WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE A “CITIZEN OF THE WORLD”?

I have for many years considered myself a “citizen of the world”. A comment received on my April 2, 2006 posting ‘Democratic Party Misses The Point’, got me thinking about what it means. The person providing the comment, who calls himself Corndog, used to be a liberal, and stated that the process of becoming a liberal “begins with the psychological renunciation of one’s American-ness, in order to become a ‘citizen of the world’.” As one might expect, this set me to thinking: Could I be shifting to the left? NO WAY!! I cannot ever see myself as a liberal! So I decided to see what was available on the Internet on this subject, and after doing that, I decided to write about what being a “citizen of the world” means to me.

First, I found an organization called World Citizen, Inc., a non-profit organization that empowers the educational community to promote a just and peaceful world through activities for children and youth. Most educators are very liberal; one should ask are the youth being taught to think, or just being indoctrinated?

Next was The World Citizen Foundation. This is a non-profit, non-partisan think-tank dedicated to the design of solutions to international problems based on the fundamental principles of equal human dignity, liberty, democracy, and constitutionally protected basic rights of all. This may or may not be liberal depending on its members.

Then I found the World Citizen Update. This one started by asking “Who Represents World Citizens?” The message began “In politics, the nation-state insidiously controls not only the dialogue but also the electoral process.” Another statement was “the general public’s loyalty on this national political illusion blinds it to the solution of humanity’s ills taken together, i.e. world law based on human rights”. There is no doubt this is extremely liberal.

The last one was called “World Citizen Guide”. This guide was put together by students for students to use when going abroad. The group, Business for Diplomatic Action, Inc., started this because in their words ‘America’s favorability’ in other countries was decreasing. They blame U.S. public policy, the negative efforts of globalization, our culture, and collective personality. Globalization-- hmmm….that is interesting. One should not go abroad with an attitude, or present one’s self as superior. Depending on how this is done, it could be very good.

Do the preceding come across as leftist or very liberal organizations? (Corndog does have a point.) But I would like to tell you my definition of a “Citizen of the World”. Every individual is a citizen of the world! I do not believe that being a “Citizen of the World” means you must be liberal. That is a false theory that has been accepted for too long. All of the above items are rather liberal in nature. Some of the points they cover are important, but there are many differing viewpoints about what can and can’t be done, and what the causes are. Let’s look beyond these.

The world is getting smaller every day. Back in the 19th century, Jules Verne wrote “Around The World In 80 Days”. We now do it in hours, and astronauts can do it in minutes. But this is only a small part of why the world is getting smaller. If the world is ever going to truly have peace, the economy of every country needs to be developed to its full potential. As long as some countries are under-developed and don’t politically fit in with the rest of the world, there will always be a danger of war. This is a huge challenge for the world to overcome. Every year the economies of the United States and other industrial countries become more dependent on each other. How many items do we buy each year that say ‘made in China’, Korea, Japan, France, Norway, etc.? This occurs because things are made better or cheaper somewhere else, or may not be available in your country. This helps keep down our cost of living, and it helps the economies of other countries to grow. Each country needs to find its niche. The more people of different countries do business with each other, the more they realize we all have the same goals in life, and the more tolerant of each other they become.

Then there are issues such as terrorism that are truly global issues that the world needs to address. The more nations take an active role in this fight, the sooner terrorism will become a thing of the past. Each year since 9/11 more countries have come to this realization. The sooner the world learns to recognize evil and address it with immediate and decisive action, the sooner there will be peace in the world, but as long as countries such as those who took advantage of the UN’s Oil for Food program continue to profit by their actions, the longer the process will take.

In conclusion, I say every person is a “Citizen of the World” because every year we are coming closer together and more dependent on each other. Sometimes the process seems hard to see, but it is happening. The extremist Muslim groups that are fighting this change through terrorist activities are actually accelerating the process by forcing the rest of the world to join together to fight terrorism.