Time Magazine on Unity
May 7, 2008
Last week i picked up a March edition of Time; the cover reading: “10 Ideas that are changing the world”. Expecting an article covering Google, hydrogen fuel, and Taiwan, i was rather surprised to find #1 Common Wealth: National interests aren’t what they used to be. Our survival requires global solutions to be Number One Idea.
The 21st century will overturn many of our basic assumptions about economic life. The 20th century saw the end of European dominance of global politics and economics. The 21st century will see the end of American dominance too, as new powers, including China, India and Brazil, continue to grow and make their voices heard on the world stage. Yet the century’s changes will be even deeper than a rebalancing of economics and geopolitics. The challenges of sustainable development – protecting the environment, stabilizing the world’s population, narrowing the gaps of rich and poor and ending extreme poverty – will render passé the very idea of competing nation-states that scramble for markets, power and resources.
and then author Jeffrey D. Sachs hits point:
The defining challenge of the 21st century will be to face the reality that humanity shares a common fate on a crowded planet.
Done deal.
We face a momentous choice. Continue on our current course, and the world is likely to experience growing conflicts between haves and have-nots, intensifying environmental catastrophes and downturns in living standards caused by interlocking crises of energy, water, food and violent conflict.
That’s why the idea that has the greatest potential to change the world is simply this: by overcoming cynicism, ending our misguided view of the world as an enduring struggle of ‘us’ vs. ‘them’ and instead seeking global solutions, we actually have the power to save the world for all.
And a 150 years earlier, a Prophet had written: “The well-being of mankind, its peace and security, are unattainable unless and until its unity is firmly established.” Indeed, we are taking real long to understand a simple verse…
Source: TIME Magazine, 24 March 2008
