PREAMBLE
The Earth's population currently exceeds 7 billion people and continues to grow. Simultaneously with the growth of the population, the problems also are growing caused by their living on the planet, because of its limited capacity to provide enough fit for life territories, and not only drinking water, food and warm for all, but to secure everybody with a decent standard of living.
In addition, people around the world is divided by many features such as racial, gender, social, religious, national, etc., which often lead to serious interpersonal and intergroup conflicts.
However, the main differences lie in the mentality of people, formed in the process of their upbringing and education. They arise because of big differences in the implementation of this process, resulting in the situation when different groups of the planet population have absolutely different sets of values and vices, rights and responsibilities, as well as significant differences in comprehension and perception of the surrounding world picture and meaning of life.
These main differences are due to the situation when the planet population is divided into nearly 200 so-called sovereign States, headed by so-called national leaders. The purpose of their governance usually is declared as creation of favorable conditions for living of all members of a given nation, but in most cases, favorable conditions are being created only for their ruling group, which affects the distribution of the national wealth, broadcasting of mass media, and the formation of the national mentality in the process of traditional upbringing and education of the inhabitants of that country.
Protecting interests of various national ruling groups, naming themselves “elites”, causes a lot of international conflicts, leading to military confrontation up to war clashes. However, finally it is the ordinary population, recruited to the opposing armies, and civilians, who, as a rule, are suffering and dying in these conflicts.
If in ancient and middle centuries, it was acceptable for Humanity, then since the XX-th century, when weapons of mass destruction – nuclear bombs – were invented, such conflicts are no longer allowable, since any of them can lead to self-destruction of humankind. Just only to say that the total number of ready-to-use nuclear warheads currently is about 20 thousand, but only a few of them are enough that Mankind forever would cease to exist.
Such countries as USA, Russia, France, China, UK, India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea have the ability with the help of detonation of such bombs to destroy the whole Humanity.
The tension in the world is constantly growing, and there is only one real and reasonable way to resolve this situation.
At present, there are 4 levels of public socialization, to which to which the mentality of every person on Earth should be raised with the help of upbringing and education. They are 1) family; 2) local; 3) regional, province; and 4) national. Only filling his consciousness with knowledge relating to all four levels, a resident of a country may become its competent full-fledged citizen. So it was in Ancient Greece, so it was in Ancient Rome, so it should be in all correct States nowadays. Only filling their consciousness with civil knowledge related to all 4 levels, a resident of the country became its competent citizen. So it was in Ancient Greece, so it was in Ancient Rome, so it should be in all correct States now.
With this in mind, Aristotle yet 2400 years ago asserted that public power in a state should proceed not from ignorant people (demos), but from citizens who possess civil knowledge (polites). Thus, in the state there should not be the power (governance) just of ordinary “people” (democracy), but the power of educated citizenry (politis), and only civically educated residents – citizens can deal with policy in the state, i.e. to govern the country.
But in 529 AD by the Edict of the last Roman emperor Justinian I all the teachings of the great philosopher were prohibited, philosophical studies and civic education were stopped, and the concept of citizenry was given the wrong interpretation. In the constitutions of all countries the allegation started to be inserted that the power in the state proceeds from "the people", which was opposed by Aristotle, instead of pointing out that the source of all power in the country proceeds from educated citizenry. At the same time, voting in elections is allowed only for registered "citizens", educated solely by mass media.
All these have brought to the universal chaos that exists in the world so far, which is growing and needs, until it is too late, to be resolved, while Humanity is still in a functioning condition. People suffer because of their civil ignorance, but even more they suffer because of the civil ignorance of their rulers.
However, the beginning of a new world war and unfavorable for Life human-caused natural disasters and climate changes, bearing the risk of global harm and even self-destruction of humankind, remain as the most serious threats to Humanity. Unfortunately, the ignorant Humanity is unable to solve these problems at the national 4-th level, even with the help of the UN.
