One World, Guv!

I have an ongoing debate with a friend of mine as to whether or not a single world government is a Good Idea. It has seemed to me a truism that if power can be abused, especially if the use of the power is not technically against the law, it will be. A reconception of the idea is that, given a set of laws, the worst possible outcome of those laws (depending on the most aggressive interpretation) is likely to occur at some point, and that the corresponding interpretation will likely become entrenched. The lawmaking process itself, in fact, leads in this direction, as those who craft it often try to find the phrasing that simultaneously seems limiting, but in reality permits what an ordinary citizen might think was overreach. The ability of lawmakers to do this depends in large part on the populace's belief in the 'good faith' interpretation of the law. To return to the concept of a single world government, consolidation of power in one place means that The Ambitious have a single system to attempt to manipulate and control. Given the executive overreaching of the last 8 years, and the dangerous carelessness with which people bandied about the term "terrorist", unfractured control systems scare the hell out of me.

There is another side to the coin, however. Millions of persons live in poverty. Millions live without access to clean water. The solutions to these great problems demand great resources. An international framework within which conflict resolution could occur might allow individual member states to dissolve, to a great degree, their miltaries and thus free up the corresponding resources. Those resources, currently devoted to destruction or the avoidance thereof, could find a new purpose in creating a better, more just world for everyone.

Between these two extremes must lie a third way, something that strengthens international agencies in such a way as to discourage armed conflict, but still leaves lawmaking power and enforcement highly decentralized. The somewhat chaotic world contains within it automatically agile checks and balances. A completely ordered one contains within it an iron fist.