The World’s Most Impossible Job

‘I hope that children today see the beacon of hope that the UN represents.’

Derek London
9 min readJul 28, 2021

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This most solemn appointment calls for a very specific kind of person.

I read a tremendous book that I received as an advanced reading copy and was invited to offer my review of. The work is called Resolved: Uniting Nations In A Divided World. It was authored by the former United Nations secretary-general, Ban Ki-moon. If you would like to watch my official response to the book, follow the link:

In this article, I want to briefly share some parts of his life that I found extremely interesting, and, in the process, hopefully persuade you of how very important the United Nations is — yes, with all its corruptions, bureaucracy, failures and enormous expense.

That will be the main goal of this entire series of articles I’m framing around the book. It’s to demonstrate why some federative body, a parliament of man, is absolutely paramount if we are to rise to the challenges we face, not only as individuals within our respective communities, but as individuals within one common community.

A leader among world leaders

The secretary-general of the United Nations is an extremely potent figure — one could argue, even more influential than the president of the United States — and yet, he rarely makes as much splash. That’s because his role is one of radical centrism. There’s a reason the position has been nicknamed ‘the world’s most impossible job’.

The UN secretary-general really has one overarching focus that necessarily puts him at odds with just about everyone he encounters politically. That calling is to advocate on behalf of every man — not only the interests of those who may have put him into such a position. He has to campaign for what is fundamentally best for humanity.

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Derek London

Editor for Diogenes Lounge. Writer for ILLUMINATION and a YouTube personality. Subscribe to my channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHBpAoID8i6tqz6ksLSY8ow