And the solution seems rather obvious – it is necessary to restore the true understanding of the concept of citizenry and to introduce it everywhere. A citizen – it is not just a resident of a country, who receives a formal its citizenship from the fact of being born in it. The real citizen – it is a civically educated person, and public power in the state should be formed not by abstract "people" by birth, practically civically ignorant people, i.e., not through "democracy", but by civically educated community (polity). This is the main precept of Aristotle, forgotten until now.
Moreover, due to the intensification of processes of globalization on the planet, it is necessary to raise the universal level of mentality of the world community to a new height of their socialization – on the 5-th level, i.e. supranational (global). Then the level of citizenry should correspond to this advanced volume of knowledge, and every inhabitant on the planet should be assigned the new higher status – Citizen of the Earth-XXI, and the community of global citizens should organize themselves into the Universal State of Earth (USE). All this is well known since ancient times, but undeservedly forgotten.
Only then we can expect an end of all military conflicts on Earth, the prevention of a nuclear war followed by “nuclear winter”, catastrophic climate change. Only then a common prosperity with widespread progress of humankind could start.
Exactly to such conclusion the thinkers of the World Philosophical Forum came in 2010, exactly to that UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon appealed in his initiative "Education first" in 2012 (some of his quote – "We must foster global citizenship. Education is about more than literacy and numeracy – it is also about citizenry”.). Exactly this was inserted in the UNESCO Medium-term strategy 2014-2021, approved in 2014.
Universal global citizenship assumes learning by the inhabitants of the Earth similar perception of the scientific picture of the surrounding our planet world, universal recognition of the same for all values and vices,
widespread use of the same for all rights and performance of the same for all duties.
Only by understanding this and performing based on this knowledge their everyday behavior, everyone on Earth gets the status of the Citizen of the Earth-XXI, thus becoming a full member of the supranational global civil society, organized into the Universal State of Earth. Only after establishing the civil transeducation (global, universal) worldwide, the Humanity will have the global citizenship and become finally civil and civilized, i.e., the genuine Civilization.
That's why, on October 7, 2015 at the Constitutional Convention in Athens, Greece the Universal Constitution of Earth was adopted. According to this Constitution, all inhabitants of Earth are suggested through studying of the Minimum of modern civic knowledge to raise the level of their consciousness to the 5-th level of universal socialization and become Citizens of Earth-XXI.
Following the adopted Constitution, the governing bodies of the supranational Universal State of Earth (USE) have started to be created with the Supreme Council of Humanity (SCH) on the top of administrative structure staffed with the most intelligent, wise, moral, fair, with sense of global responsibility citizens of the Earth.
So, at the first SCH meeting among others also this DECLARATION will be adopted with the appeal to all inhabitants of the Earth:
- To support efforts of WPF, UN and UNESCO for the recognition of actual urgency in the formation of Global citizenry of Citizens of the Earth-XXI. To recommend to the peoples of sovereign States of the planet to make changes in their national Constitutions, indicating that political power in the country proceeds from civically educated citizens, not from some abstract people.
- After learning the existing Minimum of civic knowledge recommended by WPF, to receive the higher status of Citizen of the Earth-XXI and perform own daily behavior based on the knowing well universal values and vices, rights and duties of human and citizen, thus joining the planetary civil community of Earth Citizens.
- Becoming Citizens of the Earth-XXI, to take an active part in the formation of the Universal State of Earth according to the Universal Constitution of Earth.
- Persons, who hinder the new stage of the universal socialization of the Earth population, extremely important to Humanity for its self-preservation, especially if they are national leaders of the 4-th level, to consider them as asocial, uncivilized and subject to reasoned criticism. To attach them, and in extreme cases, to force to raise the level of their civil self-consciousness. To introduce the order at the national 4-th level, when only inhabitants, who have in addition to their national citizenship also the status of Citizens of the Earth-XXI, can be leaders of the country.
- To ensure that the raising of the common level of the civil self-consciousness would occur in the shortest time, affect obligatorily every inhabitant of the Earth and took place simultaneously everywhere on the planet. Only forming the global citizenship of Earth Citizens, the Humanity will become civil and civilized itself (Civilization) and get solid guarantees of its stable existence, common prosperity and further progress.
Created in August, 2016 by:
© World Philosophical Forum
E-mail: info@wpf-unesco.org
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