Worldwide Union

I recently saw this map that shows the GDP of every state and gives the name of the country for which their GDP is comparable to the state's GDP. It's pretty amazing how our one country's GDP is equal to 50 other country's GDP's combined. For example, the State of California alone is equal to the country of France and the GDP of Texas is equal to the GDP of Canada.

This is pretty interesting, but what it really made me think of and realize is that we are really just a union of states. States in the sense of the greek city-states of Athens and Sparta or the Italian city-states of Florence and Vienna. Granted we're states and not city states, but it makes me think differently about the term "state". Usually we talk and think of the different states as more province like than as sovereign states. For instance, Canada has provinces, which are more like areas divided up by the main government. However looking back on the history of the Unites States, which started simply as 13 states and grew to 50 today, it's really not much different than the European Union. People criticize the EU today and worry about a similar American Union joining together USA, Canada, and Mexico. While I'm not neccesarily a supporter of an American Union, this picture has made me rethink the whole idea of country's uniting under a common currency and government.

The European Union stared with the Euro, a common currency to help boost up poorer countrys and help with trade between nations. Today however, the European Union has an elected commission which serves as the legislative pillar of the Union and has a President and everything. I didn't realize this until talking to a guy I met from Europe recently, this is a pretty big deal, it's one step closer to a united world government. You know, like all those future governments portrayed in films about the future or alien planets in which they have a worldwide or one world government. Which is pretty interesting because there are many people who are against globalization and the idea of a one world government, and yet in all our films and visions of the future and of advanced alien societies, they have all united the earth in peace under a common government. I mean, isn't that the long term goal for our world? Getting to a place where we all have the same laws and rules and limits of government intrusions of our natural rights and everything?

I mean when you really think about it, what the European Union is doing today is exactly what the USA did a couple hundred years ago, over the period of a century or so. People went out and made new towns and cities in the Louisiana territory and Oregon Territory and former Mexican owned land, they got together, mapped out borders, and became their own independent states. Then they all asked to be part of the Union of the United States of America and Congress debated and voted as to whether or not to allow this new state to join. This process actually went on until 1950 when Hawai'i was added as the 50th state. The Europen Union is doing the exact same thing, the only thing is that they united with a common currency first and now have a common government, whereas the U.S. united under a common government first, then created a common currency. But there was an original group of countrys that joined, and others have slowly been added to the union over the years, currently the EU had 27 member states and a GDP of over $19 trillion.

So this both makes me try to think more of every state as it's own country and the federal government as just a common body we have mutually agreed to follow, which.. is what the constituion says we are, but it seems these days that most of us think of the USA just at the federal government and don't pay as much attention to what the state governments do outside of the occasional speech by the governor. But this also kind of makes me rethink the idea of globalization and a common world government. Ultimately this is the goal we want, all nations brought up or lowered down to an equal level. No more allowing some countries to torture or stone women, making sure every citizen of every nation of the world has equal rights. And money wise, being able to combine all the wealth of the nations of the world, uniting some government programs like, say... the space program. Imagine a unified one world government which is able to fund one common space program instead of a handful of space programs almost competing against each other. Currently NASA's budget is around 17 billion, but if we combined the world's programs together, we could boost that to 24 billion, plus we could build things faster and cheaper by have whole countries build only certain aspects of ships or satellites or whatever and be able to build new spaceships and exploration robots and vehicles faster and cheaper. And this is just one example of a benefit of a worldwide government.

Now granted there are many bad things that could come from a one world government, but that's no different than the problems that can come up from governments today. But I'm sure we could do things like we have in America to try to preven as much corruption as possible. The EU for example is a huge union, but the EU commission right now doesn't have more power than the individual country's governments, kind of like the Articles of Confederation in America.

Anyway, this is just the thinking process my mind takes after looking at one little picture, but it is some food for thought.

Is the world getting smaller, or is our reach getting longer?

Everyone always talks about how the world has gotten smaller. How planes are now able to fly nonstop around the world, trip that took months now take hours, and of course how the internet has been able to almost instantly connect us with people around the world. I'm not trying to downplay the significance of this, on the contrary, it is absolutely amazing that I can get on a video chat with a friend down the street, a friend on the other side of the country, and a friend on the other side of the globe all at the same time and have a conversation where we can hear and see eachother... and that it doesn't increae my internet bill a single cent! But I don't think the world has gotten smaller, I think our reach has gotten longer. Maybe it's just semantics, but I like to look at it my way instead. When you say the world has gotten smaller... you're saying that the Earth has done somthing, when it hasn't. The Earth 50 years ago was 85,345,714,285,714,285,714,286 times larger than a human being and today it is still 85,345,714,285,714,285,714,286 times larger than a human being. What's changed is all the amazing things we as human beings have come up with. Granted, I think it would have been better if we were able to focus inward to improve ourselves instead of improving machines so much, but I digress.

