Q. This seems like a very long-term project: just how long?

A. There is a story of a French aristocrat who told his head gardener to plant a group of oak trees. When the gardener argued that it would be at least 100 years before the trees fulfilled their purpose in the landscape, his lord replied “Then you'd better start planting this afternoon.”

Breakdowns in international law, nuclear proliferation and the increasing levels of natural disaster associated with population growth and climate change, are all matters potentially responsive to human intervention. The sooner they are addressed, the less danger they will pose. The gravest risk to our civilisation is that posed by rapid climate change. Unfortunately, executive decisions on measures to reverse climate trends will take decades before their positive effects are felt. The establishment of a DWG is indeed a long term project. It is in every person's best interest to work to reduce the time it takes. The sooner the Democratic World Government is in place the better. In this matter, time is not our friend.

 

Q. If I join the movement, what will be expected of me?

A. In thought. That you conform to a philosophy that all human beings are members of the same family; that all individuals should be treated with respect and concern.

In deed.

• That you argue the Sapiens case with your friends and bring them to the movement. It will be the ratio of people who seek the DWG route to the resolution of humanity's most pressing concerns to those that don't that will decide the issue. If members set themselves the target of recruiting one new member each month, it will not be long before our voice for sanity is heard. If we start in the first month with ten members by the end of the first year, we will have over 10,000.
• That you contribute to the thinking that has to go on. There are interactive pages on the Website; the Fora, Links, Articles and the Manual. These are for you to help build the flow of our ideas and help us to adjust to the complexity of the situation we face.
• Be active on your own initiative, reach out to others where you can and, as we get going, join in Sapiens' campaigns.
• Ultimately we will need funds – we will discuss how these should be raised at our first AGM.

Q. How did this movement come about?

 A. Like all successful ideas, this is an idea appropriate to its time. In the past, many people have dreamt of a global authority to terminate the murderous anarchy of fully sovereign nation states. However, circumstances will never have coincided so appropriately with the thought as they do today. The essential tool of the Internet has become available at the same time as we are becoming aware of the reality of climate change and a dreadful understanding of its probable causes and consequences. Simultaneously, any hopes we might have held that the solution to anarchy lay with the United Nations, or in the beneficence of the world's sole remaining post-Cold War superpower, are daily being laid bare as mere illusion.


Q. What is Sapiens' position in regard to domestic NZ politics?

A. In essence, Sapiens cannot afford to involve itself too deeply in domestic politics, except, in areas such a sdefence policy, where they impinge on external relations. It is very easy to lose a distant focus. Within New Zealand, Sapiens' long-term goal is to persuade the government to surrender certain of its sovereign powers to an international authority. In the meantime, it does not want the NZ Government to behave other than as an exemplary member of the international community. It will therefore encourage its members to vote for the party they consider to offer policies most sympathetic to the Sapiens cause.

Shortly, Sapiens will be working hard to get its enormously significant but very restricted agenda included on a political party's manifesto. If it is unsuccessful in this, it will probably be forced to form its own political party and become a player in the MMP game of coalition governments.