{"id":13902,"date":"2021-04-12T13:51:13","date_gmt":"2021-04-12T17:51:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/?p=13902"},"modified":"2021-04-14T08:54:42","modified_gmt":"2021-04-14T12:54:42","slug":"would-jesus-support-world-government-filmmaker-arthur-kanegis-the-world-is-my-country-thinks-so","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2021\/04\/would-jesus-support-world-government-filmmaker-arthur-kanegis-the-world-is-my-country-thinks-so.html","title":{"rendered":"Would Jesus support World Government? Filmmaker Arthur Kanegis (&#8220;The World is My Country&#8221;) thinks so"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3><strong>Here&#8217;s the latest from the crossroads of faith, media &amp; culture: 04\/12\/21<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><strong><span class=\"st\"> Do national borders cause wars or keep the peace? <\/span><\/strong><span class=\"st\">An interesting question and one which filmmaker Arthur Kenagis weighs in on with <\/span><span class=\"st\"><em>The World is My Country<\/em><\/span><span class=\"st\">, his documentary chronicling the life of actor\/dancer-turned-peace activist and World Government proponent <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Garry_Davis\">Garry Davis<\/a>. The film is airing this month on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theworldismycountry.com\/publictv\">several PBS stations<\/a> and was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2021\/04\/review-pbs-doc-the-world-is-my-country-gutfeld-brings-conservative-libertarian-comedic-voice-to-late-night.html\">reviewed by me<\/a> in this space last week.<\/span><span class=\"st\"> My conversation with Arthur follows the promo below.<\/span> <strong><span class=\"st\"><br \/>\n<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Martin Sheen 30 sec Promo for The World is My Country on Public TV!\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/476735811?dnt=1&amp;app_id=122963\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; fullscreen; picture-in-picture; clipboard-write\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>JWK: What led you to create this film and why do you think the story of Garry Davis is relevant now?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Arthur Kanegis:<\/strong> Ever since I was a kid, and experienced the Cuban Missile Crisis &#8212; and realized our entire world was hanging in the balance and we could all be completely destroyed &#8212; I have been seeking for ways to open the doors to peace.\u00a0 As I grew up I learned of the power of meditation, silence and of visualizing what we wanted.<\/p>\n<p>I made a documentary with Paul Newman called <a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0877537\/\"><em>War Without Winners<\/em><\/a> about the risks and dangers of nuclear war.\u00a0 I was also the nuclear war researcher on the film <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/The_Day_After\"><em>The Day After<\/em><\/a><em>, <\/em>faxing out data to the crew about how much damage would there be a half a mile from the epicenter, how much damage would there be a mile away and so on &#8212; so they could build the sets.\u00a0 I\u2019d be in Washington, DC going over to the Pentagon and doing the research by day, and at night I\u2019d wake up with these terrible nuclear war nightmares. I couldn\u2019t shake them.\u00a0 I couldn\u2019t say, \u201cWell, there\u2019s not really monsters under the bed\u201d because the monster was very real and we could be destroyed in a moment\u2019s notice.<\/p>\n<p>In trying to calm myself by meditating, I thought back to the <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/George_Fox\">George Fox<\/a> song \u201c\u2018There\u2019s an ocean of darkness and I drown in the night till I come through the darkness to the ocean of light and the light is forever and the light makes us free and I will dwell in the glory of the light\u2019 said he.\u201d And I realized that simultaneously with this \u201cocean of darkness\u201d \u2013 the death, the danger, the despair \u2013 there\u2019s an \u201cocean of light\u201d \u2013 people helping each other, reaching out, touching one another.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I decided I wanted to make a film that would inspire people with a vision of what we could move toward, not what we\u2019re against.\u00a0 Everybody knows what they\u2019re against.\u00a0 But where\u2019s the vision of how we can come together as a planet?\u00a0 What do we want to move toward so that we can save this incredibly precious human race? And this amazingly beautiful planet that we\u2019ve been given?\u00a0 That\u2019s when I discovered Garry\u2019s story and I said \u201cThis is a great way to help open people\u2019s eyes to a better way in our world.\u201d That\u2019s why think he\u2019s also so relevant today.<\/p>\n<p><strong>JWK: The whole topic of borders is certainly relevant to current headlines.