Review of 2048: Humanity's Agreement to Live Together

This was a book I picked while perusing through a local book store, Books, INC. @ 2275 Market Street SF, CA. I came across it while looking through the titles in the sociology section. It was written by J. Kirk Boyd who is a lawyer and professor of law at my soon to be school of attendance, UC Berkeley.

The book was written by Mr. Boyd to bring to the masses a social movement that is taking place around the world and his work at getting the whole of humanity on board with the concept. This is about the drafting of the International Bill of Rights that will be enforceable in every country on Earth.

It all starts with the history of the first drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the United Nations in 1948. Unfortunately that bill is still not enforceable and the true nature and goal of this has yet to be seen.

In the book he shows how a new bill can be established and have it in place by the 100 year anniversary of the original document. He explains that there are five freedoms that every human has a right to, those are:

1. Freedom of Speech

2. Freedom of Religion

3. Freedom from Want

4. Freedom for the Environment

5. Freedom from Fear

He goes into great detail what is meant by each of the freedoms and what they should include. Lastly he goes into the path that is needed to see this movement succeed....he explains that there are regional agreements to living together that must be met and that there are also humanity's agreements to living together and what is involved within there. He also explains that we must travel down the same path, focus, think, write, decide, and move forward together. And again he goes into much detail about what is involved here.

I found the book to be inspiring in so many ways. So much can be accomplished with just a small, minute, bit of effort on each of our parts. That we need to break out of our egocentric/national centric/ethnocentric ways of thinking and that we must come together for a common cause. It relies heavily on being able to see the larger picture and focusing on breaking down these remaining walls. That every human has the right to these basic rights and that we need to realize this and extend this to EVERY human!

This was a great read and it has caused me to rethink my place in all of this and my need to move forward and help any way that I can to help this movement succeed. First I am starting with my friends and those whom I have regular contact with and encouraging them to read the book, check out the projects website, and talk to anyone that will listen.