Potentialities of the U.N. /Albert Einstein

New Outlook, February 1952

Potentialities of the U.N. /Albert Einstein

In order to grasp the full significance of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, it is well to be fully aware of the world situation that gave birth to the United Nations and to Unesco. The devastation wrought by the wars of the last half century had brought home the fact to everybody that, with the present-day level of technical achievement, the security of nations could be based only on supranational institutions and rules of conduct. It understood that, in the long run, an all-destroying conflict can be avoided only by the setting up of a world federation of nations.

So—as a modest beginning of international order—the United Nations was founded. The organization, however, is but a meeting ground for delegates of national governments and not for the peoples' representatives acting independently on the basis of their own personal convictions.

Furthermore, U.N. decisions do not have binding force on any national government; nor do any concrete means exist by which the decisions can be enforced.

The effectiveness of the United Nations is still further reduced by the fact that membership has been refused to certain nations, whose exclusion seriously affects the supra-character of the organization. Yet, in itself, the fact that international problems are brought up and discussed in the broad light of day favors the peaceful solution of conflicts. The existence of a supranational platform of discussion is apt to accustom the peoples gradually to the idea that national interests must be safeguarded by negotiation and not by brute force.

This psychological or educational effect I regard as the United Nations' most valuable feature. A world federation presupposes a new kind of loyalty on the part of man, a sense of responsibility that does not stop short at the national boundaries. To be truly effective, such loyalty must embrace more than purely political issues. Understanding among different cultural groups, mutual economic and cultural aid are the necessary additions.

Only by such endeavor will the feeling of confidence be established that was lost owing to the psychological effect of the wars and sapped by the narrow philosophy of militarism and power politics. No effective institution for the collective security of nations is possible without understanding and a measure of reciprocal confidence.

To the U.N. was added UNESCO, the agency whose function it is to pursue these cultural tasks. It has in a greater measure than [the] U.N. been able to avoid the paralyzing influence of power politics.

Realizing that healthy international relations can be created only among populations made up of individuals who themselves are healthy and enjoy a measure of independence, the United Nations elaborated a Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which was adopted by the U. N. General Assembly on 10 December, 1948.

The Declaration establishes a number of universally comprehensible standards that are designed to protect the individual, to prevent his being exploited economically, and to safeguard his development and the free pursuit of his activities within the social framework.

To spread these standards among all U.N. Member States is rightly regarded and aimed at as an important objective. UNESCO has accordingly instituted this third celebration for the purpose of drawing attention far and wide to these fundamental aspirations as a basis on which to restore the political health of the peoples.

It was scarcely to be avoided that the Declaration should take the form of a legalistic document, which in its rigidity may lead to endless discussion. It is impossible for such a text to take the great diversity of conditions of life in the different countries fully into account; in addition, it is unavoidable that such a text admits various interpretations of detail. The general tendency of the Declaration, however, is unmistakable and provides a suitable, generally acceptable basis for judgment and action.

To give formal recognition to standards and to adopt them as the guiding lines of action in the teeth of all the adversities of a changing situation are two very different things—as the impartial observer may see particularly in the history of religious institutions. Then and only then will the Declaration exert effective influence, when the United Nations itself shows by its decisions and actions that it does embody, de facto, the spirit of this, its own Declaration.

For where self is, truth is not. Where truth is, self is not. Self is... individual separateness and that egoism which begets envy and hatred. Truth is the correct comprehension of things: the real, the permanent, the enduring.—Buddha

We the People, petitioning for redress [Clean New Deal] in the millions, should include:

1. Create a new Glass-Steagall Act to prevent too big to fail banks and our financial system from gambling with other people's money through fraud to then having the backing of the full faith and credit of the United States at their disposal

2. End Citizens United and dark money corruption

3. Demonstrate how $71 trillion was looted illegally by a tiny percent of our country which represents our financial system

4. End Qualified Immunity

5. End Judicial Immunity

6. End Presidential Immunity

7. Increase SCOTUS to 13 justices

8. End the Electoral College

9. Execute term limits

Devo's "Freedom of Choice", as interpreted through the lens of General Semantics / Conscious Time-binding
https://pc93.substack.com/p/devos-freedom-of-choice-as-interpreted?r=55nkvn