The Nation State

Subject: The nation state.

"If you believe you are a citizen of the world you are a citizen of nowhere" ?
'Citizenship' is a legal relationship consisting of rights and responsibilities between the individual and the state
'Self styled citizens of the world' irritate us because of the way they suggest their superiority, my cosmopolitaness is superior to your provincialism with the added implication of your xenophobia and many intellectuals sneer at your patriotism, of loving your own country. But this patriotism does not mean a dislike of other countries, simply that loving the place where you were born, is natural. Perhaps if one could substitute "society" for "country" liberals would not criticise.

The EU, for all its comprehension is unloved, it's an artificial construct. There maybe a European identity but it's shallow.

The EU has a flag no one salutes. It has an anthem no one sings. A President no one can name and a Parliament without executive power.

Under its auspices Nation states have become 'administrative units' no longer based on ethnicity, or internal values, no customs or a shared past.

The invention of the nation state closely relates to the development of democracy. A sense of civil loyalty and internal cohesion, a sense of common identity.

The weaker the nation state the weaker is democracy

The "nation state" is why we voted for Brexit.