 Bertrand Russell Quotes 366 |
There are three things that must be achieved before stability can be recovered: the first of these is a world government with a monopoly of armed force; the second is an approximate quality as regards standards of life in different parts of the world; the third is a population either stationary or very slowly increasing. I do not say that these three things will be achieved. What I do say is that unless they are, the present intolerable insecurity will continue.
Source： Three essentials for a stable world, 1952, by Bertrand Russell.
In: New York Times Magazine, 3 Aug. 1952, pp.11 & 53.; Repr. in: (58)Fact and Fiction.)
More info.: https://russell-j.com/beginner/STABLE-W.HTM
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When we argue for the need for a world federal government, we are met with various criticisms from both East and West - if the expression ‘both East and West’ is old-fashioned - mainly from the leaders of the great powers currently vying for supremacy, who say that it is ‘akin to a dictatorship’ or that it is ‘a communist ideology’. A milder criticism is the counter-argument that a world federal government is nothing more than idealism and that, with the United Nations not fully functioning, the only way forward is to coordinate interests among the major powers.
Such a situation may be convenient for the major powers and the countries that follow them and receive a share of their profits, but for the rest of the world it is an inconvenient situation, as it is as if there is no sovereignty.
Unless a nuclear war breaks out and the leaders of the major powers realise the need for a world federal government, is a world federal government just a ‘picture in the sky’?
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