The Global Citizenship Conversation

Security, safety, enterprise, hard work, and responsibility are all things on which we all depend, and the systems that encourage and assure them are all products of individual, families, and a civil society.  Around the globe, a few civil societies have been very good at providing these things, and have grown in the capacity to deliver them over history.  Some have been better, worse, and better again.  There is evidence of the fact that democracies have been best at delivering these environments.  But since the dawn of time some tribal societies, and some benevolent monarchies have perhaps done a respectable job as well, and have delivered on some of these facets of the most beneficial society.     

Beneficial civil societies result from environments where individual safety, rights, and opportunity is nurtured, where education and public works maintain growth and commerce, and where a system of justice is used to maintain property rights and enterprise.  The human spirit thrives in this environment, as does peace and happiness.  And while we usually associate ALL these conditions with beneficial government, we must acknowledge that they are primarily and initially the result of the actions of one neighbor to another – they result from individual belief, family action, and the society that builds from that.  The descendants of those families associated with the Mayflower Compact will know what is meant by that.

It is important and essential to remember that civil society is not up to government alone, and that government often just the vessel from which citizen and societal belief is formalized.  There are three important adjuncts to that and to which this page is devoted. 

First is when citizens must accept their responsibility to themselves and to others (their neighbors) to be peaceful and make peace.  For a beneficial civil society to exist they must become responsible co-authors, or their bond of commitment is broken.  Citizens cannot decide to just sit back and become observers of what “they” (meaning our government) does, and whether they “like it” or not, they must also accept that it (our government) was created by either me or my family before me, and that I have a responsibility to participate and support that government.  This means that I am bound to both participate in discussions of our future together, but also to accept the consensus opinion of my neighbors even if I disagree!  Certainly when laws have been enacted, and courts have affirmed them, if I am loyal, then I will accept them. 

Second is that setting up more and more government agency in search of perfect justice can be counter-productive to everyone.  Turning to government as the sole and only keeper of our civil society is wrong.  It negates the importance of personal honesty and honor, and assumes that my neighbors must be watched in all they do as well.  This sets the stage for a society where someone may say: “I will never do anything immoral or illegal, but what is your definition of ‘immoral’ and ‘illegal’?”  It constructs a society where everyone challenges everything in court, and appeals everything to everyone and anyone.  It also sets the stage for a society with huge government, and with laws and agencies that try to define and control everything.  Allowing civil society – NOT government – to do much allows a more limited government to do more.

The third adjunct is that all of our prosperity, commerce, and knowledge has been built from a collection of humans in all countries of the world.  Indeed, there was a time in our history when ALL of our parents, grandparents, aunts, and uncles shared meals together, and sat around the same campfire “When the Sea Saved Humanity”. We must never forget that we ARE all one family in reality, and that we can only grow as a people if we recognize that.

So what do you think?  This page is devoted to the subject of building civil societies around the world that do not depend solely on government agency.  Ultimately, human prosperity will be best protected by broad and healthy social institutions, and not by big government.