Epicycles

Epicyclical Planning

By John Taylor; 2007 July 27

There is a saying among planning professionals that "crisis creates consent." The severity of climate crisis threatens our future on this planet and will soon create consent to changes that otherwise would be left on the drawing board indefinitely. This has emboldened me to contemplate the following ideas for a reordered world order.

In this series I have been proposing a world center, a universal capitol city called Terra City, to be built at the South Pole. Here a small but busy world government would coordinate the plans of seven much larger regional governments located in China and India (based on population) and the five continents (based on geography).

The architecture of Terra City is specially designed to fit an epicyclical schedule. This model would build and improve upon the present system of years and decades sponsored by the United Nations.

Many are familiar with the international years and decades sponsored by the United Nations. These laboriously negotiated plans draw attention to urgent needs and crises that transcend national borders. For example, 2003 was the "International Year of Freshwater," and 2006 was the "International Year of Deserts and Desertification." 2007 is one of the few years lately that does not have a theme. They also promote longer term project planning in the form of decades, such as the Literacy Decade (2003-2012), the International Decade for a Culture of Peace and Non-violence for the Children of the World, (2001-2011), the Second International Decade for the Eradication of Colonialism (2001-2010) and the Roll Back Malaria in Developing Countries, Particularly in Africa, Decade (2001-2010). Others decades are for the Eradication of Poverty (1997-2006), Human Rights Education (1995-2004) and the World's Indigenous People (1994-2004). There is also is the Third Decade to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination (1993-2003). They are all listed on the International Years site at: http://www.unac.org/en/news_events/un_days/international_years.asp

Unfortunately, like the United Nations in general, these years make little impression on the popular mind. There are many reasons that they have so little impact, they are incoherent, the years do not coordinate with one another, they are not written into a world constitution, and they rarely repeat or otherwise connect with everyday concerns.

The Earth Charter, which we looked at last time, is a major step towards clearing away the confusion. It is the closest thing we have to the kind of short, readable world constitution that would clarify universal values and unite the hearts and minds of all of us, no matter who we are or where we happen to live. Whatever agenda a world government adopts, it should connect closely with the earth charter. The epicyclical timetable I have in mind is designed to do just that.

An epicycle is an image borrowed from the natural self-recapitulating structure of atoms and the galaxy. For example, our Milky Way has stars orbiting in a spiral, our sun has planets orbiting it, and the larger planets have moons. Thus an epicyclical agenda would be a repeating schedule of ten or twelve topic areas covering the whole form of human polity, that is, each major need and sphere of concern of our time. This epicyclical schedule is inspired by the Zoroastrian calendar, which repeats the names of days within months, months within years, and years within longer groupings of years. Thus the agenda of our world parliament would orbit around polity that might be listed as follows:

One, Reflection and Enlightenment
Two, Unity in diversity.
Three, Parliament of Religions
Four, Parliament of Science and Technology
Five, Eliminating Prejudice
Six, Economic Intervention
Seven, Promotion of Education
Eight, Parliament of Media, Communications and Languages
Nine, Equality of the Sexes
Ten, Universal Peace and Ethics

Each month the world parliament at Terra City would go through this polity list, and these themes would also recapitulate yearly and by decade. This variation would satisfy the most jaded and experienced specialist while allowing the repetition necessary for full participation of all levels of society and, especially, the continual recruitment of each new generation of children and youth.

As mentioned, the architecture of TC is physically structured around this schedule. The central dome is surrounded by ancillary domes, one for each of the ten items of world polity. We have mentioned that the first dome to be built will probably be number four on the list, the Parliament of Science and Technology. That is because this entire initiative is a response the "crisis that creates consent" of climate change, caused by science misapplied and gone wild. As soon as TC is built, scientists will rapidly agree to world technical standards with zero ecological footprint, especially in travel and housing. But after the science parliament is built, the wisest course would be to erect parliamentary domes in the order listed above.