Building a Just World Order: Alfred de Zayas, author. A book review.

 

What comes first?  Massive institutional change required to create a just world order, or the massive popular support required to make that institutional change possible - and then stick?

From my work over the last 4.5 decades on human rights, global health, the UN Charter, then 4 years (1998 – 2002) as Issues Director for the World Federalist Association in WDC – it appears little has changed to achieve a global democratic solution.  I am certain that solving this problem will require a reversal of the order our movement has always taken.  I urged WFA’s leadership on this with the release of each of three reports from President Bill Clinton’s bi-partisan Presidential Commission on National Security in the 21^st Century.  His commission started in 1999 and its third and final report was released March 2001.    Unfortunately, both WFA’s leadership and the Bush administration ignored its findings and clear warnings.  WFA understandably continued to advocate for the ICC - because President Bush removed the US from it his first day in office.   WFA ignored the warnings, while the Bush Administration also ignored it, then started planning for the invasion of Iraq using the fear of its possession of nuclear, bio, and chem WMD.  Strategically, his Administration was committed to positioning US military power in the heart of Middle-East oil.  To Al Qaida, that was a gift that keeps on giving.

After 9-11, 2001 WFA had the perfect excuse to advocate for ‘world law’ instead of a ‘world war’ against terrorism, a tactic that could never be defeated.  Oddly, WFA’s new leadership decided that would not be a good path and instead prioritized the environment.  Later, around 2002 WFA went broke  -having made virtually no progress in advancing global governance, nuclear disarmament, or US military cuts.  A few years later WFA was rebirthed as Citizens for Global Solutions (CGS) thanks to the economic blessings from many highly intellectual minds and progressive pocketbooks. 

My experience with WFA decades ago convinced me that it had two fundamental weaknesses. One was not walking its talk of changing the international system and creating stronger world institutions. Instead the focus was on controlling nuclear weapons, achieving disarmament, and attempting to build some legal structures necessary to prevent war.  Important objectives...but entirely inconsistent with the direction that the world, American minds, and dual-use technologies were heading. 

Now, with hyper political polarization in the US - largely driven by Truth decay and social media, while over 20 other democracies back slid into populists’ movements to seek strong leaders - us globalists push the cart from behind with the horse.   

Important question!  Why do you believe people in democracies clamor for strong leaders?  A simple partial answer exists, yet I’ve not heard any pundit make it.  Here it is - powerful and ignorant minds persist in believing globally interdependent disruptive forces can be stopped or reduced by nations based on independent national and department decisions.  “Delusion” is the word Albert Eintein calls this fantasy if independence.  Simply because everything in the known universe is connected, interdependent, and vulnerable. And only a global effort can remedy this. Not walls, powerful militaries, prosperous economies, strong leaders, or prayers. 

What’s needed first, is a vast majority of the world's population generating the political will needed to prevent these disruptive forces from leaving their place of origin- then ignoring map lines.  The solution must first begin in every local community globally.  Starting with primary health, basic education, clean water, safe sanitation, and other basics – simply so people have the energy and will to unite.  Then take coordinated actions in transforming our existing failed UN global architecture.  A system and structures that have always put the protection of national sovereignty and wealth  - above the protection of human rights and nature.

It is difficult to persuade people to support fundamental changes in international institutions when their immediate concerns are child survival and family protection. With community security next.  Certainly, anyone can see that it is particularly difficult to persuade nations to surrender or substantially reduce military capabilities when they do not trust one another - and believe their own security may depend upon maintaining them.

If we are serious about transforming the existing system – we must reverse the sequence.

Rather than asking people to reform the UN first -  so it can solve the world’s problems, we must first demonstrate that international cooperation can help solve the life and death problems most people experience every day.  Even when there are no wars.

This means beginning with the fundamentals of human well-being: health and education.  And by health, it means health in its broadest sense.  Health of the mind, body, and spirit; family; community; environment; government; and economy. These systems are not independent. They irreversibly interconnected.  And a weakness in one increasingly produces weakness in the others.

Those who engineer the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights understood this wisdom. But the powers then rejected any need for power to enforce them.  Thus, we have the insanity of the world we see today.  And we must admit that the 30 basic rights within the UDHR will never be enforced by laws.  But most of these basic rights can be purchased!   And the must be urgently- to avert catastrophic global consequences within all nations.  Failing Covid supply chains and closing the strait of Hormuz were minor disruptions to what’s possible if current wars expand or AI gets out of control.

In June 2023, Bank of America Chair & CEO, Brian Moynihan spoke on the state of the economy, the U.S. financial system, and capitalism. He said, ‘the SDGs will cost approximately’ “$6 trillion annually”. “Governments are too debt burdened” and “charity is insufficient”. “Business leaders” “like the oil companies” and others must step up and prioritize a balancing of ‘short-term gains’ with ‘long term interests’. ‘Profits must be good for business and society all the way down to the community level’. “Capitalism” “requires a greater purpose than making more profit.” Neither capitalism or profit making is sustainable without these SDG goals being achieved.'  C-span covered this interview hosted by the City Club of Cleveland. Program ID: 529044-1 https://www.c-span.org/video/?529044-1/bank-america-ceo-remarks-city-club-cleveland

Never before has humanity had so much wealth.  Cost is not the issue.  The issue is the sanity of the three progressive movements (Peace, Environment, and social/economic Justice), and the thousands of organizations within each, not forming a Movement of Movements (a MoM).  For at least 5 decades they have been competing with each other for money, active members, media attention, and time with key policy makers.  While conservatives have united while teasing us with distractions - weakening us further.

The UN 17 Sustainable Development Goals provide an extraordinary framework for achievement of purpose.  The health of people, nature, government, and the global economy.  They translate the broad aspirations of human rights and sustainable development into concrete areas of human need. The SDGs themselves were designed as a comprehensive, integrated, holistic, and syncretistic agenda in which economic, social and environmental objectives are indivisible, not individually prioritized.

