I remember in high school learning about the development of Nation-states, and reflecting that the idea that the concept of being "American", as belonging to a

I remember in high school learning about the development of Nation-states, and reflecting that the idea that the concept of being "American", as belonging to a nation-state, was something I never had to even considered being "invented". On a similar vein, I was shocked when I learned in school that Germany only truly became a Nation-state country in 1871! Of course German culture and peoples date back far longer, but still to think that "Germany the Nation" that would fight WWI & WWII only started a few decades prior to WWI! I'm bringing this up, because most people living in the West have lived through a remarkably stable period of geopolitics. There's a world order most of us have in our minds that more-or-less has existed since WWII. However, independent of your political disposition, I think we'll soon be living through a period where the world again changes in dramatic ways. In ways that may one day become completely taken for granted, but for the time being are going to be major challenges to people's understanding of the world.