The Death of All Countries, The Birth of a World
On 23 June 2016 my cultural identity was destroyed. Growing up in Britain in a multicultural society I’ve led a life of being surrounded by different languages, skin colours, accents, music, food and culture. A place where Italians, Spaniards, French, Polish, Romanians, Slovakians, Czechs, Indians, Pakistanis, Africans, and Asians, as well as a whole range of people of other nationalities live together. People who have had the bravery to move to another country and start a new life for themselves and in the process enrich the country with their unique cultures, perspectives, hard work, and kindness.
These are my friends, my colleagues, and my neighbours.
I grew up British and always identified myself as such. All my ancestors as far as I know were British. That ended on 23 June 2016 when the UK voted to leave the European Union. On that day my British identify died.
I thought we were better than this. I was wrong.
It was a shock. A very narrow result that surprised and saddened many of us here in Britain and in mainland Europe. A result that was down to many factors, some unknown, but many others known. I won’t go into analysing it in depth here as I have a far greater point to make.
Regardless of the cause of this result it has had massive ramifications for our country and people, but also personally. I can no longer think of myself as British. My country of birth and heritage, my cultural identify, went through a kind of death and then rebirth into something far more important and far greater.
How many of us in this world identify ourselves based on our culture and/or nationality? The answer is the vast majority of people do so. I used to do so too. This is where we have a global problem.
Currently there are around 196 recognised countries in the world. That’s 196 different nationalities and cultures. What I’m about to say might shock you at first but I will elaborate further: I want the number of countries in the world to be 0. Yes zero. None. No countries.
Let me be clear I’m not talking about physically destroying anything, I’m talking about the death of limiting national identities. I’m talking about a global coming together as a whole world. I’m talking about a global identity. I’m not talking about erasing cultures. On the contrary I am talking about the world being completely free. To have regions instead of countries. To have the freedom of movement that does not currently exist. To have one global flag. To be a whole humanity instead of a divided one.
Let us for a moment peer back into the past so that we might bring some relevant wisdom to the fore.
Every war ever fought has been between one nation and another. Is war a human instinct, or is war a failure of identity? I would argue war is a direct failure to establish a common global identity. It’s an us versus them mentality. An othering of identify and nations. And out of this grows hatred, anger, disgust, and war.
This is the same problem that the Brexit campaign exploited to win the EU referendum vote. They turned our European friends into quasi-enemies in the eyes of half the voters. They managed to take our freedoms away and in the process made the world less free.
Isn’t it sad that a bird is more free than a human in this world. If I was not British and I wanted to live in the UK, I’d have to pay thousands of pounds on a visa and also pass a points-based system that would count how valuable I am in the eyes of the UK government.
If I was a bird I’d just fly over the ocean, land, and build a nest. No one would say a word about this. It’s natural. Yet if you are a human you don’t have that freedom right now. And how sad, how extremely sad that as a human we can’t go anywhere we want in our world and plant roots.
This Earth, this world, is our home. We cannot allow it to become a fragmentary prison of our own failure to identify as one species.
And let us not stop there. Let us look at the other unnecessary sufferings we inflict on our fellow humans that could be solved with a shift in our global identity. Let us look at the deaths that could be prevented. Let us look at the suffering that could and should be eased.
Universal Healthcare
I’m going to start with the one area that after war, famine, and abuse, is the most pervasive source of unnecessary suffering. That of a lack of healthcare.
In the UK we are lucky enough to have a national healthcare system that provides universal healthcare. So if I fell ill tomorrow I know I can go to a hospital, receive whatever treatment I need, and never have to pay a penny in medical bills. I don’t have to worry about what would happen in that eventuality. I don’t need to worry about how I’d pay just to stay alive in the event of a medical emergency.
The problem is that the vast majority of the world do have to worry. They have to either take out expensive insurance, or in the case of having no insurance, they face getting into extraordinary debt just to save themselves or their loved ones in a medical emergency. How many people have died because of not being able to afford healthcare? And how many have been put into poverty just to save their own life?
If anything has highlighted this global problem it’s the Covid pandemic. I’ve read many articles online of people in India and other countries who have had to get into extreme debt just to afford to pay for healthcare bills for their loved ones.
