Humans wrote fantastical fictional stories for hundreds of years about going to the Moon before we actually traveled there. In recent decades, our movies and other fiction about the future frequently posit interplanetary commerce and by default assume a world government for every planet and a representative from each planet at some intergalactic governing body.
As far as I know, most humans agree that only nutters believe in aliens from other planets visiting Earth. I don't know, I don't care and it's an irrelevant detail.
We have a number of regional coalitions, like ASEAN and the European Union. I think the world is currently moving towards the organic emergence of a world government and our fiction that assumes a future in which a world government exists is part of the psychological process where humanity moves towards such.
In any emergent human social phenomen where something new is growing out of unprecedented circumstances, there are typically competing ideas for how to accomplish that.
I saw a movie years ago called Longitude about the decades long search for a means for ships to determine their longitude when traveling. Latitude -- how far you are from the equator -- was a relatively easily resolved problem but longitude -- where you are in circling the globe -- proved to be a much harder problem to solve.
It was ultimately solved by developing better clocks that were smaller and more reliable.
This marks the emergence of the pocket watch from the huge clock towers that were not usable on board ships because bad weather caused them to be inaccurate. They didn't keep time reliably if the ship was being hammered and the guys working to solve longitude were puking their guts out from sea sickness due to extreme weather.
England offered prize money for solving this substantial scientific and practical issue that was a problem for world trade. Ultimately they just GAVE money to the guy who finally solved it in spite of their law being written so badly he couldn't manage to win the prize money.
My recollection is he was now in his eighties and the son he pursued the prize money for was in his forties. His son never touched another clock again once they were overnight rich, finally having gotten paid.
There was some bizarre sounding competing theory of using the Moon and astrology to determine your longitude. Reliable time pieces and ultimately time zones grew out of the human quest to solve questions related to long distance commerce.
Time zones grew out of the need to set train schedules and effectively communicate with people when the train was arriving or leaving. Prior to that, local clocks used "noon" to determine the time and that meant setting the clock to noon when the sun was highest in the sky.
So clocks could vary by a few minutes from one town to the next.
I'm not for Trump. I'm not against Trump.
I don't like his seeming goal of taking over the world. But perhaps rather than see it as megalomania, it makes sense to see it as an aspect of planet Earth seeking world government and one man going "I know! We can just add other countries to the US system because US states are supposed to be separate countries with one overarching layer of government above that!"
And I don't agree with that approach but I also don't have an alternate proposal.
I'm angry about a lot of things and have my moments when I sincerely believe the only solution to the cesspit known as planet Earth is global thermonuclear war BUT perhaps the better answer to Trump's seeming megalomania is for other people to begin hashing out other paths towards a functional, reasonable world government.
It won't likely be ME. I have a long-standing yawning disinterest in politics and I'm aggravated at feeling forced at gunpoint to speak of politics here lately.
But I do know this: Planet Earth has a bad habit of shooting down proposed solutions they think are BAD solutions and vilifying the people proposing them rather than looking for a different solution and the result is we frequently shaft people and deny them ANY solution.
I have a blog called Witness to Destruction. I originally wanted to call it Confessions of a Forum Killer because I've repeatedly had the experience that I join some forum, it thrives and grows while I'm there and collapses after I leave.
I spent years feeling like it was my fault they died or otherwise lost something when I departed but eventually concluded that most likely I happened to arrive at a critical juncture where the forum had grown too large for existing moderating practices to keep it growing and my presence added essential information to the social environment because I happen to know a lot about social stuff. It's an interest of mine and I've studied it and I have moderating experience.
In most cases, I either wasn't a moderator or didn't have enough power as a moderator to impose my rules, values etc. Someone above me didn't respect me and in one case I was treated like I was stabbing the founder in the back for being good at the unpaid job I was asked to perform.
Whether I was a moderator or not, it was unpaid work and I got subjected to a lot of abuse and ultimately left when I felt it was no longer worthwhile to me. There was too much downside and not enough upside and I didn't have to tolerate this shit so I didn't.
In some cases, I was technically banned rather than leaving voluntarily but someone who knows me well has pointed out to me that I was consistently banned after consciously deciding "I'm not putting up with this SHIT. I'm not keeping quiet about it anymore. I'm henceforth speaking my mind and letting the chips fall where they may."
I left Cyburbia for several years voluntarily, went back for a few months, just long enough to get the feedback I wanted about the community development stuff I was working on and was banned after deciding I had enough of their shit and basically said my goodbyes and said "Oh, the high level mod who spent years trolling Cyburbia for hookups in a manner in conflict with his moderator duties, an abuse of power in a professional forum? I haven't seen him in the months I've been back and we spent the night together. Do me a favor and if you're still in touch with him, tell him to get tested for trypanosoma because I believe that's the infection I have. Toodle Doo."
My comment was removed and I was banned for that. Cyburbia: A forum for professional planners where men can abuse their position of power to take advantage of female members and female members with ethics will get banned for trying to find a means to tell the asshole in question which STD he probably picked up in the course of abusing his position of power.
Yes, I knew I would likely not be welcome there anymore after that public comment. No, I'm not apologizing.
Anyway, this is long and rambling and probably doesn't effectively make the point I'm TRYING to make and very likely there will be several more long, rambling stupid sounding blog posts before anyone on planet Earth goes "Oh! I get it! She's saying BLAH!"
I'm trying to say I've watched multiple social groups called online discussion forums go to hell because I added something they apparently needed, got tired of their shit and left and after I left no one knew how to do whatever I had been doing for the forum somewhat unintentionally just by being a source of information other people didn't have.
I have a stub on a different blog titled "Problem solve or devolve." My feeling is planet Earth needs to find a viable solution to SOMETHING, I'm not sure what, or go to hell in a hand basket and I think Trump's proposed solution is he gets to be dictator for life of planet Earth.
I'm not a fan of his solution. If you aren't a fan and don't want global thermonuclear war, maybe start pondering how planet Earth finds a path towards a world government that you feel is more sensible.
Please and thank you,
Signed: Still pissed off and up for global thermonuclear war but having an epiphany that MAYBE there's another answer.
MAYBE.