The Planetized Generation
Global Citizenship Redux
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Carl Teichrib’s essay revisits the Global Citizenship 2000 Youth Congress (GC2000) — an event he personally attended 1,000 days before the year 2000 — and explores its enduring significance through the lens of worldview formation. Expanding on the report he published in 1997, Teichrib connects the Congress to themes developed in his book Game of Gods, highlighting how GC2000 was not simply a conference but a cultural template for transforming education and values.
Central to the Congress was the idea of “visioneering” — a term popularized by co-convener Desmond Berghofer — which framed imagination, visualization, and collective “mindpower” as tools for re-shaping society. Participants, including students and educators, were asked to brainstorm “Millennium Projects” that envisioned a borderless, unified world. These exercises encouraged participants to overcome doubts and move toward consensus, with the assumption of planetary Oneness taken as a given. Symbolic passports reinforced the message: “You are the Earth become conscious of herself.”
Berghofer’s novel The Visioneers served as an implicit script, portraying youth guided by historic figures who reshape world leaders’ thinking and usher in planetary synthesis — a new spiritual, economic, and political order culminating in global governance and even a “universal city” in Jerusalem. Co-convener Dr. Geraldine Schwartz reinforced this narrative, urging participants to elevate their consciousness to meet the demands of the future.
Dr. Robert Muller, former UN Assistant-Secretary-General and architect of the World Core Curriculum, provided an impassioned call to action. He described the need to reduce population growth, embrace environmental stewardship, and consider the Earth as “Mother.” His vision extended to planetary governance: strengthening the UN into a “United States of the World,” forming continental unions, and organizing society along geographic and ecological lines. Muller’s rhetoric placed the moral weight of global survival on the youth, urging them to change their values or face the extinction of life on Earth. He framed religion in cosmic terms, suggesting that humanity is “divine energy” and part of the universe’s self-realization.
Participants’ projects reflected these themes: youth-based United Nations initiatives, interfaith councils, environmental clubs, cashless economic systems tied to ecological contribution, and global citizenship celebrations. Educators discussed embedding global concerns — population, environment, social justice — across all school subjects, intentionally shaping values and behavior. One student teacher summarized the goal: “Make it a virus — no inoculation — infect everyone.”
The Congress ended with a symbolic “Festival of Lights” and a dramatic appearance of the Hindu deity Ganesha, reinforcing the spiritual undertones of the weekend. Organizers committed to sending Congress outcomes to global institutions like UNESCO and UNICEF, positioning GC2000 as a model for worldwide replication.
Teichrib concludes that GC2000 exemplified a major epoch shift — away from the Judeo-Christian framework and scientific materialism, toward a global, spiritually-charged paradigm of Oneness. He warns that such emotionally charged initiatives can profoundly shape young minds, catalyzing a generational movement toward planetary unification and collective transformation.
