World Citizen is a book which began with a simple premise – that the population of the world would want a quality life with an opportunity to enter middle class status. This came from observations as I traveled the world and briefly discussed in this blog. My desire was to build on the experiences I have had to describe the prospects for reaching World Citizenship. But as I began my research a very different reality surfaced. Climate change will have massive impacts that changes everything. Being a World Citizen will be very different 20 – 40 years from now – for everyone. Thus, the book became much more complex. I do not want it to be just another treatise on Climate Change.
One of the realities is that governments are refusing to deal with Climate Change. This is a global problem and will only be addressed on a global scale. Yet, the largest offenders, the US and China, have not seriously addressed the issue. Another issue is that the public attention, and governments also, are easily diverted by the issues of today: wars, terrorism, the economy and public health and education. In spite of how important these issues are they are distractions from the critical issue which will change humanity. Governments rarely see or act beyond 5 years.
As a result, World Citizen has taken on a larger role – how to integrate our lives today into the prospects of the future. More importantly what we must do about it. Based on my travels, I still see that the US has a global leadership role. This is being fettered away by political paralysis. Thus, I am sucked into the issue of regaining democracy, as it was intended when the US was founded. It seems that the public disgust with government engenders complains but very few proposals to address the issues.
Thus, World Citizen began as a book to address the global yearning. It has come in abrupt contact with the global reality, e.g. the future impacts of Climate Change. As a result, the scope has been transformed into how to bring about change in a highly fractured world and especially the mutilated US political system. My mind is constantly churning on how to make the effort on World Citizen meaningful. The goal is to translate the experience of world travel into action.
