I think countries need to compete to see who can be the kindest, smartest, funnest, and most welcoming.
Countries who do well are rewarded by tourist dollars.
I’m not so sure I can get behind the who-can-make-the-biggest-bomb competitions, or the who-can-kill-more-people competitions. Those aren’t very fun.
Besides, I think this is one of those systems that just feeds itself once the ball gets rolling.
When you have your Bradley Manning or your Edward Snowden type folks revealing things, it’s more like finding out there was going to be a surprise party: “Oh, wow, you were really going to do that? How awesome!”
The military of each country will be saying “Hey everybody, we made it. Boy, that was a long plane ride. So, buddy, how can we help? What do you need?”
Scientists worldwide would be competing to see who can cure diseases better to make their country more competitive.
We would be grading a on a curve, at first, because, well, some countries are a bit resource-depleted, but part of kindness would be helping them get better, so it would all work out in the end.
People everywhere would actually acknowledge out loud that poverty and starvation are counter-productive to raising children who are good, smart, clever, and kind.
Sure, there would be grumpy people, but that’s okay. People can be grumpy. The kind thing is to simply do what we can to provide comfort, and then let them be.
And, yeah, there would be people who would get into mischief. I bet a lot less if the world was essentially a kind place, but still a few, sure. I think the kindest thing to do with folks who would otherwise cause trouble, is to build jails and institutions — similar to what we do now — but with the intention of keeping them as comfortable as possible while safely away from people who could be harmed.
I’m a dreamer, I know, but someone’s gotta do it, and that effort might as well include me.