A Child of Reason

So what Moral Authority does the U.N. exercise now? No more than that which resides in D.C., London, and the capitals of other free countries.

My inclination is the same; the UN's moral authority has been shattered in recent years, if it ever existed at all.

Yet I still do not believe that a global, normative institution is unhelpful per se. It is a tool to be wielded, and like any tool it can be used for good or for evil.

We are at a turning point in history, where we can let the current UN dissolve into a gentleman's club for authoritarian diplomats and an incubator for high crime syndicates, or we can hope to restructure based on certain basic principles. More specifically: we can hope to remake the UN in our image.

I do not wish to bend knee to a global Leviathon, nor am I a romantic about our prospects, yet I believe that the idea of the UN, as an institution to enforce basic norms like women's rights (which is truly the trojan horse for all our enemies), is a sound one. Language can be codified that is so simple and so universal that no government would long survive the embarrassment of a public refusal to accept it as law.

At the very least, it is a perfect time to try. America is unparalleled in her might, and thanks to our honorable but sometimes mistaken efforts around the globe we currently command the attention of the entire world. Almost 5 billion people on this planet have access to media outlets. If we codify the most basic of rights and rules, along with the necessary and inevitable punishment to follow any transgression (which includes an acceptance of violence in defense of principles), we may be able to succeed where others have failed.

It all depends on the willingness of a hyperpower America to set the example, and light the fire. It's possible that this dream of enforced global norms will never rise above the realm of ethical alchemy, but it would be noble to try.

There are many things for which a people could be remembered. We could do much worse than a functional and moral UN.