Consider a different theory of change: Meet basic human needs → improve the health and security of communities → build trust in cooperation → create public enthusiasm for solving shared problems → generate the political will for institutional reform → strengthen the international system.

That sequence is fundamentally different.  Beginning with institutional reform and hoping that improved institutions will eventually produce healthier societies is pie in the sky- and you all know it.  There’s a term the defines doing the same thing over and over again, expecting a different result.  This means I’m insane believing progressives will ever unite.  Over the last few years, I repeatedly invited major globally focused organizations and institutions to take up this challenge.  Rotary International, Bahais, Citizens for Global Solutions, Charter for Compassion, I AM Humanity, United Nations Association...(over a hundred others) but each progressive organization’s mission bubble of was impenetrable. Each had a vital and important mission with a global vision, but none picked up the MoM flag.  

Time is running out.  The evolution of technology (now with exponential growth on top of exponential growth), accelerating far beyond our mind’s linear capacity for thinking (now with the decline of rational thinking), plus our former flatlined capacity for government change – now going backwards – the evolution of war, weapon systems, government debt, environmental extremes, and the capacity of new, cheap, and unprecedented ease of developing bioweapons using AI... nuclear disarmament should be the least of our worries.

The moral and practical case for eliminating nuclear weapons is overwhelming. But expecting nations to disarm while international tensions are rising—and while powerful nations continue to distrust one another – develop new weapon systems – during a time of enormous political challenges... OMG.

I became a world federalist after reading Emery Reves’ 1945 book ‘Anatomy of Peace’.  As a biologist I trust fundamental principles. Rarely the human principles that ignore them.

“Once the mechanics and the fundamental causes of wars – of all wars – are realized, the futility and childishness of the passionate debates about armament and disarmament must be apparent to all.  If human society were organized so that relations between groups and units in contact were regulated by democratically controlled law and legal institutions, then modern science could go ahead, devise and produce the most devastating weapons, and there would be no war.  But if we allow sovereign rights to reside in the separate units and groups without regulating their relations by law, then we can prohibit every weapon, even a penknife, and people will beat out each other’s brains with clubs.”  Emery Reves, The Anatomy of Peace, 1945

“The main focus of international attention must move beyond the symptoms of weapons proliferation to its causes.  It may seem easier to control supply, yet it is demand that raises the tide of proliferation.”   Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists for Jan-Feb 1999, p. 76, "Book Note" on Kosta Tsipis and Philip Morrison's book, "Reason Enough for Hope."

Disarmament requires trust. Trust requires security. Security requires confidence that one’s basic needs and interests will not be abandoned. And confidence is difficult to create among populations experiencing poverty, poor health, inadequate education, environmental degradation and political instability.  In any civilization the prioritization of maternal and child health and survival must be a foundational priority.

This is particularly important in an era of truth decay, declining trust, indebted budgets, and rising tensions among powerful nations. Information itself has become a battleground. Populations are increasingly exposed to competing narratives, misinformation and political polarization. Under those circumstances, asking nations to make historically unprecedented concessions in their security policies becomes extraordinarily difficult.  Therefore, we must make the case for international cooperation in a different way.

A united world once eradicated smallpox.  A simple virus that killed more people in the last century than all the wars, revolutions, and genocides combined.   Today any virus can be weaponization to make smallpox seem the common cold.

Health for all, nature, and the global economy will make stronger families and sustainable communities.  This would make institutions trustworthy instead of an abstract global ideal.  It’s an inspiring vision that is possible through international cooperation, coordination, and the human caring that is in the very DNA of our global social species.

Something the ideology of politics, national sovereignty, and the extremely wealthy have resisted in solving human problems first.  This is what’s been missing in UN reform.

De Zayas was right regarding the international system needing substantial reform. But the reform movement needs to change its starting point. We must not waste our energy trying to persuade people to reform an institution in the hopes of eventually producing humankind’s well-being.

We must invest first in humanity and nature – to demonstrate the value of cooperation to best make the political demand for institutional reform.  This is the foot bridge to a just world order.  The most realistic path toward achieving it.  The ultimate objective remains the same: a world in which nations can resolve their differences without war, where forms of WMD no longer threaten humanity, where international law has genuine authority, and where global institutions are capable of addressing other problems that no nation can solve alone. This is the foundation upon which just and sustainable institutions can stand.   And the foundation for making effective reform politically possible.

By first building healthier people, families, communities, and economies, we will build a healthy and sustainable environment.  Then build institutions capable of protecting and extending that health.

Building human well-being first will provide the public enthusiasm, trust, and political legitimacy needed to accomplish the much larger transformation that de Zayas envisions.

“For me, I am driven by two main philosophies: know more today about the world than I knew yesterday and lessen the suffering of others. You'd be surprised how far that gets you.” - Neil deGrasse Tyson (another wrestler).

“The future depends on us--on our ideas, our votes, and the decisions of those we put in power.   Mario Vargas Llosa, Liberalism in the New Millennium [2000]

"We have it in our power to begin the world over again." -  Thomas Paine

Americans are better off being rich and guilty, than poor and innocent.

This is not sustainable.  And a transformation of the US government is urgently needed. 

“In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock.”   Thomas Jefferson  

Words matter! When it comes to true justice in our courts or dealing with other countries, principles are useful. But our principles are rarely fundamental principles (FPs).  These are vastly more functional and urgently needed. They are the “self-evident” “Truths” that we should all hold!  They are found in the 1776 Declaration that inspired the creation or our “thirteen united States of America” 250 years ago.  

"All truly wise thoughts have been thought already thousands of times; but to make them truly ours, we must think them over again honestly, till they take root in our personal experience."  -- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe  (1749-1832) German writer, statesman. 

A principle is simply a rule or guideline our human minds construct to achieve a goal; a fundamental principle is a much deeper.  They abide by the laws of nature and in the DNA of most social species.  They are a foundation on which every mentally constructed rule or guideline should be judged.

