nationalism was so complete that they made his life nearly impossible. He eventually had no choice but to create his own papers.
"In essence, I had been told to live perpetually in international waters, seek asylum on another planet, die or go to jail...
There was no longer much choice. I had to take the bureaucratic bull by the horns. If I was going to battle bureaucracy with any hope of success, I would need documents of my own.
The first was a simple white paper - the United World Citizens International Identity Card. ... By creating papers and staking my claim to world citizenship, I was exercising individual sovereignty. ...
Over the next five years several hundred thousand people joined me as World Citizens." - Passport to Freedom, Ch. 7
He then identifies and describes four levels on which people find identity.
"As human beings, we communicate on four levels of Dynamic Identification. The first is to One, the most intimate relationship we have with our spiritual nature. Our whole life is spent identifying with and identifying this dynamic.
The second is with the family. As we pass through life, our family takes many forms: biological, legal, social and spiritual. It is always an intimate group identification, the place where we apply our value system, where we test our strength and expose our weaknesses.
The third level moves us beyond the family and into a personal area of immense variety. While stimulating cooperation and sharing, communication on this level also breeds fear, aggressiveness, and distrust. ... Alliances, treaties, and charters between sovereign states also stem from this dynamic identification, the political manifestation of the accumulated debris of war. Although we live in a 'global village' of information, we are prisoners in exclusive 'villages' called states. Virtually all governments express fear or paranoia of some enemy; for most this is the rationale for a suicidal arms race. Expressing fear, government deprives its citizens of individual freedom in the name of security. The legal term for this is Inter armes, silent legis; or 'Between armed states, the law is silent.' When law is silent, humans become mere subjects of dictatorships, either overt or covert. This is the point at which communication between citizen and government breaks down. The nation-state itself becomes part of a dictatorial system of government.
The way out of this trap lies on the fourth level of Dynamic Identification. Holistic, or fourth level, values have been defined throughout human history. In the past, this was the province of sages, prophets, poets, philosophers, artists and pirates. Before the technological and electronic breakthroughs of our age, each of these innovators demonstrated the concept of inalienable rights. They related the individual to his or her humanity, often under pressure from exclusive, third level regimes.
Today the key to re-establishing communication between citizen and government is available to everyone. Human rights, world law and world citizenship are fourth level expressions of a new and primal sovereignty. They recognize humanity and the individual human being..." - Passport to Freedom, Ch. 8
Government: Transformation, then Evaporation
In Chapter 13 of Passport to Freedom, Davis says, "Government ought to function as humanity's brain, fulfilling the needs of the individual and the entire organism." One might ask, then, how would individual free will be maintained? The brain appears to function like a dictator over the body.
This still leaves open the question of where does individual free will come in? How is the mistake of mankind's past history, the infamous coercive and exploitative dictatorship, avoided in the future? Should government be really so much like a brain, or should it even exist at all?
The answer to all of these questions is the same as has been realized before. The awakening of personal power and personal intelligence in each and every individual... is the only way. Each and every individual must evolve, become more intelligent, more responsible, more powerful, and more self-directing.
Then government's "baby-sitter" and "taskmaster" roles diminish. People give it less power, less funding, less respect, less importance. People stop giving it significance over their lives, because they gradually realize they can get along quite well enough without it, thank you.
As this spreads to more and more people, whatever government is left may function more like a friendly "brain," in that it may serve useful "central clearinghouse" and informational functions. For example, some area of the world has too little food; some area has too much food. Rather than dumping the excess in the ocean and letting the needy starve, the government simply provides the administrative information necessary to arrange transfer. Nothing is done against the will of anyone; coercion has long since been abandoned, having been recognized for the ineffective and self-defeating mechanism that it was.
In this sense, government functions rather like the post office, and its "president" is like the postmaster general. Most people don't even know his name, and he certainly doesn't receive much media or press coverage. It's just an administrative function; not a dominating source of dictates or coercive directives. It's more like a free-market business, and in fact, business would be best suited for such functions. So why even continue to call it by the name, "government?" Call it a business - "World Cooperative Services," or something.
