Being A “Nation” Versus Being A “Nation-State”

Comments

Samarami's picture

This is an interesting post to be on an "anarchist" website. Because it points up the lack of imaginability of a totally free world amongst 99.999% of the unwashed (or even the washed -- especially the washed) masses. No comprehension of complete and unmitigated individualism.

In fact, methinks placing "ism" at the end of "individual" makes it an oxymoron; so I should perhaps rephrase that to read "complete and unmitigated liberty and freedom for all individuals". That otta cover it. Because, as anybody who knows me will recognize (to the chagrin of not a few), I've come to believe that how I speak and how I phrase the thoughts that occur and linger between my ears portends how free I will be capable of becoming, and when -- or if. Can't speak for you (even though I catch myself doing it).

I'm not in the least convinced that my freedom (or yours) depends upon the actions of others. Oh, I wish you would abstain from beans. But if you're reading this you probably already so abstain. It would be fun if they would hold an election and nobody -- nobody showed up. I don't expect that will happen in my lifetime.

My liberty or lack thereof does not depend upon you becoming free (I hope you do). Or how I phrase to you what I write here. Or how I present my "doctrine(s)" to you concerning what constitutes freedom and liberty (or lack thereof) -- in my opinion, which doesn't amount to much -- to you (not that it should).

My freedom does not require government, that mindless abstraction that hides hordes of psychopaths under "its" mantle, to end anytime soon. It might be years before the complete and final collapse (TEOTMSAWKI?) -- and I don't have that many years to spare.

When I die I'm going to take the world with me. My world (including my sovereign state). I intend for it to be a free world. And that's up to me.

So how about that mass of turf that exists along a place statist geographers have come to call the "Horn of Africa"? Armin Rosen seems to think part of it ("Somalia"?) amounts to a nation-state, while the other ("Somaliland"?) is a nation. Or was it the other way around? He starts his article by referring to "The unrecognized state of Somaliland", to which I'm tempted to ask, "...unrecognized by whom?..."

But that sorta makes my point: most, even far too many "anarchists", have no way of evaluating any parcel of land upon which human beings reside in any other manner than a political one. That's going to be a hard nut to crack for those who insist that "we" need to busy ourselves to proselytize liberty and freedom to the world (whatever "world" means to you).

Rosen goes on along that part of the place called Africa naming off other tracts of land sustaining many additional human beings who have managed to get themselves roped and constrained by fictitious lines in the sand called political boundaries, or borders: "...Djibouti is a dictatorship, Ethiopia is an autocracy..." He applies political labels to each. And he is concerned, because "Somaliland" must "get along" for pity sake. At the end he has a solution to the "Somaliland recognition problem" -- lunatics calling themselves "The-United-States" need to pass an additional "act" of one kind or another. Temporarily. Yes sir ree, Bob!

I don't give a hoot about Black's or Webster's or anybody else's definitions. Jurisdiction -- wherever and whenever and by whomever it is claimed -- is accompanied by the threat of deadly weapons. That's all. I always believe a man with a loaded gun.

I'm sui juris. So are you. Sovereign states, if you want to put it that way.

STR has gone fallow. I ran across an old Albert J. Nock essay from 1936 that might serve to explain why. Worth a read. Too many of us may have ignored The Remnant. Sam

Lawrence M. Ludlow's picture

That's good advice, Sam. Too often, we forget about Mr. Nock and Isaiah.
Lawrence

dhowlandjr's picture

Thanks for the comment, Sam. I enjoyed reading the Nock essay. I agree that lately my favorite page of several years now, Strike the Root, seems to be lacking in encouraging content. I still enjoy the occasional root striker original article, although they seem to be less and less frequent. People need to know about all the bad things the cops, congress, etc. are doing, but we also need some solutions, no I'm not talking about voting or bombing. Anyway, i'm probably almost as free as you, and having a great time living in a pretty much voluntary world for several years now. I think we need to look for ways to get by without depending on all that coercion. I admire all the things I see you writing, don't give up on the remnant.

Samarami's picture

Thanks, dhowlander. Sometimes makes us feel like proverbial voices in the wilderness -- with no echo. :-)

Sam