That was the original impetus for nation-states. In those days, the big schism was between Catholic/Protestant, with each group feeling that the others' opinio

That was the original impetus for nation-states. In those days, the big schism was between Catholic/Protestant, with each group feeling that the others' opinions would damn them to hell for eternity. They worked out a system where they could say "Okay, in your duchy, you can believe what you want and God will only damn you to hell, while in our duchy, we'll believe what we want and go to heaven." The issues have changed a bit and a number of national boundaries aren't really reflective of the diversity of cultures within. Plus we now have truly global issues like Internet access, supply chains, and global warming. But perhaps this is indicative that we're in for a major reshuffling, and that existing national boundaries are going to collapse. We already have a political framework (federalism) for getting independent states to agree on matters that impact all of them while still being able to exercise their own discretion on local matters.