\u00a0 How do you think Garry would view the situation going on now on America\u2019s southern border?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>AK: <\/strong>He would say that what\u2019s happening is that this is all being caused by a dysfunctional system. \u00a0When you get to know people one-on-one you realize that people are precious.\u00a0 They have the same goals, wants and visions.\u00a0 These political divisions that have been put upon us aren\u2019t real.\u00a0 I mean God created this beautiful green Earth.\u00a0 He didn\u2019t create these borders.\u00a0 When Garry looked at it from the plane he was in while flying over Germany being ordered to bomb a city he thought, \u201cOh, my God!\u00a0 Why am I killing these people because they\u2019re on the wrong side of some invisible line?!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>If you take any one of those immigrants trying to get in and you get to know them family to family, get to know their stories, their hopes and dreams, across cultures, you might very well find you\u2019d love them.\u00a0 It\u2019s like what the Pope said in his <a href=\"http:\/\/www.vatican.va\/content\/francesco\/en\/encyclicals\/documents\/papa-francesco_20201003_enciclica-fratelli-tutti.html\">(Fratelli Tutti) encyclical<\/a> that if we all possess an inalienable dignity, what does it matter which country my neighbor was born in?<\/p>\n<p>So, I think Garry would say that the crisis is a function of the broken system that we have in the world and that we \u2013 the human race \u2013 are very inventive and can come up with something that would work much better for all of us.<\/p>\n<p><strong>JWK: I believe that Garry was sincere about his perspective as a former World War II fighter pilot but I have a different viewpoint.\u00a0 From my perspective, I look at history and I think that the war began \u2013 most wars begin \u2013 because of a lack of recognition of national boundaries.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>AK: <\/strong>Inherent in the very idea of boundaries is fighting wars.\u00a0 That\u2019s why we build these walls around our cities.\u00a0 The whole idea was if we can just kill the bad guys somehow we\u2019ll solve our problems and we\u2019ll be safe \u2013 or we can threaten to kill them so they won\u2019t attack us.\u00a0 That\u2019s such a fragile, fragile way to try to keep peace.\u00a0 It hasn\u2019t worked.\u00a0 Centuries and centuries have had wars after wars after wars.\u00a0\u00a0 And yet Garry discovered there really is something we\u2019ve discovered that does eliminate wars and it\u2019s not borders and division.\u00a0 It\u2019s something very different.<\/p>\n<p><strong>JWK: That point of view suggests that without national borders there would be no wars \u2013 but, certainly, there have been civil wars.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>AK: <\/strong>Here is what Garry discovered\u00a0 when he was desperately seeking for an alternative to the threats to the very life of the planet.\u00a0 He realized that inside countries \u2013 with one government, where we all accept one government \u2013 we don\u2019t fight wars.\u00a0 We may have crimes but we don\u2019t go to war over them. \u00a0\u00a0When <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Timothy_McVeigh\">Tim McVeigh<\/a> blew up the federal building, Oklahoma didn\u2019t declare war on Michigan for harboring a Michigan militia.\u00a0 They handled it as a criminal justice matter.<\/p>\n<p>If you have two sovereignties \u2013 people who dispute the sovereignty or have two different sovereignties within a single border \u2013 then you could have wars.\u00a0 But if not, you don\u2019t have wars, you have crimes that can be settled with cops and courts, not armies and bombs.<\/p>\n<p>Garry did not advocate eliminating countries but rather adding a higher loyalty. \u00a0In Europe, when they did take down the borders that were separating everybody, they still had separate countries, separate cultures, separate music and separate identities but they didn\u2019t have to use borders and wars to control it.\u00a0 They used \u00a0the power of law \u2013 and something even more powerful.<\/p>\n<p>I think Jesus really had the key when He said \u201cLove your enemy.\u201d When you kill an enemy you create more enemies.\u00a0 Their family hates you.\u00a0 They\u2019re going to retaliate \u2013 and then your side retaliates back and that can go on for centuries.\u00a0 But when you love your enemy \u2013 when you get to know somebody as a human being \u2013 you connect and the \u201cenemy\u201d is gone.\u00a0 Where is our \u201cBritish enemy\u201d?\u00a0 We fought a fierce revolutionary war against the British.\u00a0 Where\u2019s that \u201cenemy\u201d?\u00a0 Where is the terrible \u201cenemy\u201d that we fought with Germany and Japan?\u00a0 Now, they\u2019re our friends.