Do you believe in the concept of nationhood?

I think it serves a purpose as a way of organising societies, but it’s taken way too seriously by a lot of people. A friend of mine used to call it “tribalism” and I think she was right to some extent.

I believe in it, for the reason of building community, awareness and tolerance of eachother by means of a common bond. That being said each of us should be free to embrace our heritage and cultural views. Nobody should be forced to do either though.

I guess the term “nationhood” is way too close to “nationalism” for me to be comfortable. I believe America is great, but it has nothing to do with its “nationhood,” but rather its unique concept of freedom and liberty. Take that away, and America means nothing to me.

If you mean nationalism…it can work for some. I think it’s essential for third world countries to get behind the idea

it may even be needed her. If we start thinking that the future of our country depends on us all getting together to achieve a goal that’s mutually worthwhile…then we can put it under any umbrella we want…as long as it works

In my opinion, I don’t believe in territorial lines. I believe in a small, balanced, and well organized community that loves one another regardless of anybody’s race, religion, status etc. Developing lines and attempting to control people is a very impractical exercise of hierarchy.

I do agree with the statement that nations are tribal forms. City states and the more advanced modern nations alike are just a more developed form of tribal formations. We are tribal in our nature, as we are just another herd animal. Its in our nature. We have no choice really. We have to form communities in some form. The Nation is the present tribe we belong to.

On macro level that is. On the multiple levels of group membership we belong to, we do belong to different sub-levels of tribes if you will – groups of diverse cultural identity – micro levels or tribal identities, as belonging to a linguistic group, speaking a specific dialect, belonging to a faith or political movement. The Nation is just another aspect of it. Not by itself natural formed order of things, but the present manifestation of our need to form organized groups we belong to.

That is to say that in the future the Nation might not exist, but will be replaced as a phenomena by other forms of macro level organization. But still, as long as we are what we are, we will always belong to tribes.

When the Israelites came into the promised land, God commanded them to have no law in the land between cities, and no king. They were specifically commanded not to be like the nations. Times were good for a couple hundred years, and then the people demanded a king, to be like the nations. Soon they were conquered, just like the nations.

There have been other cultures since then with no central government. The people known to Romans as Germanicus, the Dutch Empire, the American colonies, and some smaller examples, all did very well for a couple hundred years and then decided they really wanted a central government. And what do we compare these to? The world has between 190 and 250 countries, sometimes changing daily, and just 21 of them have a form of government older than a century. SOURCE Most of those are in South America where changes of power traditionally do not change the form of government.