In 1977, NASA's Voyager 1 took off for a journey of the unknown, experiencing anything and everything other than human. In 2013, it was the first man-made object to enter interstellar space, and leave the solar system. The spacecraft consisted of 116 photos and diagrams of human life, imagination, culture and science. These photos will adventure into the outer realms of space, further than we can fathom, to encounter any other civilisation or life that exists. It will exist through humanity's height and humanity's fall, and only these 116 images will remain of everything we know.
One thing that stood out was the letter that Carter signed, declaring "We human beings are still divided into nation states, but these states are rapidly becoming a single global civilisation". At such a pinnacle time of humanity, on the brink of a nuclear apocalypse, Carter saw the world coming together, closer than ever. This is because, even though the Cold War was an anguished time for the world, we were at global peace for longer and more consistently than ever before. World War One, World War Two; wars that saw the greatest destruction of humanity never seen before, but this was still more peaceful than the rest of the centuries prior. Whenever a soldier dies, and it's displayed on the news, it's tragic. But by simply showing their death indicates how far we've come, from the Second World War, from the Napoleonic Wars and from conflict millennials prior. When one death in one day is seen as horrific, we've come far as a nation, as a civilisation, as a world.
Can humanity ever condense itself into a single global nation, one of relative peace and harmony?
The cynics would say no, that culture and difference of nations breeds conflict. Judaism in the Middle East is a prominent example, where there has been constant conflict since Israel's creation. But is this disaster due to the separation of heritage, or because of the way it was founded. Personally, I view Israel as a successful failure. It was the worst outcome for the best options, and had the best outcomes of the worst options. Unfortunately, we will never know what would have happened if anything was different, whether a different option could have started World War Three, or made peace in the Middle East. The failure of Israel isn't the condensing of nations and culture, but due to the effect on the Palestinian people. Nation-states can, and hopefully will be, a political messiah that does create harmony, but it cannot start with Israel. Still today, the UN, those who created Israel, don't see Palestine as a country. There are few issues that I can't argue both sides of the story, but to dissolve a country, move it's inhabitants and then disregard any pleas from the Palestinians is disrespectful to humanity. Israel will only exist as an oppressive state, not because of it's people, it's nation, or because of it's politics. It's oppressiveness survives on in it's existence, and hopefully soon this will be vanquished with the creation with an equal Palestinian state. For those unknowing, the creation of Israel would be similar to an Islamic State (not to be confused with the barbaric troglodytes with the same name) being installed over and replacing Rome, with all it's inhabitants having to live in a desolate area of the Alps with no sovereignty. Mistakes are human nature, but then ignoring your mistake at the expense of the lives of others isn't naturally human. Israel isn't a model state for a global nation.
The liberal nationalists of you, however, would, like me, see how Israel has failed not due to the concept but because of the execution. A far better example would be the United States of America. [Side note: we have to ignore that the American's killed most of the natives, because then the example doesn't work. This is different from Israel since America has seen it's wrongs, and obviously tried to make amends. Also, at no point has a supranational body not accepted the existence of native Americans] The USA, today, is a conglomerate soup of diversity, every citizen has another nationality other than American. Irish, Italian, German, African, Cuban, Mexican, Canadian, Vietnamese, from all over the globe you will meet an American with a second nationality that their just as passionate about as their first. The United States shows how these different cultures can all live together, with different cultures, heritage and language, under a single banner. It's a success, showing the world what we need to try and achieve.
Circling back to what Carter was portraying, and asking the question: are we at the start of a single global nation? The information age we are in has brought everyone closer, with science, music, language and history. We share culture as the world becomes a smaller place, and now we can achieve a single global nation. A single global nation that strives to achieve exploration, adventure, excitement; together. In hundreds of years humanity will look back on this time and see now as the time everything changed, from looking inward to looking outward. We need to do what is hard, we shall counter what is bleak, and we will achieve greatness.
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