\u00a0 Fierce borders and guns and bombs? Or friendship? \u00a0Which makes us more secure?<\/p>\n<p><strong>JWK: But there <em>are<\/em> borders \u2013 and those borders are respected.\u00a0 That\u2019s why there\u2019s peace.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>AK: <\/strong>Garry didn\u2019t think there shouldn\u2019t be borders\u2026There are borders between each state in the US, but California would never go to war with Nevada.\u00a0 Neighboring states don\u2019t go to war with each other.\u00a0 They take their disputes to court because we have a legal system that we\u2019re all part of.\u00a0 We respect the law and we don\u2019t fight wars between states when we\u2019re all part of one country.<\/p>\n<p><strong>JWK: But<\/strong> <strong>there have been such wars \u2013 not only in our country but throughout the world.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>AK: <\/strong>Because there are different sovereignties competing for who controls that country.\u00a0 Now, the thing that\u2019s actually worked and kept the peace is when we create a system where people are involved.\u00a0 They feel like they\u2019re a part of that governing system\u2026Garry realized this after World War II.\u00a0 All of the groups that were fighting each other around the world &#8212; the same ethnic groups &#8212; were living side-by-side New York.\u00a0 If war was human nature, they\u2019d be blowing up each other\u2019s city blocks.\u00a0 But instead they\u2019re playing chess in the Washington Square.<\/p>\n<p>Why are the exact same peoples who are killing each other in other countries, living together side by side in peace in New York? Because they are functioning within a system of law.\u00a0 And when you have that system of law keeping us all safe, then people can get to know each other as people.\u00a0 And that\u2019s when the bonds of love can grow.<\/p>\n<p><strong>So <\/strong>Garry realized there already is a powerful thing that does eliminate war \u2013 and it\u2019s law.\u00a0 The question is what kind of law can serve all the people worldwide?\u00a0 That\u2019s what he challenged us to invent.<\/p>\n<p><strong>JWK: That assumes a benevolent world government.\u00a0 What happens if it\u2019s not benevolent?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>AK: <\/strong>In America the separate states \u2013 Virginia, Maryland and all that \u2013 had border skirmishes, had criminals who escaped over the border and then couldn\u2019t be caught, had different currencies, all those challenges.\u00a0 When they decided to raise their sovereignty to the national level to create the United States, they had to give up a little of their sovereignty but they gained something much more powerful! \u00a0The Founders realized \u2013 even back then \u2013 that this was the beginning.\u00a0 .\u00a0 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ushistory.org\/paine\/rights\/c2-052.htm\">Thomas Paine said \u201cMy country is the world and my religion is to do good.\u201d<\/a>\u00a0 We can follow in the footsteps of our Founders and begin to raise our sovereignty to a higher level &#8212; and that can actually make us all more secure, more safe and help us have a sustainable planet that flourishes and thrives.<\/p>\n<p><strong>JWK: You mention Pope Francis\u2019 encyclical <\/strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.vatican.va\/content\/francesco\/en\/encyclicals\/documents\/papa-francesco_20201003_enciclica-fratelli-tutti.html\"><strong>Fratelli Tutti<\/strong><\/a><strong> that says \u201cIf every human being possesses an inalienable dignity, if all people are my brothers and sisters, and if the world truly belongs to everyone, then it matters little whether my neighbor was born in my country or elsewhere.\u201d Most people would not dispute that.\u00a0 People are people and have the same value no matter where they\u2019re born.\u00a0 But there is a principle of maintaining legitimate boundaries for human beings.\u00a0 When we violate that \u2013 for example, by stealing \u2013 that\u2019s when problems set in.\u00a0 I\u2019m sure the Church would love to have a world government with the Church in charge but most people probably would not be happy living in a worldwide theocracy.\u00a0 What kind of worldwide government could possibly be set up that everyone would live under peacefully?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>AK: <\/strong>That was, again, the challenge faced by our Founders.\u00a0 They had to invent something different.\u00a0 We had big states and little states.\u00a0 We had all these different things.\u00a0 So, they came up with a bicameral legislature.\u00a0 We\u2019ll have both a Senate representing the states and a House representing the population.\u00a0 They came up with a three-part government (Executive, Legislative and Judicial) so there would be checks and balances.