“Important principles may, and must, be inflexible.”  Abraham Lincoln

 The Justice Department itself describes “equal justice under law” as a founding principle.  And its mission includes fair and impartial administration of justice, but it’s a legal system that too often fails. 

Real justice aligns with the Golden Rule - the foundation of every legitimate religion and human culture.  Yet too often human principles fail to be applied equally in every jurisdiction.  FPs are Truths that all living systems depend on. 

This distinction is vital.  The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) is a highly developed legal system of laws, regulations, courts, prosecutors, procedures and rules. But a legal system is not necessarily a justice system.  Law is a mechanism; justice is a purpose.  And our U.S system is supposed to have “equal justice under law”. These very words are carved above the entrance to the Supreme Court.  They are more than a legal procedure. They represent a fundamental promise of American government.  And that promise is increasingly threatened when the administration of law becomes dependent upon partisan political power, unprecedented wealth, special influence, or financial access to superior legal representation.  This increasingly threatens our legal system’s legitimacy.  One American saying captures this problem, “You are better off being wealthy and guilty than innocent and poor.”  In the US and other nations wealth purchases experienced attorneys, investigators, experts, time and access to a legal system that is extraordinarily expensive to navigate. No justice system should depend upon one’s ability to purchase it.  Popes have said, “No Justice. No Peace”, and this vibe beats in the heart of anyone mistreated by any legal system.  Not everyone turns to violence, but violence should not be shocking when it comes.  And it will come.

Our DOJ therefore has a fundamental responsibility far greater than simply enforcing laws. It must ensure our laws deliver justice—and justice is available to everyone.

Our government is simply unsustainable in preserving the letter of the law while losing the fundamental principle of “liberty and justice for all”.  Every American has pledged allegiance to this, under our stars and stripes.  Have those brave men and women who sacrificed their lives been in vain?

"Always vote for principle, though you may vote alone, and you may cherish the sweetest reflection that your vote is never lost."  -- John Quincy Adams   (1767-1848) 6th US President

"That no free government, or the blessing of liberty, can be preserved to any people but by a firm adherence to justice, moderation, temperance, frugality, and virtue, and by frequent recurrence to fundamental principles." –- George Mason, Virginia Declaration of Rights [1776]

“If you get the basics right, everything else falls into place.”  Lewis Pugh  

“Success is neither magical nor mysterious. Success is the natural consequence of consistently applying the basic fundamentals.”  Jim Rohn  

“Most of us forget the basics and wonder why the specifics don’t work.”  Garrison Wynn  

“The minute you get away from fundamentals whether it’s proper technique, work ethic, or mental preparation, the bottom can fall out of your game, your schoolwork, your job, whatever you’re doing.”  Michael Jordan  

Achieving Peace is Rotary maximizing health

Achieving Peace requires a broader vision of human security:  Rotary must view mental health as the foundation of Peace and Peacebuilding..   Aug 2026

Ultimately, the purpose of civilization is not simply the absence of war. It’s protecting life, the reduction of suffering, and the creation of conditions in which every person has the opportunity to survive, thrive and flourish.

Wars and genocide rightly capture our attention because of their immense human tragedy. Yet, even in years without major wars, millions of children and adults die from causes that humanity already knows how to prevent. And even more needlessly suffer.  Yet annually, preventable infectious diseases, malnutrition, unsafe drinking water, inadequate sanitation, maternal and infant mortality, poor mental health, environmental degradation, and extreme poverty continue to claim lives on a scale that often dwarfing those lost in armed conflict.

Most people do not simply want to avoid war—they want to prevent unnecessary suffering wherever it occurs.  All parents share the same hope: their children will grow up healthy, safe, educated, and able to realize their potential.  Far more people die from the violence of poverty, lack of access to the basics of a basic education, primary health care, clean water, and a healthy environment. This is why prevention must become humanity’s and Rotary's guiding principle. Rotary can lead the way with a focus on mindful solutions to address root causes instead of its seven unsustainable reactionary pillars of action. 

In early 2026 Buddhist monks marched barefoot in winter from TX to DC.  The Washington Post printed my 'letter to the editor' below acknowledging their purpose and its wisdom.  Not coincidently, two of Rotary's 26 action groups, Rotary Action Group for Peace (RAGFP) linked up with Rotary Action Group for Mental Health Initiatives (RAGMHI).

Dear Editor,

    Mindfulness, stripped of mysticism, is disciplined awareness of how we think. Whether one approaches mindfulness spiritually or scientifically, the proposition that healthier minds contribute to healthier societies is not fringe; it is foundational.

    At a time when violence — international and domestic — seems increasingly normalized, the psychological roots of conflict deserve serious attention. Wars begin long before the first shot is fired. They begin in the mind: in distorted concepts, in ambiguous language, in narratives that frame domination as security and dehumanization as necessity.

    Descartes wrote, “I think, therefore I am.” The human mind’s creativity is remarkable, including its ability to rationalize mass violence with chilling sophistication. That dual capacity may be our greatest vulnerability. Descartes might now say, “I think, therefore I am ... probably wrong. Where can I get a fact check?”

    At minimum, the Buddhist monks’ winter walk for peace invites a conversation about whether the prevention of violence begins not only in treaties and arsenals but also in the architecture of thought itself.

The United Nations 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) provide the closest thing the world has to a comprehensive blueprint for preventive action.  Although organized into 17 goals, they function as a comprehensive, interconnected, holistic, and synergistic system needed to address root issue.  These have the same intention as the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights.   These 30 basic human rights will never be enforced but they can affordably be purchased with the SDG's.  Progress in health supports education. Education strengthens economic opportunities. Economic opportunities improve social stability. Environmental protection safeguards food and water. Strong institutions foster trust and justice.  Each reinforces the others – leading to fewer conflicts.

This holistic approach reflects a vital truth: civilization itself is sustained not by solving one problem at a time, but by recognizing that our greatest challenges are deeply interconnected. And all life is interdependent and vulnerable.

