Charter for a Universal Civic Society
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"The greatest problem for the human race, to the solution of which Nature drives man, is the achievement of a universal civic society which administers law among men." (Opening sentence of the fifth thesis of Immanuel Kant's Cosmopolitan History)
Immanuel Kant was describing the central question of a vast movement of history. Wars, environmental degradation and the climate crisis are outer symptoms of our collective failure to come to grips with our deepest nature, a nature which impels us to raise up a universal civic society (UCS).
Because a UCS is the sole object of human evolution, the ultimate expression of our nature as human beings, a commitment to the UCS on all of our parts would be the only conceivable way to equality, justice, rule of law, prosperity and freedom. This cannot be ignored or put off. Every movement of history pushes towards it with the slow, relentless energy of a glacier. Everything we do either hits or misses according to how it addresses the singular goal of our age, upholding the UCS.
Kant himself did his part by drawing up a first draft of a UCS constitution, the Cosmopolitan History, and later a preliminary outline of a constitution for world government, his Sketch for a Perpetual Peace.
But it was not until 1987 when the Brundtland Commission, or World Commission on Environment and Development, took it to the next level by calling for a collectively written guide for sustainable development. This would be a commonly agreed-upon world charter, a declaration of determination to have new universal norms for human activity. The 1992 Earth Summit in
"In 1994, Maurice Strong (Secretary-General of the Rio Summit) and Mikhail Gorbachev, working through their organizations (Earth Council and Green Cross International respectively), restarted the Earth Charter as a civil society initiative. The initial drafting and consultation process drew on hundreds of international documents. Messrs. Strong and Gorbachev convened an independent Earth Charter Commission in 1997 to oversee the final development of the text and to come to agreement on a global consensus document. After numerous drafts and after considering the input of over 5,000 people, the Earth Charter Commission came to consensus on the Earth Charter in March, 2000, at a meeting held at UNESCO headquarters in
Since then, they tell us, the Earth Charter has been endorsed by many individuals and over 2400 organizations representing millions of people, including global institutions like UNESCO. The preamble to this charter is quite inspiring, so I will cite it in full:
"We stand at a critical moment in Earth's history, a time when humanity must choose its future. As the world becomes increasingly interdependent and fragile, the future at once holds great peril and great promise. To move forward we must recognize that in the midst of a magnificent diversity of cultures and life forms we are one human family and one Earth community with a common destiny. We must join together to bring forth a sustainable global society founded on respect for nature, universal human rights, economic justice, and a culture of peace. Towards this end, it is imperative that we, the peoples of Earth, declare our responsibility to one another, to the greater community of life, and to future generations."
In future essays here I will be examining in more detail what is quite possibly the most important document ever devised by, for and on behalf of the human race and all that we stand for. Not the detail it deserves mind you, but at least I will be giving it more attention than I have in the past. It is a tragedy for us all that the masses flock around rock stars, athletes and movie and television stars, while most have never even heard of the Earth Charter, and that those few that have (such as myself) do not follow the progress of its fortunes as closely as a fan follows his favorite idol or sports team.
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