The illusion of “we”...
Nationality is an illusion. Albeit, a very pervasive illusion that states have constructed to glue people together. Why is it an illusion? Why do I call it an illusion? Because it doesn't have a concrete and reasonable basis for the groups they form. I mean come on... Who believes, who in his logical mind can believe that he is a “we” with all the people born within the same boundary as him? Yet... It's one of the most prevalent, the most pervasive, the most persistent, the most widespread, the most shared in common illusion of our times. How can anyone in his right mind think or believe in having a shared identity with the people who were born within an arbitrary enclosure as himself? I'm sorry, I know I keep repeating the same things over and over, but I find it so hard to believe it. I find it so hard to accept that so many, in fact an overwhelming majority of the world believe it. National, racial, ethnical identities are dubious. Our genes are so like soup, and we humans are a bit too complicated to bunch together easily. Rulers of the nation states try to create the illusion that we are all one. But we are NOT! They claim all who is born within the same boundry they've designated are one. It's so NOT! Atatürk, when founding the Republic of Turkey proclaimed that everybody living within the boundries of the republic was Turkish. It was to create a sense of unity. How else do you unite so many people of different ethnicities and origins under one roof? Of course it was a bit messed up idea as Turkish was also a name which designated an ethnic group and there were other ethnic groups within the country, mainly speaking: the Kurdish. Thus came the oppression of the language etc. Now I understand the logic behind it. They have to keep the country together. That's their job. At least that's how they must be feeling. But there is no need for that. What do you mean there is no need for that? The world is changing. A new way of categorization and grouping needs to emerge. A new way of governing apart from the hoax of democracy needs to emerge too. A new way of economy apart from the consumption and aggressive advertisement of capitalism which is destroying the world. It has to. If we are to survive as humans, if we are to save the planet and humanity, we really have to give up on the wrongly conceptualized or wrongly materialized or the gone haywire way the world works. The nation-states, countries, citizenship the way we know them have to be relics of the past. Richard Buckminster Fuller said “You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.” I agree. Let's start building that new model. Or at least let's start by questioning and doubting our current model. Classification upon classification of people. Apart from French, Turkish, Polish, American, Sudanese, Burmese etc. there are “Middle-Easterners” “Arabs” “Africans” “blacks” It's not enough, we have “asylum seekers” “refugees” “migrants” “illegal immigrants” “undocumented persons” “residents” “tourists” “nationals” “citizens” etc. etc. ... Discrimination and generalizations “terrorists” “blood-suckers” “parasites” “welfare seekers”... E basta! “Vamos a la playa...” Why can't we use just “humans”? Or why can't we use “good people” and “bad people”, “people I'd like to be with” and “people I'd like to stay away from”?
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