Today is the International Day of Friendship

In 2011, the UN General Assembly officially proclaimed 30 July the International Day of Friendship, with the idea that ‘friendship between peoples, countries, cultures and individuals can inspire peace efforts and build bridges between communities.’

Disney bear Winnie the Pooh as ambassador of friendship

The term ‘friendship’ is very complex and a broad field for sociologists, psychologists and philosophers. It primarily characterises a concrete relationship between individuals that is based on sympathy, affection, appreciation and trust. The desire for friendship between peoples, countries and cultures expressed in the UN General Assembly resolution, on the other hand, is rather abstract. Nevertheless, it is justified, because the opposite of friendship is enmity.

I wrote an article on Substack about the importance of friendship in building a United Mankind Organisation.

The importance of friendship for the unity of mankind (substack.com)

Future world language: Esperanto, English or what?

A common lingua franca would be of great benefit for communication between the citizens of the world. English has long since taken this place. There is no way around English today. Nevertheless, there are still enough reasons to critically scrutinise the dominance of English. Apart from the historical background, English is not a particularly euphonious language. But that is a matter of taste. Better-sounding languages such as French and Spanish are just as negatively charged and even more difficult to learn.

Esperanto flags

Wouldn't it be better to choose a completely unencumbered, constructed planned language that is relatively easy to learn and also sounds good? A language that does not override or even supplant the existing native languages and does not claim to be a cultural language. A whole series of logically structured planned languages were invented in the 19th and 20th centuries. The best known and most widespread is Esperanto. I have written an article on this question at Substack.

I will stick to English for the time being. That's why I write my website, my blog, my articles and my correspondence for the United Mankind Initiative in English, even though I don't speak English at all. I use the online translator from DeepL, which is based on AI. The translations are close to perfection. It's not for nothing that DeepL now has the reputation of being the most accurate translator in the world. The free version is perfectly adequate for my purposes, as long as the communication is not reduced to memes but consists of comprehensible, coherent sentences.

A language of communication for United Mankind (substack.com)

Why the world federation is indispensable

In various articles, one reads again and again about supposedly valid arguments against a political unification of mankind. The spectre of an overly powerful world government is regularly conjured up. I have already written about this nonsense here in the blog. You have to ask such authors whether they are seriously of the opinion that things should continue as before. Do they not realise what devastating consequences the continuation of the current world disorder will have for the future? What really speaks against a better world order? What alternatives would it have to offer?

In a new article at Substack and other articles already published, I have explained why a federal world union is indispensable for the future of mankind and why we need the United Mankind in addition to the United Nations.

The world union of mankind - by Richard Maxheim (substack.com)

In search of people for the United Mankind

In order to initiate a movement, you first need a personal base. This base does not have to be large, but its participants should be aware of their task and become active for the cause - each according to their possibilities and abilities. The point is to find such people. They would be the first members and companions on the path to United Mankind.

There are many places all over the world where you can find these companions. You could do it like the international Registry of World Citizens. But that would be too much bureaucracy to start with. Also, the benefits of world citizen ID cards are disproportionate to the effort required for them.

Perhaps the simplest method could be to look for companions on social networks on the Internet. I have started a trial on Facebook. Anyone who is interested can join the side United Mankind Pioneers.

See also the article at Substack: Is mankind worth it?

Global empire or federal world union?

 

The idea of a comprehensive, centralised world empire has fuelled the imagination of authors of dystopian future literature since the beginning of the modern era. For conspiracy theorists, they are still big business. For nationalists, it's a nightmare. Unless, of course, their own nation were to take over world domination.

Such a world empire would not necessarily mean a world dictatorship. Everything could also go well. However, knowing human nature, this is hardly conceivable. The interests are too different and could hardly be reconciled by a centralised world government. The result would be unrest, uprisings and the replacement of world wars with world civil wars. We already have all that.

That is why democratic world federalism seems to me to be the only logical way to get a grip on the future of mankind. I have published a detailed article about this on Substack:

Global empire or federal world union? - by Richard Maxheim (substack.com)

I have also started building a new website:

United Mankind Initiative (google.com)