The Question of Sovereignty
Typically those in power in a nation/state, and certain ultra-nationalists within those states, will always push for and proclaim that nationalism and sovereignty are being threatened by an ever growing number of external and internal factors. They are fearful that somehow their state will be diminished and their national identity lost by any hint of need or association with the rest of the world. If they must interact with others outside their borders, then they feel some anally retentive need to control every aspect of the process at the exclusion of reason. They fear a loss of their sovereignty to and through NGO’s that operate across borders, regional and global governance, treaties and treaty organizations, and multi-national corporations (unless those corporations are their own of course).These people want to either hold onto the power they currently wield over their people, through either historical revisionism, political, ideological or religious/cultural means, or through thuggery, fear, graft and greed, or they want to return to the 'old' days during a romanticized time in the past that was more often than not based mostly in fiction and not historical fact. The states, and some extremists within their borders, want their people to believe that sovereignty is of singular and utmost importance, and that their nation/state can survive independent of the rest of the world - as an island unto itself so to speak.
It’s natural for people to feel an ancient and fundamental need to belong to a special group or tribe or cave or clan. The evolution of this innate idea over time began long before there were Homo sapiens, long before Homo antecessor, or Homo erectus or Ardipithecus. This need was bred into humanity as a survival trait from the days when we needed to band together to fight off the lions and gather food as we began our decent from the trees to roaming the savannahs of east Africa and as we expanded beyond Africa to conquer the rest of the world taking our friends and families along the way. Protecting our clan, cave or tribe allowed us to survive as a homogeneous group completely independent of neighboring clans - thus the beginning of the concept of sovereignty and identity - ‘my clan did not need your clan, or anything you had. If my clan needed something, I could find my own or take yours’, was the prevalent idea. The identity, the myths, superstitions and fairy tales that evolved from these ancient groupings are the foundations from which all our beliefs, religions, cultures, political ideologies and ideas of sovereignty and state identity originated. Some modern people and states still have their heads and hearts stuck in the ancient past in those Neanderthalic caves even today not realizing or acknowledging that our ‘clan’ now includes all of humanity all around the world.
The degree of Sovereignty maintained by a clan is in reality an evolving concept. Every treaty forged down through time between states, agencies, businesses, individuals, regional and global organizations in reality yields some state sovereignty to all the participants of the treaty or agreement. The more treaties between parties, the less effective sovereignty reserved to the individual, state, or group who are signors of that treaty The vast majority of people around the world know that we are becoming more and more inescapably interconnected and inter-dependent with each new business transaction, with each new ‘friend’, link or contact on the Internet through our smart phones and computers from some other part of the world, with each new financial, economic, currency, banking, trade transaction and agreement. This trend is non-reversible - we can not put the genie back in the bottle ever again. The trend toward mutual reliance and dependence upon others for resources, technology, finished and un-finished products, labor, services, knowledge, prosperity, enterprise, peace, security, equal human rights for all (men, women, children, gays, lesbians, etc) is accelerating at an exponential rate. We need and depend upon eachother. The people know this, but static states and extreme nationalists, otherwise known as Neanderthals, clans men and backward tridal elders, are stuck in an untenable past and fearful of the changing paradigm and can not accept the changing reality around the world. But, change they must and will. The idea of sovereignty can no longer be bound by physical borders. Such a narrowly defined idea is no longer sustainable in our modern world.
As our global inter-connection and inter-dependence inevitably strengthens, there will be those at the state and individual level who will resist the change and expansion of the concept of sovereignty and national identity. It’s only natural. They will continue to refuse to accept the historical facts and trends that change is coming and will seek to stymie that change. The challenge we face is one of helping and encouraging others to see and appreciate, and not fear, the fact that sovereignty is evolving and expanding to include the entire world and is no longer narrowly defined by physical borders as in the past. Those days are over. So how do we make this new paradigm work? Each day brings a new treaty between states and global bodies. Each day sees more proof that our economies are intertwined to such a degree that what one person does affects another somewhere on the planet at the granular local level. How do we as a people, as a state, a world deal with this new reality? Do we tuck our heads in the sands of time and pretend it isn’t real, or do we seek real solutions for our local, thus global, peace, security, prosperity, growth and unity challenges? Do we look to an idealized romanticized fictional past, or do we look to a better future where all of mankind is sovereign as a people with all our vast and wonderful differences acknowledged? Do we acknowledge the trends and participate in developing the best possible global governance systems, or do we sit back and let the rest of the world dictate their view of the new future to us? Like the states in the US gave up some of their sovereignty to belong to the larger more inclusive and successful federal government, the world is going in that same direction today. This is the new sovereignty. This is the new reality. We are a global and sovereign world with states squabbling over the degree to which they accept this new definition even as their people know the truth.