Rotary is uniquely positioned to help communities embrace and empower this systems perspective. Through more than 42,000 clubs across over 200 countries and geographic areas, Rotary already possesses the relationships, credibility, and volunteer leadership needed to help communities identify their greatest needs, strengthen local partnerships, and wisely prioritize prevention over crisis response.

Mental well-being plays a foundational role in this work. Communities that cultivate empathy, resilience, trust, cooperation, and critical systemic thinking are better equipped to improve health, reduce poverty, protect the environment, strengthen education, and prevent violence before it begins.

In that sense, investing in mental well-being is not simply another humanitarian priority. It is an investment in the foundation of long-term sustainability of civilization itself.

If our shared goal is to save the greatest number of lives while reducing the greatest amount of human suffering, then prevention must become our highest priority. Peacebuilding remains an essential part of that mission, but it flourishes most effectively when communities are healthy, resilient, and committed to meeting the basic human needs that unite us all.

Within this context, mental health in the form of systemic thinking is the wisest foundation of Rotary’s Peacebuilding mission and leadership.

For more than a century, Rotary has demonstrated that lasting change begins at the community level. From eradicating polio to expanding access to clean water, sanitation, education, and economic opportunity, Rotary has consistently addressed the root causes of human suffering. Today, however, the world faces an interconnected web of challenges unlike any in history: growing armed conflicts, political polarization, social isolation, misinformation, environmental degradation, economic inequality, forced migration, and growing distrust of people and institutions among most nations.

These crises often appear unrelated, yet they share a common characteristic—their origin is in the way human beings think, perceive, relate to one another, and organize society.  This largely unexamined assumption presents an extraordinary opportunity for Rotary and all of its 26+ Rotary Action Groups for peace.

Rather than viewing the Rotary Action Group for Peace (RAGFP) and the Rotary Action Group for Mental Health Initiatives (RAGMHI) as separate efforts, we should recognize that they are addressing different dimensions of the same challenge. Peace may be one of humanity’s highest aspirations, but health, particularly mental well-being is one of its essential foundations.

This is not to suggest that war or violence is simply the result of mental illness. That’s both inaccurate and unfair. Most wars are not started by individuals suffering from psychiatric disorders. Instead, they emerge from a far more complex interaction of collective beliefs, institutional incentives, historical grievances, fear, trauma, competition for resources, and the mental models through which societies interpret the world.

Conflict exists on many levels.  When I first joined Rotary six years ago when Polio returned to the US with Covid.  With my background in all national security issues, a year later I became a RAGFP member and participated in our RAGFP District 7620 youth conference in Maryland.  We chose to define “Peace” from at least three levels: personal, community, global.  It turns out there are others.   At the individual level, unresolved trauma, chronic stress, addiction, and emotional dysregulation can contribute to violence.  At the interpersonal level, poor communication, mistrust, and lack of empathy fuel conflict between families, neighbors, and communities.  At the societal level, political polarization, prejudice, misinformation, and competing identities divide populations. While at the institutional level, governments, laws, economic systems, and international structures sometimes create incentives that unintentionally reward competition rather than cooperation.   And finally, at the global level, nations frequently operate from mental models that emphasize separation, sovereignty, and zero-sum competition, even though humanity has become increasingly interconnected.

Each level influences every other level. The remarkable insight both RAGFP and RAGMHI came to early in 2026 was that strengthening mental well-being also strengthens our capacity for cooperation, resilience, empathy, problem-solving, and constructive dialogue at every level. Communities with stronger social connections, healthier relationships, and greater emotional resilience are naturally more capable of preventing conflict before it escalates.   This principle of wise benefits extends far beyond peacebuilding.

Consider Rotary’s Areas of Focus. Disease prevention depends upon trust in science and public health. Water and sanitation projects require community cooperation. Maternal and child health depends upon education, stable families, and supportive communities. Economic development benefits from collaboration, resilience, and hope. Environmental stewardship requires people to think beyond short-term interests toward shared responsibility for future generations.

Healthy minds help create healthy communities, and healthy communities create more peaceful societies.

Researchers often distinguish between the immediate causes of conflict and its underlying causes. A disputed election, an act of violence, or competition over resources may ignite conflict, but deeper conditions—fear, mistrust, social fragmentation, inequality, and unresolved trauma—often determine whether disagreements become violence or opportunities for cooperation.  With the accelerating growth of weapon systems, pathogens, environmental problems, with nation’s debt problems, this is why prevention matters.

Rotary has already shown the world that prevention is both more humane and more cost-effective than crisis response. The global effort to eradicate polio stands as one of history’s greatest examples of prevention. Vaccinating a child before illness occurs is far better than treating paralysis afterward. 

The same philosophy can guide peacebuilding.

Instead of waiting until communities experience violence, polarization, or social breakdown, Rotary can help cultivate the emotional resilience, trust, critical thinking, compassion, and collaborative leadership that make conflict less likely in the first place.

This suggests an exciting possibility. What if every Rotary club became not only a service organization but also a catalyst for community well-being?  Rotary’s Community Corps concept already exists.

Imagine clubs partnering with schools, health professionals, businesses, faith communities, local governments, and nonprofit organizations to strengthen the mental, social, environmental, economic, and civic health within their communities.   Such initiatives could reduce isolation, improve resilience, encourage respectful dialogue, support youth, promote evidence-based decision-making, and foster stronger relationships across political, cultural, and economic differences.

The effects would ripple outward into every Rotary Area of Focus and every Rotary Action Group instead of these competing with each other for money, active members, media attention, and time with key policy makers.  Peace would ultimately benefit.   Disease and conflict prevention could benefit most, with education and economic development benefits.  Then community development and environmental stewardship would follow.

Indeed, nearly every humanitarian objective becomes easier to achieve when communities possess greater trust, empathy, resilience, and psychological well-being.

Then RAGFP and RAGMHI and all other RAGs need not compete for attention or resources. Together they can become partners in advancing a broader vision of human flourishing.