\u00a0 They invented systems to cope with exactly the problem you\u2019re talking about and exactly the problem they faced back then.<\/p>\n<p>Well, now we have a different world and we can invent something completely different.\u00a0 We don\u2019t have to take their model and try to impose it on the world.\u00a0 That would be archaic in today\u2019s world.\u00a0 But now we have something incredible.\u00a0 With the internet and with people doing Zoom conferences all over, we have a way that people can be directly involved in governance to preserve the life of humanity.<\/p>\n<p>What Garry said was that back in 1776 if you wanted to have a democratic system you had to elect representatives and send them along via horse and buggy to a distant city to talk to each other because there was no other way to do it.\u00a0 But now we can all be directly interactively talking in something like these Zoom conferences but across cultures.\u00a0 It wouldn\u2019t just be throwing people together to fight about who\u2019s right and who\u2019s wrong.\u00a0 Rather, in these little interactive conferences \u2013 Garry called them \u201csyntegrity groups\u201d \u2013 you\u2019d have a tool kit to draw on for enhanced communication.\u00a0 It would be a solutionary system of governance where we all work to come up with the best solutions.\u00a0 And the more diverse your group the more impact you would have on the solutions we all come up with for our planet.\u00a0 The tool kit would help bring out what are our hopes and dreams?\u00a0 What do we care about?\u00a0 How do we interact with each other in a way where we understand people across these boundaries and how do we come up with solutions that work?<\/p>\n<p>The old system of electing representatives becomes a race to the bottom -the lowest common denominator.\u00a0 If we have to pick one leader versus the other \u2013 51% wins, the other side loses &#8212; it becomes a real fierce fight.\u00a0 If, instead you bring these same people together from across the political divides and first explore \u201cWho are these other human beings we\u2019re connecting with?\u201d\u00a0 And then we ask \u201cWhat are our real hopes and dreams?\u201d, \u201cWhat do we want for the planet?\u00a0 And then after that explore \u201cHow do we come up with solutions?\u201d you get a very different answer than you get with win\/lose democracy \u2013 where one side wins and the other loses.<\/p>\n<p>Garry said we don\u2019t have to be stuck in these old systems.\u00a0 We can invent a more interactive system that brings to the top the highest and best wisdom of each individual and helps amalgamate that into the will of the people of the planet\u2026<\/p>\n<p>The Declaration of Independence says it\u2019s the right of the people to institute new government.\u00a0 Almost every constitution in the world says it\u2019s based on the people.\u00a0 The Universal Declaration of Human Rights invokes the will of the people as the basis for the authority of government.<\/p>\n<p>So If we have the right to invent something new, let\u2019s just go ahead and do it.<\/p>\n<p><strong>JWK: How do you make this transition?\u00a0 Do you have a worldwide election?\u00a0 How does that happen?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>AK: <\/strong>When Garry and I would talk about it \u2013 we\u2019d have fascinating discussions about this \u2013 we\u2019d say that we don\u2019t have to make a worldwide transition all at once. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bfi.org\/about-fuller\">Buckminster Fuller<\/a> said you never create change by fighting the old system.\u00a0 You create something new and draw people to it.\u00a0 Einstein said the same thing \u2013 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.brainyquote.com\/quotes\/albert_einstein_143191\">\u201cYou can never solve a problem on the level on which it was created.\u201d<\/a> You have to step up to a whole new level.<\/p>\n<p>Look at how some of these new tools have taken off.\u00a0 Why was Facebook such a success?\u00a0 Here is something that helped people fulfill a basic need.\u00a0 We want to connect with one another.\u00a0 That ended up with over a billion people having a big impact \u2013 in some ways good, in some ways bad.\u00a0 Well, say we developed an interactive kind of app \u2013 a system \u2013 that would be a tool that helps us develop solutions that work and we could sign up for that tool in our community \u2013 to solve our local problems.\u00a0 If we find that works for people we apply it to our larger problems.\u00a0 We find an interactive tool that gets us past our divisions and brings us into agreements and imbues them with the power of law. \u00a0\u00a0It draws on the natural instincts of people to do good and help others in their communities and the world.\u00a0 Imagine how powerful that would be.