Later in this process, as billions of individuals awaken further, intelligence becomes so highly advanced and universally achieved that even the coordinating and administrative role of "government" becomes unnecessary. Everyone just "knows" from within; there's no need for an outer mechanism. Then anything even remotely resembling government can finally evaporate altogether.
This is where Build Freedom looks beyond the vision expressed by Garry Davis. Build Freedom's focus is not on creating any interim governmental function, but rather on going ahead and creating the new world of freedom, individual sovereignty, personal power, the free market, inner directedness, and the replacement of government per se, with more beneficial and efficient decentralized arrangements.
As an interim function, however, it is at least reassuring to see that Davis's "World Government" operates according to voluntary, non-coercive principles. Like a business, it offers products, for which customers voluntarily choose to purchase, or choose not to purchase, as they like.
"Unlike most governments, which are heavily in debt, World Government is self-financing. Citizens who request services pay modest fees to cover its operating expenses.
... In essence, World Government is a sustainable and self-sufficient community of sovereign individuals who have given their prime allegiance to an emerging body of 'common world law,' including various human rights covenants, the Stockholm Environmental Declaration and the Nuremberg Principles. It is neither a parallel government nor a supra-national federation. It is a 'meta-government' of individual human beings." - Passport to Freedom, Ch. 24
The question, then, is why even call it a "government?" Why not just call it a business, an institute, or just some kind of service organization? Is it because if we don't call it a World Government, some other group will come along and create another world government anyway, but with far less noble qualities, and therefore we should beat them to the challenge and show them how it should be done? Or is it because people are so conditioned with looking up to territorial governments for thousands of years, that they can't just make the Build Freedom quantum leap directly to a global decentralized free market, absent of government altogether? That an interim period is necessary, where all political divisions dissolve into a consolidated one world government, before the arrival of mankind at a utopia where government disappears completely? And if national governments were difficult to dissolve, will it be even more difficult to dissolve a world government, or will it somehow be easier?
These are all needed questions to ask, and there may not be any one final answer. One thing is for sure: that many of us consider it entirely possible for the world government phase to be skipped. We could go right from the extinction of the nation-state governments directly into the decentralized global free market. There is no built-in requirement that world government be a temporary bridge in between. Whole segments of the world population are already building decentralized free markets, anyway.
So whether the whole world comes to recognize a single world authority called a World Government or not, either way the free market is already multiplying. As it exponentially expands, it is inevitable that it will eventually out-compete all governments for every one of their good functions, and put them out of commission. This is the crest wave that Build Freedom is riding.
If, as an interim mechanism, Davis's World Government can play a non-coercive role to assist in this process, and contribute to the liberation of all people, then we support his choice and celebrate our alignment, our parallel missions, and our shared destiny.
World Citizenship Theory and Practice
For Sovereigns who travel, Chapters 9, 10, and 11 of Passport to Freedom provide a lot of useful, important, and interesting information on understanding bureaucrats, learning bureaucrats' language, and ten steps on how to overrule bureaucracies, particularly as it relates to the right to travel. His ten steps are quite lengthy, detailed, rich with useful practical tips.
Chapters 14 and 15 provide an excellent understanding for World Citizens of the destiny of the nation-state. A November 1990 issue of the Washington Post is quoted as having the headline, "IS THE NATION-STATE HEADED FOR THE DUSTBIN OF HISTORY?" He observes the multiplication of nation-states, from only nine of them two centuries ago, to over 160 in 1980; simultaneous with the gradual demise of the nation-state as an institution, as indicated by the political, social, and economic trends of the world.
"A world of nation-states is essentially a lawless, anarchic world in which conflict is the defining political and social force. For the nation, 'national security' is another word for repression. War is a way to protect the 'common welfare,' often by destroying it. Environmental degradation is defined as merely a 'trade-off' for progress. And 'human services,' managed by government and dominated by a repressive ethic, are programs that quite often promote moral and social disintegration. Leaders are commonly liars and criminals; commercial institutions are machines that market violence for profit. In the nation-state, the social contract called 'national citizenship' becomes a collective suicide pact. We simply don't know when we'll be asked to die - or for what."
