Page 18 - Issue 20

form of political organisation originally based, or
presumed to be based, on discrete national
entities. The rise of the modem political state war
intertwined with the rise of modern nationalism,
and the state became a potent expression of that
nationalism.

However, unlike the instinct for national
identification, the concept of the nation-state is
one of history's numerous ephemera. It is barely a
hundred years old and may well be dead in a
hundred years time. The reasons are simple. Most
states today are artificial coalitions of different
cultural groups: the idea that political boundaries
carving up a geographical region coincide with
some natural, social-cultural divisions is a
nonsense. Most states are culturally-mixed and
becoming increasingly so; each has substantial
minorities who share little with me dominant
culture but are forced to do so because of some
arbitrary lines on the map. Further, world society is
progressing towards greater international
dependence and integration. The notion of
homogenous, independent state in either social,
economic or political terms is already
anachronistic. For these reasons attempts to shore
up and defend one's state are indeed divisive.
Even if only on pragmatic grounds, most of
humanity would be better off proceeding directly
to greater integration rather than clinging
desperately to an outmoded form of organisation.

In fact the realisation of this is already underway,
albeit haltingly. The rise of the modern state was