According to the dictionary, a citizen is someone who is vested with the rights, privileges, obligations, and duties as an individual member of society. Elise Boulding was born in Norway, and moved to the United States when she was only three years old. She grew up when Hitler invaded her country of Norway and realized that no place is safe unless the people of that country make it so. Boulding stated that, “The more states that follow the pattern of assimilative nationalism as a model of good citizenship, the more the prospect of increasing violent conflicts lie ahead.” Obviously, this method of world citizenship is one that she does not believe is the most efficient or effective.
As a result, Boulding thought of a three-fold citizenship concept for every human being. These three citizenships would include local, state, and the United Nations. Founded in 1945 after World War II, the United Nations main purpose is to control international law, security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and world peace. Nowhere in that sentence does it claim that their intent is to try and make world citizenship.
Boulding believes that the most successful way to move from a national interest citizenship to a citizenship based on our belonging to one human family spread across the planet, is to work together with the United Nations. This idea seems too extreme and far-reaching to be a professional way of dealing with the thought of world citizenship. I believe that citizenship can be extended as far as the human race wants to. As to what the correct and most successful method is, I don’t think anybody really knows the answer. Evidently, world citizenship is entirely what the planet wants to make of it.
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