Parliament
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This posting on sovereignty is a slightly condensed version of a new Talking Points page. This is an important topic in these times of unsettling events in many areas. We the people have the right to direct our government and how it functions; however, what is our recourse when government appears unable to deal with current events? How can we incorporate revelations about spiritual reality into our societal interactions, help everyone to become empowered, and participate in society?
While in England June 2015, we spent a few nights at Runnymede on the Themes, which is within walking distance of where the Magna Carta was signed that same month exactly 800 years previously. (When reservations were made we had no idea of the significance of its location.) In that unremarkable field, today a cow pasture, the concept of sovereignty of the people was given birth as a result of actions by a group of barons against King John. Growth of the idea of sovereignty of the people was gradual and marked by uneven progress, but this was an historic turning point in the history of government on Earth, when it started moving away from absolute monarchs, toward something more representative of the people’s will.
Representative government such as ours is the best form of government available to evolutionary beings.[1] Having government answerable to the people is the only way to govern because this allows citizens to elect their representatives at all levels of government. When voters are educated and involved in the process, this works quite well. However, there are potential dangers with this system; it may glorify mediocrity, ignorant rulers might be chosen, it may have a majority of uneducated and indolent citizens, and also become slavery to public opinion instead of well-informed reason.[2] Our government has certainly been influenced by these democracy destroying effects.
Our form of government has evolved over the years resulting in the American democracy which has been in place for over 230 years. While it functioned well in the past, it is now fraying around the edges. We need to discover and implement something better.
Mother Earth has inherited a patchwork system of nation-states each claiming absolute sovereignty over territory, even extending out into the surrounding ocean and sky above. Borders of each nation are sometimes arbitrary, subject to change; except for island nations, there is no obvious way to separate one from another. Photos of our beautiful blue orb from space show no national boundaries, only a blue marble apparently isolated in space.
Each nation claims the right to do whatever it wants to its citizens and environment. Various nations are constantly competing on many levels; the United Nations is able to deal with many issues but unable to prevent wars or persuade powerful nations to refrain from harming its own citizens or environment. This is because it has no sovereign authority; it must instead deal with each nation claiming total sovereignty. Environmental issues, especially groundwater and atmosphere, expand to affect other nations who generally can do nothing against pollution coming in by water and air.
Sovereignty is defined as the supreme political authority.[3] On Earth sovereignty resides in each nation, and its citizens. This patchwork system is unable to cope with problems arising from competing interests of the various nations.
As long as nations claim absolute sovereignty over their territory, it will be impossible to have peace on Earth. People of Earth must rise up and assert true sovereignty, that of all citizens of this planet, this beautiful blue sphere in space. As long as nations cling to the fiction of national sovereignty there will be no peace on planet Earth. People of our planet have to endure destructive wars which are the direct consequence of this false notion of national sovereignty. You cannot prevent nations going to war as long as they remain infected with the delusional virus of national sovereignty. (Urantia Book, 1489.1) While it may appear war is a disease on our planet, that is not the case; war is a symptom of the virus of national sovereignty.[4]
With scientific progress, wars are going to become more and more devastating until they become almost racially suicidal. (Urantia Book, 1490.3) Having atom bombs, missiles, chemical, and biological weapons of mass destruction, we have arrived at the point where wars are truly suicidal. It is imperative we find a way to end “the delusional virus of national sovereignty” before the next widespread war. Future of life on our planet is at stake.
Our planet is one complete heavenly body; arbitrary lines drawn on paper have no validity other than historical precedent. When one segment of society, one nation, claims to formulate laws and regulations without considering global reality, that nation is irresponsible. Currently one nation can pollute the air or water going into another and be restrained only by unenforceable regulations. “Democracy is a sham unless it is world democracy.”[5]
The only legitimate sovereignty is that of all people of Earth; anything else is fiction.[6] We are one Earth, one beautiful blue marble in space, one people; every thinking mortal is equally indwelt by a fragment of God. Arbitrarily selecting one group of humans and declaring they can decide for themselves how to construct their government while at the same time ignoring the rest of humanity is an insult to reason.
There are only two levels of genuine sovereignty; first, the individual who has spiritual free will to make personal decisions. The second level is that of all humanity, there are no intervening levels.[7]
It will require government of all mankind to solve problems of all mankind. Nothing short of this can possibly work.[8] We have seen this on a smaller scale; in America individual states gave up their sovereignty to the United States government. Also, England, Scotland and Wales fought many wars until they gave their sovereignty to the United Kingdom.[9]
The best political system cannot be enacted until we have intelligence, spiritual receptivity, discipline, and wisdom to properly implement it and persevere in its operation. Now is the time to seek God’s will in creating a better political system for our planet, assist global political evolution; we need Earth Federation.
Earth Federation is a systematic structure for a world government, complete with a ratified and amended constitution, and a procedure for implementation. Nations can only enter this Federation after a majority of its citizens have voted to request it; their entry will become final when the nation has disbanded its military, given Earth Federation half of the money thus saved, and destroyed all weapons of mass destruction.
Peace will not come to Urantia until every so-called sovereign nation surrenders its power to make war into the hands of a representative government of all mankind. Political sovereignty is innate with the peoples of the world. When all the peoples of Urantia create a world government, they have the right and the power to make such a government SOVEREIGN; and when such a representative or democratic world power controls the world’s land, air, and naval forces, peace on earth and good will among men can prevail — but not until then. (Urantia Book, 1489.3)
Government of All Mankind is the next logical step in political evolution. Only such a government with global sovereignty has any chance to bring warring nations together in peace and brotherhood. Sometime the supernational sovereignty of the planetary government of mankind will be similarly created by nations for their own benefit and for the benefit of all men. (Urantia Book, 1490.1) This will happen and we must work to realize Earth Federation; the only other option is to wait for another world war which would probably bring global annihilation of all life.
When government becomes unable to deal with current events people must become aware of the situation, examine various possibilities, then vote for responsible, able, and experienced public officials; the duty of citizenship means citizens must wisely exercise their sovereignty. It is also the duty, even the responsibility, of those given an advanced revelation such as The Urantia Book to live these teachings. This is especially true of the realization everyone equally has a spark of God within, we are all sisters and brothers; all of our interpersonal relationships need to be infused with this truth.
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The Urantia Book, 517.5, this refers to the page.paragraph of the one column edition. All references are to The Urantia Book unless otherwise noted. 517.5 ↑
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801.13 – 801.18 ↑
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Third College Edition Webster’s New World Dictionary of American English, Victoria Neufeldt and David B. Guralnik eds., Webster’s New World, Cleveland and New York, 1988, p 1283 ↑
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1491.1 ↑
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“World Revolution Through World Law, Basic Documents of the Emerging Earth Federation;” Edited with an introduction and other writings by Glen T. Martin, Institute for Economic Democracy Publisher, Sun City, AZ, 2006, p 181 ↑
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Martin, p 66 ↑
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1487.9 ↑
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1490.5 ↑
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1490.6 ↑