Clear understanding of the retarded, backward, barbaric characteristics of the nation-state, and the national citizenship that goes with it, is a prerequisite to fully appreciating the superior nature of world citizenship. Davis points out that national citizenship is actually a form of imprisonment. If you don't believe that, try not paying your taxes, or try leaving the country without "proper" papers. Endless other restrictions and abuses of a nation's "subjects" occur every day.
Likewise, the so-called "benefits" the government provides, such as national security, are exaggerated. National security would actually be much better without the institution of the nation-state and its government. So in conclusion, the benefits of the nation-state are none, and the disadvantages are countless. Seeing this, it doesn't take much intelligence to prefer world citizenship, or worded more plainly, pure individual sovereignty.
One of the services of Davis's World Service Authority is defense of World Citizens. "If the rights of a registered World Citizen are violated," he says, "the WSA takes up the defense." For example, "In countless cases, refugees have succeeded in remaining in the country of their choice with WSA intervention."
As a perfect example of how World Citizenship resolves serious practical problems, Davis brings up a fascinating story about Fred Haas, who was a Conscientious Objector (CO) (someone who objects to being conscripted into the military, for moral or religious reasons). The U.S. military Selective Service Board at Forest Hills, New York had rejected Haas's CO application because it was based on philosophical and political, rather than religious, beliefs. Then Fred Haas met Garry Davis, and Davis provided some solutions.
Haas became a World Citizen, and sent copies of his World Citizen and World Government documents to the head of his Selective Service draft board, to the UN Secretary-General, and to President Eisenhower.
"Though the draft board responded coolly to his letter, ordering him to report for induction and threatening charges of desertion if he didn't, his deadline passed without incident. By June, his case had been passed up the Pentagon line, but still no decision. The more the government lawyers studied the issue, the more intriguing - and troubling - it became.
This was no longer a simple CO case. First of all, there was the question of World Government: what the hell was it? That was a political issue they preferred to ignore. A second, related question was whether a U.S. citizen could pledge his allegiance to this so-called World Government. And third, if he could do it, was he still a U.S. citizen? They didn't want to get into that one either.
If Fred Haas was prosecuted as a deserter, he could bring up international law to justify his actions. The Pentagon was already having problems with the Nuremberg Principles. Lawyers for the Selective Service certainly didn't want to defend national soldiery against human rights. Of course, they were also afraid of publicity. Once the case went public, thousands of other draft-age men might try to use the same route. Even people already in jail might turn to World Citizenship as a defense. Finally, the government could not forget the international implications. In short, it was a can of global worms.
Clearly, geo-dialectical logic was at work. By pledging allegiance to World Government, Fred Haas was able to neutralize an oppressive law of his nation. His simple, sovereign act exposed just how weak the nation actually was. In Civil Disobedience, Thoreau had likened the state to an old lady counting her spoons - so weak it could be bent to one person's will. Sometimes the resistance of a single person can bring change to an entire government - witness Gandhi, Gorbachev, and Nelson Mandela.
... a constitutional lawyer working for the Pentagon provided the final argument...against the government. If Fred Haas was prosecuted, this attorney predicted, he could use the Ninth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution as his defense ... the 'sleeping giant':
AMENDMENT IX
The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.
Fred could simply claim that one of those rights was his right to claim a higher civic allegiance. Although there was nothing in the Constitution about delegating power to a world government, there was also nothing about denying or prohibiting it. ... This was, at the very least, a legal bombshell, one the U.S. government did not want in court.
As you might guess, Fred Haas was never prosecuted. He left for India several years later, became a disciple of Guru Nataraja, and adopted the Sannyasin way of life." - Passport to Freedom, Ch. 25
Passports, Other Official Papers, and World Guards
As with national or world citizenship, it is likewise good to first recognize the inferior implications of the national passport, as compared to the world passport. This will give one a stronger, deeper, and more enduring appreciation for the world passport, as well as sufficient incentive to defend it when questioned by border officials.
