Instilling Patriotism the American Way
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I'm not opposed to the concept of the US per say, the issue is that it's fallen into the same trap as the Romans did. Rome was a republic not unlike the renaissance republics that would come later, a city state. The Us isn't so much more different, compensating by delegating authority to regional powers (a failsafe destroyed by the Civil War) and even still this was done in a preindustrial time with even the most enthusiastic imperialists never dreaming beyond the Mississippi. Rome lost it's republic not to corruption (not directly anyway) but to overextension and the resulting need for a more efficient (and authoritarian) bureaucracy. The US has done the same and while the Republic lives on it does so in the same sickly fashion that saw Sulus, Pompey and Julius rise to power. If the US insists on remaining united, it must split into regional confederations. I imagine a system in which culturally and geographically related states are united into smaller version f the current US with the government in D.C. operating more as a UN (with a military) type organization keeping everyone on the same page in terms of basic civil liberties and the international community (dealing with which D.C. would remain in exclusive authority).
Frankly I don't see anyone actually going along with this without declawing D.C. completely (and we all know how that turned out last time) so a total split is far more likely. I just hope that when the US falls apart it mirrors the Soviet Union and not Yugoslavia.
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I presume "Sulus" is a typo for Sulla.
I agree with the general tenor of what you write. To repeat:
I have no objection to associations of so-called "patriots," but I regard them much as I do societies of stamp-collectors or re-creators of Civil War battles: devotees of hobbies or lovers of historical anachronisms.
The choice of the present order of things or a balkanized America, rife with anarchy and violence, is a false dichotomy. For one thing, look at the actual state of affairs now! If one examines violence, disorder, corruption and the bickerings and battles of rival power centers in the dear, dear "homeland," it is already rather closer to Colombia than to France!
The notion of disintegration into fiefdoms is pretty old-fashioned. We do not live in an agricultural feudal era, but rather, in a post-industrial Information Age. Messages flash from one end of the globe to the other in a fraction of a second; we can travel to the antipodes faster and in greater comfort than a royal messenger could ride from Paris to Provence in Old France. Welcome to the Global Village!
Already, the nation-state is pretty obsolete. The Roman Empire, for a long time, preserved the forms of the Republic, but the practice of power was utterly different. Likewise, we preserve the forms of the Old Constitution, but the National Security State and the military-industrial conspiracy render the real situation utterly different from anything envisioned by the Founding Fathers. I will not regard the passing of the present system with any regret.
The nation-state was essentially a creature of the 19th and 20th centuries. It scarcely existed before then, and is even now passing away in this century. I suppose it may continue to have some use as a postal code.
In the Middle Ages, there were a couple of centers of pan-European power: the Empire and the Church. Otherwise, all the other centers of significant power existed below the level of the nation-state.
In our time, we see the fanning out of national cultures all over the globe, in intricate networks of associations. We see innumerable supra-national organizations and informal groups. Concomitantly, various groupings below the level of the nation are gathering power and influence; one thinks of Bretons and Ocitans in France, Basques and Catalonians in Spain, Scots and Welsh in Britain.
All of these are inexorably drawing power away from the obsolete nation-state.
I live in a small city which contains an incredible number of clubs, cliques, associations and action groups. I marvel at the intricate, shifting, dynamic network which they form; yet my city is not a warring, chaotic mess. On the whole, it functions pretty well. What is true of my city can be true of the new world which we are entering. It may degenerate into chaos, but it is not inevitable that it do so.
.
I presume "Sulus" is a typo for Sulla.
I agree with the general tenor of what you write. To repeat:
I have no objection to associations of so-called "patriots," but I regard them much as I do societies of stamp-collectors or re-creators of Civil War battles: devotees of hobbies or lovers of historical anachronisms.
The choice of the present order of things or a balkanized America, rife with anarchy and violence, is a false dichotomy. For one thing, look at the actual state of affairs now! If one examines violence, disorder, corruption and the bickerings and battles of rival power centers in the dear, dear "homeland," it is already rather closer to Colombia than to France!
The notion of disintegration into fiefdoms is pretty old-fashioned. We do not live in an agricultural feudal era, but rather, in a post-industrial Information Age. Messages flash from one end of the globe to the other in a fraction of a second; we can travel to the antipodes faster and in greater comfort than a royal messenger could ride from Paris to Provence in Old France. Welcome to the Global Village!
Already, the nation-state is pretty obsolete. The Roman Empire, for a long time, preserved the forms of the Republic, but the practice of power was utterly different. Likewise, we preserve the forms of the Old Constitution, but the National Security State and the military-industrial conspiracy render the real situation utterly different from anything envisioned by the Founding Fathers. I will not regard the passing of the present system with any regret.
The nation-state was essentially a creature of the 19th and 20th centuries. It scarcely existed before then, and is even now passing away in this century. I suppose it may continue to have some use as a postal code.
In the Middle Ages, there were a couple of centers of pan-European power: the Empire and the Church. Otherwise, all the other centers of significant power existed below the level of the nation-state.
In our time, we see the fanning out of national cultures all over the globe, in intricate networks of associations. We see innumerable supra-national organizations and informal groups. Concomitantly, various groupings below the level of the nation are gathering power and influence; one thinks of Bretons and Ocitans in France, Basques and Catalonians in Spain, Scots and Welsh in Britain.
All of these are inexorably drawing power away from the obsolete nation-state.
I live in a small city which contains an incredible number of clubs, cliques, associations and action groups. I marvel at the intricate, shifting, dynamic network which they form; yet my city is not a warring, chaotic mess. On the whole, it functions pretty well. What is true of my city can be true of the new world which we are entering. It may degenerate into chaos, but it is not inevitable that it do so.
.
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