Editorial
Borderland
TOM CLARK
If you tried to explain to a Martian why countries matter, you might struggle. Arbitrarily made and unmade by historical accidents, these lumps of land on our maps often encompass people and places that should have little in common. Ultra-rational beings would no more identify with them than with administrative local authority boundaries-but we are not ultra-rational beings
For better and more often for worse, nations have for centuries been the most reliable way of rallying people, trumping religion, class and everything else. They demarcate how we trade, who we fight, who we obey and-too often-the limits of our generosity. Over time, they engender a shared identity, fellow feeling and common enemies. In short, they affect just about everything, in politics and far beyond. So it is as well to pay attention to the very real possibility that our own nation state, which not so long ago seemed as entrenched as any in the world, could soon come to an end.
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