The United Nations was intended to be a safety net designed to promote the welfare of many nations through peace and economic stabilization. Although I am most definitely not against the promotion of peace, it concerns me that many nations have submitted themselves to an overarching "collective" organization that may or may not have the best interests of the county at heart. I want to emphasize that it is not for the good they have done in the world that I am criticizing this organization (or better yet, group of organizations. See IMF, World Bank, etc.) I am more attempting to provide a critique of the reasons for the existence of the organization in the first place.
What is the fundamental problem? Well, for protection (i.e. peace) to occur, submission to the protector must occur. This peace given by the U.N. has not surprisingly come at a price for many nations in the form of sanctions, regulations, and sometimes complete economic overhaul (See the Asian Financial Crisis or the Argentinian or Mexican Financial Crisis situations for further study). This is not surprising to me because it is difficult for any institution with values of its own to somehow bring together many nations operating off of different fundamental presuppositions about life, economics, and government together and expect that a particular policy objective will in some way be good for every country. If it isn't good for every country, who gets left out? And more importantly, who decides who gets the short end of the stick?
Personally, I am unwilling to submit myself entirely to my government for my protection and the protection of my family. "Entirely" being the key word. However, I do submit myself to the police force, firefighters, and public hospital workers for some degree of overarching protection and health. These things do not necessarily exist in opposition to each other. I am not anti-protection or anti-government. If anything, the government ought to be serving the people in this way! And I am grateful for that service. I believe that government exists to "govern" a body of individuals, each with their own rights and freedoms, by providing a societal order that facilitates these freedoms. The government ought not work in opposition to those freedoms. So in this way the government works for the people, not the other way around.
Just as the current gun legislation will lead to the suppression of individual rights, taking away my right to protect myself in the way I deem appropriate, so the U.N. overreaches when it dictates policies to nations that infringe upon the basic freedoms of the citizens.
The U.N. works for the nations which are a part of it. However, the U.N. ought to have even less power and authority over the lives of citizens because it is not elected by the people, and is not therefore accountable to the people like our government theoretically is.... It amazes me that a nation like America which is so apparently concerned with "democracy" would be behind such an institution.
Although the U.N. does much good in the world, I believe it needs to be restructured at least. I do not have the answer, but there needs to be some mechanism of accountability to the citizens of the "United" nations. Otherwise, the U.N. is nothing more than an oligopoly, an elitist group over all nations, dictating what they ought and ought not do. The major difference is elections, decisions, term limits, and these types of things.
I believe that at some point it is inevitable that the U.N. will overreach in its authority, if it hasn't already. Peace is not worth the sacrifice of freedom. It is too high a price. They say, "Peace! Peace!" When there is no peace. Do not be fooled, an oligopoly has only ever led to war.
The concept of the U.N. is not a bad one, but the structure of the U.N. is poor at best. As with many systems of government in the world, the U.N. does not place individual freedom as its priority. Prosperity and peace are only possible under the freedom to innovate, produce, and truly live without oppression. Let us not be the nation that is taken over because we sacrifice our freedom for a peace that will never be realized.
Think About It
~ Lady Robinson
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