As an immigrant to America, I have enjoyed many 4th of July celebrations over the years. Given the Brexit vote, I woke up today wondering though what it means for a nation to be independent in the world we live in. All the big problems we face as humanity such as climate change, infectious diseases, taxation of multinational corporations are global problems. America can’t solve any of these problems by itself. Neither can any other nation. What we really need is a declaration of In-TER-dependence.
Ideally, I think such a declaration would not be signed by traditional nation states but by regions. Why? Because I believe that nation states themselves and the organizations based on them such as the UN and the EU are too closely associated with industrial society. If you read Continuations frequently you know that I am convinced we are entering a new period that will need to be defined by knowledge more than by capital (more about this in my draft book World After Capital).
What would a Declaration of Interdependence look like? I think it could be modeled after the Declaration of Independence. After a brief introduction referring to the global problems we face it could have a preamble that asserts our common humanity. That “all humans are created equal” and have certain inalienable rights. Following that could be an indictment of what industrial capitalism and existing nation states have committed and omitted in their treatment of humanity. This is tricky and I am sure would result in a lot of spirited debate. For instance, I believe firmly in markets for goods and services for which prices can exist.
The next section is where it gets really hard. The conclusion of the Declaration of Independence calls for an independent government which resulted in the Revolutionary War. It would be terrible if regions declaring Interdependence resulted in civil wars. Here I am stumped and maybe downright fearful. Agreeing to collaborate on the big human issues is meaningless if it is outside of regions’ power to act. But asserting that power relative to the surrounding nations is a provocative step.
So while I don’t know how to get there, I still believe that flushing out a version of Interdependence is crucially important for humanity. I should also point out that mine is not vision of some all powerful world government. Rather a federation of regions with as little as possible handled at the Federal level.
P.S Addressing the future of the nation state is a big missing feature of my draft book World After Capital (as has been pointed out by several commenters). I am sure other people have thought more about this problem than I have. So I would be grateful for any reading suggestions. Especially ones that address how we could get to a better global state of Interdependence.