"A national passport legitimizes and represents the arbitrary frontier of a particular nation. As property of the government that issues it, this license can be denied for virtually any reason. In essence, it is a control device, used by government to limit the movement of its citizens, and to regulate the entry and exit of 'foreigners.'
When you are issued a passport, you are actually giving something up - your inalienable right to 'leave any country' and return again, confirmed by Article 13(2) in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In order to travel, you are forced to accept a bureaucratic device designed deliberately to control your movement. In legal terms, such a deceptive inducement to surrender a legal right is called fraud. Thus, if you have such a document, in a sense you have been robbed. To put it plainly, the national passport system is a swindle, the conscious theft of the individuals right to freedom of movement. In the world of nation-states, claims that citizens have freedom of travel are a hollow mockery. All states collude in perpetuating this fraud, beginning with their use of the word 'passport' itself. The name of the document implies that it recognizes the right to travel when, in reality, it does just the opposite. ...
For non-citizens entering the U.S., of course, a visa is always mandatory. In 'the land of the free,' no foreign passport is accepted by itself.
More appalling still, they make you pay for it ...
The fee is not merely a form of extortion; it is unconstitutional. In Aptheker v. Secretary of State, the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed a constitutional right to travel closely related to rights of free speech and association. This right is linked to both the First and Fifth Amendment, and cannot be abridged even on political grounds. It follows, then, that imposing a financial penalty or refusing a person entry into his own country for lack of an 'official' document violates the letter as well as the spirit of U.S. law." - Passport to Freedom, Ch. 16
Davis goes on to explain that on January 17, 1953, in the USA a state of national emergency was declared by President Harry Truman, which has never been terminated. It established a permanent state of emergency, and among other things it gave the Secretary of State authority to issue passports and limit their validity to travel in certain places.
Davis then gives a short history of passports, noting that it was still possible as recently as the early twentieth century, to travel overseas with nothing more than a boat ticket.
Conversation then turns to Davis's own World Service Authority passport, the first thousand of which were printed on May 10, 1954. It had 16 pages and a green cover. It was written in two languages, English and Esperanto. Ecuador, Laos, and Yemen agreed to recognize the passport on a de facto (case-by-case) basis.
The second edition came out in 1972. Now it was in five languages and had 36 pages, with space for a full medical history - a first for any passport. Ecuador, Zambia, Upper Volta (Burkina Faso), and Mauritania gave the passport "de jure" (official and legal) recognition.
The third edition came out in 1975, with 42 pages in seven languages. As of about 1993, over 400,000 WSA passports, World Government ID Cards, and birth certificates had been issued. Over 135 countries have recognized the passport on a de facto basis.
The current edition since 1992 has 40 pages, with text in seven languages - English, French, Spanish, Arabic, Russian, Chinese, and Esperanto. It has 27 visa pages with six pages for affiliate identifications. In the back is space for medical information.
"Identifying its holder as a sovereign being with the right to travel, the WSA passport represents that right in a form that no nation can ignore," Davis says.
On the subject of residency, he says,
"A little known but revolutionary fact is the right of residency ... anywhere! Allied with freedom of movement, the right of residence is cited in Article 13(1) of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: 'Everyone has the right of freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state.' What the framers had in mind is not entirely clear, but interpreted literally it means exactly what it says: anyone can live anywhere. Based on that right, the World Service Authority issues an 'International Resident Permit' to registered World Citizens. It is inserted in their World Passports on an empty visa page." - Passport to Freedom, Ch. 20
Davis then goes on to give many pages of very interesting and useful guidelines for how to use the passport, including how to think, how to look, how to speak, and so on. He recommends carrying with you a copy of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the United Nations Charter. Have a World Judicial Commission questionnaire form with you in plain view, and inform the official that you are obliged to report all violations of fundamental human rights to the World Judicial Commission in Champaign, Illinois. That and many other valuable tips are shared.
