As we mark another anniversary of our great Declaration of Independence in joyous celebration let us also celebrate the importance of the nation state.
It is important for conservatives to do this because for upwards of a century the fashionables have been sneering at the nation state. They look forward to a global, pan-human society, led by themselves.
The future global society, when it comes about, and assuming it can actually succeed, will doubtless be a glorious thing. But we must never forget the remarkable achievement of the nation state.
Before the nation state, people could only imagine political institutions based on blood. They could not imagine trusting people who were not of their own kin.
The nation state, on the other hand, is a political unit based on the abstract ties of language and culture. In the nation state we transcend the limits of blood and kinship and learn to associate with and trust people who share much less in common than the physical ties of clan and tribe.
The day may come when we will consign the nation state to the dust heap of history; but that day is not yet. Indeed, the likelihood is that we have many lessons to learn before we can imagine, let alone build, trans-national political institutions that actually work.
Indeed, the appetite in our educated elites for divisive national politics and for political programs that utterly ignore the lessons of the past indicate that we ought to stick pretty close to our present democratic, federal, nation state.
So let’s hear it for the last best hope of manking: The good old U. S. of A.
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