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WORLDGOV

World Government  
                  
H.G. Wells indulges in much wishful 
thinking about the prospects for 
a world government:          
                             
"Our true nationality is
 mankind."  p.1087           
                                               
Oddly enough (to my thinking)
Wells ties his hope for a 
world government into a hope     
for a new religious revival.     ONERELIGION
                                 

It's tempting to sneer at Wells' naivete: 
did he believe that the War to End All Wars might 
have really done it? That the League of Nations  
was really the ultimate hope of mankind? 
    
But Wells isn't quite that silly: 
                  
"History has never gone simply 
forward." p. 1091  

He's well aware that there may yet
be many set backs, many more wars,
and he doesn't believe in the
League, so much as hold out hope
for a successor (as the US
Constitution followed the Articles
of Confederation) A "world league
of men".
                         
Also: "It may well be
that several partial leagues may
precede any world league.  The
common misfortunes and urgent
common needs of Europe and Asia
may be more efficacious in bringing
the European and Asiastic states
to reason and a sort of unity,
than the mere intellectual and          This is not so very far      
sentimental ties of the United          from the current state         
States and Great Britain and            of the world.               (5/6/92)
France."  p. 1091 


And I can't help but be impressed 
with the audacity of Well's project.
I gather that his _Outline_ is really
the first attempt at a World History. 
He attempted it not just because he 
thought it was a neat project, but 
because he thought of it as a first step 
toward global unification.               
                          
"There can be no peace now, we
realize, but a common peace in all
the world; no prosperity but a
general prosperity.  But _there can
no common peace and prosperity
without common historical ideas._" p.vi 
                                        
There's the goal, stated right up
front, right out in the open:
                                                        
To conquer the world with a book.                       "break some necks
                                                        for me." ? 
I'm almost tempted to join in on his
project.  Perhaps a new set of
footnotes to the _Outline_, and a
supplement bringing it up to date.
             
But still, I can't help reject this
obssession with unification:
                                 
       One world,                
       One religion,             
       One neck.                 

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