Many stories are related as to how the WSA Passport has solved the problems of its users. There are even examples of those in high positions of political power benefiting from it, such as this one:
"On March 2 [1990], Czechoslovakian President Vaclav Havel expressed open support for world government when I presented his honorary World Passport. 'Since I became president,' he told me, 'they took away my civilian passport, so I have no identity documents at present. This is the first I have received since becoming president. It is a most precious document.'" - Passport to Freedom, Epilogue
Other documents, such as the World Birth Certificate, have been used to solve problems as well. Many problems with nation-states can be traced to the birth certificate issued by the nation. National governments use such documents to "prove" that the baby is national property.
"The birth certificate thus becomes a form of theft, the theft of the child's true identity as a free sovereign individual human being. By affixing a national seal of approval to a child, the state denies the freedom, rights, and dignity guaranteed by the UN Declaration. To reclaim them, then, requires another tool, one that confirms the being's true identity as a human - a World Birth Certificate.
... Standing before a judge, accused of refusing to serve in the military, a young person can produce a World Birth Certificate and explain that he is not permitted, under Article 30 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 'to engage in any act aimed at the destruction of any of the rights and freedoms set forth herein.' Furthermore, he or she can claim to be subject to, and the subject of, international law. A World Birth Certificate can also be used as the basis for refusal to pay war taxes. Thus, World Citizenship, combined with proof of identity, can help to neutralize the state's power to coerce." - Passport to Freedom, Ch. 25
Next, the WSA has created "World Guards":
"Enforcing world law, however, is substantially different from seeing that laws of a local or national nature are obeyed. Violations at the global level - making or preparing for war, violating basic human rights, polluting the environment - are crimes against humanity itself, the entire species. They cannot be stopped or redressed by more violence. In essence, such crimes are manifestations of mental illness at the mass level. Only by dealing with the mental, emotional or material causes can the cycle of violence be halted.
This work calls for 'World Guards' who combine the qualities of an Old West Sheriff, Indian sage and Robin Hood. World Guards act as direct representatives for World Citizens whose rights are violated, settling disputes between individuals and attacking national ignorance, intolerance and hypocrisy. Physically unarmed, they are roving ombudsmen who attempt to put wisdom to work for the benefit of humanity." - Passport to Freedom, Ch. 25
Mundialization: All Land is World Territory
Consistent with the ideas of universal respect for individual rights, property, and freedom, and the dissolution of the institution of the nation-state, the old idea of conquering and dominating areas of land through force is now obsolete. Using the "might is right" approach to claiming and defending land is backward and barbaric, having many more disadvantages than advantages. Damaging the land through warfare ruins the environment and the ecosystem planetwide, which is stupid and self-defeating.
"In such cases, like the U.S. crusade in Vietnam, the logic is that a country might have to be destroyed in order to 'save' it. Insane as it seems, nations even treat their own alleged 'property' as if it were expendable. Obviously such 'ownership' is no more legitimate than the primitive practice of slavery - domination in a crude disguise.
Territory can be viewed in another way, however, one which is both holistic and absolute. In the holistic sense, territory is not 'property' but rather part of one great living being that includes land, sea, air and all living species. Looked at this way, destruction of territory is self-destruction, an act bordering on suicide. In the absolute sense, territory cannot be 'owned' by any limited group, whether a people or a government. Everyone owns the Earth - and at the same time, no one does.
This holistic and absolute approach to the notion of territory is the basis for a revolutionary claim: that the entire surface of the planet is, in reality, world territory." - Passport to Freedom, Ch. 26
Accordingly, wherever there are World Citizens, areas of land around them are being declared "World Territory." Davis's house called "Chaggara," on a small piece of land near the French-Swiss border, in the community of Hesingue, was declared "Territoire Mondiale" - a territorial base for World Government, in 1976. Many other groups have claimed their locations "international territory" - from the United Nations offices in various locations and the Holy See of the Vatican in Rome, to the "Free City of Danzig," the "Free Territory of Trieste," and others.