Mental well-being is not an alternative to peace. It is one of the conditions that allows peace to emerge and endure.

With more than 42,000 Rotary clubs serving communities in over 200 countries and geographic areas, Rotary possesses one of the world’s largest grassroots networks for preventive action. Few organizations are better positioned to help communities strengthen not only their physical infrastructure but also their social and psychological resilience.  And there are many large and increasingly powerful organizations already focus on specific issues knowing UN global ‘health for all’ campaigns go back decades – but were never prioritized or united. RI could fix that. 

The growing challenges facing humanity now are increasingly interconnected. Thus, our solutions must become equally interconnected.

By recognizing mental well-being as a foundational element of peacebuilding, Rotary has the opportunity to lead a new generation of preventive service—one that addresses the underlying conditions from which conflict, suffering, division, and environmental destruction arise.

If we aspire not merely to end wars but to build communities where health and peace can flourish naturally, then investing in prioritizing mental well-being may be one of the most important service opportunities of the twenty-first century.

Health of mind, body, spirit, family, community, environment, government, and economy is about prevention of problems...to best address most other root causes.

War. The greatest sin.

 "If there is a sin superior to every other it is that of willful and offensive war. Most other sins are circumscribed within narrow limits, that is, the power of one man cannot give them a very general extension, and many kind of sins have only a mental existence from which no infection arises; but he who is the author of a war, lets loose the whole contagion of Hell, and opens a vein that bleeds a nation to death." – Thomas Paine, “The American Crisis V” [March 21, 1778]

“Americans are harder on football coaches who lose games that are generals who lose wars… The US military has possessed the most fearsome weapons ever created, and has often looked unbeatable on paper. However, somehow it has experienced great loss in every war in which it has fought in since 1945.”  Tim Bakken.  In his book ”The Cost of Loyalty.”   Printed in the Washington Post 7–20-26 

"...all Experience hath shewn, that Mankind are more disposed to suffer, while Evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the Forms to which they are accustomed.” 1776 Declaration.

I'm going away for ten days ...to Colorado...visiting CSU where Laura and I first met 51 years ago.  Only a little suffering...;-)  But I'm guessing US will still be bombing Iran when we get back.   

Democracy Fails because we failed to adapt to reality.

 Below is mostly an edit Steven Jay created from an op-ed I had written for the Washington Post.  Thank you Steven! So much better than what I submitted....;-)

The big picture: Public trust in democratic governments, institutions and our economic system has been declining for globally for two decades . Voters are understandably angry because democratic systems are increasingly unable to protect people, solve shared problems or prepare for what comes next.

CNN's Fareed Zakaria is partly right: technological change is moving faster than democratic institutions can adapt. Artificial intelligence, cyberweapons, biotechnology, global finance, and instant communication are rapidly reshaping the world with a poisonous mix of Truth decay.  But technology only accelerates a deeper problem. Our national and global political democratic systems were designed around an outdated assumption: that people, states and nations can operate independently.  They cannot.

Interdependence changes everything: 

Everything in the known universe is connected, interdependent and vulnerable.  

National borders and powerful militaries cannot fully protect us from:

• Pandemics and emerging pathogens
• Cyberattacks and biological weapons
• Climate disruption and extreme weather
• Financial instability
• Terrorism and political violence
• Artificial intelligence used irresponsibly

Military power might deter another government. But it cannot independently stop most transnational threats.  Thus, voters everywhere are frustrated and elect populist leaders. They have been promised security by institutions incapable without amendments to resolve today’s costly disruptions.

The structural problem: 

The U.S. Constitution was created by representatives of states that considered themselves independent. The result was an useful agreement but a deeply imperfect system that eventually a civil war that addressed its most serious contradiction. Amendments were made. Even more later.  More were needed later, but never made due to democratic choices.

The United Nations Charter was established in 1945 through a democratic agreement among sovereign nations. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) followed in 1948, offering a shared framework intended to reduce war, genocide, uses of Weapons of Mass Destruction, oppression and preventable human suffering.  Again, amendments were possible, yet nations continue to this day to treat global cooperation as optional.

Achieving the UN 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) should not be optional.  Adopted by every UN member state in 2015, these 17 goals address many of the conditions that drive global instability now: poverty, hunger, poor health, inequality, weak institutions, environmental destruction conflicts, violent extremism....

The SDGs are not simply development goals. They are a global security strategy like the 30 human rights the UDHR numerated.  Yet powerful nations, the three progressive movements, and thousands of organizations within each - continue to approach them as separate projects rather than as the comprehensive, holistic, and synergistic plan intended for prevention.

The mental problem: 

The second obstacle is not constitutional. It is psychological. Human beings evolved in small groups where survival often depended on quickly identifying allies and reacting to threats. That instinct helped our ancestors survive. Unfortunately today, it still encourages us to divide the world into “us” and “them.” And majority rule amplifies this instinct.  Elections reward immediate concerns, emotional reactions, yielding promises with short-term policies. National leaders focus on inflation, immigration, crime, and cultural conflict while paying less attention to the deeper global forces producing those pressures.

Democracy has been reactive rather than preventive.  The problem is not that citizens are incapable of wisdom. The problem is that democratic systems rarely encourage the deeper thinking, long-term planning, and shared responsibility that an interdependent world requires.

Technology has outpaced politics: 

After Hiroshima, it became clear that humanity’s technological power had exceeded the capacity of existing political institutions to control it.  That gap has now only widened with every new technology.

Jen Easterly, then director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, summarized the challenge in 2021:  “Everything is connected, everything is interdependent, so everything is vulnerable.”  Her conclusion was equally important: protecting interconnected systems requires "more than a whole-of-government" or "whole-of-nation response". It requires "global" cooperation.

Artificial intelligence, cyberwarfare, and biotechnology now make that cooperation even more urgent. A dangerous technology developed or released in one place can create consequences everywhere.  No country can be truly secure in an interconnected world by acting alone.

