There is evidence that long, long ago this country was divided up into tiny
villages, tribes or settlements, each with it’s own fort for protection. Over
many years, as they learned the lessons of ‘safety in numbers’, and that by
'working together' they could achieve more. By fair means or foul they merged
into mini Kingdoms, until, eventually, after many wars, they united under one
King and became the United Kingdom. The armed forces were amalgamated
into the British Armed Forces. We are now part of the European Union.
Amalgamation with member armed forces is long over due. It would be inconceivable
that member countries of the EU would declare war on one another so the next
logical step would be to hand over control of the various
armed forces to the European government with a guarantee of protection to
members.
Vision for the future it may be but as we slowly wake up to the Global Village.
The USSR is no longer the big, bad, bogeyman, China is coming on board.
Multi-national commerce, concern for global warming and the ease of travel are all shrinking the
world. We need to get away from tribalism that still exists. We need to get
away from the ‘little Englander’ attitude. Let’s make Nationalism as unacceptable
as Raceism. Let’s embrace the EU, and make it work and expand. We need
to encourage other continental alliances. We need to make the United Nations work.
The trouble is that the politicians are too fond of saying “We will
sign up to it if it is right for Britain”. Two too many words. It should be “We will
sign up to if it is right”.
What we should be aiming for is ‘World Government’. As far back as 400
BCE, Socrates announced, “I am not an Athenian, I am not a Greek, but a
citizen of the world.
Thomas Paine, son of a Quaker, who wrote ‘The Rights of Man’ and ‘The Age
of Reason’, and was at one time a revenue officer at Grampound, here in Cornwall,
wrote over 200 years ago, “The World is my country, all mankind
are my brethren, and my religion is to do good.”
We should be citizens of the world and aiming for all the armed forces to come under the control of a
world government. National armies would be a thing of the past. There would
been no wars. Let us start shaping the future. Let us start now - today.