In the south of France, by early 1949 a community of 300 called Trouilla decided to become a "world town." Most of the residents had declared themselves World Citizens. In July of that year, another town, Cahors, with a population of 15,000, became the first major community to be officially "mundialized."
"Over the next months, 'mundialization' spread quickly to other towns in France and Germany.
Mundialization is, essentially, a grass roots movement for world citizenship. The word is derived from the Latin word for world - mundis. For a place to become 'mundialized' means to become 'worldly,' to adopt a holistic world view. It means social maturation..."
Mundialization was also taking place in Japan and elsewhere:
"Since the '50s, hundreds of places have declared themselves 'mundialized,' including Toronto, Bordeaux, Nimes, and various holy sites. By the late 1950s, the movement had reached major Japanese cities such as Hiroshima, Nagasaki and Tokyo. In the 1960s, Richfield, Ohio became America's first 'world town,' followed by Los Angeles, St. Louis, Minneapolis and Boston, among others.
The city of Dundas, Ontario, joined as the first mundialized Canadian community in June, 1967. ... With the UN Secretary-General in attendance, Ottawa became a World City in 1970. ... In the United States, four state governments - Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Illinois - made declarations of world citizenship ...
As of 1988, there were about 1000 mundialized places around the world. The list includes communities in at least 15 U.S. states, countless towns and cities across France and Japan, and communities in Italy, Germany, Belgium and India.
... Each community that makes its declaration helps to extend an atmosphere in which global cooperation replaces force as the way to resolve the world's complex problems." - Passport to Freedom, Ch. 26
World Economics, One World Money, and Global Prosperity
It has long been recognized by many, that there is no actual shortage of supply in the world, either of raw materials or of man-made goods. The late Buckminster Fuller, the multi-genius who had over 48 Ph.D.s, once calculated that there are enough man-made goods alone, already in the marketplace globally, to make every last man, woman, and child on the planet a multi-millionaire. And this was two or three decades ago.
The reason, then, that over 90% of the masses have barely enough to survive on, is that there is a problem of distribution, not of supply. A tiny minority have far more than they need, depriving the many. Garry Davis recognizes this:
"... multinational business entities manipulate the resources, accounting systems, revenues and even the governments of numerous nations with diverse currencies. Of the world's 100 largest economic units, almost half are corporations. The annual sales volume of General Motors is larger than the gross national product of 130 developing states. Able to subvert law and circumvent most government controls, the corporate 'state' has become the most powerful tool for private profit - at public expense - ever devised.
... Can this be changed? Can multinationals be made accountable? Can economic power be diffused, reducing the gap between the owners of corporate equity - the haves, and the have-nots - the other 95 percent of humanity?"
Now the important point is this: while we recognize that improvements in distribution are the solution, and that it is possible and desirable to make such improvements, it is of paramount importance to understand that by far the best vehicle for this to happen is the decentralized free market. This is what Build Freedom is helping to develop.
A more universally beneficial and equitable redistribution of planetary wealth cannot be mandated or forced. The 80-year experiment in the Soviet Union, which ended in a grand failure, is perfect proof.
Davis addresses the rightness of improved distribution:
"According to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, everyone has a right to a decent standard of living - to food, clothing, medical care, housing, social services, and security against unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, and old age (art. 25). Each of us also has the right to own property, alone or in association with others (art. 17)." - Passport to Freedom, Ch. 27
The notion that "everyone has a right to a decent standard of living" is quite absurd. It implies that someone else must be forced or coerced to provide that "decent standard." A much more powerful statement would be:
Basically, the principle should be followed:
Respect individuals and their property.
Take only what is offered.
While it may appear inequitable and unfair that giant corporations and super-rich individuals control vastly more than they need, while billions of others starve, nevertheless the solution to this problem is not found in legislating, mandating, requiring, or trying to force or coerce the rich into sharing with the poor. However uncompassionately they may appear to be using what we all consider to be our collective planetary resources, it would still be a violation of the rights of the rich to do as they wish with their wealth, if we were to require or force them to distribute it differently.
