Outlines of Bangalore Presentations by Dr. Glen T. Martin

Grand Global Peace Meet, Sponsored by Sri Ramanuja Mission Trust, Chennai, 7 December 2015

(Morning Presentation)

1. The Constitution for the Federation of Earth provides an integrated system for establishing peace, justice, protection of human rights, freedom, and sustainability for the Earth.
2. Human values, goals, and objectives remain merely theoretical ideals unless we organize concrete systems that can put these into practice in human life.
3. At present our planet is dominated by systems that interfere with the realization of the ideals of peace, justice, protection of human rights, freedom, and sustainability for the Earth.  These dominant systems are global capitalism and the system of sovereign nation-states.
4. These dominant systems were created centuries ago under the fragmented “early-modern” paradigm which has been superseded by the holistic paradigm embodied in the Earth Constitution.
5. Many thinkers have identified capitalism as a system of domination and exploitation that cultivates greed, blocks spiritual and moral development in people, and generates extreme wealth for the few and poverty with misery for the majority.
6. Many thinkers have also identified the nation-state system as inherently a “war-system,” with a structural imperative for militarization, arms races, and “national security” obsessions, breeding distrust among peoples and blocking spiritual and moral development among citizens of all nations.
7. We need to replace the UN Charter (the war-system of sovereign nations) with the Earth Constitution, preserving what is valuable in many UN Agencies.  This will not only give us world peace but make possible the spiritual and moral development of peoples everywhere.
8. In Article One of the Earth Constitution, six “broad functions” of the Earth Federation Government are identified that together address the dysfunctional and fragmented world systems presently in place.
9. The first is to replace the war-system of the nations with a peace-system under the rule of enforceable law for the entire world.  This peace system will disarm the nations and eliminate all weapons of mass destruction.
10. The second is to make the list of unenforceable human rights in the UN Universal Declaration into enforceable rights for everyone protected by the World Courts and civilian world police. 
11. The third and fourth and fifth include conservation and protection for the resources of the earth as well as protection for the global environment to create our planet as a healthy and happy place for all humans to live.
12. The last is to deal with all problems beyond the scope of nations by having a world government responsible for assessing the state of our planet and for protecting and planning for our common future.
13. All these systems (and corresponding global issues) are interdependent and interrelated: poverty, war, human rights violations, resource depletion, climate collapse, etc.
14. The Earth Constitution offers an integrated and coherent set of systems that simultaneously bring human beings to a higher, holistic level of systems integration and therefore to a decent (peaceful, just, and sustainable) world order for all peoples.

The Meaning of Global Spirit

(Afternoon Presentation)

1. “The meaning of global spirit” is a huge topic that requires narrowing down for a brief presentation like this one.  One could speak of the global human spirit, cosmic spirit, or divine spirit at great length, but what I will do is limit the concept to the idea of universality that can be attained through proper human development and growth and that is reflected in the Earth Constitution.
2. Many psychologists have identified human development from the pre-conventional to the conventional to the post-conventional levels.  Most persons remain on the conventional level because they fear the post-conventional level as relativism and loss of moral grounding.  But this is not true.
3. Psychologists like Lawrence Kohlberg, Carol Gilligan, and Ken Wilber have identified a “universality” that arises in the post-conventional stage that can lead to yet higher “integral” levels (integrated levels of morality and spiritual consciousness, and holism).
4. I would like to discuss this universalism in relation to the Earth Constitution in terms of four principles embodied in the Constitution. These principles reveal the systemic form of the universalism reflected in the Constitution that can and must be expressed in the form of enforceable world legislation.
5. The first principle is unity in diversity.  There is no true unity without diversity. Every whole in nature and the cosmos reflects a diversity of parts that interrelate to constitute that whole.  Yet human beings have at present only an abstract unity (“humanity” as an ideal of “brotherhood and sisterhood”).  These are lacking the concrete legal unity that joins all together under a common Constitution and common law: recognizing each person has a world citizen entitled to the rights and duties of citizenship. 
6. Contrary to some views such unity will help make possible a true respect for diversity.  Otherwise diversity becomes a threat, something alien to what is familiar. The principle of unity in diversity is stated explicitly in the Preamble to the Earth Constitution and the Constitution itself is designed to maximize the participation of diversity within its unity.
7. The second principle embraced by the universalism in the Constitution is the principle of human flourishing.  Every human being has basic needs that are the prerequisite for flourishing: food, shelter, clean water, sanitation, education, health-care, etc.   The Constitution assures all of these things to all people.  There is no other system in the world that can do this. 
8. Assuring these things must be done by universal law.  Economics (under law) must be in the service of the quality of life and the ability of all persons to lead flourishing lives. The entire Constitution is designed as a system to make this possible universally. The UN, as a treaty of sovereign nations, has no capacity to establish such a system.
9. The third principle of universality is the right and duty of persons to develop their reason, intuition, and love. In my newest book called One World Reborn, I have described these three as basic to human cognition of the world.  Unlike the “early-modern” paradigm from which capitalism and the nation-state system are derived, it is not the case that humans face a world with reason that must “objectively” ignore love and intuition in the process of knowing and cognition. 
10. We are holistic beings and holistically encounter the cosmos: reason sees the universality of concepts, intuition experiences the universality of that which is beyond name and form, and love binds all these together is many kinds of positive and harmonious relationships from the human level to the level of nature to the cosmos and beyond the cosmos to God.
11. The fourth way that universality informs the Earth Constitution is that establishes the possibility of real dialogue directed toward mutual understanding for the people of Earth.  Conferences and committees that now operate all over the world cannot do this on behalf of the planet as a whole: they have little authority and legitimacy to represent everyone.  We need people who are elected as legitimate representatives of the whole of the peoples of Earth who can debate the way into the future, act to protect future generations, and establish peace, sustainability, and justice for our planet.
12. What the Earth Constitution does, therefore, is provide our planet with a global brain.  Right now we have many brains working against one another, or working for partial projects (like human rights, protecting the environment, eliminating nuclear weapons, etc.).  But universality demands universal debate about the future of our planet as a whole by our elected, empowered representatives in a World Parliament.

All these absolutely essential features of world peace with justice and sustainability are embodied in the Earth Constitution.