Dreams of Humanity

The success of the rule of law depends on who is making the law, or breaking it. The failure of the rule of law occurs when those people are one and the same.

The failure, dramatized in the WTO Ministerial in Seattle and numerous gatherings by lawless milieux since, demonstrate only a continuity of the rule of force–the underpinning of the distribution of power in most domestic and international institutions today. Changing the relationships between forceful and peaceful peoples, especially between indigenous nations and industrial states, can thus not be accomplished through existing venues.

In order to reconcile current conflicts and achieve meaningful resolution of power imbalance requires new methods, new attitudes, and new ideas. Naturally, those ideas will not come from those who rule by force; to accomplish the dreams of humanity, they will have to step aside.