<\/p>\n<p>Just as Facebook fulfilled the need to be able to connect with each other, if we can create a tool that gives people a sense of empowerment that they could solve problems and come together and create solutions in their communities, in their cities, in their states and our world, people would be attracted to it and they could find their true power \u2013 what Garry called \u201cthe sovereignty of the whole\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Garry called this solutionary rather than revolutionary because it doesn\u2019t \u201coverthrow\u201d the old system.\u00a0 It just creates something new and attracts people to it.<\/p>\n<p>In the current system, there\u2019s no way the will of the people (is) being expressed at the global level.\u00a0 We don\u2019t elect representatives to the United Nations, it doesn\u2019t have a people\u2019s assembly \u2013 and it\u2019s not a government.\u00a0 As Eleanor Roosevelt says in the movie, it\u2019s a place where words can be bandied about not bombs.<\/p>\n<p>Garry challenged us to be the Thomas Jeffersons, James Madisons, Thomas Paine\u2019s and Betsy Rosses of inventing a new system.\u00a0 The human race is very inventive.\u00a0 Why are we stuck in these old broken systems?\u00a0 Let\u2019s invent something new.<\/p>\n<p><strong>JWK: Ideally, Facebook, Twitter and all these things would democratize the public square so that people can have their voices heard.\u00a0 But, on the flip side, as we\u2019ve seen, people can also have their voices just turned off by a powerful corporation \u2013 or, maybe, a world government.\u00a0 The very things that can help democratize the world can also be used to control it.\u00a0 If everything worked the way you say, I guess that would be great but I don\u2019t see that as guaranteed.\u00a0 As has also been said, \u201cPower corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.\u201d I mean who\u2019s going to be running this world government and why should we trust them?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>AK: <\/strong>Democratizing the public square, that you mention, that is really the key and yet, the very challenging question that you\u2019re asking, we found that in other areas.\u00a0 For instance, we used to think that you could only have currencies of nations and then these cryptocurrencies started.\u00a0 Well, we can invent something new in the political sphere which starts bringing us together and then creates something that really has every single person on the planet feel like they can have an input and are stakeholders.<\/p>\n<p>Say you\u2019re issue is \u201cI\u2019ve got this creek next to me that\u2019s polluted and I want to fix it up.\u00a0 So, I signed up for this World Citizen kind of app.\u201d Garry called it \u201cSmartGov.\u201d I click on the app and I see who are my neighbors in the area working on this issue.\u00a0 I see where there\u2019s a meeting coming up where I can meet with the people on the opposite side of the issue and we can try to come to a synergy.<\/p>\n<p>You know, synergy is not just win or lose.\u00a0 It\u2019s how do we come to not just a consensus but something \u00a0even better than any of us started with when we first came into the room, a synergizing of all of our ideas with integrity via \u201csyntegrity groups\u201d that really brings us together to tap into our creativity and together invent new solutions.<\/p>\n<p>So, we start solving these problems and what happens is this app tells you what are the best solutions that have happened around the world.\u00a0 We can click on it and we see that in Egypt they solved the exact same problem doing this or that.\u00a0 We have algorithms that bring to the top the best solutions and we can look at them and say \u201cWell, would that work with our group?\u201d or \u201cNo, we want to modify it this way.\u201d We all become solutionaries and everybody\u2019s got a stake.<\/p>\n<p><strong>JWK: I think all that\u2019s fine but I think you can do that now.\u00a0 Nobody\u2019s saying that there should be no cooperation around the world, and if you see a solution to a problem somewhere else, fantastic.\u00a0 Let\u2019s look into it.\u00a0 But I don\u2019t see why you need a world government to do that.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>AK: <\/strong>Garry said let\u2019s devise a whole new way.\u00a0 We think of government as a bunch of buildings and these representatives we send to meet in the same room and them controlling over us.\u00a0 Garry said government should be a service.\u00a0 For instance, there\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.datafoundry.com\/blog\/what-is-icann\">ICANN<\/a> that governs domain names.\u00a0 If you try to have the exact same domain name or the exact same email address as someone else, they won\u2019t let you.\u00a0 Well, that\u2019s a nonprofit organization run worldwide that governs these for the internet.\u00a0 That governing is a service to us just like the postal union.\u00a0 He said governance should be a service that serves us.\u00a0 It\u2019s not government over us.