As for the UN, it does have importance.

However, in reality, if the dominant powers dont agree they will give it little credence. We are light years away from a fuly democrat UN, and i dont expect to see it my lifetime.

It is powerful nations that determine the direction of internaitonal relations, albeit they may want to first use the UN as a forum in order not to alienate world opinion.

"We are light years away from a fuly democrat UN, and i dont expect to see it my lifetime."

Yes, indeed, especially in the Security Council--three faded imperial powers clinging to the remnants of great power status, authoritarian China and the US, reform will be a very long time coming. Perhaps the rest of the members should create a real UN.

The four main victors of WW2 designed the UN to be their creature and invited France to join the exclusive club presumably on the basis of "better inside the tent". Because of the permanent members' vetoes the UN has never functioned as a collective security organisation and never will, if it ever did it's first target would be the US. The UN is actually functioning as it was originally intended, that's the tragedy.

As Gore Vidal stated:

"The genius of our ruling class is that it has kept a majority of the people from ever questioning the inequity of a system where most people drudge along, paying heavy taxes for which they get nothing in return.

…fifty years ago, Harry Truman replaced the old republic with a national-security state whose sole purpose is to wage perpetual wars, hot, cold, and tepid. Exact date of replacement? February 27, 1947. Place: The White House Cabinet Room. Cast: Truman, Undersecretary of State Dean Acheson, a handful of congressional leaders. Republican senator Arthur Vandenberg told Truman that he could have his militarized economy only IF he first “scared the hell out of the American people” that the Russians were coming. Truman obliged. The perpetual war began. Representative government of, by, and for the people is now a faded memory. Only corporate America enjoys representation by the Congress and presidents that it pays for in an arrangement where no one is entirely accountable because those who have bought the government also own the media. Now, with the revolt of the Praetorian Guard at the Pentagon, we are entering a new and dangerous phase. Although we regularly stigmatize other societies as rogue states, we ourselves have become the largest rogue state of all. We honor no treaties. We spurn international courts. We strike unilaterally wherever we choose. We give orders to the United Nations but do not pay our dues…we bomb, invade, subvert other states. Although We the People of the United States are the sole source of legitimate authority in this land, we are no longer represented in Congress Assembled. Our Congress has been hijacked by corporate America and its enforcer, the imperial military machine…

We should stop going around babbling about how we’re the greatest democracy on earth, when we’re not even a democracy. We are a sort of militarised republic."

How true is that?