From: gary@isis.cgd.ucar.edu (Gary Strand)
Subject: Re: WORLD GOVERNMENT
Organization: Climate and Global Dynamics Division/NCAR, Boulder, CO
Date: Mon, 17 Aug 1992 05:06:34 GMT

sm> Stephen McIntyre
gs> Gary Strand 

sm> But the case has not been made yet against a WG; no one ever implied that
sm> only one person rule the WG.

  What happens if someone does? That kind of power is extremely attractive to
  megalomaniacs; the more power, the more they hunger for it. That's why a
  crappy job like US president has some of these folks doing and saying just
  about anything for a shot at it. It's like a drug. Imagine -- control over
  the *entire* world. Makes Alexander, Caesar, Genghis Khan, Hitler, Stalin
  et.al. look like pikers.

gs> BTW, you still haven't said if the WG Army will have nuclear weapons.

sm> What use would they have for nukes? I don't think they would be necessary.

  Do you know how *easy* it is to make them? One, properly placed, would be
  all it would take to eradicate the HQ of this WG of yours. As you may know,
  there are already thousands of them out there, some from the XUSSR going
  places where we really don't want them to go, if the rumors are true. It
  wouldn't take much to hide a few here, a few there, and have the WG by its
  balls when it disarms everyone else, including itself.

sm> As for absolute power, what country would be crazy enough to place total-
sm> itarian authority in the hands of a general (or whatever leader)?

gs> You're kidding, right? Well, Weimar Germany, for one. They don't have to
gs> vote the guy in, he just takes power.

sm> Since when has Weimar Germany returned to this earth?

  The story is that even a supposedly democratic country can give a man like 
  Hitler enough power that he can take the rest relatively easily. You keep
  forgetting that for the majority of the world, might makes right. You have
  to eliminate this notion from the minds of just about everyone. Not at all
  an easy task, since it's been the predominant form of political thought
  for a few thousand years, so far.

gs> I have yet to see a WG advocate come up with a reasonable method of resol-
gs> ving these inevitable conflicts that doesn't carry the danger of imposi-
gs> tion of drastic anti-freedom measures and institutions.

sm> That is a problem-- one that should be adressed if and when a WG is formed.

  As William Starr said, it would be better to take care of this first.

gs> Why is it, then, that we're constantly willing to go to war over these
gs> resources that we already control? I wasn't aware Japan had much in the
gs> way of resources.

sm> What the govt. is willing to do is protect those resources already at its
sm> disposal. And when last, since WW II, has Japan been at war over resources?

  They haven't had to. We've done it for them.

gs> I wasn't aware democracy was something a nation could be coerced into. Has
gs> there ever been a nation that was coerced into democracy, or did it arise
gs> from within?

sm> [I]t was world economic pressure that pushed S. Africa into negotiating
sm> with the ANC.

  I doubt that. I suspect it was the realization that, as I said, one cannot
  have 5 million controlling 28 million indefinitely. The economic pressure
  played (at best) a tiny role.


--
Gary Strand                      Opinions stated herein are mine alone and are
strandwg@ncar.ucar.edu            not representative of NCAR, UCAR, or the NSF
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