Don't confuse the nation with the state - the two are very different things. The nation is a body of people bound together by tribalistic xenophobia. The state

Don't confuse the nation with the state - the two are very different things. The nation is a body of people bound together by tribalistic xenophobia. The state: a heap of parasitic machinery hitching a ride. Nations seldom possess anything more consistent than a sort of diffuse Zeitgeist, and maybe (sometimes) something approaching a sense of shared interest. States are bureaucratic machines, dedicated to self-preservation, operating under the pretence of service to the nation; in actuality extracting as great a toll in human blood, misery and suffering as the nation can bear without collapsing. Both entities are evil, brutish and disorganised, but of the two only the state is capable of operating with a (distant) semblance of directed, intentional action, so if you must anthropomorphise, do it to the state, not to the nation.