And even in the USA, one of the richest countries in the world, the supposed democratic champion of the world, they have no universal healthcare system. This is a massive global failure of priorities and identify.
This is truly heartbreaking. Do we want to be a world where someone has to put themselves into debt just to help their family to live with medical treatment?
Do we want to live in a world where already seriously ill people have to worry about the debt they face rather than being able to focus on healing and recovery? A world where their relatives, who are already suffering greatly by witnessing the illness and suffering of their loved one, are terrified at the thought of finding the money to save them.
It doesn’t have to be this way.
The truth is we have enough wealth in the world to give everyone universal healthcare; every single person on this planet.
We could prevent billions of people from needless future suffering if only we worked as one global species, one world, one giant country called the Earth. All we have to do is come together and decide to do it.
We when decide to do things as a species we are remarkable good at achieving them. We have flown into space, we have landed on the Moon, we have sent robotic vehicles to Mars and other planets. We have discovered cures for diseases. We have created devices to instantly communicate with each other globally. We have achieved things that would seem like miracles to our ancient ancestors. All of these achievements started with ideas and people who worked for what they believed was possible.
Several countries have successful universal healthcare that has lasted for many decades. There is literally nothing but ideology and identity itself that is stopping the world from implementing this on a global scale.
If we are all ambitious enough we can shift who we are as a species and work together to make life better for all on this planet.
We can choose to make universal healthcare a global right for every human.
We can stop millions dying needlessly.
Universal Salary
By a universal salary I’m not talking about communism as that doesn’t work. I’m talking about a system where the poorest are taken care of and everyone can earn as much money as they want. A system whereby we have a minimum basic wage paid to all people in the world so that they can survive and not live in poverty. So that people can afford a home, heating, healthy food, clothing, and other essential costs. And not have to suffer worrying about how they will feed or clothe themselves, or how they will stay warm during the winter. No human should ever have to struggle that way. To struggle that way is a death of happiness and life.
If we distributed out wealth globally we could stop all poverty.
This isn’t some idealistic notion, it’s a fact. If we took our global wealth and distributed it globally then every human on this planet could live a happy and dignified and healthy life.
If we want a peaceful world where we as one human species can be free and live well together then we need to grow and change who we are as an entire world. A big part of this is redistributing wealth in a global way.
Millions die each year because they have no food, no clean water, no proper healthcare, no protection from diseases, and no adequate education.
Signs we are Heading in the Right Direction
I want now to offer some signs of great hope that we might be heading towards a better global future. The first signs of which are the internet and world wide web. Never in the history of humanity have all nations been linked together to allow easy and instant communication before the internet and world wide web were invented.
The internet has created for the world one global identity. It has transcended borders and nations. Yes some nations have tried to control access to the internet with the use of firewalls. But nothing can stop anyone in the world from using the web to communicate due to its unique structure. The internet is a sign of what the world could be like in the future. A world where everyone takes on a global identity. Where together we can unite to choose a different path for humanity.
The internet is the start of better ideas. Of a want for a better global society.
We’ve already seen the power of the internet. People now in any part of the world can highlight injustices in real time. Whether that’s the assault of innocent people by corrupt police officers, or the crackdown of democratic protestors by authoritarian regimes.
We as a global species can show outrage and demand change. We can demand better.
The internet, and the invention of the smartphone, have created and grown this ability.
The internet and world are becoming more linked and more smart. Now we have smart TVs, smartwatches, smartphones, even a smart kettle and oven. The trend in the world is for more intelligence and connectivity. This is a wonderful thing as it shows that this world is heading to a super-connected state. This can only lead to a heightened global identity and eventually a breakdown of barriers.
The Birth of a New World
To conclude, I will summarise my vision for a better world. A world where from the death of nations comes the birth of a global humanity.
I want a world where:
1. We no longer have countries and instead shift our identity to see ourselves as one global nation.
2. We have the freedom to live anywhere on the planet.
3. We have universal healthcare globally so every person never has to worry about paying for healthcare costs ever again.
4. We have a universal basic income for every person so that no matter each person’s circumstances they can meet their basic needs.