Typically those in power in a nation/state, and certain ultra-nationalists within those states, will always push for and proclaim that nationalism and sovereignty are being threatened by an ever growing number of external and internal factors. They are fearful that somehow their state will be diminished and their national identity lost by any hint of need or association with the rest of the world. If they must interact with others outside their borders, then they feel some anally retentive need to control every aspect of the process at the exclusion of reason. They fear a loss of their sovereignty to and through NGO’s that operate across borders, regional and global governance, treaties and treaty organizations, and multi-national corporations (unless those corporations are their own of course).These people want to either hold onto the power they currently wield over their people, through either historical revisionism, political, ideological or religious/cultural means, or through thuggery, fear, graft and greed, or they want to return to the 'old' days during a romanticized time in the past that was more often than not based mostly in fiction and not historical fact. The states, and some extremists within their borders, want their people to believe that sovereignty is of singular and utmost importance, and that their nation/state can survive independent of the rest of the world - as an island unto itself so to speak.
It’s natural for people to feel an ancient and fundamental need to belong to a special group or tribe or cave or clan. The evolution of this innate idea over time began long before there were Homo sapiens, long before Homo antecessor, or Homo erectus or Ardipithecus. This need was bred into humanity as a survival trait from the days when we needed to band together to fight off the lions and gather food as we began our decent from the trees to roaming the savannahs of east Africa and as we expanded beyond Africa to conquer the rest of the world taking our friends and families along the way. Protecting our clan, cave or tribe allowed us to survive as a homogeneous group completely independent of neighboring clans - thus the beginning of the concept of sovereignty and identity - ‘my clan did not need your clan, or anything you had. If my clan needed something, I could find my own or take yours’, was the prevalent idea. The identity, the myths, superstitions and fairy tales that evolved from these ancient groupings are the foundations from which all our beliefs, religions, cultures, political ideologies and ideas of sovereignty and state identity originated. Some modern people and states still have their heads and hearts stuck in the ancient past in those Neanderthalic caves even today not realizing or acknowledging that our ‘clan’ now includes all of humanity all around the world.
The degree of Sovereignty maintained by a clan is in reality an evolving concept. Every treaty forged down through time between states, agencies, businesses, individuals, regional and global organizations in reality yields some state sovereignty to all the participants of the treaty or agreement. The more treaties between parties, the less effective sovereignty reserved to the individual, state, or group who are signors of that treaty The vast majority of people around the world know that we are becoming more and more inescapably interconnected and inter-dependent with each new business transaction, with each new ‘friend’, link or contact on the Internet through our smart phones and computers from some other part of the world, with each new financial, economic, currency, banking, trade transaction and agreement. This trend is non-reversible - we can not put the genie back in the bottle ever again. The trend toward mutual reliance and dependence upon others for resources, technology, finished and un-finished products, labor, services, knowledge, prosperity, enterprise, peace, security, equal human rights for all (men, women, children, gays, lesbians, etc) is accelerating at an exponential rate. We need and depend upon eachother. The people know this, but static states and extreme nationalists, otherwise known as Neanderthals, clans men and backward tridal elders, are stuck in an untenable past and fearful of the changing paradigm and can not accept the changing reality around the world. But, change they must and will. The idea of sovereignty can no longer be bound by physical borders. Such a narrowly defined idea is no longer sustainable in our modern world.
As our global inter-connection and inter-dependence inevitably strengthens, there will be those at the state and individual level who will resist the change and expansion of the concept of sovereignty and national identity. It’s only natural. They will continue to refuse to accept the historical facts and trends that change is coming and will seek to stymie that change. The challenge we face is one of helping and encouraging others to see and appreciate, and not fear, the fact that sovereignty is evolving and expanding to include the entire world and is no longer narrowly defined by physical borders as in the past. Those days are over. So how do we make this new paradigm work? Each day brings a new treaty between states and global bodies. Each day sees more proof that our economies are intertwined to such a degree that what one person does affects another somewhere on the planet at the granular local level. How do we as a people, as a state, a world deal with this new reality? Do we tuck our heads in the sands of time and pretend it isn’t real, or do we seek real solutions for our local, thus global, peace, security, prosperity, growth and unity challenges? Do we look to an idealized romanticized fictional past, or do we look to a better future where all of mankind is sovereign as a people with all our vast and wonderful differences acknowledged? Do we acknowledge the trends and participate in developing the best possible global governance systems, or do we sit back and let the rest of the world dictate their view of the new future to us? Like the states in the US gave up some of their sovereignty to belong to the larger more inclusive and successful federal government, the world is going in that same direction today. This is the new sovereignty. This is the new reality. We are a global and sovereign world with states squabbling over the degree to which they accept this new definition even as their people know the truth.
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