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"Nationalism is the biggest disease on the planet. Nations have the wrong granularity. They’re too small to be global and too big to be local, and all they can
by Sven7 13y ago
"Nationalism is the biggest disease on the planet. Nations have the wrong granularity. They’re too small to be global and too big to be local, and all they can think about is competing." - Nicholas Negroponte
- guelo 13y agoYea but nation states have done wonders for the advancement of humanity. The conundrum...
- alan_cx 13y agoSo did the steam engine, but its pretty much redundant now.
- lifeisstillgood 13y agoSteam engines were replaced only after the invention of a much more efficient engine (internal combustion). What is the much more efficient boundary of government that is not a nationstate ?
- mgunes 13y agoThe polis; an autonomous, self-governing form of city state, invented around 800 BC.
- mercurial 13y agoWhich wasn't shy about competition or large-scale conflict (like the Peloponnesian War).
- Sven7 13y agoThe equations of power have changed. Two contradictory things are happening inequality grows while information asymmetry reduces. Something is going to break. And we generally wake up and fix thing only after things break. I say another 5-10 manning/snowden type events before we transition from the united states of america to the the united states of earth.
- nske 13y agowell, I think if we are talking strictly about efficiency, the intuitive answer would be: either a single government, or at least a government whose boundaries are set based on more practical and real rather than artificial foundations. National identities, as complex as they are and as huge an improvement over religions as they are to serve for the above purpose, are still artificial constructs that in many ways create arbitrary boundaries, introduce and perpetuate differences that are not necessary to exist between people and in some cases have even been manipulated and used by governments for political reasons.