<!–

–>

September 30, 2022

At the core of human society is the family. Extend that family to cousins, and you have the tribe or clan. Extend that and you have the nation.

‘); googletag.cmd.push(function () { googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-1609268089992-0’); }); }

The Book of Genesis in Chapter 10 is often called the Table of Nations. Whether taken literally or metaphorically, it describes seventy groups of people who would go on to found nations. They were driven from Babel — run by a world dictator, Nimrod — and sent out with separate languages. What is interesting is that they were seen as starting with progenitors, that is to say: families.

The purpose of independent nations, according to the bible, was to limit man’s inclination to evil. If men were united their evil would only increase.

Gen 11:6 And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.

‘); googletag.cmd.push(function () { googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-1609270365559-0’); }); }

Splitting humanity up would limit the damage. All nations have their faults, but not the same faults, and so the competition keeps the mischief down.

But the key point is that nations are extended families.

Some groups never rose too far about the familial/tribal level. (African peoples for example, and ironically, the Celts. The latter were literate, and familiar with the technology of the day — often inventing it — but preferred the clan structure.) The ancient Greeks didn’t rise above the city level until outside forces compelled a sense of unity.

By the nineteenth century, and chiefly as a result of the French Revolution, the ideal became the nation-state.

The nation-state should contain a people who have a shared language, a shared history, a shared ancestry, a shared religion, and borders which conform to those standards. The state should have one law, agreeable to all, with a central capital. This was the ideal.

There are disagreements as to when this concept was enshrined. Some say it started with the treaty of Westphalia in 1648, but that only stabilized the relations between European empires. Those empires did not conform to the idea of a nation-state, and would later break apart themselves.