In the beginning, there was the word, "collaboration"
At this very moment, you are using a tool, a protocol, a means of communication, that few other animals are capable of doing. You are literate, you comprehend what you are reading, and you can share what you have read, with little effort, with someone else. In a nutshell, you are using one of the most sophisticated forms of collaboration ever developed: the internet.
To get to the internet age, we had to have a means of communication and collaboration. Humans evolved to use the spoken word as a better means of communication than body gestures and grunts. I believe that this evolutionary path led us to use language as a primary means of collaboration. It is collaboration between us that has made human beings one of the most prolific mammals on the planet.
In terms of plain reproductive success, we're not even close to being a match for smaller animals like microbes or insects, but in the realm of mammals, there is no other mammal in greater numbers than us.
Humans evolved from pure body language, to spoken language, to reading, writing and mathematics for communication and collaboration. We developed the ability to communicate our thoughts and feelings for the purpose of collaborating to get our needs met. Our social orders are structured so that cooperation is required to get our needs met. The methods we use to allocate resources also requires our mutual cooperation.
The quest for power, advantage and control
From the earliest recorded human history, we can find that there has always been a struggle for power, to be on top, to have an advantage over another. Humans have long organized themselves into hierarchies as a means of distributing power. We may well have started with kings and queens, masters and slaves, but eventually, we found those power structures wanting and attempted other ways to distribute power and wealth.
Human history is littered different forms of government, from monarchy, to oligarchy, to communism and socialism. Regardless of the form of government we choose, we almost invariably find ourselves in the same situation: one small minority profiting or benefiting at the expense of everyone else.
Throughout our long history of experiments with different styles of government, somewhere along the way, or maybe it has always been that way, our children have been the target of abuse. From spanking to slavery to ritualized sacrifice, humans have made a habit and even tradition of abusing children. Part of that tradition is that adults will impose their will upon their children when children seek to defend their own rights, or their very lives. Throughout human history, children have been considered by some adults to be less than human, evil and even mere property.
No matter the form of government, child abuse remains
Despite countless attempts at better forms of government, one thing has remained roughly the same: humans continue to abuse their children. Children who are abused grow up to become parents themselves and and as "adult children", abuse their own kids, and not even know why they do it. Adults are often unconscious of their history of abuse at the hands of their caregivers. As a result, entire countries have descended into tyranny as a result of this abuse, and continue to do so to this day.
To me, it really doesn't matter which form of government you want to promote or keep, unless we can stem the tide of child abuse, nothing is going to change. No matter how fair you design your government to be, unless people are raised from the beginning to respect the rights of others, there will always be government sponsored violence, and there will always be corruption within and without government.
Real change comes from the bottom up
I've seen numerous attempts to make change from the top. While there may have been a few successes, change at the top is almost always a bloody and violent conflict, and it never lasts because the underlying problem of child abuse continues, unsolved, unabated.
Real change, lasting change, always comes from the bottom. That is because all power resides in the people. It is the people who must consent to be governed by others. It is the people who ultimately decide the form of government they consent to. Most revolutions come about because the people decided that the form of government they were living under was no longer serving their interests.
One of the biggest influences on my thoughts on this subject is Dr. Ross W. Greene, a psychologist who has spent 38 years working with kids. He has written books and given seminars on one simple concept: kids would do better if they could.
Kids exhibit challenging behavior when they encounter problems that they cannot solve on their own. It is up to us, as parents and caregivers, to give the kids the skills they need to solve those problems, the "growing pains". We teach those skills by collaborating with our kids to help them solve their problems. Note here that I'm not talking about solving their problems for them, for neither the parents nor the kids can solve the problem unilaterally. Problem solving is a collaborative effort that allows both parents and kids to learn the skill of collaboration.
Imagine a generation of kids raised as anarchists and voluntarists
When a problem that gives rise to challenging behavior is solved through collaborative problem solving, the challenging behavior goes away. So too, the need or desire on the part of parents to impose their adult will upon children. When parents discard the need to impose their will upon their kids, and opt for collaboration instead, kids raised in this manner will come to think that government should work that way, too. No longer will an all-powerful centralized government be "normal", nor will government sponsored abuse against the people served. Abuse instigated by government be unacceptable to kids raised to believe that there should be no leaders and no abusers.
A generation of kids raised by collaboration instead of coercion will find a way to change the way government runs from the bottom up, for an organic, peaceful transition. Through social awareness and pressure, governments can be changed for the better by sheer numbers of people who believe in and practice non-violent co-existence. In turn, those kids can create a peaceful human race.
But it must start somewhere and I believe that it starts with us.
I want to see world peace, where the entire human race finally decides to err on the side of peace. Imagine a world where a generation of kids are raised through collaborative problem solving, with zero coercion. Imagine that generation of kids practicing a life of non-violence, and implementing that way of life in government.
Such a transition may take several generations, but I believe such a transition will be essential to human survival. I just don't see any other way.
Additional reading:
The Explosive Child, by Dr. Ross W. Greene
Raising Hunan Beings by Dr. Ross W. Greene
Lives in the Balance, Dr. Greene's Website