Why not heaven on earth?
How long will humans go on fighting each other for nothing, rendering millions homeless?
Will the world ever reach a stage when religions unite in spirit through tolerance, totally discarding fanaticism? Irony of ironies, love is the golden thread that all faiths have as their main tenet, but to which so few adhere - in fact, unbridled hatred are the operative words.
With globalisation is it not possible to create a single community - and why not a one-world government with a single global marketplace, financially regulated by one central bank using one global currency? Of one set of universal values and a universal legal system? All foreign and domestic policies would be geared to help one another.
These are not my questions - I'm incapable of raising such heavy stuff. They appear in Andy McNab's book Whatever it takes, on loan from my pal Graham P (who probably reckons I need to think a little deeper for a change - away from penny dreadfuls).
It's the hero embarking on a mission to get good people aboard to form a new world order. Fiction of course. But nevertheless food for thought for the thinkers, not doffies like me.
Let's face it - the present world order is a total mess. Governments are corrupt (don't we know it!), in many instances led by despots. Poverty persists among the majority. Wars by religious factions continue unabated with millions of innocent civilians being either murdered, maimed and raped, or having to escape and becoming refugees in countries where they're also unwelcome.
How is it that in a world that's technologically advanced, these barbaric atrocities persist? Why can't humans get it right? We're able to go to the moon (and probably to Mars soon), invent computers to do miracles like creating robots that almost function like humans. Surgeons are capable of overhauling parts of the body that before simply led to early deaths. Sports people keep breaking records with superhuman effort.
Yes, all these remarkable accomplishments, but we can't love our neighbour. Despite all this brain power we act like idiots. Despite churches, cathedrals, mosques and synagogues - home to billions of believers (sic) - the world is spiritually sick. Heartless.
McNab gives vent to personal frustration by creating a world of his own thinking. One governed by capable and caring people whose only mission is to serve through what he calls a universal welfare system, doing away with poverty and wretchedness (experienced by our own rural people and who are still being neglected by a useless government).
Too good to be true? Doffie? Probably, but nevertheless an enticing thought.