Fairy Tale? Maybe Not!

I like to pick up the newspapers on Sundays and flip through them. Toronto Star, NYT, WSJ and smaller publications

The details still need to be worked out in my imagination, but my thoughts on a borderless planet have resurfaced, and I like thinking about it. I did some Googling over the weekend, but most articles I found are talking about it in terms of climate change, where certain areas will become uninhabitable, and others I cannot read because I have to pay. I will keep searching.

… Everyone could be offered an official form of United Nations citizenship in addition to their birth citizenship … Some economists, such as Michael Clemens at the Center for Global Development in the US, calculate that enabling free movement could double global GDP. In addition, we would see an increase in cultural diversity, which studies show improves innovation. At a time when we have to solve unprecedented environmental and social challenges, it could be just what is needed.

Open borders do not have to mean no borders or the abolition of nation states, though. It may be necessary to explore different types of nation states, with different governance options. Will states that are most affected by climate change buy or rent territory in safer places? …

BBC: Is The World Ready For A Mass Migration Due To Climate Change?

The last sentence in bold is where me and the article part ways. Many of the countries affected by climate change are poorer than the countries they’d be moving to; why the fuck would we charge them! This feels wrong on so many levels. (it’s just a suggestion but they shouldn’t have suggested it.) Plus, the old guard doesn’t care about innovation. Studies! Schmudies! We treat immigrants/migrants like shit already – and technically, we’re all immigrants to various degrees of newness.

Ugh! This stuff makes me angry. I avoid certain things for my mental health, but I don’t want to be clueless – it’s a fragile balance. A glass rod tightrope I must gently navigate.

No borders! Not because of climate change or improved GDP contributions but because we’ve evolved as a species. This is a legendary transformation requiring change inside and out. Of course, money talks open hearts, superficially … those open hearts will say …

“What! Did I hear more for me! Bring them. Bring them. We’ll use every opportunity to make them feel unwelcome while accumulating more wealth. There’s enough to go around but I cannot share it with you!”

As the map shows, there are barriers to foot traffic, but how fantastic would it be! The area is formerly known as Canada. The area formely known as India or Japan or <insert any of the other 192>. With no borders, we can delete certain words from our vocabulary:

• Refugee
• Displaced person
• Undocumented (a young word)
• Immigrant/migrant

We could find new names for places based on their natural geographic characteristics. And keep our country names if we want.

People are always going to find something to fight over. But we are more intelligent than our ancestors, and history won’t repeat itself. I could see myself fighting over cleanliness and the placement of things – with the knowledge that I cannot move mountains.

But we won’t need to do any big fighting;

• For
  • land – who rightfully owns what and who should leave where
  • justice, freedom, and equality
  • resources and religion, and race and …

We won’t be greedy, hateful, or vengeful. We won’t need to fight over any of the things that supposedly separate us because we know better now. I am not going to leave this idea alone.

By the way! Donut charts are not suitable for eating. I am sharing this embrassing personal tidbit so you can learn from my mistakes.

Sam

Good night!