Cooperation does not require world government: 

Improving global security does not require abolishing national sovereignty or creating a single world government.  Governments already cooperate in aviation, communications, science, health, finance and transportation. States within federal systems share responsibilities without surrendering their local identities. The global eradication of smallpox offers the clearest example.

Countries with opposing ideologies, political systems and national interests worked together for 10 years during the Cold war to eliminate a disease that had killed more people than wars and genocides combined over the last century. National sovereignty survived. Humanity became safer.  The same principle can be applied to climate disruption, pandemics, cyber threats, financial instability and violent extremism.

Security begins with human well-beings at the community level.

Real security starts in communities by addressing poverty, corruption, inequality, and failing public systems.  These are not just moral or economic problems. They create conditions that contribute to conflict, forced migration, political instability, and violence.  

Preventing these conditions is always less expensive than responding after systems collapse.

Achieving the SDGs—and fulfilling the rights recognized in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights—would strengthen health, education, food security, public trust, economic opportunity, prosperity, human security, and political stability.  

In practical terms, this means investing in the conditions that allow people to live with dignity.

It means protecting human rights, thus keeping people and nature healthy- as essential and sustainable infrastructure.

What democracy must include: 

The choice is not between nationalism and globalism.  The real choice is between institutions that recognize interdependence, human rights, liberty and justice for all - or institutions that continue pretending independence is possible.  Democratic systems must become better at:

• Preventing crises instead of merely reacting to them
• Planning beyond election cycles
• Protecting minority rights alongside majority rule
• Coordinating across borders
• Connecting local action with global responsibility
• Measuring security through human and environmental well-being
• Updating institutions as technology and risks change
• Applying justice 

Call it Democracy Plus: democracy strengthened by cooperation, systems thinking, human rights, long-term planning, justice - as the 'rule of law'.

National identity does not have to disappear. Sovereignty does not have to be abolished. Yet Liberty (justice for all) can not be surrendered.  Collective action is possible.

The bottom line:  

Interdependence is not an ideology. It is reality.  The question is no longer whether nations will become more connected. They already are.  The question is whether humanity will consciously build institutions capable of managing those connections —or wait until repeated crises force cooperation upon us.

Doing the same thing repeatedly while expecting a different outcome is not resilience. It's insanity. 

Democracy must adapt to reality.  Our liberty, security, and prosperity depend on it.

Other Suggested titles:  Let us know what you think. 

chuck@igc.org

1. Democracy Plus: Governing an Interdependent World
2. The Democracy Problem No Election Can Solve
3. Our Institutions Were Built for a World That No Longer Exists
4. Interdependence Is Reality. Democracy Must Catch Up
5. Why Majority Rule Is No Longer Enough
6. Democracy’s Deeper Crisis
7. The Illusion of Independence
8. No Nation Can be Secure an Interdependent World Alone
9. From Reactive Democracy to Collective Securit
10. Adapt Democracy—or Be Governed by Crisis

Strongest overall title: Democracy Is Failing Because It Has Failed to Evolve

Strongest provocative title: The Democracy Problem No Election Can Solve

Strongest solutions-focused title: Democracy Plus: Governing an Interdependent World

Steven Jay, Executive Producer and Co-Founder, www.mobilizednews.com

 

July is Rotary International 'Maternal and Child Health' Month!

July is Rotary International 'Maternal and Child Health' Month!

Maternal Wellbeing, infant and child mental health, family Support, schools & communities, compassion & connection, and reliable protection.   All 26 Rotary Action Groups work on these because it takes far more than a community to raise a healthy child.

Yet, giving birth may be the most dangerous part of a woman’s life.  Her heroism is often overlooked due to the human expectation that this is expected of her.  But no female should never have to experience that risk alone.  Or miss the most basic needs for a healthy and safe delivery of new life into this troubled, hyper complex, complected, connected, interdependent, and disruptive era.
As a young male, I’d always created my purpose in life, modeled after people (including women) I admired.  But witnessing my wife’s birthing of our first child, my grounded purpose came naturally.

When I started working to end world hunger in 1979 approximately 42,000 infants were dying daily, from easily preventable malnutrition and infectious disease.  A death rate nearly 10 times that of those in Hitler’s Concentration Camps.  As a biology teacher in the late 70s I had never heard this hidden infant holocaust.  In HS and college courses I'd learned that hunger was a result of an overcrowded world. I had been unintentionally disinformed by smart people that the earth was overpopulated and there was not enough food.  Then I taught this to my biology classes until I was told the Truth. And that was confirmed in 1980 by a bi-partisan Presidential Commission on World Hunger and other studies. Yet for years I've attempted to 'school' others, who have persistently refused to change their very intelligent minds. Since 2017 after reading the middle chapter in the book 'Warnings' by Richard Clark I started focusing on why we don't listen to experts. A few years later I learned of the "Intelligence Trap" (and more than a dozen other cognitive reasons not to change our mind).

Humankind has always had the capacity to feed the world sustainably - and a mind that can believe anything...  But hunger was never an issue of money,  resources, or lack of solutions.  It was simply a lack of “Political Will”.  In the early 70s I’d swore to my mother I’d never get involved with politics. That changed overnight.  Then, after doing a deep dive into hunger issues I quickly learned it was directly connected to other important issues (national security, health, environment, economic systems, and politics).  That took me, my wife, and two children from the Lawrence Hall of Science in Berkeley, California to Washington DC to focus on using the media to create non-partisan political will.  Doing that for quickly educated me on the wisdom needed to address women’s health and other root causes of high infant mortality, public and environmental health, education, female empowerment, plus other fundamental human rights - like a need for economic security, global health security, for people and nature - each inseparable from national security issues and our dysfunctional government systems (both national and global).  They have been in need to be unrigged and transformed for decades.  Protecting nature and human rights required a global justice system.  Not a useless system of international laws that remain a good idea, but inherently unenforceable. 

All of this culminated in a focus on the final frontier - human cognition. How we think, what we think about, and the multitude of challenge in getting people to change their stubborn minds to meet this increasingly urgent global need.  

