I'm sure many would like to think that being part of a nation i.e Russia, USA, England etc provides great unity between people. We'd like to think that our land borders are there to signify our greatness as a unit of man. And yes in some sense it is true, but a very primitive way of thinking. ''How so?'' I hear you ask. Well it's no surprise that most of European cultural beliefs and standards of 'doing things the right way' i.e not putting your hands in the pockets especially when talking to a stranger( we do this passively most of the time), saying phrases like ''bon apetit'' before starting meals or hitting glasses of alcohol together with one-another before drinking it collectively, derive from the middle age's cultural standards. Back then you had to take hands out of your pocket in order to emphasize harmlessness, meaning you don't mean anyone harm and come unarmed, we say "bon apetit" because upper class citizens had food fests where they ate so much food they had to puke it out in order to make room for more, but it was so nasty that they encouraged themselves by saying ''bon apetit'' aka ''enjoy your meal'' and hitting glasses together when it comes to drinking was because poisoning used common, so to show our trust in another and show others that the drinks have not been poisoned we hit the drinks together so hard that the fluids would mix, so IF someones drink was poisoned all of the group would get poisoned equally(including the one who planted the poison), meaning nobody can escape.
Traveling obviously wasn't as high-tech as it is now, it took weeks, months, sometimes a year to get to a destination. So the perception of the world was gigantic, it took a lot of time to get from one end of the country to another. So why did nations mean a great deal back then? Since the distances were vast, people didn't mix all that well, thus creating cultural walls between nations. Every nation was different, yes, but far enough so we didn't see many other cultural customs. Because of that we deepened our own ways. However that created a bit of hostility between nations, because as we know in a mindset of "unity", the odd one standing out must not be like-minded therefore a threat our very being. I dare say that in some sense we were right back then, if we had constant cultural mixing we wouldn't have that much culture to study today and they tried to preserve that, now if that's a good or a bad thing that's up to you to decide, but I find cultural differences beautiful.
We still have our own ways of perceiving things that are culturally accustomed and that's good, I find it incredibly alluring how we each see the same object or action in a totally different light. We may have gestures that look similar but 1000km from us they mean a completely different thing. With the dawn of new age upon us we ought to encourage cultural mixing more.
So where does this leave nationalities and nationalism?
We have laws in every country to regulate 'immigrants' i.e people from another culture who come to stay among another culture because they prefer whatever that culture has to offer. Why prevent that? We shouldn't be scared of cultural mixing, the travel time between continents has decreased so much that trying to prevent blending is pointless. Now I know what you're thinking, if we open up every border how do we know when to protect our citizens, or in other ways of saying, our nations cultural relics? What if I said to that, that we don't need to protect ''our'' people, because each and every one of us is a person, all of the population is people. And they are just as much our people as your neighbor or your daughter. What if I said, that instead of protecting your people, we should protect the one in need of protection?
I see people stand tall and proud in front of others saying that their nation is greater than the one next to it, simply because that country has broader borders. How is that a place for pride? Why would one be proud of something that hinders their sight of the world? Now I live in a small country, where we had to fight for our freedom, for our independence even though I don't quite understand why. We nearly fail at being independent yet I still see people being proud and thumping their chests saying they are proud to be of this nation, yet I doubt they even have contributed to our culture that even makes this nation stand out. I no longer see a point in this arrogance, yes I understand blood has been spilled in the past in order to achieve independence, but why be proud of something so vile? One is proud of being independent because another sacrificed himself in order to get you that pride. It makes no sense, because the land is still the same, the climate didn't change, there has been nothing so significant that I can call ''worthy'' of such a sacrifice to get independence. So why have borders on our way of perception? Isn't it better to know more about the world than to scowl at your brother 1000km away from you?
I propose a new way of thinking, quite many are actually familiar with this out of the box way of thinking, but maybe it should be heard outside of the smaller communities to a larger audience? Instead of calling yourself Russian, American, Italian, Spanish etc try ''Worldean'' you are just as much part of the world as the other. Your significance in terms of the entire population is equal to the person next to you. And lets be honest, with so many newborns each day, we need to start thinking about ways to get along instead of waging wars at someone who comes from a different cultural background( even if culture isn't the motive ). Maybe if... ( I know this sounds crazy but..) we started to accept that all of us are equally in the same mess of a world we can unite as a whole and clear things up before our children have to experience another war...
...Try it, it's fun.