\u00a0 It\u2019s really truly government of, by and for the people of the planet done from the grassroots bottom up.\u00a0 So, there are no overlords to take over.\u00a0 If the system is robust enough and interactive enough, you can\u2019t really take it over because it\u2019s all the people being involved.<\/p>\n<p>You do have to develop secure systems so it\u2019s not fake people and bots and stuff taking over.\u00a0 There are technological people working to solve that.\u00a0 How does each person have a digital identity that is really them and they really are interacting?\u00a0 We\u2019re coming to solutions on those kinds of things.<\/p>\n<p>We have a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theworldismycountry.com\/club\"><u>People-Powered Planet podcast<\/u><\/a> where we bring in great speakers on how to solve some of the key problems you\u2019re talking about.\u00a0 What we want to do is just inspire people with the vision and the wonderful story Garry had that takes us into imagining the world we choose.\u00a0 Let\u2019s get young people\u2019s imaginations spinning with how do we solve our problems rather than how do we fight off and blow up the other guy.<\/p>\n<p><strong>JWK: I think you could have something in between blowing up the other guy and world government.\u00a0 I think you can take the same principle that applies to individuals and expand it to countries.\u00a0 As an individual, you have a home or an apartment and you lock your door.\u00a0 You want to help and cooperate with other people but you still lock your door.\u00a0 We are told by psychologists that, as individuals, it\u2019s important to have boundaries.\u00a0 Why doesn\u2019t that principle hold for groups of people and countries?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>AK: <\/strong>You\u2019re absolutely right.\u00a0 We do need boundaries.\u00a0 Garry and I never thought we shouldn\u2019t have boundaries.\u00a0 We need a rich diversity of cultures with all the differences.\u00a0 We need people able to keep out intrusions on their culture and control their lives and create what they need.\u00a0 Garry envisioned this as a very decentralized bottom-up system, not the same for everybody in the world but with all of us having the same access to tools that can help us resolve our problems so we\u2019re not using war.<\/p>\n<p>I mean war is an archaic and incredibly stupid way to solve problems.\u00a0 Think of it.\u00a0 Does it ever really solve it?\u00a0 No, you create more enemies.\u00a0 You create more problems.\u00a0 That was something old.\u00a0 We had to do that before we developed new tools.\u00a0 Today we can invent something far more creative, a much better way of solving problems than war.\u00a0 That doesn\u2019t mean we give up any of our diversity \u2013 but we do a have to protect our planet.<\/p>\n<p>Certain issues \u2013 like saving the planet \u2013 are global.\u00a0 If your pollution\u2019s going out all over the world &#8212; and they can even see it from the satellites &#8212; that\u2019s not a local issue.\u00a0 That\u2019s a global issue.\u00a0 It\u2019s threatening the very survival of our planet.\u00a0 So, in that case we interactively have to all be able to govern and say \u201cOkay, we\u2019ve passed a Global Clean-Air Act of the People.\u00a0 What you\u2019re doing is illegal.\u201d This citizen-based governance can say, \u201cWe\u2019re issuing an injunction.\u00a0 Shut it down.\u201d And if they don\u2019t stop poluting, what happens?\u00a0 We don\u2019t enforce it with troops and guns coming in.\u00a0 We enforce it with an app that we use when we shop in a store and scan products.\u00a0 It goes beep beep beep flagging a company as a world law violator.\u00a0 Then you don\u2019t buy their product.\u00a0 You go to apply for a job and beep beep this is a world law violator.\u00a0 You don\u2019t apply for that job.\u00a0 When these companies start to find out, \u201cHey, if we violate world law, we\u2019re gonna lose business, customers, workers and clients,\u201d they\u2019ll jump aboard and say, \u201cHey, we\u2019re leaders in supporting this interactive SmartGov, this people-powered planet.\u201d We can draw people to something without having to smash them over the head.\u00a0 We don\u2019t have all the answers but let\u2019s start struggling with asking the right questions and then finding those answers and finding that root of spirit in each person \u2013 that genius and beauty and difference that can come together to solve problems.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Note: For more information on Garry Davis, <em>The World is My Country<\/em>, including how to view the documentary on a PBS station in your area, click <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theworldismycountry.com\/\"><strong>here<\/strong><\/a><strong>.