Border and Nationalism
Nationalism is an ideology that claims a nation within a defined border belongs to a people that share a common flag, heritage, language, and identities. This sparks patriotism; or even extreme ideas at times. It’s deeply integrated into our way of life; that it’s easy to mistake it has always been a feature of human’s society. However, nationalism is actually quite recent.
Formally, countries, defined within border lines, have existed for centuries; England had Æthelstan as the first king of the Anglo-saxon in the early 900s. The kingdom of the Franks (foundation for France) was established with Clovis I as the first ruler in 485 AD. So technically, people should be unified under the same king or queen for decades? Not quite, we used to live a commune life. Our scope is limited to the community, the village, or a very small region that we live in. Transportation and communication were limited. What happens in the capital really doesn’t affect anyone in the village. A villager probably didn’t feel proud of being french or being english since they don’t know what being a citizen of these countries actually meant. Additionally, cultures, heritages, or even languages are widely fragmented during medieval times.
All of this changed after the 2 world wars; suddenly, borders are drawn, people are united or divided. It’s a tribal system on a scale we’ve never observed. Suddenly, the news at the capital can now reach every corner of the kingdom due to the development in telegraph. A flag became the symbol of a people. The law is set for all citizens in a country. Suddenly, a passport is now required as the standard booklet for travelling to a different country. This fundamentally changed our society.
Humans have always been adventurers. We used to travel across the world, exploring all the corners of the Earth. But now, the freedom of movement, of exploring, and of living is suddenly restricted and branded. Now, we need a booklet to dictate whether we’re allowed to travel to a foreign land; for most people, it comes with long wait line to get a visa and bunch of paperwork. We effectively built a social construct that is divisive and reduce the freedom we used to have. We’re not roamers anymore, just passport holders.
Furthermore, nationalism breeds conflicts. Suddenly, we see others as someone else and not of the same human as us. It allows us to be cruel, to wage wars and create conflicts. Countless people have died and will die, fighting for this social construct.
Post-nation states could be the resolution for all of this. A world where identity isn’t locked to a country. Where people are more global in mindset than tribal. It’s not about tearing down every border tomorrow. But we can start rethinking the structures we’ve built, and start aiming for a future where borders matter less, and shared humanity matters more.