Morality cannot be legislated.
It is recognized that Garry Davis's World Government could be celebrated as a hero that brings virtue and integrity into the field of authority, and it may be making major contributions to the good of mankind by inspiring improvements in politics and economics. It is also recognized that gentleness and non-coerciveness are qualities with which Davis is credited.
It is therefore not that any of his principles are "wrong," so much as that he omits and neglects to mention many of the critical ingredients in how his good intentions will get fulfilled. To be complete, he needs to make crystal-clear the realization of the inferiority and ineffectiveness of coercion, and explicitly state that the absolute abandonment of any form of coercion is an essential factor in all of his World Government activities.
Davis correctly identifies the obstacles to healthy economies posed by governments trying to interfere and control prices, production, and so on. In relation to this, someone once said, "If legislation is passed to control buying and selling, the first things that will be bought and sold are legislators." Davis further points out the fallacy of believing in the "full employment" panacea. Full employment is touted by governments as some kind of worthy goal to solve social economic problems, but Davis correctly observes that even if it were achieved, full employment would still not guarantee sufficient purchasing power or improvement in living conditions.
Thus, he understands well what doesn't work. But he is very incomplete on what will work. He advocates "democratic ownership," where "... the current automatic flow of most newly formed capital into the hands of the upper 5 percent will have to stop." His "Mutual Affluence System, the philosophical basis of World Government economics," would redistribute shares in global industry into the hands of the workers, giving them equity ownership.
Meritorious as this sounds, Davis fails to mention at least very two very important conditions:
1) that such a redistribution be based on natural free market laws, such as actual results of investment savvy and creative productivity, instead of some individual or council deciding how much each worker gets... and
2) that the property already in the ownership of the upper 5 percent not be taken by force, against their will, to satisfy this redistribution.
In other words, Davis fails to express the wisdom of letting it happen naturally! If you simply take from the rich, like Robin Hood, and distribute it evenly to the lower class, like they tried in Russia, you destroy everything. The rich just leave the country or become less productive, because their incentive has been killed, and the lower classes likewise don't become more productive, because there is no logical relationship between individual initiative and results.
Does Davis understand this, and just failed to mention it, or did he fail to realize it altogether? His writings don't give a clue. Anyone with any IQ at all should be able to understand that only in a completely free enterprise marketplace economy will creativity, productivity, and happiness flourish. Reward has to be self-produced, not handed down from some World Government or some committee. Reward has to be directly linked to each individual's choices, decisions, and actions.
It is true that national governments should get their hands out of the pie, and dissolve. It is true that monopolies and corruption in business, capital markets, and banking should be replaced by equal opportunity, universal access to capital, and real asset-backed currency. Davis observes these ingredients well.
However, Davis doesn't appear to understand capitalism. He says:
"Neither socialism nor capitalism can meet both the material and spiritual needs of humanity as a species or as free individuals." - Passport to Freedom, Ch. 27
He doesn't seem to realize that capitalism has never really fully existed. All the success, progress, abundance, and blessings that have been achieved are due to the small degree to which true capitalism has survived, in spite of the multiple burdens of government restrictions, parasitic taxation, the absence of real money, and widespread public ignorance, misunderstanding, and mistrust. So for Davis to say that it hasn't worked, and can't fulfill humanity's needs, simply shows his ignorance.
Real capitalism doesn't make capital the master, where "cash is king" and artificial shortages of money supply are created to fabricate high interest rates, which is usury. Real capitalism doesn't use capital to enslave and exploit people. No wonder capitalism has such a bad name! It has been grossly misunderstood, and society has largely been ignorant of what it really means.
Real capitalism makes human relationships primary ... and capital is just the secondary worthy tool for the exchange of goods that enhance those relationships. Real capitalism is the freedom to unleash unlimited creativity, and enjoy unrestricted value-for-value exchange. Real capitalism is the free market - where no taxes exist, where no support for coercive regimes exists, and where no interference by any government controls exists. Real capitalism gives people unlimited freedom to create anything they want, as much as they want, and gives honor to the opportunity for everyone to enjoy the good life.
