Motus Mentis

I’ve been getting a little back-channel heat about my tendency, lately, to make unkind remarks about the UN. So, for the record, I’d like to say that I have always felt that the only hope for the world, in the long run, was some sort of universal government, and that I think the historical tendency of “non-zero-sum” cooperative arrangements to emerge at larger and larger scales makes such an arrangement practically inevitable, sooner or later. I used to be a big defender of the UN, back when US foreign policy seemed to consist mainly of propping up whatever foul despot would take our side against the Reds (although it seems we are still not above cozying up to a few who will take our side against the jihadists).

That being said, anyone who is paying attention has got to admit that the august international body has been a bit of a letdown of late, what with Israel-bashing, Oil-for-Food scandals, impotent hand-wringing in the face of ongoing genocide, sexual exploitation of 8-year-old girls by UN troops, etc., etc. But I don’t want to seem as if I bear some knee-jerk isolationist anipathy toward our nascent Utopia, so from now on I will just stick to mentioning the news from Turtle Bay as it happens, without editorializing.

The UN has just elected its new Human Rights Council. Among the members are China, Cuba, and Saudi Arabia.