Just a quick response to Bruce R. McFarling's response. Yes, my
fourth alternative smells a little like the first. I think it's a
different critter, but there are clearly similarities. Also, yes, I would
like to challenge world-systems theorists and sociologists and anybody
else to come up with a praxis of world integration or a praxis of
community-building on a world scale that can prevent or at least mitigate
wholesale chaos and the implosion of civilization in the next century.
The refusal of most scholars nearly everywhere to move from theory and
analysis to praxis has baffled me most of my life. Further, I do
anticipate that beyond world integration will emerge a global community of
communities, as discussed in the third book of my "A Short History of the
Future." But I see no way to get there except through a transitional
regime of socialist world government rooted in a shared world-view. If
McFarling sees another way, excellent! Let him point it out!
Regards, W. Warren Wagar