The Age of Universality

The argument advanced in this article is the view that humanity is entering upon anage of universality. The term ‘universality’ is not used in the sense of all thecircumstances of humanity being universal in every respect; this is of course animpossibility given the great diversity of the human race in terms of culture,language, nationality, religion and belief, etc. And humanity is still divided intomembership of different national institutional arrangements and forms ofgovernance, although increasingly these are being transcended by cross-borderconnections, institutions and laws. The argument accepts that all humanity is onehuman species and hence are members of one race and are increasingly seen assuch. But more than that, it argues that that one human race is now participating ina process that is entering upon a new age in which the many factors that go tomake up that one race are experiencing ever increasing degrees of connections andcommonalities. These connections and commonalities have now reached a stagesuch that the interdependence of that one race is becoming an established fact2.Increasingly there is an emerging universality of factors applicable to all humanitydespite the differences already mentioned. It is not uncommonly observed that theworld of humanity is becoming a global village3. And that universality is increasingly being reflected in a consciousness on the part of many people of thedepth of these connections and commonalities. Despite a resurgence of nationalconsciousness and some rise of opposition to globalization, which as Zakariapoints out produces its discontents and the possibility of revolutions4, it is arguedthat the overall trend towards universality is now set in place.