sábado, 15 de diciembre de 2007

the more autonomy, the more accountability

(this is not the posture of the nepantlist party. ladies & gents, I present to you... my unveiled opinion!)

ok, I admit it: sometimes I pay more attention to my ideas than I do to Common Sense. I have to admit, as well, that this entry is written under the influence of some heavy doses of Schumacher and Jefferson.

but my point is: the nation-states that have worked out are the exception--besides the enthusiasts of the nordic countries (myself included), who´s ready to stand for any other chauvinistic experiment of the sort?

the norm is... nation-states are plagued by an intermittent history of massive and systematic repressions of minorities and groups (homosexuals, ethnic groups, women, children) that have been disempowered precisely by the machinery of nation-states themselves.
not satisfied with the human sacrifices of their own constituents, nation-states organize florid wars with their neighbors and even preventive wars abroad.
their aggregate greed, coupled with their gigantic fund-raising capabilities, lead them to waste resources in weapons of mass destruction and other military extravagances.

in short: nation-states, not evil in themselves, have been the primary anti-human enterprises of the globe. I mean, what multinational is more dangerous than north korea?

I guess that the reason is that the more the density of their constituents grows, the more each voter is alienated, dehumanized and relegated to the status of just another statistic, although this might just be my schumacherian bias. I think, just as well, that we´re just not able to work with more than three-digit numbers whenever we deal with lives, money, pounds or inches; it´s just too much of an abstraction for us! try to conceptualize the difference between 2 billion gallons and 2,01 gallons. try feeling sorrier for 600,000 lives than you´d feel for 599,999. yeah, sure!

whatever the reason... federalism or democracy for that matter just don´t fix this problem: look at the US. new york, massachusetts and california were against the war in iraq. middle america and other warmongers imposed the war and took the funds from new york, california and massachusetts to finance their war.

I´m running out of time and space. the point is: nations are not popular anymore. independence days, their glories and "that" enthusiasm are so out (probably because they mostly took place thousands of days ago). nations have been organizational anachronisms at least ever since post-modernity.

we must take the next step towards the liberation of each individual: we must start by liberating states within states and nations within nations. another generation will go on with cities and villages once the first wave of the enthusiasm of the mother of all liberations is exhausted; so don´t worry about them for the time being. besides, it´s rather too early for their cause to be popular in times of multinationals, lou dobbs and the eminent danger of hu jintao.

so that´s pretty much my opinion. do you know about any party or ngo advocating this cause? thanks

1 comentario:

Anónimo dijo...

Hi, good post. I have been pondering this topic,so thanks for sharing. I’ll likely be coming back to your posts. Keep up the good work