How nations are born
From Individual to Nation
Where do nations come from? How are nations born? Can one create a nation? Read on to find out.
The Individual (1 Human)
They say, “no man is an island.”
But suppose you were a man or a woman on a desert island. On one hand, you would be lonely, facing danger, and trying your best to get off the island. On the other hand, you would be completely free, and able to do whatever you wanted, and you would make all the “decisions” on the island.
The island (in a trivial sense) would be both a democracy (“A system of government by the whole population or all the eligible members of a state, typically through elected representatives.”), and an autocracy (“A system of government by one person with absolute power.”).
The Family (~10 Humans)
Now suppose you were not alone on the island, but were with a small group of people; say about ten; like a family.
Would things be different?
There would be some division of labor, based on the skills of the various people. For example, the stronger people would be doing the physical work. Some people (elders, or the “smarter” members of the family) would have greater influence in decisions.
The Tribe (~100 People)
Suppose, now, that your family has grown larger, and there are many families on the island. Everyone still knows everyone, but everything is happening at a greater scale.
The division of labor is more “defined.” There are people in trades, and social stratification is emerging. There are people who have accumulated wealth over time, and these people begin to form a plutocracy (“Government by the wealthy”).
The “smart” people in trades and professions feel their ideas should influence decisions more. They form guilds and other meritocracies (“Government or the holding of power by people selected according to merit”).
Everyone else continues to have some say, and hence the village also has some characteristics of a democracy.
A few people, or one person might want to gain more power over the tribe. This one person uses a combination of force and influence to achieve this end. He or she might create stories and beliefs to justify his or her aims — for example, that the “Gods want them to be leader of the tribe.”
Similarly, the various people favoring plutocracy, meritocracy, and democracy would also put forward their respective arguments, propose new “beliefs,” some of them divine, often putting words in the mouths of gods.
All said, whatever is is “what works.”
The Nation (~1000 People)
Your island has continued to grow. Many tribes have lived and died. The tribes that lived have grown and prospered. Some of them have conjoined to form mega-tribes.
Your mega tribe has over one thousand people. It is so big that, now, not everyone knows everyone else. There are many people you do not know, have never seen, and will (probably) never see.
However, you have a connection to these unheard and unseen people. They are all part of your nation (“A large body of people united by common descent, history, culture, or language, inhabiting a particular state or territory.”). While you might have nothing in common, at the same time, you have everything in common.
Your nation is united by a common story of how everyone in the nation belongs to it, and how that nation is the greatest, most noble nation in the world. Your nation is also united by common institutions. The tribal guilds are no longer mere functional institutions, but have become part of the nation’s story.
While there are many nations in the world, your nation is the greatest, just as every other nation is the greatest to its people. Different nations are autocracies, plutocracies, meritocracies, and democracies to various extents. But each nation believes that its form of government is the best.
What works is what is right. And what is right is what works. Regardless of whether what works works, or whether what is right is right.
