PlanetHood: The Key to Your Future was written by Benjamin B. Ferencz and Ken Keyes, Jr. in 1980. This non-copyrighted work was written to advance the argument for a system of international law complete with courts, enforcement, and an international congress. A central theme of the book is the threat to civilization posed by nuclear weapons. Optimism is the central tone of the book and it was designed to inspire its readers into replacing what they call the "law of force" with the "force of law."
Seeing the worst of what we can do to each other, during and after his military service in WWII, Ben Ferencz stated that he had “peered into Hell,” and decided he wanted to do something about it.
Ferencz was Chief Prosecutor of the Einsatzgruppen trial at Nuremberg one of the subsequent proceedings following the International Military Tribunal. Ferencz argued the case against Nazi war criminals – and won.
Those experiences created an amalgam of grim awareness, compassion, focused skill, and an unwavering vision for justice and well-being for all people. These qualities have infused his life ever since – even up to the current Hell we have been living through with an administration encouraging endless war, nuclear provocation, family separation, gross income inequality, climate indifference, and the rise of malignant nationalism, among so many others,
We may barely be able to remember that at one time we felt secure in the knowledge that we deserve to live in a world better, and safer, than the one we currently find ourselves in. Ferencz reminds us of this right out of the starting gate, and goes on to outline his distillation, from decades of involvement with international law, his message and strategy of hope.
Recent coverage of Ferencz was in the Washington Post.
ODT's founder, Bob Abramms, found both Ben Ferencz and Ken Keyes to be inspirational in charting the course of his career, as a professional speaker, Human Resource Management consultant, trainer, and eventually a publisher of innovative world maps. In the 1980's Abramms, along with his visionary coworker, Diane Johns, undertook to print and distribute over 25,000 copies of this paperback book as an act of service, hoping the world might become a better place if some of the principles in the book were put into practice.
As Abramms retires and sells ODTmaps in 2019, digitizing the PlanetHood book is one his last acts of hope, sharing this work as widely as possible. Abramms and Ferencz kept in touch over the past 40 years. And since this work is not copyrighted, anyone can take the digital version and circulate it, excerpt it, or post it on-line. The world has changed dramatically, and not always for the better, since the release of the original paperback in 1980. But as Ferencz's story and his experience as one of the prosecuting attornies at WW2's Nuremberg war crimes trials reveals, his insights on how to create a better world can still be taken in as a message of possibility and hope, grounded in skill, expertise, and heart.
Download the free e-book here