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Encourage one another and build each other up \u2013 <\/em><\/strong><strong>1 Thessalonians 5:11<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Here&#8217;s the latest from the crossroads of faith, media &amp; culture: 04\/12\/21 Do national borders cause wars or keep the peace? An interesting question and one which filmmaker Arthur Kenagis weighs in on with The World is My Country, his documentary chronicling the life of actor\/dancer-turned-peace activist and World Government proponent Garry Davis. The film&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":225,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,9,10,5615,30,31,1,1015],"tags":[11418,11391,11388],"class_list":["post-13902","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-catholic-church","category-christianity","category-current-events","category-social-media","category-technology","category-television","category-uncategorized","category-vatican","tag-arthur-kanegis","tag-garry-davis","tag-the-world-is-my-country"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Would Jesus support World Government? Filmmaker Arthur Kanegis (&quot;The World is My Country&quot;) thinks so<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2021\/04\/would-jesus-support-world-government-filmmaker-arthur-kanegis-the-world-is-my-country-thinks-so.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Would Jesus support World Government? Filmmaker Arthur Kanegis (&quot;The World is My Country&quot;) thinks so\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Here&#8217;s the latest from the crossroads of faith, media &amp; culture: 04\/12\/21 Do national borders cause wars or keep the peace? 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Filmmaker Arthur Kanegis (\"The World is My Country\") thinks so","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2021\/04\/would-jesus-support-world-government-filmmaker-arthur-kanegis-the-world-is-my-country-thinks-so.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Would Jesus support World Government? Filmmaker Arthur Kanegis (\"The World is My Country\") thinks so","og_description":"Here&#8217;s the latest from the crossroads of faith, media &amp; culture: 04\/12\/21 Do national borders cause wars or keep the peace? An interesting question and one which filmmaker Arthur Kenagis weighs in on with The World is My Country, his documentary chronicling the life of actor\/dancer-turned-peace activist and World Government proponent Garry Davis. The film&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2021\/04\/would-jesus-support-world-government-filmmaker-arthur-kanegis-the-world-is-my-country-thinks-so.html","og_site_name":"Faith, Media &amp; Culture","article_published_time":"2021-04-12T17:51:13+00:00","article_modified_time":"2021-04-14T12:54:42+00:00","author":"John W. Kennedy","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2021\/04\/would-jesus-support-world-government-filmmaker-arthur-kanegis-the-world-is-my-country-thinks-so.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2021\/04\/would-jesus-support-world-government-filmmaker-arthur-kanegis-the-world-is-my-country-thinks-so.html","name":"Would Jesus support World Government? 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Kennedy is the founder and Dir. of Development of The Creative Universe Entertainment\u2122, a media consultation and development company focusing on the creation, development and support of high-quality mainstream entertainment that upholds positive timeless values, including trust in God. Current projects include \"Bryant Park\" (an uplifting romantic-comedy) and \"Photo Finish\" (an award-winning sci-fi TV pilot). He has written over 100 children's novels based on episodes of the Cartoon Network series \"Ben 10\", \"Ben 10: Alien Force\", \"Ben 10: Ultimate Alien\", \"Ben 10: Omniverse\" and \"Generator Rex\" among others. He also writes Beliefnet\u2019s \"Faith, Media &amp; Culture\" blog. Previously, he has produced successful news and talk programming for CNN, Fox News, Pax TV and SiriusXM. Specialties: Script Writing, Movie\/TV Novelizations &amp; Adaptations, TV Content Creation and Development, Creative Consultation, Producing and Booking News and Talk shows. He can be reached for writing, producing and consulting services at 516-640-1182.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/author\/jkennedy"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13902","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/225"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13902"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13902\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14016,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13902\/revisions\/14016"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13902"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13902"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13902"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}