Over two centuries ago, when thirteen separate
states on the North American continent were struggling to
overcome their differences and form a greater union, Federalist
and founding father Alexander Hamilton counseled citizens to
“think as a nation.” The political and social issues
of the day, he felt, could not be addressed appropriately unless
America's colonial residents began to think of themselves as
parts of a greater whole, with common interests and a common
fate. Fast-forward two and a quarter centuries, and much the
same could be said of our time. In these days of global
uncertainty, 193 nations are facing unprecedented challenges,
from globalization to global warming, that are no longer
containable within their individual borders.
Luckily, today there are a growing number of innovative
projects and initiatives designed to encourage people and
governments from Bilbao to Budapest to think about themselves as
planetary neighbors whose fates are inextricably linked. For
example, there is the well-known State of the World Forum
founded by Mikhail Gorbachev and Jim Garrison, the World Future
Council proposed by Jakob Von Uexkull, the Club of
Budapest founded by Ervin Laszlo, the World Commission on Global
Consciousness and Spirituality, and the recently convened
World Wisdom Council, just to name a few. Global consciousness,
it seems, is getting organized. Well, those keeping track can
add one more initiative to the list: the World Address
Foundation. The brainchild of Stephen Balkam, an American
entrepreneur living in London, the foundation's vision is to
provide a global complement to the American president's annual
State of the Union address that will be called the State of the
World Address. Imagine Bush or Clinton's recent State of the
Union addresses and then think global—a few hours of
carefully presented programming designed to inform and educate
the world population on issues that confront us all, directly or
indirectly. For example, what do we do about poverty in Africa?
Looming water issues? Nuclear proliferation? Middle East
terrorism? The spread of flu epidemics? Don't expect answers,
just a forum that can highlight crucial issues and invigorate
the creative problem-solving capacity, not just of a nation but
of a planet. The current plan is to aim for September 21, 2006,
as the date of the first iteration of the World Address. And the
foundation, which has already garnered some high-profile
supporters, is hoping to enroll several prominent international
figures to deliver the speech, which will be televised around
the world. They are looking for someone with the stature of
“Bill Clinton, Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu, Mary
Robinson, or the Dalai Lama,” says Balkam.
Inspired by visionaries like Buckminster Fuller and integral
philosophies like those of Clare Graves and Ken Wilber, Balkam
came up with his idea on the eve of the Iraq War during a long
flight to Asia, at that rare moment when “you have read
your book, watched a movie, done all of your work, and still
have hours left in the flight.” He hopes that a few hours
of a World Address—delivered by universally trusted faces,
broadcast all over the world, and delving into “where we
have come from, where we are, and where we are going as a global
body of people”—could provide an extraordinary
moment for world consciousness to reflect on itself and see the
reality of an interconnected society. Perhaps such an event
could begin to tap, as he puts it, the “collective wisdom
of the world.”
Hamilton knew it in the late eighteenth century and Balkam
knows it today—the future will be decided largely by how
we think about it. The World Address Foundation is one more step
toward encouraging us to think not as a tribe, ethnic group,
religious orientation, or nation-state, but as an integral
global society.