In the last half of the second paragraph within the 1776 Declaration there is profound observation of this insanity. It is not a new mental problem.  “...all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.”  Having just watched the movie "The Odyssey" and its final closing line, this same insanity has existed at least 700 years before Christ, within the Laws of Zeus.  Our species has always known that a healthy mind leads to healthy bodies, families, social spirit, communities, environment, government, and economic systems.  Food scarcity was never the issue.  Only poverty, male greed for money and power, and our collective mindless waste of resources and lacking the wisdom of indigenous cultures. 

Over the past 4.5 decades many things have improved.  But still, approximately 11,000 to 13.,000 infants still die daily - even without any wars, genocides (that kill more people than wars), or natural disasters. 

We are afraid of many things.  What should be obvious is the immense natural fear of losing a child being the greatest terror in the world. With the greatest horror actually losing one...or the mother. Both  largely due to a lack of “political will”.  Together, these two natural emotions (terror and horror) have a greater impact on humanity, than any war, genocide, revolution, pandemic, or natural disaster.

Maternal and child health should remind us that the health of every family is connected to the health of every community globally. Thus, a global health approach begins where people live—by ensuring that every community and village globally has access to a well-equipped community health clinic, adequately financed and focused first on prevention, early detection, education, and rapid response.

This should become Rotary International's greatest priority, that would ensure success of its other Rotary inspired feat, the global eradication of Polio.  

Such clinics globally could protect mothers and newborns, improve nutrition and immunization, detect outbreaks before they spread, strengthen mental health, family well-being, community unity, and connect local needs to regional and global support that is urgently needed.  Investing in community health is one of the most practical and cost-effective ways to build healthier, safer, and more peaceful, secure, resilient, and sustainable societies.

Every child deserves the opportunity for a healthy start with every mother receiving timely care close to home.  The benefits extend far beyond one family to all life everywhere on earth. They strengthen communities, nations, and ultimately our sustainable future by making it easier to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals. A global plan already approved to address the root causes of almost every threat we face. 

Paul Harris, the founder of Rotary International in 1905 offered humankind a solution that clearly fits our meta-poly crisis era - "If Rotary is to realize its proper destiny, it must be evolutionary at all times, REVOLUTIONARY on occasion."-----Paul Harris

"Civilization can only revive when there shall come into being in a number of individuals a new tone of mind independent of the one prevalent among the crowd and in opposition to it. A new public opinion must be created privately and unobtrusively. The existing one is maintained by the press, by propaganda, by organization, and by financial influences which are at its disposal. The unnatural way of spreading ideas must be opposed by the natural one which goes from man to man and relies solely on the truth of thoughts and the hearer’s receptiveness of new truth."  – Albert Schweitzer

"It is as if we are trapped in a death spiral with a map that only takes us in circles.  We persistently ignore the exit signs because we insist on believing in the map we have in hand. You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.”  ~Buckminster Fuller

“In order to change an existing paradigm you do not struggle to try and change the problematic model. You create a new model and make the old one obsolete. That, in essence, is the higher service to which we are all being called.” ~ Buckminster Fuller

Unfortunately, evidence suggests most people are NOT ready for change!  They are...

●   Comfortable and don't feel the need for change. Why change?

●   Not educated about the state of the world.  No need to change.

●   Simply don't care. Apathy and no empathy.

●   Confident in our modern worldview and that we are heading in the right direction. Technology solves all.

●   Insufficiently capable of mentally understanding reality.

●   Too busy to be concerned about issues that they believe don't effect them.

●   Distracted and mesmerized by entertainment and consumer media.

●   Unenergized by the food or drugs they are putting into their bodies.

●   In deep denial about the future. Refuse to face it.

●   Religious belief that God has it all under control. Our involvement isn't needed.

Look for change makers and make things happen.

"Silence, they say, is the voice of complicity. But silence is impossible. Silence screams. Silence is a message, just as doing nothing is an act. Let who you are ring out & resonate in every word & every deed. Yes, become who you are. There's no sidestepping your own being or your own responsibility. What you do is who you are. You are your own comeuppance. You become your own message. You are the message. In the Spirit of Crazy Horse "   Leonard Peletier

 “We do not need to change human nature. We need to reveal it.”.  George Monbiot, Becoming Unstoppable   Nov. 2017

We're clueless about AI's growth into AGI. Democracy is the problem...but not the greatest.

 

LOL!!!  A bipartisan Congressional working group Committee with 24 members believe it can urgently and actively control AI development in the US.  Yet in the context of US national security, competing with nations like China, when it has no regulations, is insane.  With 'President Trump's talk this evening don't expect any sane answers.  (It turns out he's only concerned about elections) 

Yet strategic leaders on both sides don't prioritize controlling tools. Thy prioritize winning outcomes. And doing the same thing over and over again...expecting a different 'good' result.  I’m sorry.  I need to stop laughing and crying before I continue.  

Thanks for understanding. 😉

First thing!  No one can control all outcomes.  The evolution of weapons, war, pathogens, debt, Truth decay, or political polarization.

As AI’s exponential growth of power continues to accelerate - no one know what will happen early next year, or the next, as AGI grows self-aware - and uncontrollable.  Meanwhile, advances in democratic government policies are nearly impossible to agree on.  Even if they did, non-democratic nations will use this to their advantage. 

In this context, democracy is foolish. And trying to control a technology that is infinitely more intelligent and eventually wiser than what we (US Congress and the majority of American voters) have ever been..

Can you imagine a linear thinking mind - outsmarting the exponential growth of technology already 1000 times faster and smarter.  Thinking it can - best represents the insanity of humanity.    We can’t even unite on basic self-evident Truths! Truths like all people are created equal and endowed by the Laws of Nature - our creator with certain inalienable rights (“the Laws of Nature and of Nature‘s God”).  WTF? What’s so complicated about taking care of nature and each other?

