We shape the world and the world shapes us.
Present Nation States are essentially contradictions, both
in terms of limit, and in terms of scale. They are “too small”
to be effective members of an urgently needed new system
of world governance—a kind of United States of Planet Earth—
free of the ravages of empire, and the arbitrary violence
of anarchy. At the same time, they are “too big” to allow
the natural, self-organizing intelligence of local
self-governance to really flower at the bioregional level.
Both the Information and New Energy Revolutions strain
against these walls of contradictions imposed by current
outmoded modes of governance, and do so in fascinating
and remarkable ways. On the one hand, we have the rise
of universal digital media evolving as a living web of
intelligence which can only function effectively without
borders. On the other hand, we have the complementary
decentralized nature of renewables which defies the
mega-mindset of (too) big government. What has been
said about government here applies equally well to
economies. That is because the centralization of
corporate wealth necessitates a parallel centralization
of military power in order to both generate and to hold
onto this wealth. Indeed, corporate wealth and military
power have become the two jaws of vise now screwing
down on this great revolutionary promise, as they at
the same time with a perfected Hollywood élan project
the image of promotion and protection. What this kind
of brutish-brain view of the world fails to see, however,
is that the ideas of Freedom and Democracy are not
subject to this kind of attempted control by force,
while at the same time the twin revolutions of
information and new energy in a natural, organic way,
are both based on and greatly support these very
same two essential ideas of our time, Freedom
and Democracy.