Out of character thread XVI

[Zim]

I'm not advocating going back to feudalism. I just rather move towards a single global spanning government where todays nations are more like states in the US.

And I have no problem equating hyper-nationalism with "evil". World War One is but one example of the dark side of the nation-state.

The idea that I'm supposed to think and feel something different about someone just because they are on the other side of an arbitrarily drawn line, is completely anathema to everything I believe in.

Hyper-Nationalism certainly has led to some terrible things, but something I read for a college class a long time ago stuck with me. Apparently the rate of death by violence in pre-state societies is dreadful, averaging about 1 in 3. Even the very worst Nation-States have never matched that. It was safer to be a German or a Jewish person in the first half of the 20th century, than to be, say, a Native American before Columbus, if your main concern is death by violence.

I read something interesting by a writer once who right up until about the beginning of the Second World War (he died before it came to a head). He was talking about nationalism, and why German nationalism at the time scared him. He said nationalism became especially dangerous when it moved from being proud of your country to being proud of being from your country(or of it's majority ethnicity, or whatever).

In the former you're presumably judging your country by some outside standard, and rightly or wrongly, find it measure's up well. In the latter he thought you would fall into the trap of thinking something is right or wrong depending on whether it fell in line with what your country was doing.

i.e. In the first case someone might be proud that the U.S. fought against Germany in the first World War, in the second someone might say that the Iraqi War is right because America is in it.

I thought it was pretty interesting, considering what actually happened regarding German nationalism after the
fellow died.

Edit: I know you're not arguing for a return to tribalism, PK, but after finding out we essentially agree I wanted to ramble a bit.