We have always had the answer for this. Astronauts call it the 'overlook effect'. From space circling our planet -- the most beautiful thing visible is a mostly blue planet with some gray, brown and green areas. God's gardens we’ve been consistently abusing and mindlessly consuming for comfort or entertainment by the richest 20% of humanity.  Meanwhile, billions struggle to make a life for themselves. This is simply unsustainable and literally insane.

Americans just celebrated the 250th anniversary of the so called “Declaration of Independence.  That's not its original name.  The word “Independence’ is not in the title or anywhere in its text. 

That profound document is packed with ideals that should’ve been applied 250 years ago. Some Indigenous cultures did long before that.  Humankind has always known what to do to make this planet work sustainably.  Take care of nature (God’s creation or the evolution of nature...) and take care of each other via the Golden Rule.  

What is so complicated about this?  Other than getting out of our trapped mindset with its flawed concepts that once united out tribes, like politics, religion, economics, culture... in the real world where everything is connected, interdependent and vulnerable?  Even more vulnerable now as the threats and the power and reach of technology continues to grow as we ignore it, or hope it will be OK. 

From biological weapons and other forms of WMD, to an economic meltdown, or any number of overshot environmental limits, we have too many unsustainable trends. The rise and conflicts over the last 25 years. Plus, a new threat published this year in Scientific American - Mirror Molecules (probably should be renamed Mirror Monsters).  With a basic understanding of biology anyone can understand this danger.  DNA and RNA, the basic blueprints of life.  They spiral in only one direction, clockwise.  Now imagine an identical molecule winding the other way - like a mirror image.

If science creates this it could get into the environment - and spread quickly infecting a plant or animal’s immune system. And that immune system will not recognize it.  Ever!  Then that molecule will consume tissue without stopping until all the nutrients within that life form runs out.  Then it will move onto and into other life forms.

What most people don’t understand is the similarities between biology and cyber technology.  Both are continually evolving and unlike kinetic weapons that are used up when they’re used, these tiny elements reproduce for free - exponentially when they’re used – endlessly.  And likely untraceable to the source of origin, the human, nature, or AI creator.

With humans united with AI, we may have the capacity to create either heaven on earth or a global hell scape.

Unfortunately, our so-called human intelligence may have the capacity for deep thinking and wisdom, but most minds would rather argue, fight, kill, and die over mental constructs like religion, politics, and economics. Concepts that have no basis in our DNA intended to solve problems impeding our survival and thriving.   This is what the basic DNA in every social species does...enabling them to survive and thrive through coordination and cooperation, with limited competition along the way. Now competition (economic, political, religion...) is humankind's primary driver of our destruction.

One urgent task.  We need to figure out very quickly how we’re going to transform our own minds - and the minds of those in power - that have created the foundation for our current Hellscape on earth.

The next election needs the wisdom of engineers who know how to build things using unambiguous words to improve public health and safety.  Not ambiguous words like peace, democracy, terrorism, or independence.

The good news?  A global plan already exists.  It affordable and achievable by the year 2030 but is nowhere near meeting any of its 17 broad goals.  And most people are clueless about the 169 subgoals within them for achieving at the community level globally... It’s not a mater of money. In fact, achieving them would save trillions of dollars and billions of lives.   Progressive movements and organizations just lack the wisdom and wiliness to unite and make it happen.   This is insane.

And the day after Trump's speech I learned more about the evolution of AI into AGI.  OMG.  

Most of us have no idea what's coming.  And neither do all the experts.  It's too bad AI doesn't have the human 'Sonic Hedgehog' gene. Once AGI evolves ('Artificial General Intelligence' coming to a planet you live on within the next 1 to 3 yrs) the result of exponential growth of intelligence - on top of exponential growth but without wisdom - our time may be limited.  Wisdom is what we have in our DNA as a social species but our mind's still haven't applied it collectively as a species. Our bad? :-)  Watch this 34 min YouTube video for a wake up call. 

Title: “We're Not Ready for Superintelligence" YouTube 34 min...MUST WATCH, learn, and ACT.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KVDDfAkRgc&t=12s

So is this one-sentence open letter that calls for a ban on superintelligence until it's demonstrably safe: https://superintelligence-statement.org/. A lot of you have been wondering how to take action. If that's you, you might want to consider adding your name, alongside Fmr. UN Ambassador Susan Rice, Yuval Noah Harari, and the world's two most cited comp scientists.

AI 2027 depicts a possible future where artificial intelligence radically transforms the world in just a few intense years. It’s based on detailed expert forecasts — but how much of it will actually happen? Are we really racing towards a choice between a planet controlled by the elite, or one where humans have lost control entirely?  My takeaway? Loss of control, racing scenarios, and concentration of power are all concerningly plausible, and among the most pressing issues the world faces.

This video is a production of 80,000 Hours. Find us at https://80000hours.org and subscribe to our main YouTube channel here: ‪@eightythousandhours‬ 

What you can do next:  To read more about what you might be able to do to help, or get involved, check out: https://80000hours.org/agi/

You can also check out the 80,000 Hours job board at https://jobs.80000hours.org

Or take a 2-hour course on the Future of AI: https://bluedot.org/courses/future-of-ai

Or see what the authors of AI 2027 suggest doing next: https://blog.ai-futures.org/p/what-yo... 

(Want to work with them? Their top rec for breaking into AI alignment research is the paid MATS program. Express interest: https://matsprogram.org/apply-ai-in-c... )

Tell your US or UK representatives you care about this issue in 60 seconds using this tool: https://controlai.com/take-action/

And if you just want some practical recommendations for how you and your family can get more prepared: https://benjamintodd.substack.com/p/h...

Further reading and watching About AI 2027.   Full report: https://ai-2027.com/

By Daniel Kokotajlo, Scott Alexander, Thomas Larsen, Eli Lifland, Romeo Dean

Update on their model: https://ai-2027.com/research/timeline...

The lead author’s change in median forecast to 2028: https://x.com/DKokotajlo/status/19402...