I just saw that number on how much larger the Earth is than a human being, and it's pretty much impossible for our minds to really picture how much bigger the Earth is than each and every one of us. But that just made all of what we have accomplished so much more incredible. We haven't shrunken the Earth so that we could travel the country in the same time we could travel between two cities, we were able to make a way for us to travel an incredibly further distance in a shorter amount of time than one used to be able to travel a much much shorter distance. 

Now if only we can figure out how to make ourselves fly on our own without need for planes, then we'd reeaallly be on to something...

"The Ruling Class"

We always hear ourselves or people around us talk about the few people who really rule the world. Whether you think it's just a handful of old white men in Washington or the hidden masterminds of the Illuminati; we all seem to have the idea in our minds that only a few people are in charge, that only a few people are actually in a position to change the world, and the rest of us should just simply try to live a nice, quiet, happy life and hope it all turns out for the best.

This is both theoretically the farthest thing from the truth and realistically they way it is. Though I must always say that anything that is "just the way it is" in no way means that's the way it always has to be, all things change; the question then is who changes them?

There are only two types of people in this world who are able to rule and make changes and get things done: those that pay attention and those that get involved. And nine times out of ten those people in charge are both those things. They are not the ones in the "ruling class" because they were born with a silver spoon in their mouth or because they are just iherently better or more well suited to govern other people or be in charge of a multinational conglomorate. They are in the position they are in because they paid attention to the many aspects of the world around them and because they decided to not just bitch and complain with their buddies over a few beers, but to stop playing Monday Morning Quarterback, get off their ass, and go try to make some changes in the world.

Too many people have been ingrained with the idea that they can't make a difference, they aren't good enough to do something "big", or that it's all pointless anyway because apparently some cosmic force has already decided who will run things and who will be run over. But speaking from experience I can say that there is great virtue in getting off your ass and doing something, you can make a huge difference in the world by doing something so simple as talking to your neighbors and going door to door to meet your fellow human beings and inform them about something you are passionate about. 

So if you're tired of things not being how you want them, then do something about it. Be the change you want to see in the world; it worked for Ghandi, and all he had to do was sit down and not eat anything. Pay attention to what's going on in this huge, incredible, and diverse world. Get involved in your local neighborhood's social networkd, local, state, and federal politics, attend the weekly PTA meetings, read reputible newspapers, listen to NPR on the way to work instead of the oldies station, just focus on what you care about and think is important for the world around you and if you see something wrong, try to fix it, it's actually not that hard!

Conformity and Non... A Fork in the Road of Life.

From the day we are born, we are taught to conform. Sometimes we conform for practical reasons; we all learn the same language, use the same numerals for mathematics, etc. Other times we conform for social reasons; school kids wear the same clothes as their friends, listen to the same type of music, etc. As we get older and our conception of the world grows from the bars of our crib to the eternal expanse of the universe, we find there are seemingly infinite possibilities for us in this life, and the prospect of non-conformity grows deeper in our hearts. Each and every one of us wants to be something special; a superhero, the inventor of a wondrous machine, first man on Mars, President of the United States of America, and so on. With the passage of time, we learn that men cannot fly or see through walls (or at least so we’ve come to believe), only a handful out of the billions of beings every born will be President, only one man can ever be the first man on Mars; so then what for the rest of us? Shall we simply be a worker bee or a soldier ant? Where is our place in this world, what is our destiny for life, what greatness shall we inherit? Perhaps, however, these goals do not lie in the world beyond the barrier of electrons separating our flesh from the air. Perhaps instead, there is greatness in each and every one of us, and the problem is simply that too many of us choose to look outward rather than inward. For it is safer to aspire to be something someone else already has been; knowing it is acceptable and loved, than to look inside and become something unique and untested.

Janurary 20th, 2009

This day is more than once in a lifetime, this day is once in History. We on this Earth and in this country will be forever remembered as the generation that saw the first African American President, beyond there being the first woman or gay or latino President sometime in the future, this is the one that broke the chain and opened the door for all others and that is something that can never be repeated. And it will no doubt be remembered as the day America reclaimed its name, reestablished its purpose, and reignited the torch to pass on to future generations.

Just as I wish with a certain kind of jealousy and envy that I could have been there to see the moon landing or MLK or JFK or FDR or the fall of the Berlin wall, so will my children and grandchildren look to me with awe and jealousy asking me, "What was it like?" And I know even now that there are no words I or anyone else could ever utter that would truly express the grandeur, the pride, the patriotism, the joy, and the overwhelming sense of hope and excitement for the future of this country and the future of our world that I felt this day..

The Next President of the United States of America...

An incredible speech that will no doubt go down in history as one of the most important speeches in American history.

The Dream Lives On...