Poll: Countries are just lines drawn in the sand with a stick

[Griffolion]

The title kinda gives it away, is the idea of the "country" redundant in our "globally local" age?

Are there benefits to all countries relinquishing their individual sovereignties to form a united earth government? What are the downsides?

Would this ever happen, not just in our lifetimes, but ever? What may be the critical barriers to it?

I would be interested to hear your thoughts.

Note: For the poll, just select the one that most applies to you. All the points of a given category may appeal to you.

 

[Daystar Clarion]

Enter Shikari lyrics right there.


As for the topic? No.

Because that would cause a power struggle, and power struggles cause wars.

I'm not a fan of wars.

 

[Griffolion]

-snip-

I was hoping the title would be called out!

Though you're a fellow Brit, I'd be surprised if you didn't...

 

[Ryotknife]

Mankind may eventually be forced to live under a single government as a matter of survival, but until something forces their hand they will not give up the status quo they became comfortable with. Without being backed into a corner, such a change would take hundreds of year naturally.

 

[Total LOLige]

Enter Shikari are shit. They should be called Enter Shitari(That actually sounds pretty cool). Arguing With Thermometers is nice though.

OT: Sounds like a bad idea in the event that leaders become corrupt. At least when every country has its own government other countries can step in when someone is being a tyrant, in an ideal world anyway.

 

[Realitycrash]

Over time, centralization and unification is the way to go.
There's nothing sacred about the geographical area of a nation, no. Cultural boundaries are much more flexible than national borders.

 

[Esotera]

Hell no. We're all members of humanity, and in the end countries are an arbitrary division, but we all live in very different cultural and environmental divisions. The philosophy of UK nationals is different enough to that of Germans to warrant a separate government, and within the UK (and everywhere else) there needs to be local government to address local needs.

I guess the best model is for basic rights to be ensured globally, and cultural divisions such as countries & counties to be governed locally. This is pretty much what we have now - using the UK as an example we are part of the UN, Europe, the UK, England, counties, and councils.

 

[jesse220]

-snip-

I was hoping the title would be called out!

Though you're a fellow Brit, I'd be surprised if you didn't...

I'm an aussie and the whole song is on loop in my head now.

As for the actual topic, there certainly are some advantages but I don't see a practical way to do it other than make it an opt in system and wait for generations and I still have my reservations about that working.

 

[Aris Khandr]

No, because the World Cup would be really boring if there is only one team.

 

[ClockworkPenguin]

I can see benefits to it. You could stop the 'race to the bottom'. There are several issues which require cooperation of many or all nations, but where individual nations can massively profit in the short term by not playing ball and screwing over everyone else, basically a large scale prisoner dilemma. Unification could give us a way out. I can also see downsides, but over time, no more than the troubles face by large federal entities such as the US, so I don't think they would be insurmountable.

Practically it is not going to happen unless we are collectively faced with a big enough challenge. Otherwise, whilst some nations may work closer and closer together, others will be threatened and therefore antagonistic to this super-nation. Frankly, Orwells vision of three super blocks perpetually at each others throats seems to me more likely than one global entity.

 

[Shadowstar38]

Aside from a zombie outbreak, this is virtually impossible to accomplish in the next mellienium.

 

[Heronblade]

The only way we'd be able to dissolve the sovereign nations of earth is if we had some means of government capable of uniting all of its people in a stable manner that does not leave the interests of individual cultures unheard.

Yeah, I can see that happening real soon...

I won't say that it couldn't happen some time in the future. The lines between cultures are indeed blurring, and if that keeps up, this may just be doable without forcing the people of Earth into it or by using the excuse of some kind of external threat. But that could be centuries from now, or even never quite happen.

 

[Silvanus]

A single government would be the biggest nightmare for democracy. And, even if a democratic system were successfully implemented, it would leave even greater numbers dissatisfied than we see in the collected democracies now.

This would increase conflict, rather than decrease it.

 

[Heronblade]

A single government would be the biggest nightmare for democracy. And, even if a democratic system were successfully implemented, it would leave even greater numbers dissatisfied than we see in the collected democracies now.

This would increase conflict, rather than decrease it.

You pretty much couldn't do it as a democracy at all

An oligarchy (preferably selected by merit rather than the more... traditional methods) presiding over a large council of elected regional representatives might be able to pull it off from an organizational standpoint, but I give that setup a snowballs chance in hell of making it out of their first year before some asshats start to corrupt the system.

 

[an annoyed writer]

Not within our lifetimes. The cold hard truth is that many countries are still very much in conflict with one-another over ideals and such, and as long as that is still very prevalent we're not going to be very capable of running a United Earth Government. Even then, even if that wasn't an issue, the issue of size of the government is going to be colossal. The bigger the system, the slower it goes.

 

[Hero of Lime]

All the problems between countries would not just disappear. From an economic standpoint, that would be an intense mess in every way imaginable.

I don't really see any realistic benefits as wars, poverty, and deep seeded conflicts wouldn't end just by saying we're all one big Earth family now.

As for being in our lifetimes, I doubt it very much. Again, there can't be an end to all conflicts as that is part of human nature. Even if world peace was somehow declared, there would be no guarantee all countries would want to be lumped together.

 

[Kinitawowi]

We can't even get people to agree on the important things within their own countries, how the hell are we going to do it over the world?!

The Star Trek utopia isn't coming any time soon, I'm afraid.

 

[Best of the 3]

Removing borders only invites people to draw up their own, if anything it'd cause a whole load more conflicts than there already are.

 

[Psychobabble]

Sorry but this is a hilarious pipe dream. Basic human nature would have to change in order for such an idea to work.

Well until our alien masters ruthlessly crush us and sublimate the human race to their will. ALL HAIL THE LIZARD KING!!