People without Borders

Introducing People Without Borders

By John Taylor; 2009 Oct 07, Mashiyyat 11, 166 BE

Our current essay series is about the monetary, economic and financial aspects of Comenian governance and its immediate outcome: hillside infrastructure. Over the past few days, however, I have been moved to begin a book proposal for publishers. The economic discussion takes place about three quarters of the way through the book.

Over the coming year I plan to submit plans for a book that would be based on essays appearing daily on this blog since the end of June to various publishing houses simultaneously. If no publisher takes it up, the following year I will publish it myself through lulu.com. As an exercise, I will also publish some short booklets through Lulu, if only to familiarize myself with the publishing end of the writing process, by far the most neglected area for me.

During this time I will also set up a separate blog and website for the book, whose latest title is "People without Borders;" here I will include later revisions, sample chapters and promotional and supplemental material. I do not plan on dropping the Badi' Blog, however; it has been and will remain the depository of all my first drafts and writing digressions. For those still on the Badi' mailing list, however, please be aware that most of the time a more refined version of the original mail out is posted on the Badi' Blog.

The following essay is introductory material for the book proposal; it will probably end up as part of the introduction or an early chapter in People Without Borders.

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People Without Borders

When the continents unite to form a tripartite world government based upon the Comenian model, the very nature of our physical and social infrastructure will be the first to change. How? First, let us briefly summarize what is meant by a Comenian world government.

John Amos Comenius described in Panorthosia a world republic that is not merely political, or merely religious, or merely scientific, but a carefully balanced product of the best that all three can offer. This has many implications, but one of the most obvious is how it would change the nature of democracy.

Instead of "one man, one vote," in this electoral system every individual gets three votes in three ongoing election cycles, each respectively ending in a particular world institution. This franchise confers one vote as a believer, one as a worker and one as a citizen. As a believer, one elects members of affiliated interfaith bodies at every level, from familial and neighbourhood levels right up to a continental body and finally a world parliament of religions. The same applies for votes as workers and citizens. As tradespersons, professionals, experts and teachers we will elect various affiliated scientific and professional bodies leading from the local to the neighbourhood, the continental and world levels. The result is a central scientific regulatory body combined with a world educational parliament whose chief mandate is to organize and run the press and the Internet. In the same way, citizens elect political bodies devoted to protecting the peace at every level, again ending in a world political parliament.

The combination of all three in a single comprehensive institution is what we call a Comenian world government. In combination, the three parliaments on the intercontinental level comprise the first institution in history with a comprehensive mandate to oversee the progress of all humans, comprehensively, everywhere on the planet.

No doubt in the short term this republic will have its hands full resolving any number of territorial disputes and ethnic conflicts. At the same time, nature itself is crying out for succour. Who can count the urgent environmental crises it would have to address right away? They include saving our dying oceans, cleaning the atmosphere, preventing a global climate meltdown, and so forth.

However, the main reason for forming this comprehensive planetary government in the first place is temporal. True, lesser institutions have neglected whatever goes beyond national borders, but most seriously, they have persistently ignored the long-term needs of humanity. There is nobody to represent issues concerning the vast majority of humans, future generations still unborn. The selection process of the Comenian republic is designed to raise up leaders with the courage, foresight and wisdom to address long-term considerations at the same time that they deal with those banging at the door.

In People Without Borders I am arguing that the Comenian republic should plan for both now and the future at the same time by devising and testing an open building code. This building code is the basis of a style of meta-architecture that I call Hillside Housing. A building code may sound like a strange place for a government to begin, but this is no ordinary government.

A conventional government is primarily political and legalistic in its approach. It solves problems by making up or referring to a constitution, legislating general laws and funding programs to implement decisions. In addition, a building code is essentially a set of laws and parameters for building projects. It starts off as an ordinary legal document that politicians, lawyers and law enforcement officials can implement. However, a Comenian government is capable of far more than that.

The Comenian government would first send the building code to its scientific and educational wing. This institution would set up an open systems approach for affiliate bodies at every level, designed and vetted by the best scientists and educators in the world. They would feed the actual experience of dwellers in each hillside development back into the legislative process, effectively making each neighbourhood into a research laboratory for the building code. Once a given design is shown to be efficient, environmentally friendly and economically viable, it passes on to the local franchise of the interfaith parliament. They take into account eternal, artistic values, such as whether a design has recreational value, and promotes morality, happiness and beauty. Finally, the political affiliate evaluates for safety and legal concerns of a given design.

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