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As far as we go back, we see people dividing themselves up in groups.
And who is going to be willing to fight and die for a loose group of people no one cares about? Just look at Iraq today to see what happens to a country that has a weak sense of being nation.
Not only that but the need for tribalism is carved into the human psyche. You just don't get rid of this. Remove the national tribe and people will revert to smaller tribes: political tribes (see the polarization, which both parties are happy to exploit), race based tribalism, etc... The country will rip itself apart.
The NY Times, however, seems to think we are immune to fundamental forces of history.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/28/world/national-identity-myth.html
It leads to nationalism, which is obviously bad and leads to conflicts and extremism.
We should dissolve these nations, hold hands, and sing Kumbaya and also John Lennon's 'Imagine'.
And we should start here, even while China, Russia, NKorea, Iran, etc... still play the tribal game.
Because we never need to defend the nation. We don't need an army.
In fact there is no such thing as a national interest that needs to be collectively defended. Only private individual interests - Especially if you're rich.
Because we have no national values, tradition, culture or way of life. All these are random historical happening.
And if national identities are made up, what about religious identities?: obviously made up as well. Obviously the same tribalism leading to constant conflict.
So let's disband Christianity.
Judaism should have merged with the rest a long time ago.
But let's respect other people cultures. So Islam is ok.
We should be a large international human soup. But other countries are ok.
Sometime I wonder what people are thinking. Do they really believe this vision can happen? Are they surprised to see Trump? Brexit? Catalonia?
Can they really be that clueless about human nature?