No one takes what isn't offered, and no one interferes with the freedom, property, or rights of others. Everyone is free to choose the work they like, and everyone is free to enter into agreements and contracts of their own design, with other sovereign producers, without public restrictions. Everyone is free to create and distribute any products or services they like, as long as no one is harmed by such activity. The only licenses that will exist are professional competency licenses, issued by free market trade organizations, not business licenses issued by bureaucrats. The latter will be unnecessary and obsolete.
As natural, logical, and normal as this sounds, this is not at all the way society has been functioning. Wherever all of the above mentioned qualities of capitalism have been present, the economy has exploded! But only limited degrees of these ingredients of capitalism have survived in some areas of the world, and only a few small groups and individuals have practiced it 100%.
Then Davis addresses the subject of money and currency, and he has some good things to say about it. Real capitalism uses real money - objects of intrinsic value, such as gold and silver, or the equivalent in genuine redeemable currency. One insight Garry Davis can be given credit for is the use of electricity as a unit of value. If the electrical power goes out in a community, the merchant who can sell electricity will get all the business - not the merchant who just has gold sitting around. Thus, Davis has created a currency called "World Kilowatt Dollars."
Davis basically exposes the problems with national currencies, which have nothing but confidence backing them, and which lose their value as public confidence goes up and down. He shows the advantages of a single world currency, which could be backed by a stable economic standard, and which would not be subject to the roller-coaster of inflation and deflation. Making an adequate and abundant real-money supply available for credit and cash markets would be a key ingredient in the universalization of prosperity worldwide.
Unfortunately, Davis's economic ideas suffer from his lack of understanding free enterprise.
Current Implementation and Actions in Development
Davis discusses the need for a world constitution, and some of the elements that would need to go into it. Then he shares information on a series of meetings that started with an initial planning conference in 1989 in Toronto, Canada, that are developing the ideas necessary to lead to an acceptable world constitution. This group of World Citizens created the World Syntegrity Project, guided by renowned cybernetician Stafford Beer, President of the World Organization of General Systems and Cybernetics.
Thirty people form an "Infoset," in which they communicate across geographic and political borders through phone, fax, computer, and other modern tools of the technosphere. The Infoset can then turn their decisions into action, and the Infosets can multiply and network together. Satellite conferencing will assist in addressing collective concerns. Then a procedure called Team Tensegrity organizes the Infoset as a non-hierarchical democracy and coordinates various Infosets, thirty at a time.
"His mathematically-based design embodies the structural strength (tensegrity) of the geodesic dome invented by world-class thinker Buckminster Fuller and translates it into human terms... through cybernetics, the science of effective organization, World Government will be able to develop and coordinate new designs for peace. The old world, characterized by the need to manage 'things,' is vanishing, Beer has explained. In the new world, the greatest need is to manage 'complexity'. Through cybernetic processes, world citizens can now take on this management challenge and ultimately achieve the horizontal reorganization of the planet." - Passport to Freedom, Ch. 28
For those who have a message to communicate to the world, and would like to attract media publicity for it, Davis gives some very sound advice. Anyone who plans to get media coverage should read pages 160-161 of Passport to Freedom.
CONCLUSION
We trust that individuals will use the same intelligence and wisdom which led Garry Davis and his friends to create World Citizenship and World Government so far to expand and embrace the refinements we have suggested.
It is to be celebrated that the millennia of dark ages characterized by the oppression of nation-states and the division of mankind are coming to an end. A major new phase has arrived, wherein people are awakening to the ideas of planetary citizenship and harmony. Where divisions in language and culture might remain as secondary enjoyments of the spice and variety of life, differences in politics, religion, and geography will no longer be causes of conflict.
Divisions and differences of any kind will remain secondary, as respect for individuals and their property will spread. Garry Davis and his associates are making a significant and worthwhile contribution to this vision.
CONTACT INFORMATION
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