The United States of America or at least its President elect, now calls for sovereignty over Greenland and Panama. As ever in History, larger sovereignties trump smaller ones. So, is the concept of the Nation-State redundant? Is it time for a different way to arrange human populations?
If we take the Nation State to be the best way to organise society, the flaws in the model are glaring. The great problems of the world, climate change, pandemics, and mass migration, are transnational and occur without reference to national frontiers.. Breaking us down into competing Nation States, each seeking its own advantage, will not only impede the solutions to these problems, it may actively prevent them. Certainly, the Nation States we now know command great emotional loyalty from their subjects. They provide these subjects with identity, structure and purpose. But the nation state we now call England was once divided into seven or more competing polities, each equally demanding their subjects’ love. Who would now give his life for Wessex or Mercia, when England calls? And that is the same for all the nations of western Europe. When corporations and billionaires operate on a global scale, what use are tiny sovereignties anyway?
In this series we shall be looking at whether a world government would be the answer to our problems. Certainly it could address all those above, and many more. However: “always be wary of good ideas”. The true mark of the intelligent is that they always see both sides to every question. Would a world government quickly become a dreary prison, with no escape for the dissident and the persecuted? Or are we already in a prison, held their by the competing xenophobias of angry, ignorant tribes? Let’s look at the positives and the negatives, and finally come to a conclusion Once again we welcome your thoughts.
#Nation State #world government #economics #politics #history #climate change #pandemic
Learning, Science and Society 